Donovan Richards's Department Of Youth

 

 QNS

In an effort to get more young people involved in civics, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards has created a new advisory panel known as the Youth and Young Adult Council to introduce the “youngest and fiercest” community advocates to both community service and organization.

Members of the advisory body will advocate concerns through means of community engagement by participating in one of two cohorts. The first will be made up of high school representatives between the ages of 13 and 17, while the second cohort will be comprised of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25.

“Our youth are the leaders of tomorrow, and as such, they deserve to have a seat at the table as well as opportunities to be civically engaged,” Richards said. “I’m thrilled to engage our younger community members in envisioning Queens’ future, and working together to create the blueprints to make that a reality.”

The young adults cohort will feature advisors, who are expected to have at least five years of experience working with youth, preferably in Queens. Advisors will be tasked with empowering participants to make independent decisions and will utilize their networks to introduce and connect participants with people and organizations that will further expand their vision and borough-wide initiatives.

The cohorts will meet monthly, and each will develop proposals to make Queens a more inclusive borough for young people. Each cohort will present its proposals to the borough president. Members of the council will serve for a year and applications will be open to new members at the end of each school year, but current members will not have to reapply until their terms are up.

Danny Dromm is leading legislation to ban nuclear weapon proliferation in NYC

 

 
NY Post

Between homelessness, classroom disorder and rising crime, it might seem like there is plenty for the City Council to do. But instead of dealing with such humdrum matters, the council’s tackling the threat of nuclear war — by reaffirming New York’s status as a nuclear weapons-free zone, and setting up a commission to oversee compliance with that directive.

A hearing this week took on nuclear disarmament directly. Danny Dromm sponsored legislation to create an “advisory committee to examine nuclear disarmament and issues related to recognizing and reaffirming New York City as a nuclear-weapons-free zone.” This, in a city that has zero nuclear weapons — or even military bases.

Many New Yorkers may not know, but will surely be relieved to learn, that the city has banned the “production, transport, storage, placement or deployment of nuclear weapons” since the passage of a resolution in April 1983, at the height of the Reagan-era “No Nukes” movement.

 

Four decades later, the city wants to launch a committee of six members, led by the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office on International Affairs, to “establish a working definition for how a nuclear-weapons-free zone might be defined in New York” and to “host discussions, public programs and other educational initiatives related to nuclear disarmament.”

The hearing quickly ran into difficulty when Commissioner Penny Abeywardena, though agreeing with the peacenik principle, insisted that the responsibility didn’t fall under the ambit of her office, which is focused on relations with the United Nations — mostly, public relations and handling parking-ticket complaints from scofflaw consulates.

“The presence of nuclear weapons in New York City,” she clarified, “is not an international issue.” Moreover, since the deployment and use of nuclear weapons is a federal matter, “cities do not have jurisdiction or involvement in this decision-making process.”

Look out Kim Jong Un!