22 APRIL 20 - APRIL 26, 2018 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
EDITORIAL
AIMING TO MAKE A
DIFFERENCE
Kudos to local student Alex Pellitteri who recently
organized a gun violence town hall right here in Bay
Ridge.
Taking a page from the successful efforts of the
students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in
Parkland, Florida, Pellitteri — in conjunction with local
activist the Reverend Khader El-Yateem — put together
a forum during which attendees had the opportunity
to ask questions of experts in the field, as well as some
of the candidates who have set their sights on the local
congressional seat, which is up for election this fall.
That’s the kind of activity that can make a difference in
the long run, helping to inform residents and voters on
a life-and-death issue while also bringing into focus the
views and priorities of those who aim to go to Washington
and represent them on this critical issue and others.
It’s the kind of activism we unreservedly applaud,
giving the crucial importance of keeping the issue of
gun violence front and center until changes are final
made legislatively on the federal level (as well as in
states with lax gun laws) to restrict the sale of assault
weapons, strengthen background checks for would-be
gun purchasers, and outlaw bumpstocks.
We’ve said it before but it more than bears repeating
— American students have every right to feel safe in
their schools, as do rank-and-file residents of all 50 states
as they go about their daily lives.
Until that time, we say, the more attention brought to
the issue, the better for all of us!
SALUTING JACKIE ROBINSON
Last weekend marked the 71st anniversary of Jackie
Robinson’s debut as a Brooklyn Dodger, the day he broke
the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
It was a momentous occasion at the time, and it remains
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/file photo
14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 6 - MARCH 12, 2014
editorial A LOOK BACK compiled by
GO BACK TO THE
DRAWING BOARD
momentous decades later.
This year, there seemed to be a plethora of tributes to
Robinson. The city unveiled new signage for the Jackie
Robinson Parkway and MacDonough Street between
Ralph and Patchen Avenues was co-named Jackie Robinson
Way.
Long may we remember everything he achieved on
the field and off. He was a great man, indeed.
HOMEREPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS
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Gary Nilsen and Helen Klein
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OP-ED
Photo by Gardiner Anderson
And the award goes to… Bay Ridge, which
has provided the backdrop for many movies
and television shows over the years, from
“Blue Bloods” and “Saturday Night Fever” to
“Mad Men” and, in 2006, to “Then She
Found Me,” starring Helen Hunt and Bette
Midler, seen above in a September, 2006,
Home Reporter photo taken on location on
Shore Road at 77th Street. Midler performed
at the most recent Oscars, singing “Wind
Beneath My Wings” during the awards
show’s In Memoriam segment. “Then She
Found Me,”which also starred Matthew
Broderick, was also shot inside a historic
home on 88th Street.
BY ASSEMBLYMEMBER
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
PETER ABBATE
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun
facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone.
The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and
Community Leaders has become an important ally. The
coalition has staged a number of rallies and protests over
the past 18 months to save health care services and jobs
at SUNY Downstate and keep it a public facility.
The latest such effort is a 48-hour interfaith fast. It
will begin Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in front of
Downstate’s 470 Clarkson Avenue entrance. Interfaith
leaders and members of the community will participate
to show their strong support for this beacon in Brooklyn
and call attention to the threats it faces.
You can take part in the fast or find out more about it
by calling 718-270-1519, or sending an email to
Brooklyn@uupmail.org.
We strongly urge you to join our campaign. Take part in
the fast, or come out and show your support. Together, we
can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must
remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital.
The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language
in the Executive Budget, which would allow corporations
to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one corporation must
affiliate with an academic medical institution or teaching
hospital. SUNY Downstate has Brooklyn’s only
teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate as a way for
the state to save dollars is shortsighted and unnecessary.
We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s health care shortcomings
lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan,”
a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize and deliver health
care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve SUNY Downstate and save
several financially unstable hospitals in Brooklyn,
including Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale, Long
Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical
Center. You can see the proposal online at
http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org.
It calls for the creation of a network of satellite ambulatory
care centers, and would be controlled by and affiliated
with 14 other Brooklyn hospitals. Downstate would
be the network’s hub, educating and supplying physicians
and medical staff to the care centers and working
with doctors at the other hospitals.
It’s a simple, effective plan and, if given a chance, it
will work.
New York has a responsibility to provide for the health
care needs of its citizens. The Brooklyn Hospitals Safety
Net Plan—our plan and the community’s plan—is a
viable, workable option for long-term health care in
Brooklyn.
That’s something that Brooklyn residents desperately
need.
Frederick E. Kowal is president of United University
Professions, the union representing 35,000 faculty and professional
staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses, including
SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and health science centers
in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island and Syracuse.
With the city deciding to move forward on most of the
school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
Blasio wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of
a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
and the local Community Education Councils, all of
whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
and those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
schools for co-locations, area education advocates say
that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
up to middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
should they have to share space with students from a
charter school.
That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
needs should not trump the needs of existing schools
with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
school is put inside a public school, the process must
involve the school communities at both educational institutions,
and parents must also be involved.
The city must go back to the drawing board and come
up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
schools where they are opposed.. The students who
attend those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open and public
BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
Entire contents copyright 2016 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
A LOOK BACK
With tributes to baseball great Jackie Robinson pouring in on the 71st anniversary
of his breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, it seemed
a perfect time to revisit a Brooklyn Dodgers icon, its beloved Sym-Phony
Band. Made up of fans of the team, the band has reunited from time to time
over the years to stir the memories of borough residents of a certain age.
Robinson’s number 42 was retired throughout baseball in 1997.
Compiled by Helen Klein
PROUNION PROTECTION BILL OP-ED
PROTECTING UNIONS MEANS PROTECTING WORKERS
The Supreme Court currently is deliberating
a very important and extremely consequential
case that would dramatically alter the landscape
for labor unions in our country.
The Janus v. AFSCME case will determine
if public sector unions are able
charge non-members who benefit
from collective bargaining an agency
shop fee.
As it is now, those who choose to
not join the union still get the same
benefits as those who enroll.
They pay a smaller fee but still
benefit from collective bargaining
done on the entire workforce’s
behalf and are able to receive some aid
from the union if needed.
If the Supreme Court determines that public
sector unions can’t do that, it would hurt the
union’s ability to represent all the workers and
weaken the unions’ standing.
Many forget that the base of our five-day work
week and eight hour work day is thanks to unions
which fought tirelessly for these protections. Before
the union movement, these things that we
take for granted were not common and seemed
radical for the time.
Not only did unions create the modern work
week, but they also fought for worker protections,
pensions, child labor laws, fair wages and
employee benefits that we all profit from now. The
movement that started many years ago is credited
with creating and certainly boosting the middle
class.
As chairperson of the Governmental
Employees Committee in the Assembly,
I was proud to sponsor legislation
that was later put into the budget
that gives the public sector unions
a clearer route and an easier way to
sign up members and to retain them,
which they will need if the Supreme
Court rules in favor of Janus.
It’s important that the unions
are able to gain and retain their
members because strong unions
that fight for higher wages and raises are good
for the entire state’s workforce and economy.
The legislation has a host of provisions that will
strengthen public employee unions and their
ability to gain and retain new members.
Unions are an important part of our state and
our country, with a history that we should all be
proud of. Their impact cannot be overstated.
I hope the Supreme Court rules in favor of the
unions, but with that being an unknown, I am
proud that we passed legislation to mitigate the
ruling’s effect and continue to support our union
brothers and sisters.
Assemblymember Peter Abbate represents the
49th Assembly District in Bensonhurst, Dyker
Heights, Bath Beach and Boro Park.
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