In a wide ranging interview, City Council Speaker Juie Menin called the 13:09 average response time to a serious medical emergency by the FDNY EMS "unacceptable".
On the Tuesday edition of WBAI What's Going On with Isaac Ferguson and Terri Wisdom with Harlem Network News, Speaker Menin referenced a recent City Council hearing that "really exposed this fact that the ambulance time that New Yorkers are waiting for is simply unacceptable...when we know that seconds matter when you are dealing with cardiac arrest or other serious issues in terms of damage done to the brain after four minutes without oxygen."
Menin continued. "The EMS workers are simply underpaid. Many of them are making $18 an hour. Some of them are living in homeless shelters. What kind of city are we when our frontline EMS workers continue to be allowed this low pay which is why EMS workers only stay on the job an average of three years because the pay is too low."
Poor retention in the EMS workforce has been consistently cited by FDNY brass as a contributing factor to idle ambulances without crews which in turn help to drive up response times.
"We had an instance in my district where a teenage boy who was playing basketball got significantly injured--his family called the ambulance and after three hours the ambulance never came despite repeated calls and that's not isolated," Menin said.
FUTON & ELLIOTT-CHELSEA HOUSES
During the listener calls segment, Speaker Menin was asked about the ongoing battle being fought by longtime public housing tenants at NYCHA's Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses [FEC] on Manhattan’s west side who are resisting being forced out of the complex that's slated to be demolished.
In 2024, during the Adams administration, NYCHA signed off on a redevelopment of the site with Related Companies and Essence Development to replace the existing NYCHA units with "new, highly-amenity permanently affordable homes" which would "add capacity to NYCHA property management".
As part of the deal, the developers were cleared to also build hi-rise towers with 2,500 units fetching market rate rents.
Speaker Menin said she didn't want residents "displaced" because they "have lived in the community for years."
"Any redevelopment of Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses must protect existing residents," Menin said. "It has to guarantee their right to return and insure their voices are heard throughout the process. Council Member Chris Banks, who chairs our Public Housing Committee and I know he has been very, very vocal on this issue--not only at Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses but citywide. We want to make sure they are protected in that process."
24/7 LIVE IN HOME HEALTH AIDES
Another caller asked for an update from Speaker Menin on the 24/7 home health aide legislation that aims to end the controversial practice where the live-in aides only get paid for 13 hours.
"So, the 24 hour bill is an important bill because what we are trying to do is make sure our home health aides are being protected in terms of working conditions. Right now where the bill is that the bill's sponsor Council Member Chris Marte has worked hard on this," Menin said. "We are trying to build support in the Council and address some of the issues and we are also working with the state because some of these are state issues. So, the bill is still being worked on. There are amendments some parties have suggested and we are working with the bill's sponsor on that."
In response to co-host Terri Wisdom observation that community based media like WBAI and Harlem Network News deserved more public support Speaker Menin shared that the City Council was holding a hearing Wednesday at 10 AM at 250 Broadway to see how well the Mandami administration is complying with a municipal law that requires "a certain percentage of funding" via municipal PSA placement goes to community and ethnic media."
"When I was Census Director in 2020 this is something I took very seriously and we funded half our media budget overall to community and ethnic media to help us reach communities around the Census," Speaker Menin said. "We've heard many concerns from various community and ethnic media outlets that they are not getting the funding."
