Color coded

To the editor:

The immediate savings from Mayor Eric Adams’ cuts to supportive housing initiatives, meals on wheels for seniors, after-school and summer programs, programming for inmates and the three public libraries will save a total of $118 million in a $107 billion budget. The long-term harm from these cuts will likely cost the city more. Likewise, the savings Adams claims he will get from forcing city retirees into a Medicare Advantage plan is $600 million. This is also a minute percentage of the budget.

In response to critics, Adams plays the race card. He claims he is being picked on because some folks don't want a leader that "looks like me." Besides the fact that unlike some white people, I know all Black people don't look alike, the fact is that Adams' cuts hurt people of all colors. Just as the anti-worker policies of Adams' buddy, ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, hurt Jewish city workers as much as all others.

In the June 16th Chief article, "Public hospital nurses call for H + H to invest in them," Crystal Lewis reports that the city still refuses to give their nurses a contract that will give them pay parity with private hospitals' nurses. As a result, there's a shortage of nurses in city hospitals. The city winds up paying more money to temporary traveling nurses rather than give the city's nurses a fair contract. Many of the city's nurses are people of color. 

When it comes to the Medicare Advantage scheme, city retirees were just as opposed to it when Adams' white predecessor, Bill de Blasio, was trying to shove it down their throats. Also, senior retirees come in all colors.

Richard Warren