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Monday, April 23, 2018
AARP Confirms: 88% of LGBT elders want LGBT trained care providers
Sunday, April 22, 2018
Jewish Community Council of Pelham Parkway and The Bronx Jewish Community Council Legislative Breakfast
Elected officials (and the two candidates for the 80th Assembly District Special Election) joined the roomful of people to see the Honorees of the Pelham Parkway and Bronx Jewish Community Councils.
Greetings to those gathered were given by JCCPP President Charles Landsberg, JCCPP Executive Director David Edelstein, and BJCC Executive Director Brad Silver. The recipient of the Senator Abraham Bernstein Memorial Award was Congressman Joseph Crowley, who district covers parts of Queens and the Bronx. The recipient of the Blanche Comras Rifkin Community Service Award was the 49th Precinct Community Council, with President Joe Thompson. The Community Service Award By the JCCPP and BJCC was given to Mr. Steven Glosser. The BJCC Volunteer Initiative Award were given to BJCC volunteers Jane Chaney, Marc Karell, Rebecca Korbin, Ariela & Simone & Ethan Feinblum, Diane Rosen, Neil Schwartzreich, Larry Thaul, and the Westchester Day School. More photos of the Breakfast are below.
Above - Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark speaks about the importance of community organizations to local communities.
Below - State Senator Jeff Klein told of how he got involved with the JCCPP as one of its Presidents many years ago.
Above - Councilman Mark Gjonaj spoke of how he learned that twenty-five percent of the recipients of the BJCC Food Pantry were of his native Albanian origin.
Below - Congressman Joseph Crowley receives the Senator Abraham Bernstein Memorial Award.
Above - The 49th Precinct Council receives the Blanche Comras Rifkin Community Service Award.
Below - Never at a loss for words 49th Precinct Council President Joe Thompson thanks the JCCPP and BJCC for recognizing the Precinct Council.
After Heartbreaking Audit, Comptroller Stringer Calls for Policy Changes at DOE to Support Homeless Students
As Homeless Crisis Soars, Comptroller Calls for More Social Workers to Support Students in Shelters and Enrollment Policy Changes to Give Our Most Vulnerable Kids a Fair Shot
Following the release of an alarming audit in March of the Department of Education’s failure to support tens of thousands of chronically absent homeless students, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer released a new letter to the NYC Department of Education (DOE) to call for policy changes to give homeless children access to higher-performing schools and add additional support at both the school and shelter levels.
The heartbreaking audit released last month found that 33,000 children lived in City shelters during the 2015-2016 school-year – with 58 percent chronically absent from school. While DOE regulations require that schools contact students’ guardians when students are late or absent without explanation, DOE made no outreach efforts in 75 percent of cases in the audit-sample. Today, Comptroller Stringer’s letter to the Department of Education calls for more social workers for homeless students in schools and shelters, as well as new protocols requiring all schools to admit a percentage of high-need students who transfer or enroll after the DOE’s formal admissions process.
“We want to be as solution-oriented as possible, and we’ve laid out a few common sense steps to give our homeless children a fair shot. We know support staff in shelters is minimal, and we know that homeless children are often placed in low-performing schools if they transfer schools, simply because that’s where space exists. So we’ve laid out some strategic steps that DOE needs to consider,” Comptroller Stringer said. “As a city, we are defined by how we support our most vulnerable children. Homeless children need to be a top priority – they can’t be invisible to the bureaucracy. But right now, the DOE is fundamentally failing to give them a fair shot. If our audit last month was a wake-up call to the bureaucracy, our goal with these proposals is to induce common sense change to help children who need it most. The system is stacked against homeless children – and we need to unstack it.”
The letter details a two-pronged approach to protecting and supporting New York City’s 33,000 homeless students living in shelters. First, since the audit found just 110 “Family Assistants” working with children in shelters, Comptroller Stringer believes DOE should hire more social workers at the school- and shelter-level who have the expertise necessary to help support homeless students and families. Despite early indications of the DOE’s “Bridging the Gap” social worker program showing great promise, the City’s FY19 budget does not adequately fund it.
Comptroller Stringer also proposed that the DOE revise enrollment policies that govern how schools accept transfer and late-enrolling students – or “over-the-counter students” to use DOE nomenclature. These students are often the system’s most transient and highest need children, many of whom can be homeless or temporarily housed. Yet, because in many cases these children change schools after the DOE’s enrollment period has ended, they’re often funneled into low performing schools that are ill-equipped to support them, simply because these schools have available seats.
Consequently, in order to reduce the likelihood that vulnerable students are placed in low-performing schools and increase the chances they’re placed in high-performing district school options, the Comptroller recommended the following:
- The DOE should require all New York City schools to admit a percentage of high need students who transfer or enroll after the conclusion of the standard DOE enrollment processes. That would give our most vulnerable children access to higher performing schools despite mid-year enrollment and decrease the chance that they fall through the cracks.
- The DOE should avoid placing late-enrolling, “over-the-counter” children at schools that have already been identified as low-performing “Priority” or “Focus” schools by New York State, unless expressly requested by the student. This is for the student’s benefit, so that they may secure placement in the highest performing school possible that best serves his or her needs. But it benefits schools as well, since those designated as “Priority” or “Focus” schools seek to make steady progress by consistently improving outcomes for their student population.
To read Comptroller Stringer’s letter to the DOE, please click here.
To read the Comptroller’s audit on the DOE’s failure to support chronically-absent homeless children, please click here.
Comptroller Stringer Releases Alarming Analysis and Rider Survey of Select Bus Service Showing Poor Bus Lane Enforcement, Slow Speeds, and Unreliable Service
Over one-third of SBS riders dissatisfied with slow and unreliable service, grading SBS a “C” or below
SBS program shows minimal improvement on glacial local bus routes, and poor on-time performance rates
An analysis of bus lane and bus stop violations identified 17,309 individual vehicles with 5+ infractions in the last 18 months alone
New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer released a disturbing analysis showing that the City consistently fails to enforce bus lanes, which has led to persistently slow and unreliable SBS routes and contributed to significant rider dissatisfaction with service, according to a new report and survey of SBS riders. Despite the intent of Select Bus Service to offer efficient and modernized bus routes, the Comptroller’s analysis found SBS upgrades barely improve on local bus service with average speeds only slightly faster than local routes (8.9 m.p.h. versus 7.4 m.p.h.) and on-time performance identical to local routes – a paltry 62 percent. As a result, SBS ridership remains flat and the Comptroller’s SBS rider survey exposes how widespread deficiencies leave riders frustrated. Comptroller Stringer’s survey found that nearly forty percent of riders graded SBS service a “C” or worse.
“Select Bus Service was a first step toward modernizing the city’s bus system. But the City and the MTA are failing those who depend on its service. New Yorkers deserve fast, frequent, and reliable public transit, and for that to happen, the status quo must change,” said New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. “If we’re going to build a real and rapid bus transit system in New York City, we need to do it right. No more half measures and cutting corners. Right now, service is unacceptable, we need to do better – and our survey shows riders agree.”
SBS Performance No Better Than Local Bus Routes
Select Bus Service was first introduced to New York City in 2008 to increase the speed, reliability, and appeal of bus service through the implementation of dedicated bus lanes, off-board fare collection, reduced stops, and Transit Signal Priority (technology which links approaching buses with traffic signals). Thus far, the City DOT and MTA have converted local routes to Select Bus Service along fifteen corridors throughout the five boroughs. Yet despite these upgrades, SBS routes perform little better than local routes and offer riders little in the way of relief.
Performance and Speed of SBS Routes Slow and Unreliable
| SBS Route | Average Speed (mph) | On-Time Performance |
| B44 SBS | 8.3 | 65% |
| B46 SBS | 7.9 | 64% |
| BX6 SBS | 6.6 | 75% |
| BX12 SBS | 9.3 | 65% |
| BX41 SBS | 8.1 | 47% |
| M15 SBS | 6.4 | 38% |
| M23 SBS | 4.3 | 60% |
| M34A SBS | 4.3 | 67% |
| M34 SBS | 4.3 | 71% |
| M60 SBS | 10.3 | 37% |
| M79 SBS | 4.8 | 62% |
| M86 SBS | 4.9 | 74% |
| Q44 SBS | 8.7 | 54% |
| Q70 SBS | 11.3 | 62% |
| S79 SBS | 14.5 | 70% |
| SBS Average | 8.9 | 62% |
| Local Bus Average | 7.4 | 62% |
The problem, according to the Comptroller’s analysis, is that many of the basic features of Select Bus Service are only available on a limited basis.
Modernization Efforts are Happening at a Snail’s Pace
- As of July 2017, Transit Signal Priority (TSP) was installed along the entirety of only three SBS routes and on small sections of two more, leaving the DOT ill-prepared for its 2020 roadmap to expand TSP.
- The City’s TSP expansion goals are not ambitious enough. Even if the City hits its 2020 target, it would still be three years and two-thirds behind the current progress of cities like London.
- In addition, many design features that could help protect SBS routes from general traffic have been poorly implemented or insufficiently enforced. As a consequence, cars, cabs, and delivery vehicles frequently and unlawfully drive and park in “exclusive” lanes—forcing SBS buses to slow-down, merge back into traffic, and contend with an endless stream of obstructions.
Survey identifies significant service issues causing SBS delays and contributing to lackluster ridership
In April of 2018, the Comptroller’s Office polled 115 riders along 12 of the City’s 15 SBS corridors. Beyond the overall grades cited above, among those surveyed:
- 70 percent flagged “traffic congestion on streets” as a key factor for SBS delays;
- 28 percent credited “vehicles blocking the bus lane/stop,” and
- 23 percent noted that “buses get stuck at multiple traffic lights.”
- As a result of these widespread issues detracting from SBS performance, ridership has fallen on five of the nine SBS routes introduced prior to 2016.
SBS ridership
| Route | Year Launched | Ridership the Year Prior to Launch | 2016 Ridership | Ridership Change |
| M34/M34A | 2011 | 18,092 | 14,901 | -18% |
| M15 | 2010 | 53,073 | 44,797 | -16% |
| B44 | 2013 | 39,661 | 37,418 | -6% |
| M60 | 2014 | 17,013 | 16,751 | -2% |
| Q44 | 2015 | 28,139 | 27,712 | -2% |
| M86 | 2015 | 23,846 | 24,746 | 4% |
| Bx12 | 2008 | 42,219 | 48,124 | 14% |
| Bx41 | 2013 | 18,947 | 23,558 | 24% |
| S79 | 2012 | 8,969 | 11,378 | 27% |
| Total | 249,959 | 249,385 | -0.2% |
Widespread Traffic Obstruction in Bus Lanes and Bus Stops
The Comptroller’s report provides an extensive analysis of bus lane and bus stop violations in the last 18 months. During that period:
- Over 683,000 tickets were issued for bus lane and bus stop obstructions.
- The analysis found that traffic officers issued 447,269 tickets for standing in a bus stop and 32,101 for standing in a bus lane in the last 18 months.
- Traffic cameras, which are only authorized on a handful of routes, issued an additional 203,892 tickets for bus lane violations.
- A full 28 percent of all violations were committed by vehicles with five or more infractions – proving the city is falling short at counteracting repeat offenders.
- In only the last 18 months, a whopping 1,015 vehicles had between 25 and 49 bus stop and bus lane violations, 405 vehicles had between 50 and 99, and 185 received 100 tickets or more.
- At the top of the list, one commercial vehicle had a stunning 870 violations in the last eighteen months, all for bus stop obstructions.
Bus Lane and Bus Stop Violations, Repeat Offenders
| Number of Violations | Type of Vehicle | Grand Total | |||
| Passenger | Commercial | Taxi/FHV | Other | ||
| 5-9 | 4,395 | 2,402 | 509 | 521 | 7,827 |
| 10-24 | 1,684 | 1,413 | 71 | 293 | 3,461 |
| 25-49 | 380 | 524 | 1 | 110 | 1,015 |
| 50-99 | 125 | 241 | 3 | 36 | 405 |
| 100+ | 39 | 132 | 0 | 14 | 185 |
| Total 5+ | 6,623 | 4,712 | 584 | 974 | 12,893 |
While delivery trucks and other commercial vehicles received only 20 percent of bus lane and bus stop tickets, they were the most likely to be high-frequency offenders. Among those vehicles that received 25 or more violations, 56 percent had commercial licenses.
To effectively improve traffic enforcement and ensure a modern bus system with faster and more reliable bus service, the Comptroller offered the following recommendations:
- The City should dramatically improve bus stop and bus lane enforcement;
- The State should authorize fixed-location traffic cameras along more routes in order to increase the enforcement of bus lanes;
- The City DOT should upgrade the design of bus lanes;
- The City DOT should expedite the implementation of Transit Signal Priority;
- The City and MTA should take a more holistic approach to bus enhancements citywide. High-frequency peak and off-peak service, all-door boarding, transit signal priority, curb extensions, efficient stop-spacing, and well designed, enforced, and strategically-located bus lanes should be characteristic of every local bus route, not just select bus service.
Chronic Problems with SBS Fare Payment Machines
Apart from the report, Comptroller Stringer sent a letter to Darryl C. Irick, President of MTA Bus Operations. The letter focused on the functionality of SBS fare payment machines and Reduced-Fare MetroCards.
The Comptroller’s survey of SBS riders found that 40 percent experienced difficulty obtaining a ticket at a fare payment machine in the last year. Among these riders, 77 percent reported that their Reduced-Fare MetroCard had not worked on multiple occasions and over 15 percent reported issues on more than five occasions.
In order to better understand these mounting challenges and ensure future improvements, the Comptroller’s Office requested that the MTA provide the following information: 1) the maintenance protocol for SBS fare payment machines, 2) a full inventory of SBS fare payment machines and the length of time each was out-of-service in the last year, and 3) a list of customer complaints and general issues that have been identified regarding Reduced-Fare MetroCards.
To read the full report, click here.