Defeat Delta: Key to NYC Vaccination Mandate

Defeat Delta: Key to NYC Vaccination Mandate Begins August 17

NEW YORK: Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the Key to NYC vaccination mandate for indoor dining, entertainment and fitness starts August 17. Enforcement will begin, with a multi-agency coalition, on September 13. Read the Executive Order here. “New York City has one mission: defeat the delta variant and build a recovery for all of us,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “The Key to NYC sends a powerful message that vaccination will unlock our city’s potential, and we’ll stop at nothing to save lives and keep New Yorkers safe.” “The Key to NYC will unlock many of our favorite activities,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Dave A. Chokshi. “Vaccination makes every activity safer and this is a common-sense precaution to keep patrons of gyms, restaurants and indoor entertainment healthy.” The City will conduct an aggressive outreach and education campaign, including a $10 million multi-platform paid media campaign. This campaign will include radio, TV, digital, social, subway live boards. Approximately 600 canvassers will be going door to door for affected businesses with the goal of reaching every zip code in the city in the next three weeks. Key to NYC affected businesses include:

Indoor entertainment

•Movie theaters •Music and concert venues •Museums & galleries •Aquariums & zoos •Professional sports arenas

Mayor de Blasio.Editorial credit: CJ Hanevy / Shutterstock.com

Indoor stadiums

•Convention centers •Exhibition halls •Performing arts theaters •Bowling alleys •Arcades •Pool & billiard halls •Recreational game centers •Adult entertainment •Indoor play areas •Indoor dining •Restaurants •Catering halls •Hotel banquet rooms •Bars •Nightclubs •Cafeterias •Grocery stores with indoor dining •Coffee shops •Fast food/quick service with indoor dining

Indoor fitness

•Gyms •Fitness centers• Fitness classes •Pools •Indoor studios •Dance studios Each Key to NYC business should consider appropriate reasonable accommodations, mindful of the purposes behind this policy and public health. There are multiple ways to show proof of vaccination: •A photo or hard copy of their CDC vaccination card •NYC COVID Safe App •New York State Excelsior App •Official vaccine record •A photo or hard copy of an official vaccination record of a vaccine administered outside the United States for one of the following vaccines: AstraZeneca/SK Bioscience, Serum Institute of India/COVISHIELD and Vaxzevria, Sinopharm, or Sinovac. Affected small businesses with questions can call the NYC Department of Small Business Services hotline at 888SBS-4NYC (888-727-4692), 311, or go online to nyc.gov/keytonyc. Penalties for failure to comply after September 13 start at $1,000 and can reach $5,000 for repeated violators.l

New York City’s Population Booms — But Not for Everyone, Everywhere

BY YOAV GONEN, CLIFFORD MICHEL AND WILL WELCH, THE CITY

New York City’s population surged by more than 600,000 over the past decade, to a record high of 8.8 million people, even as the census count took place during the height of the pandemic. Yet growth was not equitably spread across communities throughout the five boroughs, the latest U.S. Census data released Thursday shows, with the ranks of Black New Yorkers dropping by 4.5%. The overall shift marks a 7.7% boost in residents between 2010 and 2020 — and of nearly 10% since 2000 — one of the highest rates of increase among large cities nationally. The numbers show population hikes in every borough: •Brooklyn’s count grew by 9.2% since 2010, to 2,736,074 — the biggest rise of any borough. •Queens increased 7.8%, to 2,405,464 •Manhattan went up 6.8%, to 1,694,251 •The Bronx jumped 6.3% to 1,472,654 •Staten Island expanded by 5.8%, to 495,747. But that growth diverged between different racial groups and boroughs — with some seeing spikes while others suffered losses. The most dramatic differences emerged in Brooklyn, where Asian population surged by 43%, while the borough’s Black population declined by 8.7% in the past decade. White population growth of 8.4% almost equaled the Black decline in Brooklyn. “If you listened to people on the ground, you realized what was going on. The population is shifting because of the housing crisis, rising rents, the lack of housing ownership and rising foreclosure,” said Dr. Zulema Blair, the redistricting research director at Medgar Evers College’s Center for Law and Social Justice. “We saw all of these things mounting and we knew that the Black community would be impacted the most.” Blair added that some Black Brooklynites may have moved to Staten Island and The Bronx for more affordable housing. Overall, New York City lost 4.5% of its Black population in its last decade, with declines also in Manhattan and Queens and roughly stable numbers in The Bronx. Alone among boroughs, Staten Island saw its Black population grow, by 5.7%. The city’s Hispanic population — which can be of any race — saw uneven 6.6% growth, with an 8.8% increase in Queens and The Bronx, and a 20% hike in Staten Island, while declining slightly in Manhattan and rising just 4% in Brooklyn. Asian leaders, meanwhile, are hopeful that the new Census count could bolster ambitions to create new legislative districts focused on their communities and needs.

‘People Want to Remain’

The city’s growth in overall residents came during a period of relatively strict immigration enforcement — particularly under the administration of former President Donald Trump. That led some observers to credit the spike in the city’s population on relocation from other parts of the U.S. rather than on new immigrants. The 2020 Census also came at a time when hundreds of thousands of households were moving out from New York City because of the coronavirus pandemic — prompting concerns the exodus could hobble the city in the long term. Julie Menin, who served for nearly two years as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s census director, said the numbers should put that speculation to rest. “It’s a testament to the fact that people want to remain in New York City, that they believe in New York City, and that this whole narrative that the city is over... was a completely false narrative,” said Menin, now the Democratic nominee for City Council on the Upper East Side. She said the population growth comes with hefty payouts — including more federal funding and greater Congressional representation. New York State earlier this year learned it had lost one seat in the House of Representatives as a result of the census, although it had been expected to drop two. It would have held onto both seats if an additional 89 residents had been counted. “Over 300 programs rely on the census data to determine allocation,” said Menin. “It means building new schools. It means building more affordable housing. It means building more open space. And it means making sure our infrastructure is where it needs to be.”

Looking for a COVID Comeback

In a tweet Thursday, de Blasio touted the results and his administration’s role in growing the population, saying “this is what happens when you invest in pre-K for all, safe streets and working families.” But city officials also acknowledged that a significant part of the increase might be attributable to a more accurate count. In an online posting, the Department of City Planning said its staffers identified more than 122,000 housing units that for a number of reasons hadn’t appeared previously in the U.S. Census Bureau’s master file. Many of these were chalked up to addresses that are “hard to find” because of informal subdivisions in multi-family houses, according to the posting. The agency also identified more than 140,000 newly constructed units that hadn’t yet been entered into the bureau’s master file — with the combined effort opening the door for more than 500,000 people to be counted. Kathryn Wylde, president of a group of business leaders known as the Partnership for New York City, said it was up to the next administration to maintain the city’s allure by focusing on the concerns that voters conveyed by selecting Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a moderate, as the Democratic candidate for mayor. “Obviously the voters have declared that public safety and public health are the number one concern. And then the focus has to be on continued job growth, so that the economy remains viable,” said Wylde. “And finally affordability, so that again, as domestic migration continues — that people feel they can afford to live here.” Wylde said the impact of COVID on the city’s population was still an open question, given that many of the changeof-addresses reported by the U.S. Postal Service weren’t marked as temporary. “The question is how much of that exodus is or becomes permanent and, number two, does domestic immigration continue in the face of some of the changes that we expect will come from COVID — like the ability to work remotely from anywhere at a lot of jobs,” she added.l