Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz - Mayor de Blasio Insults the Puerto Rican and the Irish Communities


  You should know that on September 5, 2016, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio compared the crimes committed during J’Ouvert festival that precedes the West Indian Day Parade with the Puerto Rican Day Parade and the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade by stating:
“It was not that long ago that the St. Patrick's Parade, the Puerto Rican Parade was plagued by violence … We do not associate, now, the St. Patrick's Parade with violence or the Puerto Rican Parade with violence.”
As you know, for years the J’Ouvert Festival has been riddled with crime, bloodshed, fatal stabbings, gun violence and assassinations, and each year, the situation gets worse.
We have to do something to stop these outbursts of violence and senseless loss of life that occurs during this event!
It is insulting, disrespectful and shameful for Mayor de Blasio, in an attempt to protect his political base, to compare the past and present state of affairs with the Puerto Rican Day Parade and the Saint Patrick’s Day Parades.  
It is important for you to know that neither of those parades that took place during the daytime were ever plagued with the violence that has infested the pre-dawn J’Ouvert.
Mayor de Blasio owes an apology to the Puerto Rican community, the Irish community, and to the Parade organizers!
My thoughts and prayers remain with the families and loved ones who were murdered during this year’s J’Ouvert: Tyreke Borel, the 17-year-old who was shot in the chest and killed this year, and with Tiarah Poyau, the 22-year-old who was shot in the face because she refused to dance.  I also pray for the 72-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man were also shot and survived, and the dozens and dozens J’Ouvert’s victims
I suggest to Mayor de Blasio that if he wants to keep the J'Ouvert festival in place, he should be man enough to do so and not use the Puerto Rican Day Parade and the Saint Patrick's Day Parades as his scapegoats.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
It should be noted that Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. the son of State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. has been mentioned as a possible candidate for mayor in the Democratic primary of 2017, and would be challenging the current incumbent Democratic Mayor, Bill de Blasio.

CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS WILLIAMS, LANDER, AND GIBSON STATEMENT ON NYPD RESPONSE TO INSPECTOR GENERAL'S REPORT ON QUALITY-OF-LIFE ENFORCEMENT


   "We are disappointed with the NYPD's response to the Inspector General's (IG) recent report on Quality-of-Life Enforcement. The City Council created the Office of the Inspector General to ensure that NYPD policies and procedures are operating effectively and consistently with the law -- with the understanding that everyone in NYC, including the NYPD, will benefit from a more accountable, efficient police force.
 
"Their recent report achieved exactly what the Office of the Inspector General was intended to do: based on sound statistical evidence, the IG report found that certain NYPD broken windows strategies do not have a measurable impact on violent crime in NYC, and set forth recommendations to improve these strategies for more data-driven, measurable, and equitable impacts on our communities. IG Eure's report was objective, fair and written with the intent to reduce tensions between the NYPD and the diverse communities it serves -- not to inflame them.
 
"Contrary to what the NYPD is presenting, the IG's report is in agreement with the NYPD's findings about the correlation between quality-of-life summons and preventing serious crime. According to the NYPD's report, 'there is no strict mathematical relationship between these two factors.' This supports the need for more effective, measurable policing practices. In essence, the NYPD's report is splitting hairs, in refuting their previous claim that the Broken Windows Theory leads to a direct decrease in felony crime, but instead fosters 'a general atmosphere of order and a general sense of police presence.'
 
"It is extremely disappointing to see that Commissioner Bratton has not only obstinately refused the IG's sensible recommendations, but has attempted to disparage and discredit the IG's vital work in the process. We look forward to working more productively with incoming Commissioner O'Neill to improve policing and police-community relations in NYC."

Holy Smokes, Look Who’s Returning to NYCC on Thursday Oct. 6th


New York Comic Con - NYCC

batman: return of the caped crusaders with adam west thursday at NYCC
thursday tickets are still available.
bookcon @ new york comic con fan favorite authors join bookcon @ NYCC
the walking dead collector's models
order your photo ops today.
arrive onsite prepared! check out the nycc floor plan
nycc presents stuff you missed in history class

CB7 Committee Meetings Thursday September 8th



The following two CB7 committee meetings will be held tomorrow at the Board office:

Traffic and Transportation 6:30 PM

Veterans Committee meeting 7:30 PM

Andrew Sandler  District Manager

Bronx Community Board 7

229-A East 204th Street Bronx, NY 10458

P: 718-933-5650/51
F: 718-933-1829



Serving the Communities of Bedford Park, Fordham, Jerome Park, Kingsbridge Heights, Mosholu, Norwood, and University Heights in the Bronx

52 Pct Community Council Meeting- Sept. 22, 2016


  The 52nd Precinct Council Meeting will be held at The Kinginston Building: 2455 Sedgwick Avenue Bronx NY, Thursday, September 22, 2016 from 7:00pm–9:00pm(opposite) Fordham Hills Oval Cooperative Apartments. See the attached flyer for details. The Precinct Council will also be collecting food and clothing in partnership with Community Board 7 and Council Member Andrew Cohen for the victims of the fire at 267 East 202nd Street. 

MAYOR DE BLASIO APPEARS LIVE ON 1010 WINS TALKING EDUCATION


WINS: We are joined live now on 1010 WINS by Mayor Bill de Blasio who’s going to be talking education. Good morning, Mr. Mayor, so, school starts tomorrow – big day – but the City, today, is rolling out several new education initiatives. So, let’s run them down, bullet point style. One is aimed at increasing economic diversity. Tell us about that.
Mayor: Well, you know, in all that we’re doing in the schools, we want to increase the quality-level of all our schools – the program is called Equity and Excellence. And the idea is that there should be no such thing as a “bad school” in any neighborhood, that we have to bring the level up across the board. But it’s also important to ensure that our kids get to learn together from all backgrounds. So, one of the things we’ve seen some very good success on in schools is admissions models that recognize kids of different economic backgrounds making sure that they get well represented across the board in our schools. So, that’s been one new initiative.
 But the overall frame system is Equity and Excellence. And basically it says we’re going to make sure that across the board we’re raising the quality-level of schools, we’re raising the demand-level too because our young people are going to be confronted by a much tougher world than when you and I were growing up. They have to get a better education. They have to be prepared for a demanding economy. We need that to happen across the school system, not just in some of the best schools but across the school system.
WINS: And so what specifically can the City do to expand diversity at some of the specialized high schools like Bronx Science and Stuyvesant?
Mayor: First, we need the State government to go along with changing the admissions. I don’t think anything should be decided by a single test. College admissions are not decided by a single test – even to the finest colleges in the country. I don’t think our very best high schools should base their admissions on a single test. I think there should be multiple measures. But that’s something we can only achieve through the State Legislature.
 What we will do in the meantime is add a number of measures to help prepare kids for the test from all backgrounds so there really can be representation. Right now, a school like Stuyvesant just does not represent the population of New York City in any way [inaudible] and reflects the reality of this city.
 We have to do a lot more to prepare kids to succeed on the test so long as that is the State sanctioned way to get into a school like that.
WINS:  Alright, there’s also a literacy initiative. Tell us about that –
Mayor: Yes, well, let me tell you the most important thing – I hear this from educators all the time – is to get kids to reading level by 3rd grade. And when you do that, when a kid reaches reading level by 3rd grade a lot of other things become possible. If they don’t, it really holds them back. So, we started with Pre-K for All which has been a great success. And I want to remind all your listeners if they have a four-year-old still not signed up for pre-K all they have to do is call 3-1-1 or go online to nyc.gov– plenty of seats still available.
 But on top of pre-K we’re going to emphasize reading and literacy in 2nd grade into 3rd grade – we’re adding a number of reading coaches and specialists on a level we’ve never had before so that we can really help teachers to improve what they’re doing with kids but also help the individual children who need extra attention.
 Our goal over the next ten years is to go from where we were when this administration started – about 30 percent of kids in this system reading at grade level by 3rd grade – absolutely unacceptable number. We want to get that to 100 percent over the course of the next ten years.
WINS: Another initiative that is a bit controversial has to do with altering the disciplinary code. Some of the teacher’s union is saying there’s not enough training in personnel or funding. There’s also concern that this may disproportionately affect minority students. What is going to be done with that?
Mayor: Well, what we’re seeing already is amazing progress on reducing crime in our schools and reducing violent incidents. I give a lot of credit to our school safety officers and, obviously, our teachers and parents as well. Over the last five years – 35 percent decrease in crime in our schools. And that started – I want to give credit – it started in Mayor Bloomberg’s administration. We’ve been able to add to that quite a bit.
 So, the fact is the schools are getting safer consistently. At the same time, we found that we can change the approach to discipline – reduce the number of suspensions. Suspensions, in my view, sometimes they are warranted but a lot of times they were overused, and basically did not help kids in terms of their education, and didn’t improve safety in the schools – and in some cases would exacerbate a problem a young person was having.
 We found that with reduced use of suspensions, we’re simultaneously getting better numbers on reducing crime in the school. So, those two things are actually going together.
 Also, I have a different – I have a lot of respect for the teachers and their union, but we have a difference – we don’t think there should be suspensions of kids in kindergarten, for example. It’s just something where I part company with the teacher’s union because I think it’s inappropriate even if a kid has a problem. I don’t think they should be suspended at that kind of early age.
WINS: What about the 85 struggling schools that may be approaching a three-year deadline for getting their act together. What is going on with that?
Mayor: Well, I’m very clear about the fact that we gave them time – about three years – and a lot of support to be able to turn around. And we’re seeing some very big improvements in a lot of these Renewal Schools. These are the schools that have had historic trouble and needed a lot more support. We’ve seen improved test scores in many cases. We’ve seen improved amounts of attendance, etcetera. But I’ve said, starting from two years ago, that we would go into this next year and any school that had not made sufficient progress, we’re either going to merge it into another school or shut it down. But I’m very hopeful based on what I’ve seen so far that most of the schools are moving in the right direction. And we’ll continue to support them.
WINS: And when do you think announcements about those schools will be made?
Mayor: We’re going to give them this school year, and in the case – by the way, some we can see already are succeeding and we know will do well in the long term. Others have already – small number – but several have been already in the process of shutting down or being merged. By the end of the school year, we’ll have a clear picture of what we want to do with the remainder.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
It seems that ten years of mayoral control has done very little if any to advance the goals outlined above by Mayor De Blasio. I would hope that the entire state legislature (not just those Republicans in Albany) have noticed how mayoral control has failed in New York City public schools. 

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

A.G. Schneiderman Launches Antitrust Investigation Into Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., Maker Of Epipen


  Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced his office has commenced an investigation into Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc, the maker of EpiPens. A preliminary review by the Office of the Attorney General revealed that Mylan Pharmaceuticals may have inserted potentially anticompetitive terms into its EpiPen sales contracts with numerous local school systems. Mylan’s EpiPen is the predominant epinephrine autoinjector—a device and drug used in cases where an individual suffers a severe allergic reaction, which could otherwise lead to death—in the U.S. market.

  “No child’s life should be put at risk because a parent, school, or healthcare provider cannot afford a simple, life-saving device because of a drug-maker’s anti-competitive practices,”Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said.  “If Mylan engaged in anti-competitive business practices, or violated antitrust laws with the intent and effect of limiting lower cost competition, we will hold them accountable. Allergy sufferers have enough concerns to worry about—the availability of life-saving medical treatment should not be one of them. I will bring the full resources of my office to this critical investigation.”

Council Member Jumaane D. Williams - STATEMENT ON FATAL SHOOTINGS DURING J'OUVERT



Council Member Jumaane D. Williams, Deputy Leader, and Co-chair of the Council's Task Force to Combat Gun Violence released the following statement after 17-year-old Tyreke Borel and 22-year-old Tiarah Poyau were killed early Monday morning during J'Ouvert. 

"It's with a heavy heart that there is need to write another letter like this one. I send prayers of peace and comfort to the families of Tyreke Borel and Tiarah Poyau, who lost their lives during what should have been a time of festivities and not fear. I'd also like to send prayers of speedy recovery for the victims who survived. It's unfortunate that as a community, a joyous time like the Carnival season has once again been marred by incidents of gun violence.

"The primary thing we should be doing now is supporting those families who are in mourning, and dealing intimately with the impacts of violence. After that there will be sufficient time to fully discuss what actions should be taken as it relates to next year's season, and J'Ouvert in particular.

"We should also continue a very real discussion about gun violence as a whole. The type of violence that takes place during J'Ouvert should be inclusive of the epidemic that plagues our communities year round. An honest discussion is owed to those who are dealing with this chronic type of violence."

Editor's Note:
Councilman Jumaane Williams represents the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Flatbush, East Flatbush, Flatlands, and parts of Midwood and Canarsie.

D. WILLMS