By Lee Uehara, September 10, 2022
The district’s new schools superintendent, Kamar Samuels, is stopping by UWS playgrounds this month in a grassroots effort to reach out to parents, including those he met at Tecumseh Playground on Saturday, September 10.
“I’m here today at 77th and Amsterdam at a playground to be accessible to all parents,” Samuels said, also explaining why he chose playgrounds as his venue of choice.
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By Arun Venugopal, September 10, 2022
New York City officials are pushing the federal government to make it easier for asylum seekers to work legally in this country, but experts say an enormous backlog in applicants awaiting work permits could complicate that task.
Councilmember Gale Brewer wrote to Ur M. Jaddou, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, urging USCIS to clear the backlog so that asylum applicants can find jobs “as quickly as possible.”
“As of August 25, 2022, New York City has received over 7,300 individuals seeking asylum,” wrote Brewer.
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By Elizabeth Kim, September 9, 2022
A mounting staffing crisis facing New York City, the country’s largest municipal employer, is raising questions about City Hall’s approach to hiring and whether the city is doing enough to compete for workers at a time when many critical agencies are being stretched thin.
Most city workers have blamed the city’s abnormally high attrition and difficulty in hiring on a lack of a remote working or hybrid option.
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By Ari Ephraim Feldman, September 9, 2022
City Council members pushed administration officials in a hearing Friday to think of new and creative ways to increase the speed of hiring and improve pay and flexibility for city workers to help fill more than 24,000 vacant city positions.
The hearing came as the city is facing a hiring crisis, with key city agencies and offices reporting significant staffing shortfalls.
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By Sarah Beling, September 8, 2022
September may be upon us, but based on the many sightings around town it’s still the summer of the spotted lanternfly. As the invasive insects increase their infestation, local organizations and leaders have devised a new, somewhat MacGyver-like strategy for exterminating the bugs without squishing them.
Environmental educational nonprofit NYC H2O and City Council Member Gale Brewer appeared on NY1 Wednesday morning to show New Yorkers how to fashion their own makeshift tree traps that contain the spotted lanternfly until it runs out of food and dies.
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By Yoav Gonen, September 6, 2022
The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had nearly 1,200 unfilled positions in June — making the agency on the pandemic’s frontline one of 46 in city government missing more than 10% of their budgeted employees, according to preliminary figures obtained by THE CITY.
The numbers reflect an ongoing challenge in hiring and retaining government workers, an issue that’s getting scrutiny at a hearing on Friday under City Councilmember Gale Brewer’s Oversight and Investigations Committee, which produced the preliminary numbers.
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by Ed Hersh, September 1, 2022
With complaints about massive piles of garbage, fears about crime and the proliferation of smoke shops, concerns about bicycles on the sidewalk and the impact of congestion pricing on the neighborhood, a steady stream of residents queued up to meet one on one with Council Member Gale Brewer on the west side of Amsterdam Avenue, between 70th and 71st Streets, late Tuesday afternoon.
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August 26, 2022, by Council Member Gale Brewer
Rat vigilantes on the Upper West Side are placing exposed rat poison in the tree beds, endangering children and pets.
Two Upper West Side dogs, Waffles, a one-year-old rescue coon hound mix, and Beti, a six-year-old terrier mix, are the latest victims; upon ingestion, they were rushed to the vet for treatment and have both since made full recoveries.
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August 18, 2022 by Ariama Long
The New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning (NYCCELP) gathered at City Hall last Thursday to demand that officials eliminate lead sources in the city and state that often impact low-income Black, brown, and Asian children.
Lead exposure in childhood can lead to serious, long-term learning difficulties and behavioral problems, said a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) lead report.
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August 18, 2022 by Dave Colon
Time to park this fear in the dustbin of history.
The MTA’s environmental assessment for congestion pricing reveals that a long-held fear — namely that neighborhoods just outside the 60th Street toll boundary will be flooded with suburbanites looking for parking before finishing their commute by subway — just isn’t going to happen.
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