Dielli | The Sun

Albanian American Newspaper Devoted to the Intellectual and Cultural Advancement of the Albanians in America | Since 1909

Contenders of the City Mayoral Race and the Community

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by Rafaela Prifti/

Changes that have occurred point towards potential shifts in the landscape with major implications for elected offices in the city government in 2021 ….

In late February Council member Mark Gjonaj announced that he will not seek re-election this year. The first-term Councilman was elected in 2018 for his seat representing the 13th Council District in the Bronx. In a two-page statement, Mr. Gjonaj cited centrist ideology and political climate as reasons for his decision not to seek re-election. “I sought public service to give back to a country, state and city that gave me and my family so much…The current political climate is not favorable to a centrist ideology that my constituency, community and I embrace,” Mr. Gjonaj wrote in a letter mailed to his constituents. Prior to his 2018 election in the New York City Council, Mark Gjonaj, served in the state Assembly. Since then, there have been reports of investigations on Gjonaj involving financial issues and campaign contributions. In his letter to constituents, the Albanian-American politician claimed that he was the victim of “ethnic smears” stating that public service should never be about identity politics which divides [sic] us.

In the meantime, the field of contenders in the mayoral race is brimming with candidates ranging from career elected officials to newcomers. Some 40 candidates have registered to run for the city’s top job to succeed Mayor Bill de Blasio. A primary winner will be decided on June 22nd. The Democrat primary winner is generally considered the favorite in the general election.

There is an avalanche of information via virtual layouts and platforms forums that allows you to  get to know each candidate vying to be the next mayor. The Albanian community is keen to be informed about the issues that matter to them going forward. To help, here is a compiled short list of the current leading candidates in no particular order that focuses on experience, name recognition, active campaigning and fundraising. 

Eric Adams

The Brooklyn Borough President is considered one of the front runners. He has offered up his blue-collar background as one of his strengths: a native New Yorker who grew up in poverty and became a victim of police brutality, he joined the NYPD and worked his way up to becoming a captain. He has held up his life story as testament to why he is uniquely qualified to tackle rising crime rates and systemic racism in the police force. Addressing government inefficiencies has been another theme of his campaign. According to campaign filings, Adams is one of the top fundraisers with $8.6 million. He has been criticized for his willingness to take money from real estate developers. Stringer also initially welcomed money from real estate developers but has since reversed course. He lives in Bed-Stuy. After being diagnosed with diabetes in 2016, Adams switched to a plant-based diet and fitness regime that led him to manage his health condition without medication.

Shaun Donovan

Served as city’s housing commissioner under Michael Bloomberg before being tapped to serve as President Obama’s Housing Secretary and budget director. A former architect, Donavan has tried to set himself apart by being among the first to issue concrete policy proposals. He has proposed building a city of “15 minute neighborhoods,” in which residents live within a short walk of all their essential needs, such as a school, grocery, subway and park. He has released an economic recovery plan that includes a promise to bring back half a million jobs by the end of his four years. Donovan has raised $1.6 million, but did not qualify for matching funds. Donovan lives in Boerum Hill. He and his wife have two sons.

Kathryn Garcia

The city’s sanitation commissioner under Mayor de Blasio, Garcia has billed herself as a “go-to crisis manager” who has impacted the lives of every New Yorker—through trash pickups and the snow plowing of streets. She rolled out a platform that emphasizes battling climate change as well as quality of life issues. Garcia does not favor defunding NYPD but she wants to reform the culture of the agency. On the racial justice issue, she has brought up her diverse family: she was adopted and two of her siblings, who were also adopted, are both Black. As part of her recovery plan, she has also proposed building universal broadband and giving free childcare for families making under $70,000 a year. She lives in Park Slope. She was married to Jerry Garcia but they have since divorced. They have two children.

Scott Stringer

The current City Comptroller has frequently used his platform to criticize Mayor de Blasio. Since entering the race in September, Stringer has racked up more than $8 million in fundraising. Although an establishment candidate, Stringer has also positioned himself as a progressive. He began his campaign flanked by three state Senators who are young progressive Democrats that he supported in their run. He has called de Blasio’s policy strategy a “disaster” and said he would hold the NYPD to a higher standard of accountability in addition to cutting its budget by $1.1 billion over four years. As comptroller, Stringer has issued a slew of reports on issues ranging from homelessness, affordable housing and the pandemic. 

Mr. Stringer holds the distinction of being a dedicated supporter of the Albanian community. In 2009, he joined organizing efforts with leaders of Sons and Daughter of Albania in America, The Bronx Borough President Diaz and community representatives to honor Mother Teresa in naming a block of Lydig Avenue between Holland Avenue and Wallace Avenue as “Mother Teresa Way”. Over the years and other events, he has celebrated Albanian history and culture while honoring the humanitarian legacy of this Nobel Peace Prize winner. 

Ray McGuire

The most prominent Black executive on Wall Street, who has served as a vice-chairman at Citibank. A favorite of the business community, he has made the economic recovery the core of his campaign. Specifically, he has said that he wants to create “the biggest job program in New York City history” with a goal of half a million new jobs. But he has also stressed his commitment to social and racial justice, often referencing his upbringing by a single mother and his encounters with racism throughout his education and career. His fundraising prowess makes him a highly competitive contender. In 2018, McGuire was said to be on a short list of candidates to head the New York Federal Reserve. He is considered one of Wall Street’s top deal makers, and has advised major corporate mergers, including the Time Warner Inc. sale to AT&T Inc. for more than $80 billion.

Andrew Yang

The former tech entrepreneur joined the race following a longer-than-expected presidential run. Having amassed nearly 2 million Twitter followers known as the “Yang Gang,” he enjoys high name recognition and has presented himself as a forward-thinking “numbers guy” who can raise New York City out of the crisis with new ideas. His major policy platform has been proposing a cash payment to half a million of the poorest New Yorkers, a scaled-down version of his so-called “universal basic income” plan that he pitched on the national level. Yang’s campaign has promised to roll out detailed plans to address criticism that he has not presented much in terms of policies. He is expected to be a front runner who had 21,000 donors from New York City during his presidential run. Yang has been open about raising a son with autism. In addition, his wife last came forward as a survivor of sexual assault. Yang’s most successful entrepreneurial venture was a test-prep company for people taking the entrance exams for business school and law school. 

Carlos Menchaca

Menchaca is a Brooklyn city Council member who most recently garnered attention for his role in doing away with the Industry City rezoning in Sunset Park. The developers promised tens of thousands of jobs, but Menchaca argued that the deal was going to displace residents and hasten gentrification. He is among the most left-leaning candidates running for mayor. One of his signature policy proposals is a guaranteed cash program for New Yorkers which he is planning to introduce into the City Council. He has also embraced investments that would usher in a municipal green new deal. He is the first Mexican-American elected to public office in New York City. Like Sutton, he would be the city’s first open gay mayor. Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, he moved to New York in 2004 after graduating college and interned for then-Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. He is an avid cyclist who routinely bikes from his home to City Hall. If elected Menchaca will be the city’s first “bike mayor”

Dianne Morales

A former nonprofit executive who has called for defunding the police and using the savings toward youth programs, parks and transportation, Morales is a proponent for permanently eliminating screenings as a first step toward desegregating the city’s school system. Ms. Morales has also proposed a guaranteed minimum income for poor New Yorkers financed through a tax on the wealthy without sacrificing other social benefits. She is seeking to become the city’s first Afro-Latina mayor. She lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where she was born and raised. Morales has graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University. She frequently talks about being a single-mother to two children who are now over 18.

Loree Sutton

Former Head of New York City’s Department of Veterans’ Services under Mayor Bill de Blasio has a 35 year career in military and public service. A retired brigadier general, she earned a bronze star during the first gulf war. She is a moderate, who registered as Democrat in 2019 after having been a lifelong independent. Citing a lifelong experience in the armed forces, she has pitched herself as a non-polarizing leader who can bring together the private, philanthropic, and public sectors. She has argued that police need to build better relationships with the community, proposing to appoint a “public safety czar” to carry out the task. Sutton was the Army’s highest-ranking psychiatrist. She has made addressing the city’s mental health crisis one of her main campaign platforms. Sutton lives with her wife Laurie Leitch, a psychotherapist and consultant. 

Maya Wiley

Former legal analyst for MSNBC and a former de Blasio administration official. She has been a vocal critic of her former boss, on his decision to run for president as skirting of his duties, his management of the NYPD during the Black Lives Matter protests, and the management of the pandemic. A former civil rights attorney, Wiley has vowed to reform policing in New York City by increasing accountability. Her first two detailed policy plans have been on reducing gun violence and evictions. One of her proposals calls for using federal funding toward establishing a citywide rent and tax relief program. Born in Syracuse and raised in Washington D.C., Wiley is vying to become the first female mayor of New York City. She would also be the first Black mayor since Mayor David Dinkins, who served one term from 1990 through 1993.

The compiled list may grow or shrink as campaigns progress yet the changes that have occurred point towards potential shifts in the landscape with major implications for elected offices in the city government in 2021. 

Trump Appointee at Agency for Global Media Paid Millions To Investigate His Own Staff

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U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack dismissed the heads of all its broadcasters when he took office in June.

Former U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO that oversees Voice of America, Michael Pack, contracted with a private law firm to investigate his own staff, a task usually done by government specialists. Mr. Pack, an appointee of former President Donald Trump was irate because he could not simply fire top executives who had warned him that some of his plans might be illegal. In August, Mr. Pack suspended those top executives. He immediately ordered up an investigation to determine what wrongdoing the executives might have committed.

Instead of turning to inspectors general or civil servants to investigate, Mr. Pack personally signed a no-bid contract to hire a high-profile law firm with strong Republican ties. The bill — paid by taxpayers — exceeded $1 million in just the first few months of the contract.

Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit that represents federal whistleblowers accusing Pack and some of his inner circle of breaking U.S. laws and regulations, shared an analysis of documents related to the contract between Mr. Pack and the law firm.

“The engagement constitutes gross mismanagement, gross waste of taxpayer dollars and abuse of authority,” David Seide of the Government Accountability Project, wrote in a letter to congressional committees with oversight of the USAGM. “The investigations produced nothing that could justify the kind of discipline Mr. Pack sought to impose on current USAGM employees he did not like — he wanted them fired (they have since been reinstated). Investigations of former employees also yielded nothing.”

Defined by scandal at Voice of America, CEO has resigned at Biden’s request. The new acting CEO Kelu Chao, a former senior Voice of America official, was appointed by President Biden on the day of his inauguration. She has brought back many of the executives that Pack suspended and investigated. 

USAGM is the parent agency of Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other networks that cover news for people living in nations overseas. They reach an estimated combined audience of more than 360 million people each week, providing news for countries where a free press is either not financially viable or under assault from repressive regimes. 

NPR Edited version

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

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by Rafaela Prifti/


The start of Women’s History Month serves as a reminder of an ongoing campaign to elevate the voices of women. “To honor women across the globe, we must ensure that they are not only celebrated, but also supported,” says Nathalia Fernández, who is running for the office of the Bronx Borough President.

Fifty years ago, women’s history was not part of the K-12 curriculum or in the general public consciousness, according to records of the National Women’s History Alliance. To address this situation, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County, California, Commission on the Status of Women initiated a “Women’s History Week” celebration in 1978.

The intention was to observe the week of March 8th – International Women’s Day. Dozens of schools planned special programs for Women’s History Week and numerous community women participated in special presentations in classrooms throughout the country. At the end of the week a celebratory parade was held in downtown Santa Rosa, California.


The success of the Sonoma County’s Women’s History Week initiated similar celebrations in organizations, communities, and school districts. They all joined in agreement to support an effort to secure a “National Women’s History Week.”

The historical records reveal that in February 1980 President Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the Week of March 8th as National Women’s History Week.


The Presidential support prompted lobbying efforts on a national scale. “State Departments of Education encouraged celebrations of National Women’s History Week as an effective means to achieving equity goals within classrooms,” notes the website of National Women’s History Alliance. States like New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and others developed and distributed curriculum materials for all of their public schools. Encouraged by resolutions from governors, city councils, school boards, and the U.S. Congress, thousands of schools and communities were celebrating the event. Through the years, the growing efforts of hundreds of educational and women’s organizations was spearheaded by the National Women’s History Alliance. Thanks to increased lobbying, in 1987, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month in perpetuity. A special Presidential Proclamation is issued every year which honors the extraordinary achievements of American women.

GRIM MILESTONE

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President Biden is asking Americans to mark the 500,000 deaths with a moment of silence at sunset Monday. He’s also ordered flags on all federal buildings lowered to half-staff for five days. The disease has killed at least 100,000 people in the past five weeks and was the leading cause of death in the country in January, ahead of heart disease, cancer and other ailments, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Since last February the disease began to ravage nursing homes and the five boroughs of New York, frequently striking the most vulnerable on account of age, poor health, job requirements or crowded living conditions. Now, around 2,000 people die from the disease every day on average, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, down from a high of over 3,000 a day on average in mid-January. The pandemic’s deadliest day in the U.S. so far has been January 12 when 4,400 people died.

The NPR report lays out that death count in the US far exceeds that of other countries — a fact that health experts attribute to the scattered, patchwork pandemic response from the Trump administration. The specialists cite the shortages of personal protective equipment, testing supplies and contact tracing capacity as some of the missing pieces that could have saved lives. Putting in place the public health measures was not the focus of the previous administration. Neither was ensuring that workplaces for those who had to go to work were safe, nor securing adequate personal protective equipment for workers. The politicization of public health messaging, on topics such as masking and the severity of the disease in comparison with flu, also confused and endangered the public, say health experts.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking fact about reaching half a million U.S. deaths, is that the toll is still rising. Though new infections and hospitalizations are slowing after a midwinter peak, the country has a long way to go to end the pandemic. The present situation is described as a race between the vaccine and new more transmissible variants Americans will need to stick to safe behavior to keep the virus from surging badly again.

IHME is now forecasting the U.S. may surpass 600,000 deaths by June.

According to health experts, although we are several months into vaccinating this is not the time to drop the guard and start gathering, because that’s going to erase all the progress that we’ve recently made. Still many speak with measured optimism about the future. People who work in hospitals and in funeral homes are witnesses to the loss than many Americans can avoid. 

PROCESSING GRIEF

The toll of witnessing these deaths has largely fallen on front line health care workers. 

Signs of hope ahead do not soften the tragedy of each life lost to the illness. The losses include children, and adults of all ages and ethnicities. More than 3,400 health care workers in the U.S. have died from COVID-19, according to numbers from The Guardian and KHN It’s hard to fathom hundreds of thousands of lives in the U.S., and some 2 million more around the world, cut short by the pandemic.

For health workers who help the families say the final goodbyes, it has been extremely hard. It appears that we as a nation have not coped with this. It’s almost as if these are individual losses to individual families, but that they are not seen as a loss to the whole society.

The COVID-19 memorial tribute last month, on the eve of President Biden’s inauguration, in which lights were placed around the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, was the first formal acknowledgment of the pandemic’s death toll in the U.S. by the executive branch of the federal government. For most of the past year the burden of processing the grief has fallen on health care and funeral home workers.

Edited NPR Reporting

A MOVING TRIBUTE

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MTA Citywide Memorial in Honor of Workers Lost to COVID-19/

by Rafaela Prifti/

The death toll of COVID-19 pandemic is nearing half a million in the US. The grieving for the loved ones is made harder under ongoing restrictive measures. The outdoor memorials and candlelight vigils help to alleviate the sorrow. In New York, the MTA, the underground transportation system that keeps New Yonkers such as this one moving, opened its own memorial to honor the essential workers who were hard hit by COVID-19. 

Throughout the subway system, portraits of MTA workers lost to the pandemic were on view through the first week of February. Director of the MTA Arts & Design department and a visual artist, Sandra Bloodworth initiated the project in collaboration with Cheryl Hageman and Victoria Statsenko. The data released by the MTA New York City transit confirms that 140 members of their workforce have passed away from COVID-19. The train operators and conductors have been affected at the highest rate. The in-memoriam slideshow consists of portraits of the deceased employees on displays at 107 subway stations in all five boroughs on screens where we are used to see maps and service changes, integrated with a newly commissioned poem, “Travels Far,” by the Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and a nine-minute video, with audio by composer Christopher Thompson, at three times a day. The MTA officials said that it is important for the 55,000 employees to see the memorial as well — and know that they and their families are appreciated. One of the first employees who died last March, Peter Petrassi was a subway conductor and operations associate. In response to the first lives lost to the pandemic, the MTA launched a new unit to help liaise with their families. The team invited families from all MTA departments to submit portraits of the deceased employees. They are set against backdrops of MTA colors. Mostly New York City Transit workers who make up the majority of the portraits, some Long Island Rail Road and Metro North employees. 

The agency head said that while coworkers and colleagues are still unable to gather in a physical space, they did not want to wait any more to pay respects in a special memorial. In the future, MTA will have a permanent memorial and in-person service. 

The creative way to honor and celebrate the lives lost to COVID-19 serves as a touching reminder of the sacrifices of the essential workers whose work cannot be done from home. The memorial allows us to grieve with a deeper appreciation for the MTA employees who continue to keep the city moving. 

The artwork stays up for a few weeks. Yet the riders carry the memorial in their ever-lasting motion on buses and trains.