RIGHT 2 THE CITY Blog

COVID-19 / Selected Media

Buffalo Congregations, Others Make Real Difference ­in COVID-19 Response

By Tom Peterson

Read the full article from Stakeholder Health here.

“The data that informed their work was that, in the five or six ZIP codes where about 80% or 90% of African Americans live in Erie County (where Buffalo is), African Americans were off the charts in terms of the health disparity around every chronic disease: diabetes, heart disease, cancers, asthma. They were 300% more likely to have a chronic disease if they lived in those communities versus a white person who didn’t, and that translated into shorter lifespans, roughly 10 to 12 lost years of life and a lower quality of life for many.”

Selected Media

Perry lecturer calls for ‘true studies’ of racial health disparities

By Grace Lazzara

Read the full article from UBNow here.

“What, then, does drive disparities? ‘While we live in a country together, we experience that country in very different ways,’ LaVeist said. He displayed an infographic of the subway system in Washington, D.C., that showed that the particular subway lines people took effectively predicted their life expectancy because they correlate to ‘where people live.’ He also cited a study of Baltimore that tallied corner stores selling not much more than cigarettes and bottles of 40-oz. malt liquors, which LaVeist called ‘elixirs for the ills of poverty.’ Such stores existed almost exclusively in highly segregated, predominantly Black, low-income communities.”

Selected Media

AOC Is Standing Up for the Left

By Lichi D’Amelio

Read the full article from Jacobin here.

“Her strategy in responding to detractors has been threefold. First, she’s setting the record straight politically. Contrary to what the centrists would have us believe, left-wing stances aren’t electoral suicide. ‘Every single candidate that co-sponsored Medicare for All in a swing district kept their seat,’ she told the New York Times. ‘We also know that co-sponsoring the Green New Deal was not a sinker. [California representative] Mike Levin was an original co-sponsor of the legislation, and he kept his seat.'”

Selected Media

Save Money, Save Lives: An Analysis of the Fiscal Impact of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act

From Partnership for the Public Good

Read the full report here.

“In New York State, a majority of state lawmakers support passage of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (S.1623/A.2500), to restrict the use of solitary confinement in prisons and jails in line with international human rights standards. This report provides a fiscal analysis of the implementation of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, estimating that implementing the HALT Act can save New York State and local governments an estimated $132 million dollars annually, or $1.3 billion dollars over 10 years.”

Selected Media

Footage Release Policies for the Buffalo Police Department

By Sarah Wooton

Read the full brief here.

“The City of Buffalo needs to make numerous changes to its body camera policy to make it a more effective tool for transparency and police accountability. In this brief we examine one of those changes: footage release policy. To be effective accountability tools, police body cameras must be accompanied by good policies governing their usage and giving the public access to footage. Otherwise, exemptions in state freedom of information laws can be used to limit the disclosure of critical evidence of misconduct.”

Selected Media

Shrinking Jails, Rising Costs: Erie County’s Wasteful Jail Budget

By Colleen Kristich

Read the full brief here.

“This policy brief presents data on the makeup of the Erie County jail population, which has reduced by 48% since 2017. It examines the capacity of both jails and determines that one jail could be closed, with savings redirected to other community-based harm reduction services. The brief compares Erie County spending on jails with spending on mental and public health, and makes recommendations for County leaders to further reduce the jail population and solicit public input into the jail closure process.”

Selected Media

Juan González: The Media Has It Wrong. Record Latinx Turnout Helped Biden. White Voters Failed Dems

By Juan Gonzalez

Watch the video and read the full article from Democracy Now here.

“‘The main story is that people of color, especially Latinos, flocked to the polls in numbers that far exceeded what the experts had expected, while the total number of votes cast by white Americans barely increased from the last presidential election,’ says González. ‘How come none of the experts are asking why white voters underperformed the Democratic Party?'”

Selected Media

Juan González: The Media Has It Wrong. Record Latinx Turnout Helped Biden. White Voters Failed Dems

By Juan Gonzalez

Watch the video and read the full article from Democracy Now here.

“‘The main story is that people of color, especially Latinos, flocked to the polls in numbers that far exceeded what the experts had expected, while the total number of votes cast by white Americans barely increased from the last presidential election,’ says González. ‘How come none of the experts are asking why white voters underperformed the Democratic Party?'”

Selected Media

SOME REFLECTIONS ON ELECTION 2020

By Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr.

“Cast away your illusions. The U.S. presidential election hangs in the balance, but the nation has already written the story about election 2020. This is Donald Trump’s America.”


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