(Photo by Curated Lifestyle)
This is the last Weekly Wrap of 2024. We’re going on hiatus for the next couple of weeks to rest. We hope you’ll take the time you need to rejuvenate too. We’ll be back in your inbox on Jan. 3, 2025!
p.s. Our end-of-year campaign is still going. Help us get to our $40,000 goal by Dec. 31 by donating today!
D.C. Tax Funds Pay Hike For Child Care Workers
A tax hike in D.C. for people making over $250,000 annually has funded an average pay raise of $10,000 a year for about 4,000 childcare workers, NPR reports. The Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund went into effect in 2022 and was intended to create pay parity between childcare workers and public school teachers. The fund has led to lower turnover and expanded the number of childcare slots available, according to research from the Urban Institute.
Rochester Adopts Good Cause
Rochester has voted to adopt Good Cause, according to WXXI, with a more stringent version of the law than New York City. In Rochester, only landlords with one unit are exempt from the law, whereas in NYC landlords with 10 or fewer units are exempt. New York’s statewide Good Cause law allows cities to opt in, limiting rent increases to 10%, ensuring lease renewals and only allowing evictions for lease violations or nonpayment. Rochester’s adoption of the law comes after a wave of lawsuits against municipalities trying to enact Good Cause in New York over the past few years.
LA County Plans to Cancel Medical Debt
Los Angeles County has rolled out a new medical debt relief program for residents who make up to 400% of the federal poverty line and whose medical debt is 5% or more of their annual income. The program is partnering with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt and using $5 million from the county, along with another $1 million from LA County Medical Association and $2 million from LA Health Care plan to purchase the debt from hospitals, physicians’ groups and other entities that own medical debt for pennies on the dollar. Debt will be erased automatically for eligible residents, who do not need to apply. The county plans to eventually erase $2 billion in medical debt from Los Angeles residents, which would cost $24 million.
Florida Statute Penalizes Israel Boycotts
Prism reports that a Florida statute prevents state agencies and local governments from contracting with companies that are engaged in a boycott of Israel. The Francis C. Ortis Art Gallery in Pembroke Pines was obligated by state law to include an agreement in its contracts ensuring that artists are not engaged in a boycott of Israel, leading at least one artist to pull out of a recent exhibition. The original statute was developed in 2011 to prohibit work with companies that worked with Iran or Sudan and was expanded in 2016 to include companies that boycott Israel, according to Prism. In the past week, Israel attacked the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, set the ICU at Kamal Adwan Hospital on fire in an airstrike, killed 15 civilians at the Khalil Oweida School and killed journalists Iman Al Shanti, Ahmed al-Lough, Mohammed Al-Qrinawi and Mohammed Balousha. Al Shanti and Balousha were killed alongside their families.
New York Farmers Fear Mass Deportations
According to NCPR, New York’s farmers are concerned that the incoming Trump administration’s promise of mass deportations could devastate the agriculture industry. Thousands of workers on upstate New York dairy farms are migrants from Mexico and Central America, according to NCPR. Cornell’s Agricultural Workforce Development is hosting pop-up events for farmers to help plan for what may come.
MORE NEWS
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Boston broke a record last year for fewest homicides. It’s on track to do it again. The Christian Science Monitor
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In California, this parking space could soon cost you a $64 ticket. Berkeleyside
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Boston ramps up affordable housing preservation efforts with new revolving fund. Smart Cities Dive
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Insurers are deserting homeowners as climate shocks worsen. New York Times
OPPORTUNITIES & RESOURCES
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The LISC Community Research and Impact team recently published a report: The Power and Promise of TLGBQIA+-owned Spaces. It “explores LGBTQIA+ capital access, community ownership as a strategy for building queer and trans community and economic power, and the financing and organizing resources needed to expand this work.” Download it here.
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This week, the Latinos and Planning Division of the American Planning Association released its Latino Community Engagement Guide. Access it here.
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TransitCenter released a report about transit’s role in addressing homelessness. Check it out here.
NO EVENTS THIS WEEK
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Enjoy some down time!
News briefs written by Roshan Abraham. Additional blurbs curated by Deonna Anderson.
This article is part of The Weekly Wrap, a newsletter rounding up stories that explain the problems oppressing people in cities and elevate the solutions bringing us closer to economic, environmental and social justice. Click here to subscribe to The Weekly Wrap newsletter.