Published Work Archives - Page 22 of 23

Health Care for Caregivers

January 22, 2025January 1, 2005

City Limits

City Limits • January/February 2005

For New York’s nannies, good health care is often a luxury. Paid too well to qualify for government insurance, yet too poor to afford private insurance, they do what millions of workers do: Try not to get sick. That could soon change, however, thanks to a new effort to get them insured. And it’s not the city, or the nannies themselves, that will be footing the bill. It’s the families that employ them.

That would be great, says Michelle Cornwall, who’s worked as a New York nanny since immigrating here from Grenada in 1993. Like many nannies, she hasn’t managed to get her immigration paperwork together, and hence is paid under the table. And though she does file taxes, she doesn’t qualify for Medicaid. “I’ve never had health insurance on any of my jobs,” says Cornwall. “You go to the doctor, you pay for it on your own.”

Clean Bill of Health: Legislation Would Mandate Insurance Benefits

January 22, 2025December 20, 2004

City Limits

By Tracie McMillan. Original available at City Limits. Private employers could soon be forced to provide health insurance for their workers, under a new bill moving steadily toward City Council approval. The Health Care Security Act, introduced this fall, would require private employers in five industries—large groceries, industrial laundries, hotels, building services and construction—to either … Read more

The Big Idea: The Poverty Paradox

January 22, 2025December 1, 2004

City Limits

City Limits • December 2004

When the latest poverty statistics came out in August, the numbers didn’t make very big waves. With the Republican Party roaring into New York, the fact that poverty had gone up nationally–no surprise for an economy just creeping out of a recession–barely made it to the local news at all. But a close look at New York City’s share of the numbers showed a quirk: Poverty here didn’t go up. It stayed flat.

Even more curious were the unemployment numbers. Though poverty didn’t go up in the Big Apple, unemployment plowed steadily upward; in September, it was 6.9 percent. Nationally, unemployment also rose, but on a much smaller scale. Nothing like what one would expect. After all, the more people lose jobs, the more people should be poor; and if fewer people are losing jobs, then fewer people should fall into poverty–right?

The Union Builder

January 22, 2025December 1, 2004

City Limits

City Limits • December 2004

Do-gooders, beware: Lavon Chambers has his eye on you. Or, more specifically, on your workers. The 39-year-old union organizer is setting out to conquer one of labor’s frontiers, nonprofit staff.

But if you’re expecting traditional union gripes to drive this campaign–low pay, long hours, fix it or we walk–you’d better take a second look. “I have workers that say, ‘They can’t afford to pay me for 60, 70 hours, and that’s okay,” says Chambers, who entered the union movement after a stint as a community organizer challenging it. Many nonprofit workers are willing to deal with tough working conditions because of the social mission, says Chambers. And that social commitment is exactly what he hopes to gain by getting nonprofit workers to join the Laborers Union. His campaign to organize nonprofits aims to build bridges between grassroots groups and organized labor, heightening both groups’ political power.

The Big Idea: The Poverty Paradox

January 22, 2025November 15, 2004

City Limits

By Tracie McMillan. Original available at City Limits. When the latest poverty statistics came out in August, the numbers didn’t make very big waves. With the Republican Party roaring into New York, the fact that poverty had gone up nationally–no surprise for an economy just creeping out of a recession–barely made it to the local … Read more

Rent Well Running Dry

January 22, 2025November 15, 2004

City Limits

By Tracie McMillan. Originally for City Limits. A city program designed to get homeless families into solid jobs and apartments is yanking the rug out from under them, City Limits has learned. The Employment Incentive Housing Program (EIHP), a joint project between the city’s welfare and homeless agencies, operates initially much like other rent assistance programs, offering … Read more

Big Idea: Work Details

January 22, 2025November 1, 2004

City Limits

City Limits • November 2004

New Yorkers always want the best. And usually, we get it. We’ve got the tallest buildings, the tastiest street food, the lowest crime, the hottest ball teams. But when it comes to making sure poor people can stay afloat on meager paychecks, New York is not always at the top of the heap.

Our poor can get job training, tax breaks, health insurance and other resources to help them get by. We offer one of the nation’s most generous state tax credits for the working poor, and New York City just upped the ante by adding its own. We offer high-quality public child care. And two-thirds of qualified adults are enrolled in public health care programs–well above the national average.

Working Families Party Soars

January 22, 2025November 1, 2004

City Limits

City Limits • November 2004

With the election just a few weeks away, the Working Families Party has a major target in the crosshairs: Albany’s district attorney office. If its candidate, David Soares, wins, it will be the third major victory for the party–after the 2003 success of City Council candidate Leticia James and the legislative passage of a minimum wage hike in Albany.

“They’re probably the most traditional campaigners,” says Soares. “In the things they stand for and the things that they fight for, they are really in sync with my own personal philosophy. It was just a very perfect blend.”

InfoGuide: Where to Grab a Bite

January 22, 2025July 1, 2004

City Limits

City Limits • July/August 2004

Looking for a healthy snack? Your best bet is to head to Manhattan. It’s home to 322 supermarkets, more than any other borough. Each Manhattanite can claim 2.8 square feet of shopping space—not to mention 22 farmers’ markets and 16 community supported agriculture (CSA) clubs.

And you’d do well to avoid Brooklyn. Brooklynites scrape by with 1.4 square feet of space per resident, 11 farmers’ markets and 7 CSAs. That’s not all: Brooklyn is home to more than half of the 1.7 million New Yorkers living in zip codes with less than one square foot of market space apiece.

The Action Diet

January 22, 2025July 1, 2004

City Limits

Downloads:

Screen Shot 2016-07-12 at 6.00.26 PM — **Food Access in NYC, by zip code**

Screen Shot 2016-07-12 at 5.58.52 PM — **Article as published in print**

Winner, 2005 Harry Chapin Media Award
Finalist, 2005 James Beard Journalism Award

City Limits • July/August 2004

“It has a butt crack!”

Vanessa Santiago, 18 years old, giggles as she peers at the object of her glee: a garbanzo bean.

Tight jeans, a bomber jacket and a pink sweatband-Santiago doesn’t look like the type of girl to contemplate the aesthetics of legumes. But on this cold Saturday morning, she has come from Bushwick to lower Manhattan to inspect a can of beans. Standing in the middle of a commercial kitchen, Santiago and a half-dozen other teenagers cluster around a steel table, a ragtag bunch of critics.