It is great that Sandra Lee, the girlfriend of new New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, feels strongly about helping people who have no money for food. I worry though that she will be diverted from helping people, and instead her good will will result in food pantries to growing larger. While on its surface it [...]
To the Editor at NY Times: The abortion rate here is "downright chilling" as the Archbishop says. While I consider myself a feminist, I do not share NOW's zeal for abortion. The conference protestors chanted "we're here to say, family planning is OK." But abortion is not family planning, contraception is. Abortion should be available [...]
Dear Editor: Mr. Sica thinks money to hire sanitation workers can be gotten by not giving Food Stamps to obese people. A few facts are in order. The amount of Food Stamps given to one person is maximum $5 per day. You’d have to cut 100 people off Food Stamps for one year to get [...]
I believe that those of us who want to move policy reforms to help unpaid caregivers get both better service supports and income supports have a duty to be supportive of all the combined efforts. We have enough going against us at the policy/power levels and don’t need better known advocates trying to quash the [...]
By Bjorn Chen-Pagen (as told to an adult) Best cereal to eat: I don’t usually eat cereal. Best breakfast then : I actually eat different things each morning, like” Nyuyubing. “ It’s a Chinese thing with bread and meat inside of it. Favorite places outside of New York: Orlando, Florida ‘cause of Disneyworld and Montreal, [...]
Some women persist in giving voice to the attitude that if we are at home taking care of our kids, that we are "not working." They say things like "as a career-driven woman, I have always worked," implying that when a mom doesn't have a paid job that she is a nonproductive burden. Or they'll [...]
In this city there are 297,611 people crammed into apartments with too many others.* Policy researchers call this “severe overcrowding.” It is also known as “doubling up”—sharing an apartment meant for one family with other families who need their own apartment too, but can’t afford it. Sometimes these are relatives or friends. Often they are [...]
Michael Goodwin wrote a small piece in the New York Post today where he told readers that "population is a growing concern." He says that "explosive population growth." is more dangerous than terrorism or swine flu. The research he cited from Britain states that the global population is at 6.8 billion and that it is [...]
A month ago, James Farrior died in a Queens day care. The day care in Mexico that burned to the ground in June had only a handful of adults minding 142 kids. On July 2, 2009, Daniel Slutsky, age 2, suffocated to death in Pennsylvania when his day care worker forgot about him, leaving him [...]
This is the story of what happened when I tried to help a New York City mother with no money to get a crib. On the afternoon of July 17th, this mother came to my office in a city hospital with her year old baby, Ursula. The baby has been sharing an adult bed with [...]