Opinion: Money for Neighborhoods, Not for War and Bailouts

Editor's Note: This Op-Ed originally ran in last month's issue of the Tremont Tribune. The author, Heidi Hynes, is executive director of the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona.

By HEIDI HYNES 

In September, the City of New York demanded that the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center start paying the Department of Education rent for use of our building on Mapes Avenue. It turns out that the city which is home to Wall Street and an Education Department with a budget larger than some towns, needs the children living in the poorest urban Congressional district in the country to forgo services so that we can pay the City $30,000 per year.

Since that time I have spoken to a priest about the cuts to senior programs at his parish. I’ve been contacted to join an emergency committee of after-school program providers to stop the proposed cut of 17,000 child care vouchers for families on public assistance. I was asked to travel to Albany to testify at a public hearing in opposition to proposed cuts to Medicaid. I was provided a list of elected officials to call in response to cuts proposed for the Health Department. A coworker approached me to find out how she could get involved in any effort to save Head Start. The director of a non-profit housing company predicted that the number of apartment buildings that will go into foreclosure is going to skyrocket. And, like every other public school parent, I’m just waiting to find out how a system that is already struggling is going to handle deep budget cuts.

With all this worry and organizing to stop the cuts, it is easy to think that we are in a budget crisis. There is not enough money to provide social services, we all need to tighten our belts, the trouble is grandma’s pension or public school teachers getting paid to sit in the “rubber room.” That is one load of manure.