#MyDayNYC pic.twitter.com/e8LWu8jxh9, Chirlane McCray (@NYCFirstLady) April 2, 2020. In at least two cases, a person made a campaign donation to Mr. de Blasio within days of one of Ms. McCrays calls on behalf of the fund. Chirlane McCray (@Chirlane) / Twitter Only 570 of the estimated 12-15,000 mothers who experience postpartum depression have been reached by the program, Politico reported, a number NYC disputes. The couple donated $260,000, earmarked for Ms. McCrays mental health initiative, in 2015 and 2016. But it was quickly turned into rejection when a classmate found her in an intimate embrace with another woman. OP1670 Exposes New Fed Power to Seize Control of U.S. Bank Accounts. Why do we get this kind of criticism? says McCray. Insight from Dr. Oscar Odom, former NYPD detective. Sign up for our free email newsletter, and we'll make sure to keep you in the loop. [12] During the Clinton administration, she worked for the New York Foreign Press Center as a public affairs specialist. The Phantom of the Opera The Final Curtain, California Consumer Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information, California Consumer Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, McCray says the citys mental health hotline, NYC Well, logged 33,000 texts, chats and calls this January, Some critics have said that Thrive focused too little on those with serious mental illnesses, The mayors most recent budget deal includes another $115 million in mental-health spending. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8, Continue reading your article witha WSJ subscription, Already a subscriber? Ron DeSantis. Photo by Spectrum News NY1. Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. .hustle-ui.hustle_module_id_1[data-id="1"] .hustle-layout .hustle-button-cta {width:100%!important;font-size:18px!important;}.hustle-ui.module_id_1 .hustle-popup-content {max-width: 400px!important;}.hustle-group-content p {font-size:18px!important;margin: 24px 0 0!important;}.hustle-ui.module_id_4 .hustle-layout .hustle-content {padding-bottom: 0px;}, We may receive compensation from affiliate partners for some links on this site. The programs at issue ostensibly are meant to assist particularly challenged people the helpless, often homeless, mentally ill and small children whose futures are forfeited because they landed in shamefully nonfunctional schools, an experience from which they will never recover. With over 22,000 layoffs of city workers looming, the mayor cant seriously expect to keep funding full-time, highly paid speechwriters and professional videographers for his wifes political ambitions. By this fall, every public school will have at least one full-time social worker on hand or school-based mental health clinic, and when 911 calls are made for a mental health disturbance, EMTs are now accompanied by social workers police are often called in to assist. [8], McCray enrolled at Wellesley College in 1972. The inquiries were closed in 2016 without charges being filed. [27] In a March 2019 article on ThriveNYC, The New York Times reported: "Public health officials credit the plan for drawing attention to mental health At the same time, some initiatives failed to get started, while others placed unrealistic demands on already strained mental health services". Immediately, she began to work mainly on three issues, the chief among them being mental health. Once-Thriving City Nonprofit Sputters Under Mayor's Wife, Chirlane McCray Learn More. Abbott tells Chicago mayor to take complaints on border crisis to the White House, Biden admin's coordination with environmental groups to ban gas stoves under investigation by Cruz, Comer, Virginia Gov. More telling was that neither Herman nor McCray could even tell the council how many people are on Thrives payrolls though surely there are many. But lets be clear: If your boondogglery sets the New York City Council back on its heels, you truly are soaring with the eagles. Think Stockholm syndrome, rolled into a big ball with the United Federation of Teachers. The First Lady has also been working with local leaders from municipalities across the country, part of the Cities Thrive Coalition. From the fiscal year that began in July 2014 the first year the fund was under full control of Mr. de Blasio and Ms. McCray through June 2017, the fund raised an average of $22 million a year. They need supportive housing, for example, where there are services available where they live, to be able to function. [3] She has also published poetry and worked in politics as a speechwriter. Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, a donor to the fund virtually since its inception, recalled receiving a brief phone call from Ms. McCray in 2015 when the foundation was considering a large donation to support a mental health initiative. [4] She is of Barbadian and St. Lucian descent, but traces her grandmother's last name (Quashie) to Ghana. Im the founder, I provide the strategic support, I hold meetings on behavioral health and I amplify things to the public.. Well, he didnt actually say rathole, and the price tag has doubtless been lowballed but he also had no credible explanation for the debacle, nor did he apologize for it. Four years later, no one seems to know what that money was actually used for, according to the New York Post. Chirlane McCray, de Blasio's Wife, Is Questioned Over His [3] As of March 2019, nearly $850 million in funding for McCray's mental health program was unaccounted for; furthermore, the program was on track to spend $1 billion over five years. [8] McCray cites her early experience with racism and bullying as part of the reason she began to write, using her poetry as an outlet for her anger. Fellow contender, City Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn), slammed the spending. We are measuring.. The fund has also moved into a larger space, in a building across from City Hall, which, for the first time, now includes a separate office for the chairwoman. Schedules and emails detail meetings in the years after he was a convicted sex offender. Sometime in late 1960s, she wrote a column in the school publication, in which she called out on her classmates for the cruelty they had inflicted on her. In February, 2014, she was named as the chairperson of the Mayors Fund to Advance New York City. And just as surely, jobs are the point both municipal positions and employment with the numberless, anonymous, unaccountable and usually politically connected not-for-profit agencies that live off city dollars. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! There is no limit to the size of donations to the fund, as there is for campaign contributions, and as a nonprofit controlled by the mayors office, the fund has routinely and legally raised money from donors who gave to Mr. de Blasios campaigns and his political causes. McCray says her hope is that the Office of Community Mental Health, created via an executive order, continues long after she leaves Gracie Mansion, but also admits the rebranding was an effort to move away from the negativity surrounding the ThriveNYC moniker. It's just the kind of small, yet crucial revolution that drove Chirlane McCray into public service in the first place, and this week, she saw it realized . All rights reserved. Social PROOF Trump Indictment Will Likely Win Him 2024! Chirlane McCray, shown at New York City Hall on Feb. 25, created ThriveNYC as a mental-health initiative. Chirlane McCray Wants to Get You Paid - ELLE And it's only (your) money even if it is quite a lot of it. That makes a robust roster of 14 staffers double the amount she had in 2018. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, was given $900 million to start a mental health initiative focusing on helping the homeless in the city. STOLEN? NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio's Wife "Can't Account For" $850 MILLION In 1975, after earning her BA degree, Chirlane McCray attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course. We understand were working at a sensitive intersection of civic investors and public projects, so we try to be sensitive to it, Mr. Bloch said. There is no evidence its working.. In January 1, 2014, de Blasio was sworn in as the Mayor and with that McCray became the First Lady of New York City. Meanwhile, just as Torres sees no evidence of Thrives efficacy, theres no reason to believe hes willing to do anything about it. [35] The family lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn,[6][12] until their 2014 move into Gracie Mansion,[36] the official residence of the Mayor of New York City. Chirlane McCray - Wikipedia But the co-mayor made performance promises when he initiated the Renewal program, few of which even remotely were met, and presently gravity prevailed: The program caved in on itself. Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire whose charitable efforts are well known, conceived the fund as a way for philanthropists, corporations and others to help subsidize city initiatives. Even as fund-raising has stalled, the fund has moved into larger offices which include a new, private office for Ms. McCray and the cost of running the operation has increased by more than 50 percent in the last two years. [7] The purpose of the essay was to "dispel the myth that there are no gay black people". Whatever happened to the money from ThriveNYC? asked City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens). That the co-mayors could fly under the radar to burn through $1.6 billion to no obvious good effect is an embarrassment but understandable in the abstract. That is, nobody appears to have kept receipts; the subways and street corners are still overrun with crazy people, and nobody in charge knows whats to happen next. In 1991, I met the love of my life, married him. New York is supposed to be better than that. Chirlane McCray Biography - Facts, Childhood, Family Life, Achievements It was honorable work, it didnt cost very much and it filled up the spouses free time. Contributions are stagnant, if not falling, and now support fewer programs. It's all sizzle and no steak. The amount of time it takes to manage a $50,000 program or project is not infrequently the same amount of time that it might take to manage a $5 million program or project, said Darren Bloch, the executive director of the Mayors Fund, defending the staffing increase. But lets be clear: If your boondogglery sets the New York City Council back on its heels, you truly are soaring with the eagles. Thereafter, she moved to New York City, where she got a job as a low-level editor, writer and market researcher at a women's magazine called Redbook. De Blasio is an Italian-American. . She added, This is 2018; work can get done in all kinds of ways.. But very soon, she realized that publishing was not her cup of tea. Instagram: @chirlane Paul Martinka / SplashNews.com ThriveNYC, which McCray launched in 2015, came under scrutiny by watchdogs. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, As the wife of New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, she is also the First Lady of New York City since 2014. Her public schedules indicate she spends even less: a total of 19.5 hours spent on fund activities in all of last year; 35 hours in 2016. Bill is the mayor of New York City since 2014. JUST RELEASED: Phone Call To Chinese Manufacturer Requesting a Bulk Classic Video of Donald Trump on Larry King In 1987 Barack Obamas Brother EXPOSES The Michael/Michelle Rumors! [17] Later in 2014, Noerdlinger resigned her post following a series of controversies surrounding her behavior and that of persons close to her. The program spearheaded by Chirlane McCray, wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio, has an annual budget of $250 million Chirlane McCray, shown at New York City Hall on Feb. 25, created ThriveNYC as a . ThriveNYC, a Mental Health Initiative, Comes Under Scrutiny. [6][7][8] She wrote a column for her school newspaper in which she denounced classmates for their racism. He also attended a meeting of philanthropic organizations at Gracie Mansion to discuss the initiative, at which Ms. McCray spoke. That it should happen in a single week is worse its an embarrassment. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, former Post reporter Yoav Gonen pulled together. [8], When de Blasio became mayor, he hired publicist Rachel Noerdlinger to be McCray's chief of staff. She now had her own staff and a larger role to play. The Thrive program, which had its budget raised to $250 million per year in 2019, has produced some underwhelming numbers in terms of how many people it impacts. The first lady was a similarly infrequent presence at board meetings, attending just five of 12 since being appointed, according to the meeting minutes. That is, once upon a time, first spouses were content to pretend to be in charge of prettifying highways and things. On January 27, 2013, as her husband, Bill de Blasio, announced his candidacy for Mayor of New York City, Chirlane McCray took up a new role, accompanying him on his campaign. Right up there with co-Mayor Bill, who started the week on his own sour note announcing that his signature Renewal school program was closing up shop after pounding $773 million down a rathole. Bill de Blasio attempts to defend his wife's $1.1M salary for staff The mayor argued that she would be exceptional and was uniquely qualified to connect government with for-profit and nonprofit groups. Bill de Blasio's wife can't account for $850m given to mental health Chirlane McCray is an American activist, writer and poet. Heres What Theyre Trying To Distract You From With The Trump Indictment. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. That is, once upon a time, first spouses were content to pretend to be in charge of prettifying highways and things. For, clearly, the objective cant be services. Shell be happy; the mayor will be delighted and the unions and nonprofits will be delirious. Chirlane McCray Wants to Get You Paid. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Chirlane McCray had possible 'pay-to-play' scheme with nonprofit The IBO budget shows $816 million. In fact, said Caraway, New Yorkers should be thanking McCrays staff for their contributions. Besides the calls that Ms. McCray makes to donors, she has met with potential donors and hosted an annual Christmas fund-raiser at Gracie Mansion. One is a $70,000-a-year videographer (paid via the Health Department!) Thereafter, she served Bill Thompson, New York City Comptroller, possibly from 2002 to 2004. I first saw the story online under the title: "Bill DeBlasio's Wife Reportedly Loses $850 Million of Taxpayer Funds! With the aid of the citys First Lady, Mayor de Blasio launched a massive overhaul of the citys mental-health system in 2015. The new forecast gives Republicans and Democrats a matter of weeks to reach an agreement on raising the nation's roughly $31.4 trillion borrowing limit. Nearly a third of New Yorkers may be out of work thanks to the pandemic and lockdowns, but first lady Chirlane McCrays staff is thriving. Outside school, she was excluded from boy-girl mixers. She also edited his speeches and helped in interviewing staffs. [6][12] At the time, de Blasio was an aide to a deputy mayor and McCray was a speechwriter. This naked abuse of his public trust puts the lie to all de Blasios endless moral sanctimony. They met while they both were working for Mayor Dinkins' administration and t married in 1994. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to defend first lady Chirlane McCray against backlash on Wednesday after it was discovered she had private staff that's getting paid millions in. Baking day! But the co-mayor made performance promises when he initiated the Renewal program, few of which even remotely were met, and presently gravity prevailed: The program caved in on itself. On the citys website there is now a tool launched last year where you can see how many New Yorkers are using the programs. She discovered Black writers like Toni Morrison, which convinced her that she too had a story to tell. The wife of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio "can't account for" $850 million in missing taxpayer money that was granted to her mental health project, according to reports. Bob McManus harshly assessed the program's effectivenessfor the New York Post: The NY Post reports that among multiple failed programs and "bad accounting", the figure is actually not $850 million but rather $1.8 BILLION! [6][9] Essence later described the essay as "groundbreaking", asserting that it was "perhaps the first time a Black gay woman had spoken so openly and honestly about her sexuality in a Black magazine". In that essay, McCray "frankly discussed her sexuality and expressed gratitude that she came to terms with her preference for women before marrying a man". I think theres added benefit. The discovery shocked many of her dormitory mates. She/her. "I'm not sure anybody does.". [13] She also worked as a speechwriter for the New York State Comptroller Carl McCall and for New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson. Its not necessary for me to sit through them if I can be raising thousands of dollars to actually pay for fund programs. So, ipso presto, co-Mayor Bill coughed up enough cash to break a pack mules back and sent it off to co-Mayor Chirlane who then went forth to cure Gothams mental-illness problems. [5], When she was ten years old, her family moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts, becoming only the second black family in the area. They're homeless for other reasons.. Theres no separation as a practical matter.. Here they had to face extreme racism with the white residents circulating a petition that they leave the area. It was . Another sign of corruption: The mayor imposed a hiring freeze early this year but McCray still got to bring on a new $150,000-a-year senior adviser in April, who somehow got classified as an essential worker. But in the end, McCray insisted Tuesday, all the spending is to the benefit of every New Yorker. In several cases, donations to the fund coincided with city action on a particular project, though donors dispute any effort to curry favor with the administration. But this is 2019, and the general feeling at least in the deBlasio administration is that if theres not a lot of dough attached to the spousal sinecure, it doesnt really matter enough. We did not say everything would be perfect, burbled the co-mayor as if anybody outside his immediate orbit expected an outcome even close to competent. Once a white construction worker spit on her while she was riding a bike. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Two Trees Management, a real estate developer that in 2015 donated $100,000 to the Campaign for One New York, gave $11,750 to the fund in April 2016, just weeks after Mr. de Blasio said he would shut down the Campaign for One New York. And the chairwoman of the nonprofit, Chirlane McCray, has largely been missing in action: She has attended less than half of the funds board meetings, and her outreach to donors has been sporadic. Fast-forward to Wednesday, when the City Council was startled to discover that McCray and Team Thrive are closing in on having spent an eye-popping $900 million since the programs inception and nobody seems to have a clue on what. Bill de Blasio, Chirlane McCray, Chiara de Blasio and Dante de Blasio Chirlane is the loving mom of Chiara de Blasio and Dante de Blasio. We did not say everything would be perfect, burbled the co-mayor as if anybody outside his immediate orbit expected an outcome even close to competent. With opaque budget and elusive metrics, $850M ThriveNYC program (And dont forget the Department of Correction: A huge but ultimately unknowable percentage of New Yorks mentally ill reside on Rikers Island and in other lock-ups.). De Blasio's wife can't account for $850m given to mental health scheme https://t.co/gTEJcrCeob via @MailOnline, NYC Mayor De Blasio's wife spent $900 million in taxpayer moneywith no record of how it was used https://t.co/UGe8liu6L0, De Blasio and co-mayor wife have wasted $1.8B of taxpayer moneyFrankly Im surprised its not much more considering these two incompetent lazy stoners are at the helm. We've received your submission. So, ipso presto, co-Mayor Bill coughed up enough cash to break a pack mules back and sent it off to co-Mayor Chirlane who then went forth to cure Gothams mental-illness problems. First lady Chirlane McCray has raised between $13 million and $28 million in donations for a City Hall-aligned nonprofit from people and entities with business before her hubby Mayor de Blasio, The Does anybody know how well more likely, how poorly the co-mayors hugely expensive pre-K program is working, especially that portion consigned to the citys notoriously problematic not-for-profit sector? Chiara was born seven months after the wedding in December 1994. Mayor Bill de Blasio likes to say that there's plenty of money in New York City, but that it's in the wrong hands. That two such scandals should bubble to the surface unannounced is bad enough. [22][23] ThriveNYC promotes a shift from a traditionally more reactive model, which can strain police, prisons, hospitals, and schools,[24] to an integrated public health approach focusing on awareness and early identification. [19] Since then, the Fund has focused on mental health, immigration, and youth workforce projects. It was honorable work, it didnt cost very much and it filled up the spouses free time. How many other big-bucks initiatives are in similar straits is unknowable mostly because bureaucrats never blow the whistle on themselves and also because Gothams formal watchdog, city Comptroller Scott Stringer, is among the most incurious individuals ever to hold the office. This work is about the needs of the people of this city especially in this crisis, de Blasio said this week, pointing to her running of his racial equity task force as well as (hes so shameless) the universally criticized ThriveNYC mental health debacle. ThriveNYC, a Mental Health Initiative, Comes Under Scrutiny Essential to the first familys hopes of continued taxpayer support after term limits forces the mayor out of office, maybe. [14], In 2004, McCray left Thompson's office to work in the private sector. They also mocked her, often contorting their mouths to make their lips look big. Don't we want people to be healthy? Thats because there never was any doubt what the program was about. Its wrong, and it needs to stop, Reynoso said. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. One can only imagine what a mad scramble those meetings are. Other families in the neighborhood circulated petitions demanding they leave. This is 2018, Ms. McCray said, work can get done in all kinds of ways., and given its current name by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Trump threatens to send federal agents to New York City if Bill de Blasio can't stop the violence, Oklahoma governor makes performing 'irreversible gender transition surgeries' on children a felony, Texas Gov. Her performance left council members blinking. McCray is the proprietress of ThriveNYC, a mental-health-related something-or-other created four-plus years ago to give a little. An almost decadelong runup has left the greenback heavily overvalued, some analysts say. Not one to take all these humiliations lying down, she began to pour her anger into poems. [6][9] McCray met Bill de Blasio in 1991, when they both worked at New York City Hall for then Mayor David Dinkins. The performance of the Mayors Fund Ms. McCrays only official role among her many unofficial responsibilities, including overseeing the citys mental health initiatives provides a window into her leadership style at a time when she is contemplating a run for office of her own. As the city pulls out of the pandemics fog, many of those critics point to what appears to be a growing number of homeless and mentally disturbed people wandering the streets and subways. Early in her youth, Chirlane McCray identified herself as a lesbian and continued to do so till 1991 when she met her future husband, Bill de Blasio, at that time working as an aide to David Dinkins. Mr. de Blasio had to seek permission from the citys Conflicts of Interest Board to name his wife to chair the fund, because city rules barred him from giving the job to a relative. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. The 1984 ruling, known as the Chevron deference, directs courts to defer to a federal agencys legal approach when Congress has left the statutory language ambiguous, which some conservatives have come to oppose. After a brief rise, the number declined again.
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