By Cristy Latagan, Assistant Training Coordinator of the Harm Reduction Coalition
On Thursday night I schlepped downtown to attend State of the City 2009, a forum on the current financial state of New York City.
The event was held at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and hosted by the NYU Wagner Policy Alliance and the Urban Planning Student Association.
I was instantly drawn to panelist Frankie Edozien, former award-winning New York Post reporter and co-founder and editor-in-chief of AFRican Magazine. Why? Because he was the only person of color on the panel. As other knowledgeable panelists used over-your (my)-head and confusing financial jargon, Edozien brought a sense of President Obama-like realism to the forum. He reiterated the fact that with Mayor Bloomberg’s budget cut and tax revenue plans, people who already have little will lose the little they have. A somewhat much-discussed topic was the suggested five-cent fee on plastic shopping bags, which Edozien notes, ultimately double-taxes the poor (who already have barriers to healthy food and produce options) for groceries. Going green? Check. Feeding institutionalized racism? Check.
Panelist Charles Brecher, Research Director of the Citizens Budget Commission, jokingly responded with the suggestion of using potato sacks – but this was after he disclosed that he’s lived through about five recessions. Prior to the forum I visited the CBC website and reviewed their letter to the State Legislature, a detailed list of recommendations for New York State’s fiscal year 2009-10 budget.
Recommendation #3 spoke the loudest to me: Right-size prisons, detention facilities, and other institutions. CBC notes: "The Legislature should thoroughly review all the large institutions that the State continues to run to determine which facilities can be closed or consolidated. In the case of prisons, for example, if the Department of Correction’s staff and facilities were reduced to a level commensurate with the 15 percent decline in inmate population, the State would save $280 million annually." This is not to say that I agree with the idea of the lack of funds posing as social and policy reform, but right-sizing (with good reason) is logical. In turn, if HIV/AIDS rates are continuously on the rise, what sense is there in reducing funding to providers who serve affected communities? New York Nonprofit Press notes that the Department of Social Services is slated for a $1.9 million cut that would significantly deplete the number of HIV/AIDS case management staff. More logical right-sizing, please.
Referencing White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, and attempting to bring some form of optimism to the budget ordeal, panelist Doug Turetsky, Communications Director at the Independent Budget Office, stated that these difficult times translate into great opportunities – less dependency on Wall Street and an opportunity to diversify the economy. How?! (You can’t even diversify the panel you’re sitting on, Doug.) Cut this and ditch that - where’s the diversity? Who’s suffering? Don’t say something magical and not elaborate! And if diversifying the economy were to occur, whose definition of "diverse" would be used? Probably not a regular New Yorker's.
So what are the next steps? We wait and see what the higher-ups decide, and for the slew of euphemisms. In the end, I find no actual difference between attrition and being laid-off because a job is still lost and one is still left hopeless.