City Council addresses some real life and death issues

rom such visceral matters as abandoned infants and the police killing of Timothy Stansbury, Jr. to the hardboiled economic issues of payday loans and community tax abatements, the City Council covered a lot of important ground in its last meeting.

Tracy Boyland, Chair of the Women's Issues Committee, brought her colleagues’ attention to the recent news coverage of three newborns found abandoned within 24 hours in New York City. She said it is crucial that the council provide information to mothers in distress so they know about the safe havens – hospital emergency rooms and firehouses - in the City where they can take their unharmed infants without being questioned or prosecuted. Their actions will be kept confidential.

Boyland also said that her committee is planning a hearing to look into why these abandonments occur, what can be done to keep babies safe and how they can protect overwhelmed parents from making what could be a deadly mistake.

From stressed-out mothers abandoning their infants, the discussion moved to the horrifying and tragic subject of mothers whose children are torn from them in death at the hands of police officers. Council Member Larry Seabrook spoke of the killing of Timothy Stansbury, Jr., an unarmed 19-year-old African American who was doing nothing wrong when he was shot by a white police officer. Seabrook said it is the council’s duty as elected officials to call upon Police Commissioner Kelly to explain why he felt that this shooting was unjustified and to discuss many issues about the practices and procedures of his department.

Deputy Majority Bill Perkins urged support for a resolution that Council Member Charles Barron and he are sponsoring which calls for a federal civil rights investigation into the policing tactics that led to this killing. The resolution also calls upon the New York Police Department to change its policy of allowing officers to patrol public housing staircases and rooftops with their firearms drawn. "Hopefully this will be the beginning of a more comprehensive look at why this pattern of unjustified killings continues in terms of tactics," Perkins commented. "But perhaps even more importantly, it will be a look into what is it in terms of the culture in this department that seems to result in these types of tragedy."

Another violation of people’s rights in a very different field was brought up by Majority Whip Leroy Comrie. He pointed to three pieces of legislation that several colleagues and he have introduced which aim at eliminating what are known as "payday loans" in New York City. These high interest, high risk loans are a form of predatory lending. Short-term loans ranging from $100 to $400 are made to unsuspecting consumers who don’t know that it carries interest rates in excess of 900%. "These legal loan sharks require no credit reports, making it all the more enticing to a consumer who may be living paycheck to paycheck, but needs just a little extra to get by," explained Comrie. "These practices are abusive and must be stopped!"

In the meeting, Council Member Diana Reyna also encouraged her colleagues to support a resolution to help get a bill passed in Albany to issue a community tax credit intended to preserve about 10,000 units of affordable housing not protected by rent regulations.

Reyna explained that owners of small and unregulated buildings face rising costs because of higher assessed values and tax rates on their property as the neighborhoods they are located in become gentrified. These rising costs make it just about impossible for them to hold the line on rents. This tax credit solves this problem by giving owners of one- to five-unit buildings who rent to tenants at below market rates a property tax abatement of up to 60% of the difference between the affordable rent and the market rent. By assisting owners, this tax credit will also protect tenants by helping to preserve the affordability of thousands of apartments and multi-family homes.