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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kimberly Cruz on interconnected community needs and reforming local government
3:17:44
·
3 min
Kimberly Cruz delivers a passionate testimony emphasizing the interconnectedness of community issues ("Ubuntu") and criticizing current systems.
She argues affordability means fixing existing poor housing conditions and calls for a truly representative local government (people's assemblies) instead of the current fragmented system.
Cruz highlights unmet needs in public health, disability access (predicting future needs), privacy rights, and education, urging the commission to empower communities to address these comprehensively.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
3:20:48
Thank you so much.
Kimberly Cruz
3:17:44
Hello.
3:17:46
So my name oh, my name is Kimberly Cruz.
3:17:53
And I say this because at this very moment, it's historical that we can say, which is sometimes translated as I am because we are, and also I am because you are.
3:18:07
And life is complicated, and we can't stick to these words called affordability, because sometimes affordability means fixing the things that actually exist in front of you and New Yorkers who are dying from immunocompromised conditions where these conditions in their housing units are leading them to the hospital that we don't have infrastructure for across all the cities.
3:18:30
So Ubantu, that I am because we are.
3:18:33
So every time that we're thinking about our community boards, they're not our local government.
3:18:38
We're kind of piecing together local government here and there saying, Borough President, City Council, and Community Board.
3:18:44
That's not a local government.
3:18:45
That's not my representation.
3:18:48
They don't know my day to day.
3:18:49
They're not walking the same lines, the same lines that I'm going to.
3:18:53
I've seen the community boards.
3:18:55
They choose them, the same appointees.
3:18:57
But why don't we have technocratic citizens' assemblies with the people's assemblies attached to it to remove the shite of our city?
3:19:05
City services that are not working, but they keep growing for some reason when the people are not asking for it.
3:19:12
Health.
3:19:13
Why don't we have a public health official team that's funded, that's ready for measles?
3:19:18
There's a lot of fraud in these insurance claims and our elderly are getting hurt.
3:19:25
There are a lot of disability claims that people don't understand.
3:19:27
I'm wearing my sunglasses because the blind are coming.
3:19:31
My generation that has been staring at these phones since they were eight years old, they're coming.
3:19:36
And our city services will then in ten years say, Oh, now we have a blind population, or maybe we have a deaf population because we've been using our AirPods for the last fifteen to twenty years with no regulation.
3:19:49
So we should have sign language all the time, not when we can fund it but all the time.
3:19:55
Because my generation, I'm 26, in front of us is not a person of my age.
3:20:01
In front of us I hope someone that's menstruating is caring about my privacy because federally we are not being seen.
3:20:09
Our neuro privacy?
3:20:11
The Charter can add something just like Connecticut, just like Colorado.
3:20:16
We, you and I, are the local government that we're piecing together in this housing crisis, transportation shite, city services, health, insurance, technology, transportation, and education.
3:20:30
Because the federal government is defunding our children's education, I went to Yale, I went to Bronx Science.
3:20:36
I don't think people are going to look like me.
3:20:39
So I'm sitting here, Ubantu.
3:20:42
Please create a local government and let us fund it.
3:20:45
Us.
3:20:47
I'm just tired.