I have numerous family members suffering. It is a humanitarian crisis. They are Americans and nothing should get in the way of helping them.

I am starting this petition because of the life-threatening situation in Puerto Rico. Every moment during this time of crisis is vital to saving lives. Without medical supplies, water, food and fuel Americans will die. I hope by coming together we draw attention and help Puerto Rican Americans receive the aid they so desperately need.

I am a Puerto Rican surgeon living in Massachusetts and a member of several groups of Puerto Rican physicians in the United States. I am writing this letter on behalf of physicians and the public health community to raise concerns and questions about the resources and planning for rescue and relief by the government of Puerto Rico and FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. While the damages sustained by Puerto Rico and the underlying vulnerabilities of the population and infrastructure are admittedly unprecedented, the lack of an adequately robust and organized response from the combination of the government of Puerto Rico and the federal government/FEMA is not adequate to prevent unnecessary mortality and morbidity. In the wake of several devastating US hurricanes in the last 10 years, including hurricanes Katrina, we have gained experience in what happens when the federal government response is inadequate in vulnerable, remote low-income and people of color communities. We are desperately hoping to avoid neglect of the predictable core needs of the Puerto Rican people. The following are some of our concerns: 1) Lack of comprehensive and distributed needs assessment and response. Puerto Rico has 78 municipalities. The disaster has greatly affected all of them, some much more than others. Some areas have suffered destruction of bridges and obstruction of main roadways, core government buildings and hospitals, and some are completely uninhabitable due to flooding. Many are likely to face critical shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care. As of Sunday, September 24, the governor freely admitted in a press conference that he is not in contact with 6 of the municipalities. Further, some of these municipalities are unable to access or communicate with whole communities within their municipalities. In the absence of clean water, food, shelter and medical assistance, this could immediately cause deaths. On an island that is 100 x 35 miles (the size of the state of CT), there should be no areas that are completely lost to contact on day 5. As the richest country in the world, the US has the transportation capacity via helicopters, vehicles, and ships, to reach all of these areas. If the government of Puerto Rico lacks the resources to adequately respond to all areas of the island, FEMA and/or the federal government should contribute the necessary resources to perform these core functions. 2) Lack of support for healthcare facilities. Via social media on a 1500+ Puerto Rican physician group, we have received several distress calls. We have heard from physicians that even in Centro Médico, a tertiary center and one of the largest and most critical hospitals on the island, the hospital generators were running out of diesel, the electricity went out, the hospital was running low on water, the staff and family members of patients were going without food despite days in the hospital. We are hearing of hospitals operating beyond staffing and physical capacity with no concrete plans communicated to set up staff relief, new temporary hospitals, and with no organized plans to send patients to the United States for care if Puerto Rico cannot address the demand for care. In this situation, physicians from all corners of the US are attempting to respond by arranging for transfer and care for individual patients. Many are trying to arrange individual travel or volunteer delegations to Puerto Rico. This is a credit to all the individual healthcare personnel that are responding, but it is shameful that we lack a coordinated response. This is a core function of public health response and the government authorities of the United States and Puerto Rico to provide adequate medical staffing to Puerto Rico in the wake of this disaster. 3) Lack of planning or communication of a plan for the healthcare needs of the island’s people in the aftermath of the storm. How will people in remote areas access medical care after this disaster? What alternatives to 911 can be established in a situation with no telecommunications? In our social media groups, we watched as hours passed as several elders were reported in remote areas to have severe medical problems including being unconscious, chest pain, etc, requiring medical attention and without access to medical transportation or in-home care. If a message can reach social media, surely there should be capacity in each municipality to address these emergencies. 4) Signs of medical distress in easily identified priority areas: shelters, nursing homes Why are we receiving distress calls from established shelters where there is no medical care? All shelters should have at least daily access to nearby medical professionals who can get patients appropriately triaged to care. If the capacity does not exist locally due to disaster conditions, the resources exist in the mainland US to deploy the necessary medical personnel in person or by telemedicine assisted by local volunteers. Elders and disabled people in nursing homes represent a high risk and vulnerable patient population. 5) Demand for Primary Care Many primary care locations were destroyed and personnel cannot reach people in distant towns who need medical care. Many people lost their critical medications. What is the plan to address these issues? Failure to address these issues now will mean emergencies and deaths in days to weeks. 6) Meeting Demand for Medical Personnel Will the government of Puerto Rico accept reciprocity of licenses from other jurisdictions in the United States? So far only DHHS and emergency management personnel have this clearance. Volunteers, telemedicine, and distributed response can all help address capacity issues. People should not die in Puerto Rico for lack of medical care when the capacity to meet their needs exists in the US. Further, Cuba has offered to send volunteers. If the US is unwilling to address the medical personnel needs of Puerto Rico, help should be a...

The American Citizens of Puerto Rico, some of whom are family members of mine, are in dire need of food, medical and sanitary supplies now!! The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, aka the Jones Act, no longer serves its original purpose. If the United States has ANY interest in the hurricane-battered people of Puerto Rico, it needs to remove this law off their necks....NOW !

There has been too many qualified Hurricane Harvey disaster victims being denied cash assistance with money that has been specifically donated to the Red Cross for Texans

The Recovery community needs access to supportive housing environments. These environments should have standards and have assistance from public funding sources.

California has the highest child poverty rate in the country. California is a global leader in environmental policy and progressive politics, yet we still have 1 in 5 kids—that’s nearly 2 million children—in our own state languishing in poverty. Let’s put this into context: If all the kids living in poverty in California were a city, it would be more than twice the population of San Francisco. We have the chance to turn that around. Right now, Governor Jerry Brown has bipartisan legislation in his hands that takes the critical first step to end child poverty in our state. Tell the Governor to act and sign AB 1520. Californians want action. AB 1520—The Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force—will create an expert task force made up of leaders and stakeholders from inside and outside government that will develop a comprehensive, data-driven plan that lays the groundwork to eliminate child poverty. Families struggling in California need support now.

Better living conditions!

The victims of Hurricane Harvey urgently need federal assistance. But instead of pledging to give Texas the help it needs outright, Donald Trump is still threatening to veto funding bills that don't include money for his wall. And if Congress waits too long, Trump might shut down the government before the relief effort is funded. We can't afford to have Congress fold to Trump. Our representatives need to pass an emergency relief bill -- without money for the wall -- to ensure that help gets to those suffering from Hurricane Harvey. Sign our emergency petition to Democrats and Republicans in Congress: Pass a clean bill to fund relief and rebuilding in Texas and the Gulf Coast -- with no border wall.

The final public hearing on Revisions to Development Standards in the R1-A Districts will be at the planning commission Nov. 15th and soon headed to the Berkeley City Council. Planning staff and developers want to continue building two large luxury condos on one parcel that can include 2-story houses in the rear yard and 3-story houses in front yards, making housing less affordable for working families. Keep housing affordable: limit height on rear units to one story, limit height of front yard houses to two stories, increase required open space, and encourage backyard cottages and duplex buildings

Amory Street Partners is seeking community support for its Article 80 filing towards the redevelopment of 125 Amory Street. Demonstrating support from neighbors and business owners is an important step in the Boston Planning and Development Agency ’s Article 80 approval process. To learn more about this project, follow the link to the presentation from the last community meeting: https://jpndc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/125-Amory-Community-Presentation-May-16-2017.pdf For more information about the Amory Street Redevelopment, contact Noah Sawyer at [email protected]

Critical Mass in Berkeley; overpopulation, in general, is nothing new, but there is a genuine lack of green space in Berkeley. House the homeless and the poor and the schizophrenic. Keep the park for the People. The Park is relative to civil rights and free speech. 2019 will mark the 50th anniversary of People's Park and it would be a horrific shame on the community if the park would be destroyed simply for the sake of student housing, which can be built anywhere. UCB used eminent domain illegally to displace the original neighborhood and, lacking funds to create yet another student housing unit, created the blight in the first place. The park was an attempt by the community to create something beautiful. The UCB and, frankly, the City of Berkeley, have done everything in their power to destroy the park. Given the associated civil rights and free speech background linked to People's Park, the actions of UCB and The City of Berkeley seem determinedly fascist.