REMARKS
Key areas requiring investment in the city budget
4:52:59
·
140 sec
Council Member Adams outlines several critical areas that require investment in the city budget to address pressing needs and support New Yorkers.
- Cultural institutions, libraries, and parks
- Education programming and staff to address pandemic-related learning loss
- Early childhood education and CUNY funding
- Affordable housing creation and preservation, including NYCHA
- Mental health services and infrastructure
- Community-based safety programs and crime prevention initiatives
- Services and support for seniors
Adrienne E. Adams
4:52:59
New Yorkers from our youngest to our seniors depend on our cultural institutions, libraries, and parks to maintain meaningful connections to each other, their cultures, and their communities.
4:53:14
Our students, like those nationwide, are still recovering from historic levels of learning loss as a result of the pandemic.
4:53:22
Their success depends on the city confronting this reality by investing in essential education programming and staff.
4:53:30
We must also support working families by investing in early childhood education, turning the system around and expanding access to full year and full day seats that families need.
4:53:42
And we must support CUNY as a major engine of opportunity and a key pathway for economic mobility for New Yorkers.
4:53:50
Now is the time for the city to maintain and strengthen funding for CUNY's essential programming and staff.
4:53:57
Our city is facing a dire housing crisis impacting New Yorkers in every neighborhood, underscoring the importance of creating and preserving affordable housing and home ownership.
4:54:08
To be successful, we need more capital funding to create a range of affordable housing, especially at the deepest levels, and adequate resources and staffing at city agencies.
4:54:19
We must also prioritize the needs of NYCHA residents to ensure they can live in safe, dignified homes.
4:54:26
Our city's mental health crisis has been shaped by decades of disinvestment and exacerbated by the pandemic, leaving us without the infrastructure and services to help New Yorkers.
4:54:37
Adequate city funding for effective mental health models has not been prioritized to meet the scale of our challenges, but it must be.
4:54:46
The city must also invest in community based safety programs that are proven to reduce recidivism, help crime victims recover, and stop cycles of crime.
4:54:57
We can prevent violence and people from slipping into crisis.
4:55:01
It requires funding commitments to supportive housing, mental health courts, trauma recovery centers, and other essential interventions.
4:55:10
And our seniors, who are the crown jewels of our communities, must be a focus of investments that provide services and support to them.
