Tuesday, March 17, 2020

MAYOR DE BLASIO HOLDS ON COVID-19 - March 16,2020


  Mayor Bill de Blasio: Okay. As everyone understands, we are in an ever-changing situation. I have no example I can offer you of another situation where, for such a long period of time, we have seen just constant, constant changes. It seems to me we're in the middle of meetings and discussions and, you know, the world is different even in the middle of one meeting than where it started, on a regular basis. And this is going to be going on for quite a while. So, this is really uncharted territory.

What we're trying to do, of course, is constantly consult with people, have the best information and perspective and coordinate across a very, very broad spectrum of agencies while simultaneously working with folks at the national level, state level, regional level, etcetera. Yesterday – I said this this morning – I had the opportunity to speak directly to Dr. Anthony Fauci who I think everyone would agree has been one of the truly coherent voices on the national stage in this crisis, and obviously someone we honor for decades of serving this country effectively. So, I consider him one of the ultimate voices of truth. I also have to say as a New Yorker and a Brooklynite, I'm very, very proud of him and what he has done for this country and what he's doing right now. And we talked about the decision to close schools and then we talked about the things that have to happen next. And he strongly advised the actions related to the bars and restaurants. And then we took those actions later last evening. But also, we got into a conversation about how to guide people in their day to day lives in the crisis that will be with us for weeks and months. And I said to Dr. Fauci, we all agree that those over 50, with serious pre-existing conditions are the people overwhelmingly in danger here. These are the folks that, God forbid we might lose.

I said, what else would you say to guide people beyond that extraordinary danger that those individuals face, how do we create an understanding of people of who is in danger, and who has to take even more precautions? And he said that it's not over 50, healthy, but the area where he starts to get concerned just on an age level is over 70. So, I hope this is a helpful additional piece of information in terms of people trying to make sense of how to live and approach a crisis like this. And we'll certainly talk more about the details in the Q-and-A and my health colleagues will jump in when they come over, but over 50, pre-existing serious conditions – diabetes, lung disease, heart disease, cancer, compromised immune system. Those individuals are in the greatest danger by far. The people in your life, your family, your friends, your coworkers, the people you worship with in, those categories, your neighbors, those are the people we have to go – all of us – out of our way to protect, not let anyone sick near them, make sure they are staying in to the maximum extent possible. If they need food, and the only way they can get it is to go out themselves, let's see if one of us can get it for them. Someone in their life can get them food or get their prescriptions.

We're going to work as a City to try and figure out some bigger systems to make sure people get what they need. But everyone understands that this is an extraordinarily fast-moving crisis and we don't have that capacity today. But we do have New Yorkers, we have New Yorkers’ heart and soul and conscience. We have New Yorkers’ resilience and strength. You can help your fellow New Yorker. So please, for folks in that category, over 50, pre-existing major conditions, help them not have to go outside, help them get the things that they most need in any way you can. But again, the further guidance from Dr. Fauci, if you're over 70, even if you're healthy, even if you don't have one of those pre-existing conditions, exercise additional caution, don't go out unless you need to. Keep it to the essentials, limit your contact with other people. Everyone's going to have to interpret that for themselves. Obviously, it's a free country, but we are asking people to really be cautious and conservative in the way you interpret this reality if you're in one of those categories that's particularly endangered.

Now yesterday, everyone knows I was very, very troubled to have to close our schools. Our goal again is to reopen April 20 but I've been very honest that that is a goal that will be very difficult to achieve. What I want to clarify, because in some of the covers today, there still seemed to be some gray on this point – remote learning begins Monday, March 23rd. Distance learning, definite, starting Monday. I want to thank all of our leadership at the DOE who's making this happen with lightning speed. I want to thank our educators who are stepping up to meet this challenge. I especially want to thank four groups of workers who are the unsung heroes today, who today are at the front-line helping kids in those schools that are providing the breakfast and lunches on a to-go basis.

Want to thank our school custodians including those from Local 891, our school cleaners including those from Local 32BJ, our school food workers including those from DC37, and the firemen who keep – and this is meaning the folks who run these systems in the building, the fireman who keep the boilers and systems running, including those from Local 94. All of you, I want to thank you all for what you're doing, for your commitment to your city, to your fellow New Yorkers, and to the children of our city. Thank you. Because you're allowing all of them to have food they need today.

So there's a number of actions we're taking today, some of which were announced last night, others of which are new, all contained in an executive order. I'm going to summarize very broadly. Obviously, it will be made public immediately. But the business closures related to restaurants, bars, cafes – now adding other businesses consistent with the State's actions and we are obviously staying in close contact with the State and agree with the actions that the state has taken. The postponing of elective surgeries. And again, that is both in our public hospitals and in our voluntary hospitals. And we've set a 96-hour window for all of those to be shut down, obviously with the allowable exception of something that is life and death or something that it goes from optional to mandatory because of the nature of the health condition of the individual.

Because we need to avoid public gatherings to the maximum extent possible, we're suspending for the time being City Council hearings. We're suspending ULURP rules in terms of the land use process. That means that anything that was going to go through the land use process will simply be frozen in place. It does not mean there'll be an alternative decision making. It means that that application will just have to hold until we are able to get back to normal.

We are suspending visits to inmates at Department of Corrections facilities. And that starts Wednesday officially. But my understanding is there are no visits scheduled for today or tomorrow. So that effectively means there will be no visits from this point on. Obviously we're going to encourage alternatives, more phone calls, potentially video conferencing, etcetera.

We are suspending procurement rules to allow for faster procurement.

And as I noted yesterday, we are officially canceling the special election for borough president in Queens. So, all of this is included in the executive order, which I will now sign.

[Mayor de Blasio signs Executive Order]

This executive order takes effect immediately. As you heard – and again, we're in agreement with the State on all these actions – speeding up the closing on the restaurants, bars, cafes to 8:00 pm tonight. And again, they will be able to be open going forward for takeout and delivery under certain hours, conditions. Other businesses that will be closed – movie theaters, other types of theaters, museums, and cultural centers, concert venues, nightclubs, and commercial gyms. Obviously, we continue to say to all private business that it is crucial to allow telecommuting wherever humanly possible. So that is something we want to continue to emphasize. We've gotten a lot of cooperation from the business community. We want that to be as deep as possible. Anybody who can telecommute, should.

I also want to note there are a host of public recreation centers, youth programs, afterschool programs. These are all going to be shut down for inside activities. We are trying right now to determine if we can re-engineer some of those programs for outdoor activities with appropriate social distancing. Very, very concerned about our young people and what's going to happen to them over weeks and months, potentially. I think they have to have some kind of outlet, some kind of recreation. We're trying to see if we can figure out a model for doing that outdoors with proper supervision and proper social distancing, but we do not have that locked down now.

To working people in the city, and obviously to business owners, including small business owners. Everyone is immediately hurting very deeply. There's a lot of fear. There's a lot of confusion. Immediately, we are seeing working people with much less money in their pockets and tremendous fear about what's going to happen next. There should be at least a little sense of relief that the House of Representatives acted on Friday, but it is not enough. We need more. Obviously, need action on a consistent, ongoing basis from the federal government and we will be fighting for that and working closely with our federal delegation, our senators, and our Congress members to achieve a much greater stimulus and relief package that really allows people the comfort of knowing that they will have some continuity in their lives. They'll be able to afford the basics no matter what their employment situation. They'll be able to stay in their homes and afford food, medicine, all the basics. We have to achieve that, we can only achieve that with federal support.

This is going to be very, very tough for all of us. There's no question about it. There's going to be a lot of sacrifice here, a lot of pain. I hate to say it, but it's true. Lives will continue to be lost. Our job is to try to help people in every way, reduce to the maximum extent possible, the number of lives that will be lost in this crisis. Help people get through it and help people get back on their feet, make sure people are getting the right information so they can make the right choices. And this is something that will evolve and change probably pretty much every hour of every day. And we will be constantly giving you updates. The overall numbers are sobering. As of this hour, and everyone knows that these numbers can change at any moment -- as of this hour, 463 confirmed cases in New York City.

The borough breakout again lags behind — it has not yet been fully cross referenced with the newest number which is that 463 number is from 11:00 am, so we do not have an exact cross-reference. The last best information we have from earlier this morning based on a smaller number of cases was here's the borough breakout — 118 in Queens, 111 in Manhattan, 62 in Brooklyn, 34 in the Bronx, 19 in Staten Island.

I am very, very sorry to say that we now have two additional deaths, or a total of seven people have passed away. The first is a 56-year-old man from the Bronx who worked as an investigator for the City government. This is something we are feeling all personally. One of our own, one of our colleagues in public service has been lost. Investigator for the Department of Correction. We have checked the log books for his work in recent days and to the best knowledge he did not visit the inside of a jail facility. He worked with one fellow employee closely. That individual has been – is self-quarantined. So, to our Department of Correction colleague who we've lost, our condolences to his family. Our hearts are with them. Our prayers are with them and we will do all we can to help them in this incredibly difficult time. We've also lost an 89-year-old man who returned from Italy about a week ago. And we grieve also with his family and loved ones as well.  We see consistently that have keep losing people overwhelmingly in those same categories of those who are older, particularly much older, and those who are vulnerable because of preexisting disease.

Now what we are going to do to expand our capacity. We understand that this curve is moving rapidly. We're going to have to radically expand our health care facilities in New York City and capacity. Again, this is going to be a war basis in New York City. I do not believe the United States government is on a wartime basis right now, I think is painfully evident. If they were, we would already have immense support from federal agencies on the ground right now. I do see a beginning of federal support, but nowhere near what it should be at this point. So, we will do it ourselves to the maximum extent possible. And I've ordered all my colleagues to identify all spaces that can be converted immediately to medical use. We're going to start with those that are most obvious, that already are engaged in health care and either being underutilized or not utilized, and then we're going to go much farther. So, I think you have to think of this in a wartime worldview. You have to think of this as something where you're going to see a massive mobilization to save lives, to help people through their suffering with this disease. A lot of people who are hospitalized, the vast majority of people who are hospitalized will survive, but they'll go through a very difficult experience. Again, basically the numbers keep holding. About 80 percent of everyone who gets this disease does not require hospitalization, has a fairly mild experience. 20 percent have a much more serious experience. Overwhelmingly those folks need hospitalization. Ones who end up with the most serious problems in the ICU. And there is the category where we see ourselves losing people, particularly among the older folks with the preexisting conditions. What that says to us with this kind of steep increase in the number of cases is we're going to need massive medical capacity on a scale we've never seen in the history of New York City before.

So, we are going to be constantly building out medical facilities and creating them where they've never existed before and retrofitting facilities that have nothing to do with health care. We will turn them into hospitals so long as we can get the equipment and the personnel, we will keep building our capacity to meet the demand. We've had a lot of conversations internally about how we're going to achieve this. The personnel are the single most crucial element. Thank God we're in a city with a vast amount, number of health care personnel, but still nowhere near what we might eventually need. So, we're going to find many ways to take people who are in other appropriate parts of the health profession, help them maximize their ability to serve. Look for folks who may have retired recently who could come back. Students who could be appropriately credentialed to be brought in.

I predict and this, if it continues to be a situation where our area and others like Washington State are disproportionately suffering in the context of the whole nation, that we're going to ask the federal government to send in health care workers from other places to help. Clearly, we're going to ask for the military’s medical units to come in, which are very effective. And that's a substantial amount of military personnel. We're going to need all of that to get through this and we'll have more to say on it as we go along.

Facilities that we are immediately bringing online and this is a combination of some public facilities, some private that we will in this instance, working with their owners. We will put them into public service and obviously we will compensate for it. And we're going to work the same with the voluntary hospitals to maximize their capacity. But I can report four new facilities, being brought online immediately – the Coler facility on Roosevelt Island, an H + H facility that was empty. It is being immediately brought back online. 350 beds. It will be ready in approximately a week's time. There is a recently built nursing home in Brooklyn that had not yet been occupied and again, we'll get you more details as the announcements are ready and final notifications and confirmations are achieved, but this is very likely coming online in the next two weeks. 600 beds. The Westchester Square Hospital in the Bronx has an available approximately 150 beds. And we believe again likely to come online in the next two weeks or so. The North Central Bronx Hospital, part of H + H, has two floors that are vacant with 120 beds. This will be activated immediately within a week's time or so. That gives us somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200, 1,300 beds that we can immediately say will be activated.

Then when it comes to existing Health + Hospitals facilities and voluntary hospital facilities, a three prong strategy - discharging patients on an expedited basis, obviously in a manner that is still healthy and appropriate, canceling the elective surgeries as is ordered in my executive order under our state of emergency, and building additional capacity within hospital buildings. The example Dr. Katz gave, turning a cafeteria into an ICU, turning a parking lot into an ICU with a tent. Those three strategies between our existing Health + Hospitals hospitals and the voluntary hospitals we believe will net us an additional 7,000 new usable beds. Meaning new because they will be available for the cause of fighting coronavirus. So, with that estimate, 7,000 beds capacity plus the 1,300 almost that we will bring into play from the other four new locations. That will take us to 8,200-8,300 and then we're going to keep going rapidly from there.

But this will be a race against time to create these facilities to get them up and running, to find the personnel and the equipment we need. We have no choice but to expand rapidly and be ready for anything. It would be - I think that my colleagues in health care would agree much better that the facilities are up and ready too early than too late. In terms of space for any individual who needs to isolate or quarantine and or for city workers who we need to keep in that kind of location rather than sending them home, we're getting additional hotel space immediately. We have identified and are acquiring space in five smaller hotels that will amount to 250 hotel rooms, but we'll be building out from that rapidly.

In terms of tents for medical use, the kinds of tents that could be used to set up a medical facility or an ICU, our Emergency Management team has already acquired 11 such temps with another 10 to 20 coming in the coming days and they're working out the distribution of those tents between public and private facilities.

We now have as a result of the President’s state of emergency. Again, the real time here, everyone, is just staggering. We had the President's state of emergency just a few days ago, the Congressional vote, the House vote just a few days ago. Everything is really moving fast. But when the President signed the state of emergency that put FEMA into play. And this is crucial, we need FEMA to be part of the solution. Our Commissioner for Emergency Management, Deanne Criswell, was a former senior official at FEMA, understands exactly what capacity and resources they bring. So, this is a very important dynamic to have FEMA involved and they have immediately gotten to work with us. We will be standing up five drive through testing facilities across New York City, and again thank you to FEMA for working with our Office of Emergency Management and our Health Department to do that.

Just some other items I mentioned in our correction system that we will be suspending visits. I want to emphasize this is also the kind of decision that should never be made lightly for those who are incarcerated, it's something they will be lacking and missing greatly. We will come up with alternatives as I said, more phone calls, hopefully video conferencing, but it was absolutely necessary to protect the health of all those who are incarcerated and obviously very importantly our correction officers who we are depending on greatly at this moment. They have a very tough job, their job is crucial. We need to protect their health and wellbeing. That was a driving factor as well in making that decision.

We are announcing a new emergency rule from our Department of Consumer Worker Protection. I mentioned a few days ago specific actions that were being taken to delineate products that were becoming scarce and to institute anti-price gouging measures. We are taking a much deeper step now, an emergency rule banning price gouging on supplies needed to treat or prevent coronavirus. I'm going to list them for you. And so for all the folks out there who sell these items, we are deadly serious. You need to not only not price gouge, you need to understand you have an obligation to your fellow New Yorkers to make sure that people can get these crucial supplies. It is not time for profiteering. It is time to be a good citizen and help your fellow New Yorker. The items are thermometers, sanitizing wipes and or baby wipes, paper towels, latex gloves, face masks, fever reducers, cough suppressants, zinc oxide supplements, facial tissue, toilet paper, rubbing alcohol and Aloe Vera. And apparently, I did not know this, rubbing alcohol and Aloe Vera can be mixed together to create a version of hand sanitizer. So those two make the list. Retailers cannot increase the price of these items by more than 10 percent. That is the rule. And every time there was a violation, there'll be a $350 fine per instance. And that means it can add up very, very quickly if someone is violating that rule.

Turns to the supply chain. We have been studying carefully. I've asked our Emergency Management Commissioner to constantly reassess the supply chain and update me at this moment. The good news is on food and basic household goods that you would find in a supermarket, there has been actually a very intensive resupply in recent days. That's the good news. The bad news is stuff is being snapped up really, really quickly. I remind people we are going to work to ensure that the supply chain remains strong. We need our federal government to do that in a way that's far beyond what we can do. But while this is all proceeding, we need our fellow New Yorkers to look out for each other. If you're someone who's bought a lot of everything, God bless you. But if there's someone in your life, someone older, someone with one of those preexisting conditions, someone who has a disability that keeps them from getting out and getting supplies they need, either help them by getting what they need for them or share your supply enough to help them out. I know we are in a society where people have been taught too much just to look out for themselves. We're going to enter an entirely different human reality and societal reality. We're going into something that people in this generation have not experienced before, but in previous generations they knew way too well and everyone's going to have to figure out how to work together and share. So, if you have an overabundance and you see someone who doesn't have anything, please help them out.

A few other points. One related to that, we're very concerned about isolated New Yorkers, for the folks who have to stay home because they're vulnerable, for the folks who are in isolation for medical reasons, we want to help them out and communicate constantly with them. And this is whether it's someone who is a confirmed patient with coronavirus or just experiencing sickness but not yet confirmed, and certainly for folks who have to be very, very careful and stay in to the maximum extent. We are going to create what is being called an isolation app. Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications has put this together. It will be up quickly. We'll provide guidance and nine languages. It will ask if individuals need anything and they'll get real time responses and also will give us good information on what challenges people are facing, where we're having particular problems across the city, etcetera.  Finishing up obviously now with the action on the restaurants, bars, cafes that serve food. A crucial issue will be food deliveries. I got the question out of the day whether we would suspend enforcement on e-Bikes in terms of deliveries. The answer is yes. We are suspending that enforcement for the duration of this crisis.

Okay. Few more things and then we will start to take your questions. We're going to all of us up here, especially the health professionals, we're going to repeat ourselves a lot over the next weeks and probably months, so let's begin with the most important point, which is stay home as much as you can. That guidance might get a lot sharper at any point. I have been asked repeatedly, are we considering travel restrictions? Are we considering curfews? We are considering everything is the answer. Every option, every tool is on the table. We will decide in turn when we want to employ each, but right now the answer is simple. Stay home to the maximum extent possible. Protect yourself, protect your family. In general, the simple rule is when in doubt, stay home. If you're not sure you should do something, stay home. We're going to talk about some things that if you're healthy are still appropriate to do like getting food and medicine, but again, the simple guidance to all New Yorkers is if you're not sure you need to do it, stay home. If you have any option, then you don't have to go out, stay home. Limit your time outside your home or your apartment. When you go out, be mindful of social distancing and try and distance as best you can. Those are some very simple rules.

For folks who are sick, it's a stronger of stay home, stay home, don't even think about going out.
Try as best you can to get the people in your life to get that food for you, get those medicines for you, obviously there'll be deliveries. Do not accidentally put someone else in harm's way. If you must go out, if you're someone who is sick and there is literally no other way to get food or medicine, you can't find anyone else who will do it for you. You must go out. You should be out for as little time as possible. You should keep your distance. You should help people around you to know to keep their distance.

If you are sick with the symptoms, again, I keep using simple layman's terms. The doctors will always feel free to improve upon them but cold and flu like symptoms. Our guidance has changed the last few days. We are saying stay home for three to four days. If you're getting better after that time, that's fantastic. Stay home until you're well. If you're not getting better, call your doctor and act accordingly. Crucial piece of information. Do not go - now that this crisis has advanced, do not go to the emergency room unless it is actually an emergency. If you are in a absolute dangerous situation health wise right now, that's what the emergency room is still for. Otherwise, if you're just worried that you might be getting sick, I want to tell you more and more what you're going to see in emergency rooms. You're seeing it now all over the country as you will see officials of that healthcare facility outside screening and turning away people who do not need emergency care. So, the better way to do this is to not go in unless you absolutely have to. We cannot overwhelm our healthcare facilities. We have to make sure the folks who need help the most are getting the care.

Finally, just try and give some examples for the many, many New Yorkers who are not in those particularly vulnerable categories. You're not over 50 with the serious preexisting conditions. You're not over 70 and you're a healthy New Yorker and you're trying to figure out what to do. So, when in doubt you still stay home. But we understand that people need to stay healthy. We understand that people under any circumstance, if they have the ability to get a little fresh air and exercise, that's actually quite important to their health. We understand that people need groceries, they need medicines. In these instances, it's okay to take a walk, but practice social distancing. It's okay to go jogging, but practice social distancing. It's okay to walk your dog, but practice social distancing. If you don't need to go get groceries because someone else can get them for you, that's great. If you can get a delivery instead of going out, that's great, but I understand that there's so many people who are healthy who are trying to figure out what to do – some basic simple things like getting some exercise or getting some fresh air. I've spoken with all of our key health officials on this, everyone agrees that's acceptable if you keep it limited and you practice social distancing. That's where we are today. That could change tonight. That could change tomorrow, but that's where we are right now.

So, everyone understands this is going be a very difficult few months. It will definitely get worse. It will get a lot worse before it gets better. I don't take any joy in saying that, but people expect our leaders to talk straight with them. It will get a lot worse before it gets better. We understand that so many people are going to be affected by this. But again, the answer is not fear. The answer is not panic. The answer is not, I'm going to sit around and hope that someone else will save me or the government will take care of everything. The answer is for all of us to work together and support each other. The answer is for us to believe in each other, support each other, look out for each other and understand that everyone has a role to play. Everyone has a chance to do something really important for their fellow New Yorker and for someone in need.

Everyone has a chance to exercise personal responsibility, listen to the guidance and abide by it. But also, listen to the idea that even your city government, your federal government doesn't reach into every nook and cranny of our lives, but people do – our family does, our neighbors do, the people on our block do. And we saw this after Sandy, the people were helping each other before any government agency could arrive. And I was very moved by it when I went through neighborhoods and Brooklyn and Staten Island and saw the amazing things people were doing to support each other. We're going to need that again now and we're going to do everything we can as your city government, everything we could possibly imagine to do, we will expend every youth resource. We'll do things that have never been seen before in the history of New York City. But in the end, New Yorkers will play a crucial role in helping us get through this crisis and in helping us overcome this crisis. And I have absolute faith in my fellow New Yorkers that you are more than up to the challenge.

Monday, March 16, 2020

Statement from Michelle Caruso-Cabrera NY-14 Campaign - Re; Parkchester Times Debate April 7,2020


Statement from
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera
The American political system must press on. I am committed to participating at the Parkchester Debate against my opponent Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez April 7, 6-8PM Bronx Community Board 9. Our debate should use the same COVID19 precautionary measures as the Presidential debate."


STATEMENT FROM MAYOR DE BLASIO ON BARS, RESTAURANTS, AND ENTERTAINMENT VENUES


  “Our lives are all changing in ways that were unimaginable just a week ago. We are taking a series of actions that we never would have taken otherwise in an effort to save the lives of loved ones and our neighbors. Now it is time to take yet another drastic step.  The virus can spread rapidly through the close interactions New Yorkers have in restaurants, bars and places where we sit close together. We have to break that cycle. 

“Tomorrow, I will sign an Executive Order limiting restaurants, bars and cafes to food take-out and delivery. Nightclubs, movie theaters, small theater houses, and concert venues must all close. The order will go into effect Tuesday, March 17 at 9:00 AM.

“This is not a decision I make lightly. These places are part of the heart and soul of our city. They are part of what it means to be a New Yorker. But our city is facing an unprecedented threat, and we must respond with a wartime mentality.

“We will come through this, but until we do, we must make whatever sacrifices necessary to help our fellow New Yorkers.”

NEW YORK CITY TO CLOSE ALL SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND TRANSITION TO REMOTE LEARNING


New Yorkers should test COVID to 692-692 to get regular updates on the latest developments regarding COVID-19; Text COVIDESP to 692-692 for updates in Spanish

  Mayor Bill de Blasio announced new updates on the City’s response to COVID-19. The City will move towards a remote learning model for all school days until Spring Recess. Students will not report to school buildings for instruction until Monday April 20, 2020 or longer if necessary.

“As we learn more about COVID-19 every day, we are keeping every possible option on the table to keep New Yorkers safe. That’s why we are asking the people of our City to make hard choices as we introduce more restrictive measures to create greater social distancing—including the temporary closure of our school buildings.  We all need to change our lives—in ways both big and small—to keep each other safe,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“The health and safety of our students and families remains our top priority, and we are committed to providing instructional opportunities for all of our students,” said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. “We know that millions of New Yorkers depend on our schools for education, but also so much more, and we will be supporting each of them during this time. We have the best students and most dedicated staff in the world—and nothing will change that.”

There are now 329 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New York City and 5 fatalities.

Update on City Schools
Effective tomorrow, March 16, New York City schools will close. Starting March 23, the City will move towards a new Remote Learning Model for all school days until Spring Recess. Students will not report to school buildings for instruction during this time. School buildings are scheduled to reopen to students following Spring Recess on Monday, April 20, 2020. Grab-and-go meals will be available for students throughout the entirety of the closure.

The schedule for this week is as follows: 

Monday, March 16: Citywide closure. Students, teachers, and principals do not report.  

Tuesday, March 17- Thursday, March 19: Teachers and principals participate in professional development on remote learning. 

Thursday, March 19-Friday, March 20: Students who need it will be able to begin process of picking up the technology necessary for remote learning. Additional guidance for families will be sent this week.  

Monday, March 23: Remote learning launches, with additional guidance provided throughout the week of the 23rd. 
  
NYCDOE-specific instructional resources in English for students in grades Pre-K through 12 are currently available online at schools.nyc.gov/learnathome. More information about remote learning, meals, and other core services will be made available for families at schools.nyc.gov.

To help all students adjust to remote learning environments, Apple and T-Mobile will ensure that in the coming weeks, 300,000 New York City public school students who don’t currently have an internet-connected device will have one for their schoolwork, beginning with 25,000 iPads that will be distributed next week

To keep healthcare providers unaffected, the Mayor is calling upon New Yorkers to watch the children of their neighbors, friends, and members of the community who work in the healthcare sector.  

Update on Senior Centers
The Mayor is instructing all programs run by Department for the Aging to close and cancel all congregate meal, recreational, and educational services and activities, effective immediately. Senior centers will operate strictly to deliver food to seniors, either as take-home meals or meals delivered to homes. Centers are advised to create a phone bank to call the center’s participants to ensure they are well and to help avoid social isolation.

New Guidance for Businesses
Members of FDNY, the New York City’s Sheriff Office, and the Department of Buildings will actively inspect businesses and issue fines to those who do not comply with the City’s new restrictions and guidance on Sunday and Monday evening of this week. The guidance, issued Friday, requires businesses with an occupancy of 500 persons or less to maintain an occupancy level at or below 50%. 

Department of Correction
To reduce exposure for COVID-19, DOC will suspend in-person visitation beginning Wednesday, March 18. The City is also taking additional measures to help detainees stay in contact with their families and communities, including increased access to phones and postage stamps. For the first time, the City is also working to implement a televisit initiative that will allow people contacting detainees the convenience of using their own personal PC or mobile device to complete the teleconference.‎ 

New Guidance for Health Providers
To minimize possible exposures to healthcare workers, vulnerable patients and reduce the demand for personal protective equipment, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will advise patients with mild to moderate illnesses to stay home. DOHMH strongly recommends against testing these persons who can be safely managed at home, unless a diagnosis may impact patient management.    

Healthcare facilities should also now plan for enhanced surge capacity. Per CDC & WHO guidance, patients can now be managed with droplet precautions along with gown, gloves, and eye protection.  This means that patients can be evaluated in a private examination room with the door closed.

Additionally, DOHMH recommends healthcare workers do not need to use a fit tested N95 respirator or Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) for routine (non-aerosol generating) care of a COVID-19 patient.

New Guidance for HRA Centers
HRA benefit applications for food and utilities, as well as other forms of emergency assistance, are currently available online. Pending State approval, HRA will not take any adverse action on cases where clients are unable to keep their appointments.

Over 337,000 New Yorkers have signed up for the City’s COVID text notification system. To get regular updates on the latest developments with coronavirus in New York City text COVID to 692-692.  New Yorkers can text COVIDESP to 692-692 for updates in Spanish. You will receive regular SMS texts with the latest news and developments. If you have any questions on finding medical care call 311.

Sunday, March 15, 2020

MAYOR DE BLASIO ON COVID-19 March 15, 2020


  Mayor Bill de Blasio: Let's get our team in in here. Okay. So, everyone knows on Thursday, I declared a state of emergency in New York City. At the time, I said this situation was going to get more difficult. It is quite clear – thank you – it is quite clear that this crisis is growing intensely. I spent much of the day with our public health team going over a variety of projections, going over information from the experiences of other parts of the world and details of what we've seen here in New York City. I am very, very concerned that we see a rapid spread of this disease and it is time to take more dramatic measures and I will tell you that the issue that's been on everyone's mind is our public schools. I was a public-school parent for the entire education of my children, pre-K through 12th grade for both of them. I know just how much our parents depend on our public schools. I know right now there are so many parents who do not necessarily have any other place for their children. There are so many parents who depend on our schools for meals for their children. There's so many public servants we depend on, our first responders, transit workers, health care workers who need their kids to be in school. So, for everyone who is wondering why this has been such a difficult decision, it’s because I know the full cost of shutting our schools, I know all of the negative ramifications of this decision and it's very painful. It's going to be very difficult for a lot of families.

And so, this is a decision that I have taken with no joy whatsoever, with a lot of pain, honestly, because it's something I could not in a million years have imagined having to do. But we are dealing with a challenge and a crisis that we have never seen in our lifetimes and is only just begun. So, I regret to have to announce that as of tomorrow, our public schools will be closed. In other words, to all parents who are hearing this now, there was no school tomorrow and we will be suspending our public schools until after the spring vacation. And I'm going to say this very precisely. We will make a first attempt to restart our schools on Monday, April 20th but I have to be honest that we're dealing with a lot of unknowns and a lot of challenges and we understand how difficult it will be to achieve that goal. But just so everyone has something to organize their thinking around. Our first attempt to reopen the public schools would be on Monday, April 20th. I have been very honest about the fact that there is a real possibility that by closing our schools now we may not have the opportunity to reopen them in this full school year. So, we may actually have to go out for the whole school year, which is just extraordinarily painful for our kids, for our parents, for our educators, for so many people. And the notion of a school year being disrupted in this fashion, I have no words for how horrible it is, but it has become necessary.

You're going to hear from the Chancellor in a moment and we're going to talk about the things we're going to do immediately to compensate for the loss of our public schools. And we will put a number of measures in place and we hope that they are effective and they help, but they will not by any stretch replace the full value of having our kids in school all day, and that’s just an honest statement.

The challenge, and I've said this as recently as this morning and again – I believe the facts unfortunately have given us no other choice, but there's three things that we have been trying to protect. Most importantly, our public health system, our hospital system, our clinics, everywhere that people go for health care and two things that feed that system, our public transit system and of course our schools. Now that we will not have our normal school schedule, kids in our normal school buildings, we are going to come up with a number of alternatives to try to as much as possible, still provide our kids with an education remotely and to provide a physical location for the children of those crucial public workers, those health care workers, transit workers, first responders. Those locations will be in various places around the five boroughs. We hope between the remote learning and the specialized sites for the children of essential workers that we can keep enough going to support our health care system, but it will not be easy. So starting tomorrow morning, again, as of now, school is canceled for tomorrow, canceled to at minimum Monday, April 20th, at maximum the entire 2019-2020 school year.

Remote learning will begin on Monday, March 23rd a week from tomorrow. Our colleagues in the Department of Education have in these last weeks been setting up a remote learning system. It has never been attempted by the City of New York on this scale to say the least, but they have been working on a wartime footing to prepare it. It will be up and running for children in grades K to 12 Monday, March 23rd, in a week. It is a system that will improve with each week and we'll certainly take time to make it as strong as it could be and needs to be. But it will begin and we'll be effective starting Monday, March 23rd. Over the next few days, teachers will be trained how to teach remotely. Again, this is going to be a kind of battlefield training. These are not ideal conditions. We're going to have to teach these teachers very quickly. And this is a point where I can say to all our educators, we need you. We need you. These children need you. These families need you. For so many of our educators, there'll be an opportunity to take the tools of your profession and use them in a new way to reach a lot of kids who are going to be dealing with really, really tough circumstances. Keep their education going, help those seniors to still graduate. We don't want to lose that.

For those teachers who will be a part of our learning centers for the children of essential workers, your work will not only be crucial in terms of supporting our children and their education. You will literally be in a position to help form the backbone of the system we need to keep our health care workers at their post. We cannot lose our health care workers; we cannot lose our health care facilities. So we need to make sure those children are taken care of so our health care workers feel the ability to be where we need them most. And we're going to be asking a lot of everyone in the health care field, long hours, tough conditions. So supporting their children becomes absolutely crucial.

Over the next five days, our school locations will be open for one function specifically related to kids, which will be grab-and-go meals on a transitional basis. So that is only for this coming week. At least it'll give some ability for families that need it to have that assurance. But again, these are not for kids to stay in the building, not to eat the meals in the building, to come to the building, get the meals, and take them home for any kids who need them. We're going to be doing a lot of work in the coming days on how to make sure food is readily available for kids at various locations around the city and in the days and weeks going forward. But we have more work to do on that front.

We will be working to supply technology for every child that needs it. This is, again the Chancellor's been very honest about this, an imperfect situation. We have a lot of kids of course who did not have a computer at home, a lot of kids who don't have connectivity. We're going to do our best to supply as much as we can to help those kids.

So, I'm going to give you some other updates and then we'll turn to the Chancellor, but to say the least, this is a very troubling moment. A moment where I am just distraught having to take this action. But I became convinced over the course of today there was no other choice. And now I'll tell you the overall numbers of cases and I think it makes part of the argument clearer.

Number of cases is obviously moving rapidly. Confirmed cases at this hour and that could change literally in a matter of hours, from New York City, we now have a number of confirmed cases for coronavirus of 329. And I'll remind you when we started this week with several dozen cases, we're now at 329.

A borough breakdown from numbers earlier in the day. They will not add up to 329 but it'll give you a flavor of the breakdown. 78 cases in Queens, 72 cases in Manhattan, 53 cases in Brooklyn, 21 cases in the Bronx and 16 cases in Staten Island. Yes, indeed. 78 cases in Queens, 72 cases in Manhattan, 53 cases in Brooklyn, 21 cases in the Bronx, 16 cases in Staten Island – that is ever changing. One of the worst things I have to tell you now is we are now at five total deaths in New York City. Again, it's recently as Friday afternoon. There were none. It's now five. You all know about the 82-year-old woman from Brooklyn who suffered from emphysema then was hospitalized related to coronavirus. We lost her. Now four more deaths reported related to coronavirus, a 79-year-old woman who did have preexisting conditions of heart failure and lung disease, a 78-year-old man who had multiple preexisting conditions, a 56-year-old man who had diabetes and a 53-year-old woman who had diabetes and heart disease. We feel horrible for these families. We grieve with them, they're in our thoughts and prayers and it is a reminder to everyone of how vulnerable that part of our population is that is older and has those preexisting conditions, we must protect them. Another reminder, anyone in your life who meets that standard, we have to isolate them from anyone who might be sick, even if it's their loved ones.

A number of other specific actions. I will tomorrow sign an executive order requiring all hospitals in New York City to cancel elective surgery in the coming days. This is one of the powers that exists under the state of emergency. We will work to word this specifically to allow the flexibility because some hospitals can continue over a period of a few days to close out some existing elective surgeries. Not all of them have to go to zero instantly, but they will all have to go to zero on elective surgeries soon. So that will be codified as an executive order and that will be a requirement of all hospitals. Obviously, our public health system is ready to do that immediately. We see several of our voluntary hospitals have started down that path, but everyone needs to do it is, it's absolutely that time. And even if a hospital at this moment does not have a demand related to coronavirus that requires in their eyes the cancellation of elective surgeries, that day is coming very, very soon. And we just have to make this a standard across the board.

We are canceling the special election for Queens Borough President that was scheduled for March 24th. Details will be provided soon on potential options for holding that election later. And other ways we might be able to approach that election. But we did not have those details yet. But there's been a lot of concern raised about the election day and the, all of the experiences, particularly the poll workers would have to have to make this work. And as we have seen more and more challenges, you know, this is another one is very painful, honestly, in a democratic society, the canceling of an election is such a rarity. It should be avoided at all costs. But in this case with the nature of this crisis, I've come to the decision that it's necessary.

We will be closing our senior centers, ending all programming there with the exception of activities related to food. We will turn them into feeding centers, again, focused on grab-and-go, meaning pickup of meals for those seniors for whom that works. They'll all primarily be locations for preparing and delivering meals to seniors’ homes. So instead of being a place for seniors to go to eat meals in the senior center, they'll become a dispensary to get quality meals out to seniors, whether it's by delivery or by pickup, but we will no longer have any programming in our senior centers.

Tonight, in all five boroughs. The FDNY, the New York City Sheriff's Office and the Department of Business will be cracking down on businesses that are not abiding by the 50% occupancy rule. In the first day there was warnings given, there was an attempt to educate, but now given the nature of the crisis, it's time for violations to be written. Those violations come with penalties and we are asking all businesses and that obviously largely means restaurants, bars, all businesses that have a number of people coming in and can become crowded. We can't afford those crowded spaces anymore. So, stay to the 50 percent level or you will be penalized. If you cannot make your business viable at the 50 percent level, we understand. We wish there was something we could do otherwise. And any business that feels they have to close the result, we understand that, we are not any more happy than you are. We'll try and be helpful in any way we can, but we cannot have bars and restaurants at over 50 percent capacity.

I will also say we are going to take a look at even going farther related to bars and restaurants. We have not made that decision yet. There've been a series of meetings today at City Hall and OEM. There's going to be more meetings this evening on additional topics, so in terms of the future of bars and restaurants, that is an ongoing discussion that will continue this evening.

There's also a discussion that will be solidified this evening on programs related to young people. I want to say very frankly, at the same time we are closing schools, I am tremendously concerned about what's going to happen with young people out in our communities without enough positive options, particularly teenagers, but we cannot have large congregations of young people in small spaces. One of the things we're going to be looking at is as the weather's getting warmer, can we convert some programming to outside? Is that an option that would allow us to continue some youth programming? That's something we're going to try and determine this evening.

Just finishing a few points and then to the Chancellor. The federal government – some progress, I don't want to say a little, there's been some real progress over the last few days. It’s nowhere near what we need. We still need more FDA approval for more companies to do the automated testing. We still need the Senate to pass the stimulus and then we'll need additional stimulus thereafter. Although there's been serious progress last few days on support for working people and a safety net as a strong beginning, but it's nowhere near what people are going to need for a crisis of this magnitude. So, we have to see more.

I am particularly concerned about medical supplies and all supplies needed in this city, but particularly medical supplies: ventilators, masks, face guard, sanitizer, everything that not only are we going to need in huge quantities, but Washington State will need, California will need, every part of this country that experiences this crisis right now. We've asked repeatedly and have no indication for the federal government that there has been an effort to in-effect nationalize the production process, meaning to ensure that these companies and factories that produce these goods are on a 24/7 basis until this crisis is over and that the goods are being distributed where they're needed most. This is a wartime approach. It is well known in the history of the country. We have not seen any efforts so far by the federal government in a meaningful way to do it and meanwhile this crisis is bearing down on us. We must have a consistent supply of these particularly crucial goods and we cannot guarantee that at this moment.

I'm going to emphasize something that Dr. Barbot said and in the Q-and- A, I'm sure she'll get into it further. In light of the growing number of cases, amending the guidance for the vast majority of people and Dr. Barbot can get into any exceptions or specifics, but for people who get sick with those symptoms, those what we would think were normally the seasonal kind of cold and flu-like symptoms: stay home, do not go to work. If your child is sick, do not send your child to any kind of program. Stay home. We're saying now three or four days is the timeframe to see the direction of the disease. If you're getting better, great. If you're not getting better at that point, then that's the time to call the doctor and discuss next steps. But remember, we are now going to be in a situation where our health care system is going to be increasingly stressed. We need people to recognize who will be the priority. Obviously, we've already said it, the folks who are in most danger, we have to protect first. Folks who may not be in any danger at all, we're going to ask them to wait and then if they need to get care, that makes sense, but first to wait and see it develop.

Before just a couple of words in Spanish and the Chancellor, look, I'll conclude with this. We've never been through anything like this. We're all trying to make sense of it. I've talked to so many New Yorkers. Everyone is confused. Everyone is in pain. Everyone feels like we're dealing with the great unknown because we are dealing with a great unknown. The only way we get through it is by supporting each other. The only way we get through it is by people actually following through on the information they're receiving and then backing each other up, supporting each other, looking out for each other. There's no other way. We got to take this more and more seriously with every passing day. It's tough. It's tough to get out of the patterns that we've lived our whole lives in, but something's changed and it's not going back. So I ask you, all New Yorkers, there's no place on earth where people are stronger, tougher, more resilient, and more compassionate. There is no place on earth better than New York City. We're going to need to show that right now. Everyone, step up. Look out for the people in your life because they're going to need you. 

With that, one person I want to speak now is our Schools Chancellor, and then we'll open up to questions. Chancellor Richard Carranza –

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is a very sobering day for all of us and as the Mayor has been very clear from day-one, as circumstances continue to evolve, so does this city's response to the COVID-19 situation. And the situation continues to evolve. We've been monitoring this closely day by day, hour by hour, some cases minute by minute. And this weekend as the Mayor has announced, we've taken the sobering look at what is happening in our city, the rise in cases across the city and quite frankly, the sustainability of continuing public education in our school buildings for the time being in the way that we have educated children for years. So, the Mayor and I had been clear that any changes to the current model would be an extreme measure and a decision we considered the last resort. We are at the last resort.

So as a Mayor has announced effective tomorrow, school will not be in session in the traditional way that we've become accustomed to. Students come to school, parents drop students off, teachers, administrators, custodial staff, everybody comes to school. We want you to think of tomorrow as a snow day. So, everybody stays back. Our, and I want to thank Henry Garrido and his union members because our food and nutrition workers are going to come to their schools and they will be available to distribute in a grab-and-go methodology, breakfast and lunch for our students. So, for this next week you can go to your school, you won't go in, but you can grab food if you need the food.

So, on Monday, all school-based personnel will stay home. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we are asking our principals and our teachers to come to school. We will practice social distancing, of course, but it's going to be critical because we are going to be distributing, training, giving guidance on what the remote learning will look like over the next four weeks. What will be critical as well is that resources that teachers have, there'll be an opportunity for teachers to upload those resources as well. So, it's going to be important that for the next three days our teachers and principals are in school buildings. Students will not be in our school buildings. And then Friday will be another day of training for those who need it, virtually. As the Mayor has announced, on Monday the 23rd, we will launch into remote learning across the city. We feel confident that students will be able to continue to engage academically. It belies any logic to say it will be the same thing as a student in a classroom with the teacher.

But I have tremendous, tremendous faith in the teachers of New York City and the administrators of New York City, and I know that if there's any school system that can launch into remote learning on a moment's notice like we're about to do, it is the New York City Department of Education. I'm going to ask all parents, if you have not yet done so, please sign up for the New York City Schools Account. This is going to be critically important as we push information out, but also important for you to get resources to be able to support your students remote learning needs. We are pushing through all of our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera, and I will be amplifying that, the exact way of signing up for a New York Schools Account. It's not difficult but it's going to be critical. Additional guidance on what this will look like, all of the details, and the who, and the what, and the where, will be forthcoming over the course of this this week and in the coming weeks as well.

Also, on March 23rd, we will be opening several dozen regional enrichment centers across the city, in all of our boroughs, to serve the children of our city's first responders, including health care workers and to serve our most vulnerable student populations. That Monday we will also launch remote learning for grades K-12 and those resources if you want to preview, are available on our school – on our website as we speak. I also want to be clear about a few things and amplify what the Mayor has said. Breakfast and lunch will be available for any student who wants it. Starting tomorrow through April 8th, the first day of spring recess. We will also be in close communication regarding technology pickup locations for regional enrichment centers in the coming days. As I have mentioned in response to questions, we understand that there are students that may not have devices. We understand that there are students and families that may not have Wi-Fi connection at home. We are working with a number of partners. We estimate about 300,000 of our students are in need of devices. We have partners that has stepped up. The City of New York has stepped up and we believe we can actually get devices into the hands of our students who need them. We're going to also prioritize our students living in temporary housing, our students that are living in poverty, and students that do not have access to those resources.

As a Mayor has mentioned, this has been a very sobering 48 hours for both of us. We believe in strongly believe the best place for a child is in a school house with a well-trained, caring teacher. We know that our teachers believe their place is in a school house caring for their children. And as a teacher, I can tell you my kids were my kids. We're going to ask teachers to continue with that philosophy. They're still your students. You're just going to be helping them a little remotely now, we want to share families also that we're working to make this as a seamless of a transition as possible. We're not lowering our expectations. We're just changing the delivery of instruction. And we know that with our dedicated, and I would say passionate staff, our school staff, our teachers, custodians, administrators, and especially our school food workers who are going to continue to work during this time. We know that we will be serving our 1.1 million students. This is a time as the Mayor has said for us to be together as New Yorkers. Not physically, but philosophically. For sure.

New York City Council Suspends Hearings, Closes Offices As a Precaution Due to COVID-19


This came to us from City Council member Farah N. Lewis

THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
OFFICE OF COUNCIL MEMBER
Farah N. Louis

 Council Member Farah N. Louis (D-Brooklyn) issued the following statement after the New York City Council implemented preventative measures due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), suspending all legislative activities, closing its offices at 250 Broadway and throughout the five boroughs.

STATEMENT BY COUNCIL MEMBER LOUIS


“As a precautionary measure, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the New York City Council has suspended all hearings, stated meetings and events until further notice. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to issue an order instructing Council staff not to report to offices at City Hall, 250 Broadway, or individual districts throughout the five boroughs. 

Although our offices will be closed, our team will continue to provide Constituent Services by phone at (718) 629-2900 and via email at District45@Council.nyc.govMonday through Friday from 9:00AM to 5:00PM. 

We will share additional updates on these adjustments as soon as possible via email, website, and social media (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) pages listed as @cmfarahlouis. To subscribe to our listserv, text 'CMFARAHLOUIS' to 22828.”

EDITOR' NOTE:

If you look carefully this came from a city council member from Brooklyn, and not one of the many Bronx city council members. We can only guess that like their fellow Bronx elected officials in state government, our Bronx city council members closed up shop last week. 

Petitioning Ends March 17th - Executive Order from King Cuomo



  We caught up with Egidio Sementilli on Friday as he and a woman were collecting signatures for candidates in the 82nd Assembly District. In passing the woman, she asked if I would like to sign her petition. There already was a man signing on a page where one could not see the candidates. After he finished, the woman flipped a few pages saying and can you sign this page also. As I was about to ask who are the candidates you are collecting signatures for, Mr. Sementelli yelled from a distance "don't let him see anything". As I turned to get a photo of Mr. Sementilli he was very unprofessional as you can see from the photo above. I would not want to have been any of the candidates he was getting signatures for, and when Mr. Sementelli has to hand in his petitions on March 17th we will look at them to see just who Mr. Sementelli was collecting for and send each candidate this photo. 

As to why all candidates this year have to end collecting signatures on March 17th and not the original dates of March 30th through April 2nd is due to the COVID-19. Governor Cuomo gave an Executive Order due to the State of Emergency from the outbreak of COVID-19. He also lowered the number of signatures required to thirty percent of the normal number of signatures required. If there were any candidates who were waiting for the last few weeks to gear up their petition signing they are out of time and luck. The timing to file General Objections, Specifications of General Objection, and court proceedings will also have to be altered. The hearings at the Board of Elections at the Manhattan headquarters could also be in jeopardy due ti the COVID-19. 

On Saturday we caught up with 78th A.D. State Committeeman Oswald Felix, who was collecting signatures on Kingsbridge Road. Mr. Felix also had his petition pages not showing the candidates and he was not identifying all the candidates on the petition. I was not able to get a photo of all the names on the petition since they were hidden from view even when people were signing the petition pages. Mr. Felix and I were very cordial to each other since it was Mr. Felix who was the go between with Congressman Adriano Espaillat and a candidate for Judicial Delegate in the 80th A.D. which Congressman Espaillat said he would endorse even after being told that said candidate was not on the County Petition but an opposing petition. Mr. Felix is in damage control as it is thought that Congressman Espaillat endorsed the entire opposing petition rather than just one person running for a Judicial Delegate seat who is an old friend of the congressman. There are two other very reliable sources that back up said Judicial candidate in his statement of Congressman Espaillat's endorsement.


Mr. Oswald Felix collecting signatures on Kingsbridge Road for over twenty candidates who are hidden from view, but include Congressman Adriano Espaillat and Assemblyman Jose Rivera. Mr. Felix was suppose to run for the assembly seat against Assemblyman Jose Rivera, but it is rumored that Jose cut a deal with Congressman Espaillat giving Mr. Felix future considerations. Ms. Shanequa Charles is running against Assemblyman Rivera this year, and Mr. Felix is hoping she does not win.