ManhattanTimes

09/30/2021

New vax sites for children to open

120 new pop-up vaccination sites across New York State will be opened over a 12-week-period under the campaign, a coordinated effort to increase vaccination rates among school-aged children.

In the coming weeks, the State Department of Health will work with localities, community-based organizations and healthcare centers on-the-ground to establish the sites in all regions of the state. As announced by Governor Kathy Hochul, each region will be hosting two new events per week, with partners, host sites and outreach efforts tailored to best meet the needs of the communities they are built to serve, Hochul said.

“With these pop-up vaccinations sites, we are ramping up our campaign on the road and going into communities where vaccination rates are still lagging among young New Yorkers, so we can reach as many families as possible and make our schools safer for students and staff,” Hochul said.

A community-based medical professional will be available at each site to answer any questions parents and guardians of school-aged New Yorkers may have. Alongside the new sites, mobile vaccine buses will be launched in public recreational spaces like basketball courts and parks.

"Con estos sitios emergentes de vacunación, estamos intensificando nuestra campaña en el camino y entrando en comunidades donde las tasas de vacunación aún están rezagadas entre los jóvenes neoyorquinos, para que podamos llegar a tantas familias como sea posible y hacer que nuestr...

09/30/2021

Managing Microaggressions

The Covid-19 pandemic has been disproportionately damaging to many communities, but the Latinx and Hispanic communities have been hit particularly hard, not just physically but emotionally.

With roughly 27.7% of Covid cases in the U.S. occurring in Hispanic/Latino patients and 18% of Covid-related deaths, the mental health impacts of the pandemic on the Latinx community are striking.

“Right now, our psychological clinics are inundated with people seeking help and needing psychological support because they have been isolated and have experienced loss in numerous forms: loss of friends and family, loss of jobs, loss of structure, loss of the life that they once knew and had,” says Dr. Yessenia Mejía, a clinical psychologist in the Pediatric Psychiatry Department at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital.

On top of this, they continue to face the unconscious bias that is often directed at the community in the form of microaggressions — subtle, indirect, or often unintentional acts of discrimination against members of marginalized groups such as the Black community, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and those who identify as LGBTQ+.

When someone is confronted with a microaggression, whether it’s subtle, systemic, verbal, or nonverbal, essentially what they’re hearing is that they don’t belong. That something about them based on their race, gender, class, or immigration status is not accepted or “wrong.”...

09/30/2021

Keen on Quinoa

Keeping healthy means keeping heart-healthy foods – like quinoa – at the center of your diet.

Quinoa (pronounced “keen-wah”) is a type of edible seed that comes in various colors including black, red, yellow, and white. The plant has been cultivated for about 5000 years and is indigenous to the Andean region of South America, specifically Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru.

There are more than 120 known varieties of quinoa. White and yellow quinoa have the mildest flavor, so they are good varieties to try first. Red and black quinoa have slightly stronger, earthier flavors and tend to hold their shape better than lighter colored quinoa.

Though technically a seed, quinoa is classified as a whole grain.

The plant has been cultivated for about 5000 years and is indigenous to the Andean region of South America, specifically Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru.

09/30/2021

Off Track

It’s a bad trip ahead.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) may have weathered financial disaster instigated by the Covid-pandemic but still faces significant fiscal challenges in the coming years, according to a new report by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

Released on September 28, DiNapoli’s annual report on the MTA’s finances details how a combination of higher spending, winding down of federal aid, lower ridership levels, extreme weather, potential service reductions and other factors will create escalating challenges with limited time for the agency to solve them.

“The MTA is the engine that drives New York City’s economy and it is running on borrowed time,” DiNapoli said. “It has so far survived the worst crisis in its history by covering budgets with massive federal aid. The MTA and its funding partners face tough choices on challenges that can turn into emergencies if not dealt with promptly.”

The agency plans to close significant budget gaps ($4.8 billion in 2021, $2.9 billion in 2022, $2.5 billion in 2023, $2.8 billion in 2024 and $3.3 billion in 2025) predominantly through the use of $10.5 billion in one-shot federal assistance, the report said.

The MTA faces enormous budget shortfalls that could harm the regional economy with no easy solutions...

09/30/2021

Science of Fall Colors

The timing of color changes and the onset of falling leaves is primarily regulated by the calendar as nights become longer. None of the other environmental influences – such as temperature, rainfall, food supply – are as unvarying as the steadily increasing length of night during autumn. As days grow shorter, and nights grow longer and cooler, biochemical processes in the leaf begin to paint the landscape with Nature’s autumn palette.

Durante años, los científicos han trabajado para comprender los cambios que ocurren en árboles y arbustos durante el otoño. Aunque no conocemos todos los detalles...

09/30/2021

Rezoning takes root
Uptown residents witnessed a jolting sight in May, as the former Inwood Library building was demolished.

After a giant excavator pounded the building’s facade into rubble, it became abundantly clear that the rezoning of Inwood was at last moving forward.

The Inwood branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL), which stood at 4790 Broadway since 1952, was razed to make way for a new 14-story building that will include a modernized NYPL branch, 175 units of affordable housing and other amenities.

Nicknamed The Eliza in honor of Eliza Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s wife, the project will also host a 6,800-square-foot Pre-K facility operated by the Department of Education, a 10,000-square-foot activity and training center managed by The Community League of the Heights (CLOTH) and Children’s Village, and a STEM lab run by First Robotics.

The project is currently in the early stages of construction, as excavation is now underway following the demolition of the site, which also included a former car wash.

“It feels wonderful to be moving forward,” said CLOTH Executive Director Yvonne Stennett, speaking outside the construction site on a recent weekday. “It’s exciting for us and all of the entities involved.”

La sucursal de Inwood de la Biblioteca Pública de Nueva York (NYPL, por sus siglas en inglés), que se encontraba en el No. 4790 de Broadway desde 1952, fue demolida para dar paso a un nuevo edificio de 14 pisos…

09/30/2021

Changes in school testing and quarantine protocols

New York City will update its Covid-19 testing and quarantine protocol for public schools, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced.
Weekly random testing of students and staff will now be conducted.

“We will increase random Covid-19 testing in all K-12 schools from biweekly to weekly,” explained de Blasio.

Also, unvaccinated students will no longer be required to isolate at home if another child in their classroom tests positive for Covid-19.

“When there is a positive test in a classroom, the unvaccinated students in that classroom will not have to quarantine if they are masked and three feet distant. That will allow more kids to safely remain in the classroom,” said de Blasio.

The changes will take effect on September 27.

Under the previous policy, unvaccinated students were required to quarantine for 10 days if a classmate tested positive. Additionally, the Department of Education (DOE) was required to randomly test 10 percent of a school’s unvaccinated population every other week, rather than every week.

De Blasio cited data from the first week of public school classes as motivation for the change.

New York City will update its Covid-19 testing and quarantine protocol for public schools, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced...

09/30/2021

Expanding the municipal right to vote

This is no favor.

Immigrant allies who have called for the immediate passage of legislation that would allow legal permanent residents to vote in New York City elections, are making it clear: this is not a courtesy.

“This is about no taxation without representation,” said City Councilmember Ydanis Rodríguez, the bill’s lead sponsor. “This is not about granting a favor to immigrants by allowing them to vote. If they pay their taxes, they should have a right to elect their local leaders.”

The bill was introduced in January 2020 by Rodríguez, who joined a rally outside City Hall on Mon., Sept. 20th calling for the bill’s passage.

“Let’s be clear — all of us are immigrants,” he remarked.

The City Council bill, known as Intro 1867, would let green card holders or those authorized to work in the U.S. have a say in selecting the next mayor, City Councilmembers, Public Advocate and other municipal offices.

Advocates pointed out that noncitizens in certain municipalities of Maryland and Vermont have already been given the right to vote in municipal elections.

Immigrant allies who have called for the immediate passage of legislation that would allow legal permanent residents to vote in New York City elections, are making it clear: this is not a courtesy…

09/28/2021

Advocates call for an end to predatory court fees

From feudal times through the mid-19th century, debtors’ prisons were a common resort.

A sentence was meted out to those unable to pay court-ordered fees or fines, and individuals too destitute to pay were frequently imprisoned until their debts were settled either through forced labor or outside resources.

During the Middle Ages, courts throughout Western Europe regularly ordered men and women, and sometimes entire families, to debtors’ prisons to seek repayment.

But some advocates say that, far from a relic of the past, debtors’ prisons, thanks to predatory court fees and policies, are essentially a current and functioning component of New York’s criminal justice system.
Marvin Mayfield, an organizer with the non-profit group Center for Community Alternatives (CCA), rallied at Foley Square in Manhattan on September 20.

Mayfield, who was joined by other advocates, called court fees related to New York State’s criminal justice system “a regressive revenue source that traps millions of low-income residents in a vicious cycle of debt and punishment.”

Read more at www.ManhattanTimesNews.com or click link in bio...

09/28/2021

New vax sites for children to open

120 new pop-up vaccination sites across New York State will be opened over a 12-week-period under the campaign, a coordinated effort to increase vaccination rates among school-aged children.

In the coming weeks, the State Department of Health will work with localities, community-based organizations and healthcare centers on-the-ground to establish the sites in all regions of the state. As announced by Governor Kathy Hochul, each region will be hosting two new events per week, with partners, host sites and outreach efforts tailored to best meet the needs of the communities they are built to serve, Hochul said.

“With these pop-up vaccinations sites, we are ramping up our campaign on the road and going into communities where vaccination rates are still lagging among young New Yorkers, so we can reach as many families as possible and make our schools safer for students and staff,” Hochul said.

A community-based medical professional will be available at each site to answer any questions parents and guardians of school-aged New Yorkers may have. Alongside the new sites, mobile vaccine buses will be launched in public recreational spaces like basketball courts and parks.

Read more at www.ManhattanTimesNews.com or click link in bio...

09/28/2021

Immigration measures imperiled by Senate decision

The Senate Parliamentarian, an unelected advisor to the U.S. Senate, has ruled that immigration provisions included in the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package cannot be put forth.

Democratic Senators had earmarked $107 billion to provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, farm workers and immigrant essential workers.
However, in a memo to Senators on September 19, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that the immigration elements could not be included in the budget reconciliation process, a procedure that is used to pass budget bills with a simple majority of senators rather than the typical 60-vote requirement.
Historically, provisions included in the reconciliation process need to have a direct impact on the U.S. budget. MacDonough stated that the proposed immigration spending would far surpass any budget impact by creating “a broad, new immigration policy.”

Read more at www.ManhattanTimesNews.com or click link in bio...

09/23/2021

Debunking Breastfeeding

As an obstetric nurse, Mary Lou Mulholland sees a lot of new moms worried about breastfeeding.

“I’m not making enough milk, I’m going to starve my baby, and my anatomy isn’t right are common concerns,” says Mulholland, RNC-OB, C-EFM, CLC, a staff nurse and lactation counselor in the postpartum unit at the NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns.

In most cases, these new moms end up breastfeeding successfully after receiving support from the hospital’s nurses and lactation experts.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that breastfeeding continue for at least 12 months, including exclusively for the first six months after birth. After all, breastfeeding is healthy for both baby and mother. For a child, it can lower the risk of asthma, obesity, diabetes, ear and respiratory infections, and sudden infant death syndrome. For the mother, it can reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and ovarian and breast cancers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Mulholland debunks some common myths about breastfeeding.

Siendo enfermera obstétrica, Mary Lou Mulholland ve a muchas nuevas mamás preocupadas por la lactancia. “No estoy produciendo suficiente leche, voy a matar de hambre...