In This Issue
President's Report
State Committee Report
Lauding Bob Botfeld
On Your Nov, 2 Ballot: Five Progressive State Constitution Amendments
Redistricting: The Commissioners Propose Competing Maps
Beyond Hypocrisy--Republicans Trash US Credit
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STAY HEALTHY!
STAY SAFE!
For the latest official information from NYC
on the coronavirus, click here
or text COVID
to 692-692
To see the percentage of the residents in our area who have been vaccinated, click here. (data updated daily)
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ONLINE CLUB MEETING
Wednesday, October 13, 2021, at 8:00 pm
The Challenges Facing Our City
in 2022 and Beyond
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Scott Stringer
Comptroller, City of New York
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Brad Lander
City Council, 39th District
Candidate for Comptroller,
City of New York
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Plus: Three Parks-endorsed
General Election Candidates
Alvin Bragg for Manhattan D.A. (invited)
Gale Brewer for City Council
Cordell Cleare for State Senate (invited)
Hasa Kingo for Civil Court Judge
Mark Levine for Manhattan Borough President
Jumaane Williams for Public Advocate (invited)
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Join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
You may also either click on the link below or paste it
into your browser:
If you are asked for a PASSWORD, enter:
151389
You may also join by using your phone to dial in.
Meeting ID: 824 9421 6781
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AGENDA
7:45--8:00 pm: Log On / Dial in
8:00 pm: Call to Order
Speaker: Scott Stringer
Questions and Answers
Speaker: Brad Lander
Questions and Answers
General Election Candidates
Adjourn
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By Lorraine Zamora
Three Parks has an exciting line-up of speakers for its October 13 club meeting! We will be joined by both Scott Stringer, New York City Comptroller, and Brad Lander, Democratic nominee for Comptroller in the November 2 election. Please tune in for what promises to be an interesting discussion of the challenges facing our City. We will hear what Scott has to say on his tenure, and what Brad has to tell us about his vision of the job.
In addition, we have invited Cordell Cleare, Democratic nominee for the State Senate seat recently vacated by Brian Benjamin upon his appointment as Lt. Governor of NYS. Three Parks is looking forward to hearing from Cordell and wishing her well in November. Then, too, we have invited the club’s endorsed candidates who won in the June primary to come by to say hello: Jumaane Williams, Mark Levine, Alvin Bragg, Gale Brewer and Hasa Kingo. It will be an opportunity for Three Parks to wish them well on November 2, too.
Three Parks is also planning to have a table at the Broadway Street Fair on Sunday, October 17. We will be talking to voters and handing out information about candidates and the proposals on the November 2 ballot.
The Board still is determining when it will safe to resume our club meetings in person, and whether we should hold a Holiday Party in person in January. Stay tuned.
I look forward to seeing you on Zoom on October 13. Stay safe, keep healthy, and get your vaccination and booster shots.
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General Election - November 2, 2021
- Election Day is Tuesday, November 2, 2021. Polls are open from 6am to 9pm.
- Early Voting Period is October 23 - October 31.
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Voter registration deadline is October 8. Click here to obtain a registration form.
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Absentee ballot applications must be received by October 18. Click here to request an application.
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For more information, visit vote.nyc.gov
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State Committee Report
By Daniel Marks Cohen
We have had a busy month since one of our State Senators, Brian Benjamin, was elevated to become Lt. Governor when Kathy Hochul became Governor upon Cuomo’s resignation. Initial reports had three different sitting Assembly members interested in the seat, including Al Taylor, Inez Dickens and Robert Rodriguez, as well as a host of former staffers and former District 9 City Council candidates. The County Committee met on the last Saturday in September to decide who would be chosen as the Democratic nominee, much as we did four years ago when then State Senator Bill Perkins was elected to the City Council and we chose Benjamin for the seat. Of the many candidates who expressed interest in the 30th State Senate District seat, in the end only four remained: Assembly Member Al Taylor, Athena Moore (former staffer for Manhattan Beep Gale Brewer and third place in the 9th District Council race), Shana Harmongoff (former staffer to Brian Benjamin), and Cordell Cleare (District Leader, former staffer to Bill Perkins, and fourth place in the 9th District Council race). Harmongoff was eliminated on the first ballot with Moore in first place, Taylor second and Cleare third. But all three remaining candidates had roughly the same amounts of votes.
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Then Al Taylor played chess and decided that since he was not likely to win, he would be kingmaker (queenmaker?), and he encouraged his supporters to vote for Cleare. But he didn’t announce it publicly, and an attempt to alert people to his decision was heard only after the second balloting had begun. No one got a majority, but Taylor came in third and was then eliminated, with Cleare getting 60% of the votes and the Democratic nomination on the third ballot.
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Many of us have known Cordell for years, and while she may not have been the first choice of much of the West Side initially, she will serve the district well and will be an excellent State Senator. The choice is Cleare.
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The Special Election for State Senator in the 30th District will take place on November 2, in tandem with the General Election.
To learn more about the storied political history of the Harlem / West Side 30th Senate District, click here.
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Lauding Bob Botfeld
By Judy Wood
Our club is taking a hit by the replacement of Bob as our male District Leader. I welcomed Bob as the successor to Phil Reed more years ago than i can remember; I was a lucky female leader to have worked with two great men, who each had their own distinctive styles.
Bob is one of the hardest workers i know, and has done great service over the years for the club, and very importantly, for the community.
Election days always brought out the best in him, from petitions to hall cards to poll site coverage - and refreshments for the workers. And we can never forget 9/11, that fateful primary day, as we frantically tried to figure out what was going on and what to do.
And his zoning work for the improvement of our community was amazing. He went up and down the streets to gather support, and with his efforts and energy a zoning plan was effected by the City Council to protect us from more towers on our streets.
The work he did needs still be done, and so it falls on us to take on those efforts.
I salute him as a great Democrat!
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Campaigning for Alvin Bragg (back row, third from left), Democratic candidate for Manhattan District Attorney. Three Parks members joined with other volunteers at the 96th St. subway station on Sept. 29.
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On Your November 2 Ballot:
Five Progressive State Constitution Amendments
When you go to vote on November 2 (or October 23-31 if you are voting early), on your ballot you will see five proposals for amending the NY State Constitution. One calls for modifying the procedures now used for redistricting. Two seek to codify measures that make voting easier. The other two relate to the environment and the courts. All five are supported by progressive Democrats in the State legislature. Here is a brief summary of the five ballot proposals.
Proposal No. 1
Amending the Apportionment and Redistricting Process
The proposal would do the following:
- Drop the requirement that the two co-executive directors of the redistricting commission be members of different political parties.vote, without considering party affiliation.
- Change the vote thresholds for adopting redistricting plans when one political party controls both legislative chambers.Approval of a plan by the redistricting commission would require a vote in favor by at least seven of the ten commissioners. (Currently at least one commissioner appointed by each of the legislative leaders must vote in favor of a plan for approval. That arrangement has long given Republicans effective veto power over redistricting plans.)
- For redistricting purposes, count incarcerated people at their place of last residence, instead of at their place of incarceration. Counting prisoners at their prison site gives undue representation to the upstate “red” counties where state prisons are located.
- Require that state Assembly and Senate district lines be based on the total population of the state, and require the state to count all residents, including non-citizens and Native Americans, if the federal census fails to do so.
- Cap the number of state senators at 63.
- Require the redistricting commission to submit its plan to the Legislature two months earlier than called for under the current procedure. (For the redistricting cycle in 2022, the time frame would be condensed to meet election-related deadlines).
Proposal No. 1 is supported by 9 Democratic State Senators (including Michael Gianaris, Brad Hoylman, and Robert Jackson). At the September TPID Club meeting, Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause NY, recommended a vote in favor of this Proposal.
Proposal No. 2
Clean Water and a Healthful Environment
This proposal would protect public health and the environment by adding the right of each person to clean air and water and a healthful environment to the Bill of Rights in the New York Constitution.
Proposal No. 2 is supported by 17 Democratic State Senators (including Brad Hoylman, Robert Jackson, and Liz Krueger) and 3 Democratic State Assembly members (including Carl Heastie and Richard Gottfried).
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Redistricting: The Commissioners Propose
Competing Maps
On September 15, New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission, after failing to reach bipartisan agreement, released two sets of draft maps. The Democratic commissioners proposed one set, while the Republicans proposed a different set. Both sides claimed that neither set was drawn to favor one party or the other. The draft maps are far from final, with the Commission scheduling 14 hearings across the state to gain input from New Yorkers about the plans.
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Here is the Congressional redistricting map proposed by Democratic Commission members:
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Here is the Congressional redistricting map proposed by Republican commission members:
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The new lines won’t go to the state legislature for approval until early next year. When that happens, Democratic supermajorities in both the state Senate and the Assembly could overrule the Commission and redraw district lines themselves. Governor Kathy Hochul has said that she favors ensuring the maximum number of Democratic seats. And a few state senators from New York City have already said that they won’t commit to the lines drawn by the Commission. Also, a ballot initiative that will likely get approved in November will tweak some of the redistricting laws (see the article “Five Progressive State Constitution Amendments” in this newsletter).
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New York County hearing on the proposed redistricting maps
Wednesday, Nov 10, at 3:00 PM
CUNY Hunter College cafeteria
695 Park Avenue
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Beyond Hypocrisy--Republicans Trash US Credit
By Steve Max
09/30/2021
Once again, the Republicans have shown themselves willing to do untold damage to the country in order to discredit President Biden and bring the Fascist Trump back to power. Now they are refusing to raise the debt ceiling so that the National Debt can be refinanced. It is likely that some sort of deal will have been reached in the Senate by the time you read this, because the only thing Republicans hate more than Biden is a stock market crash, of which there were indications in recent days.
The Republicans' actions are so far beyond hypocrisy that there are no words to describe them, at least none that are printable, and even then. They were quite happy to let President Trump run up as much debt as he wanted. Here is how Propublica described it:
“The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.”
In a nutshell, the government borrows money by selling bonds which come due on specific dates and pay specific rates of interest. Because bonds are constantly coming due, the government is constantly selling new bonds to raise the money to pay off the old ones. It isn’t a great system, but it works and will have to do until there is a major change in the tax structure, or an acceptance of the idea that in a healthy economy, the government can print money as needed. We’ll come back to that idea shortly.
Most everyone knows that the government sells bonds, but less understood is who buys them and who will be hurt if the debt ceiling isn’t raised so that the outstanding bonds can’t be redeemed.
This chart, based on data from the Just Facts web site, shows the major categories of federal debt holders as of 2020.
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The overall amount of the federal debt shown on the chart is actually higher today, around $29 trillion, but the breakdown is basically the same. The blue area (35%) is all US-based companies, mainly mutual funds (13% of the total debt) and banks (5%).
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Become an Election Day Poll Worker
The Board of Elections in the City of New York is hiring Election Day poll workers to work at poll sites across New York City.
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Election Inspector: Earn up to $600 for completing the training course, passing the exam, and working two Election days.
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Interpreter: Spanish, Chinese: Earn up to $575 for completing the training course, passing the exam, and working two Election Days.
HOURS/LOCATION: 5:00 a.m. until the polls are closed and closing tasks are completed, which will be after 9:00 p.m.
Must be willing to travel within the borough for assignment to a poll site.
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Wednesday, Oct. 13, 8:00 PM
Three Parks Club Meeting
Wednesday, Oct. 27, 8:00 PM
Three Parks Board Meeting
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Wednesday, Nov. 10, 8:00 PM
Three Parks Club Meeting
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 8:00 PM
Three Parks Board Meeting
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Don't Miss Out!
Renew Your Three Parks Membership Now
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Renew online by clicking here.
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Renew by mail by printing out and returning the membership form at the end of this newsletter.
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The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors of the articles and are not necessarily representative of Three Parks.
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President
Lorraine Zamora
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Lynn Thomas
Daniel Marks Cohen
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Print, cut out, and mail this form.
2022 MEMBERSHIP FORM
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Mail to: Three Parks Independent Democrats
Cathedral Station, P.O. Box 1316
New York, NY 10025
Attention: Treasurer
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