Tapped In: Nadler Calls for Action on Guns, Broadway Mall Seeks Donations, Creative Economy Growing

NADLER CALLS FOR ACTION ON GUN CONTROL Following the mass shooting of children and adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., on Fiday, Congressman Jerrold Nadler asserted that "we cannot simply accept [shootings] as a routine product of modern American life." The congressman, whose district encompasses the Upper West Side, said in a statement that too many unstable people have accessed firearms in the country to commit terrible acts. "If now is not the time to have a serious discussion about gun control and the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our society, I don't know when is," he continued. "How many more Columbines and Newtowns must we live through? I am challenging President Obama, the Congress, and the American public to act on our outrage and, finally, do something about this." 26 people were killed in the elementary school, including 20 children. The shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also shot his mother in his nearby home before the mass murder, and took his own life in the school. BROADWAY MALL ASSOCIATION SEEKS DONATIONS The Broadway Mall Association (BMA), the organization that oversees landscape design and maintenance for the malls along Broadway from West 70th to 168th streets, is seeking private funding for capital improvements. BMA has secured over $10 million in state and city funds in the past three decades, but now wants to expand its preservation efforts to maintain newly renovated malls at an annual cost of $10,000 per mall. According to BMA, "If the new malls are to grow in successfully and thrive over time, the BMA will need to advocate as successfully with the private sector as it has with the public." For more information and to donate, visit BMA's website at www.broadwaymall.org. CITY'S CREATIVE ECONOMY GROWING, BUT MINORITIES BEING LEFT BEHIND Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's office released a report last week on the city's entrepreneurial economy. Titled "Start-Up City: Growing New York's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for All," the report summarized recent growths in "entrepreneurial" industries like finance, fashion, marketing and technology, but also addressed these fields' limited accessibility, citing census data that showed only 29 percent of employed Blacks and 20 percent of employed Latinos work in these "creative economies." "Too many working-class New Yorkers lack the resources and skills to share in this growth," Stringer said in a statement, noting that annual salaries for jobs in this new tech economy often start at $65,000, well above the city's median family income. "We need to turn this engine into a pipeline to the middle class for thousands of New Yorkers." To achieve this end, the report recommends increasing office and housing affordability, expanding computer science training in public schools and improving transportation to growing business districts, among other initiatives. CONGRESS MEMBERS REQUEST POST-SANDY FOOD STAMP RELIEF Members of Congress including Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler demanded easier access to federal food stamps for New Yorkers still suffering from Hurricane Sandy last week. The members wrote a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg requesting looser eligibility requirements and expanded eligibility zones for the U.S. Department of Agriculture-administered Disaster Supplemental Food Stamp (D-SNAP) program, which provides relief funding to help feed those who were hit hard by the October storm. "Making it as easy as possible for those affected by Hurricane Sandy to have access to the resources they need to recover will also help our city rebuild," the congress members wrote. "Allowing survivors better access to relief programs like D-SNAP will mean more people will be able to sign up, which will also translate into more profits for local small businesses such as grocery stores." The members noted that many New Yorkers whose homes were damaged by the storm's extensive flooding were elderly or handicapped, so they would particularly benefit from easier access to the federal benefits.