Winner of Vol. 71, No. 24
What’s inside?
the Pulitzer Prize
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Changing how we look at childbirth By KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
After tweeting about care, woman dies giving birth
kbrendlen@riverdalepress.com
Making it count With so many undercounted in the past, census workers are looking for a different outcome now in the Bronx. Page A3
Time to reopen You’ve been visiting them virtually for months. But now you have a chance to return to these parks for real. Page A5
In movies and television, birth is terrifying. It’s usually dramatic, always taking place in a hospital with lots of yelling and screaming from the mother. That colors the way many see birth, including Myla Flores. That is until she was 12 when her sister gave birth to Flores’ nephew. Rather than go to a hospital, her sister chose to go to a birth center lead by midwives. There, Flores saw a side of birth she never knew existed. “I walked in, and I saw beautiful stuff,” she said. “Just the way the family was engaged, the sounds that were being made, the peace in the room, ‘There are you know, just that really good vibe. And I not enough was like, ‘Is this what birth is? Holy moly, brown this is so lovely.’” and Black After a few college majors, Flores attend- midwives in ed some home births the U.S.’ as a midwife’s assis— Myla Flores tant, and then went on her way to becoming a doula — someone who supports pregnant women during pregnancy, labor, and usually for a few weeks after birth. She is the founder of My Loving Doula in Washington Heights. Now, after more than a decade in the field, Flores is ready to open her own birth center, not unlike the one her sister gave birth in years ago. There is one defining characteristic: The center, set to open next year in Riverdale, would be the first nonhospital birth center in the Bronx. The borough with the worst health outcomes in the state has been without a facility that could provide education and support to families for years, Flores said, sometimes driving people across boroughs while they look for support. Bruce McIntyre and his partner, Amber Isaac, were one of those couples. When Isaac got pregnant last fall, the couple initially went to traditional doctors in the Montefiore medical system. Over time, though, they became frustrated with their care, turning to midwife Nubia Martin, hoping Isaac could deliver at a birthing MIDWIVES, page A4
By KIRSTYN BRENDLEN kbrendlen@riverdalepress.com
F
or some, birthdays are important. But for Amber Rose Isaac and partner Bruce McIntyre, Aug. 11, 2019, was just as special of a day for them. That’s the day the couple decided to have a baby. The two had been friends for about a decade, McIntyre said, but only started dating in 2018, after she graduated college and he moved to the Bronx full-time after shuttling between North Carolina and New York while Amber worked her way up through Riverdale/ Kingsbridge Academy. Until the couple moved in together, Isaac had spent most of her life living with her family in the northwest Bronx. “Amber was just somebody that was so focused on her career and focused on school,” McIntyre said. “I actually tried to get with her like six years ago, and she turned me down.” Once she had her bachelor’s degree in hand, though, things looked up for McIntyre. “As soon as I moved back to New York, me and AmAMBER, page A4
Courtesy of Bruce McIntyre
Amber Isaac and Bruce McIntyre were looking forward to the day they would be parents, but Isaac did not survive childbirth on April 21.
International students can stay in U.S. — for now Decision to boot students back to home countries could have been career devastating
Goodbye Father! Christ Church Riverdale bids farewell to Father Andrew Butler as he begins a new spiritual journey. Page A8
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By ROSE BRENNAN rbrennan@riverdalepress.com
Bartosz Gierczak graduated from Manhattan College in May, and for him it seems he graduated just in time. Earlier this month, the Trump administration declared any international students who wouldn’t be able to physically attend classes in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic would be forced to return home. With coronavirus cases surging through many parts of the country, online classes were seeming like a smarter decision
Courtesy of Harriet Carino
International students across the country faced an immigration scare earlier this month after the Trump administration said they would have to return home if their American schools were only offering online classes in the fall. The White House reversed its position several days later after public backlash. each day. But it also left colleges and universities with an impossible question: Should they prioritize
the health of all of their students, or the immigration statuses of some of their students? The move inspired national
backlash, even leading schools like Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to sue the administration, with Gierczak’s alma mater signing on in support. A week later, the White House reversed its position, allowing international students to stay no matter how classes were conducted in the fall. “Honestly, I was expecting something stupid to happen, or something ridiculous like this,” said Gierczak, who came to the United States from Poland. “I was just thinking, ‘Thank God I just graduated.’” Before the Trump administration’s about-face, many colleges were searching for policy loopholes that would allow their international students to stay. Many considered having some classes meet in-person once a semester, meaning they wouldn’t be “fully remote,” thus requiring international students to remain close to campus.
Locally, Manhattan College is adopting a “hybrid model” for its upcoming semester, meaning there will be a mix of in-person and online classes. But if the college was forced to go completely remote for reasons outside of its control — like another outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 — it would have left its international student population vulnerable to deportation. Tamara Britt, Manhattan College’s general counsel, said while Manhattan College was not planning to create an in-person class specifically so international students could remain in the country, members of its community were nevertheless ready to do so. “We did have faculty who were willing to step up and say, ‘I’m going to teach an (in-person) three-credit course so that these students can stay in the country,’” Britt said. “We thought that was INTERNATIONAL, page A4
Rent cancellation could be only way to circumvent crisis By KIRSTYN BRENDLEN kbrendlen@riverdalepress.com
New York City is starting to breathe a sigh of some relief as it moves into the fourth phase of its economic reopening in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic as more people head back to work. But there are still many who stay awake at night worrying about one thing that is likely their largest monthly expense: rent. Housing advocates raised the alarm about rents almost as soon as the state shut down in late March, pushing unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression. For them, waiving rent was the only solution to help them through the crisis. Instead, state and local electeds have taken different routes, focused more on
preventing or delaying evictions, at least through the beginning of next month. Albany lawmakers passed the Tenant Safe Harbor Act that doesn’t prevent evictions, but does allow tenants to use financial hardship caused by the pandemic as a defense against eviction in housing court. Tensions over housing are on the rise, and many housing advocates are preparing for the worst. But even with all the chatter in the news and from elected officials about the ability to pay rent, there is still a lot that isn’t being done. That’s something U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared during an online workshop last week hosted by Housing Justice for All. She was joined by Jamaal Bowman, who likely will become her congressional colleague in January afRENT CRISIS, page A4
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JULIUS CONSTANTINE MOTAL / File
Juan Nuñez, leader of a Kingsbridge tenant association and member of Housing Justice for All, took part in a virtual eviction workshop with Alexandria OcasioCortez and congressional candidate Jamaal Bowman. Nuñez believes canceling rent is the only way to relieve financial burden of tenants affected by the coronavirus pandemic.