Good things are happening! A new online feature will have you sitting pretty. Plus, a drought-stricken river basin scores a financial reprieve, there’s good news about violent crime, ride-share drivers score important new protections, and credit reports get cleansed.
Getting Flush With Toilets
Digesting the Big Apple just got easier, after the New York City government released a new Google Maps layer that displays roughly 1,000 public bathrooms available for public use. The program, called “Ur in Luck,” will also build and renovate 82 public bathrooms over the next five years.
These 1,000 bathrooms in a city of eight million means there’s just one public bathroom per 8,000 people. This ratio is actually higher than the country as a whole, which has just one public bathroom per 12,500 people, according to a 2021 report. In New York City, many public bathrooms date back to the 1930s, lack necessities like toilet paper, and close as early as 4 p.m. Many neighborhoods like SoHo, Chinatown, East Harlem, and Lower Manhattan lack public bathrooms entirely.
Medical debt no longer reported via credit bureaus? Well and good!
Missing context:
(a) only the US has medical bankruptcies;
(b) universal healthcare will end medical debt for all needed care;
(c) enabling legislation sits on the desk of every Congress member with strong co-sponsorship support;
(d) even progressive media (lookin' at you) hardly ever mention this crucial context; and
(e) missing context helps ensure zero pressure to enact the legislation and thus ensure millions of people continue to sicken and die and go bankrupt, regardless of what shows up on their credit report.
Kudos for mentioning Khanna's $200B medical-debt grant program. But you could also have added the magic phrase: "until Congress enacts universal healthcare" -- because the proposed grant program is a band-aid. Welcome, but a band-aid. Further, it would cost $200B/yr while Medicare for All could SAVE $650B/yr (per 200-page analysis by the Congressional Budget Office).
Please help break this vicious circle. Add universal-care missing context now and every time. Think of it as a civic duty and a sacred trust. Thank you.