Daniel Alicea

The City & @NYCMayor offered lottery for 100k free tix to the @Macys fireworks show w/special access to BKB Park. Folks stood on lines for hours. Zero crowd control by @NYPDPC. Cops stood blocks away from lines. Assigned zones converged into a mob. It was unsafe for my family.

@cayla_bam and @NYDailyNews. Why are you perpetuating @UFT leadership’s talking points and misinformation about this bill? 1. There is zero internal mechanism in this bill that allows City Council or the mayor to reauthorize payments beyond August 2027, after it expires. 2. Section 5 of Intro-692-A says the bill is REPEALED if either the last of the payment is made or if a better deal is made in collective bargaining IN 2027. It reads: This local law takes effect immediately and expires… And is DEEMED REPEALED upon the payment of a workforce stabilization payment to all eligible school paraprofessionals, or upon the execution of a collective bargaining agreement or collective bargaining agreements that provide for an increase in the total annual compensation for all eligible school paraprofessionals equal to or greater than the amount of the workforce stabilization payments required pursuant to section two of this local law, whichever occurs first. Please report this accurately and not parrot the selective talking points of union leadership. Learn more here: thewire.educators.nyc/p/the-newly-re…

Perhaps you can also speak to leadership of @DC37nyc who has many titles that are as underpaid as paraprofessionals. Lunch workers, early childhood, school aides. EMT seeking parity with FDNY. Were they lobbying FOR or AGAINST @UFT’s Intro 692-A as indicated in the NYC lobby search? The “repeal thereof”? Is the newly amended bill just the work of city lawyers or pushback by other unions who may feel slighted that collective bargaining is being pushed aside for just one group only? Rather than use their collective power in the MLC to push for action on ensuring a pathway for our city’s lowest paid workers in collective bargaining… are we watching internal in-fighting among the city’s largest unions? Why not speak to the rank and file?

What grade would you give @NYCMayor on education six months in? Call into #TalkoutofSchool @WBAI tomorrow at 7 PM ET when our guest will be @MichaelElsenRoo @chalkbeatny 212-209-2877

How Respect Became Temporary: The UFT Respect Check Rewrite Last year, paraprofessionals were told the RESPECT Check would be built around a permanent Para Pay Index—a separate annual payment designed to begin closing the pay gap created by decades of pattern bargaining. Today? That promise has changed. 📌 The Para Pay Index is gone. 📌 The permanent recurring concept is gone. 📌 The latest amended bill is limited to the 2026–27 school year, with four installment payments and no automatic mechanism for continuing beyond that school year. Does that mean paraprofessionals shouldn’t support the bill? Absolutely not. Every paraprofessional deserves every dollar they can get in this current affordability crisis. But members also deserve honesty about how the proposal evolved—from what was originally presented to what is now before the City Council. This isn’t about opposing the bill. It’s about asking a simple question: When did a permanent solution become a temporary patch? What’s the more permanent solution? And how can it include all paras in its creation — not more top down decision-making? We compared the original UFT FAQs, every version of the legislation, and the latest amended bill. The timeline tells a story every paraprofessional should see before the Council votes. 👇 Read, judge the facts for yourself, and share. thewire.educators.nyc/p/the-newly-re… #RespectCheck #Paraprofessionals #UFT #NYCSchools #UnionDemocracy #FairPay #PatternBargaining #ALivingWage

@SusanBEdelman @teacher_choice @UFT And no pay parity for NYCEEC staff either!! @NYCMayor

@UFT Prez Mike Mulgrew sheepishly admits the city's new $126M DOE budget has nothing for underpaid classroom paraprofessionals. Mulgrew's message to members: "The city budget has been finalized and the paraprofessional RESPECT check is not included as a line item.  But, our legislation can still move forward.  Not all bills are passed as part of the city budget. The fact that the RESPECT check is not listed as part of the budget outline does not mean that there are no funds for it or that it is not important.  A lot of the more expensive legislation gets passed outside of the city budget."

This #BrooklynBridge fireworks show is a fuckn joke @NYCMayor won tickets and the NYPD @nypdpc has closed the gates for Zones A & B that nobody can even get in. We all just standing out here at the gate looking stupid & HOT 🥵

This NYC fireworks is a mess. Hour lines. No one directing

If they try and say there are no crowds it’s because no one could get in.

@DanielAlicea @trainpigs @NYCMayor @Macys @NYPDPC @ZohranKMamdani This is exactly our experience. Won 4 tickets, couldn’t believe the cluster fuck that ensued. Had to walk over the Manhattan bridge just to get to a train. It’s a miracle nobody was trampled or anything.

NYC organization for the fireworks at the financial district absolutely terrible, each person tells you something different (one of the officers even said this), 07:23 and they still didn’t open the gates. All the lines are mixed and a mess

Thought I got lucky when I got picked to get tickets to the @macys fireworks. Been standing in this crowd for over 30mins with no one giving directions and no movement. 😮‍💨 @NYCMayor #nyc #macysfireworks #4th_of_July

If you’re in line for zone c Brooklyn bridge park firework viewing zone there is no line. You’re not getting in. It’s a lost cause.

so, everyone waiting in brooklyn bridge park lines for fireworks, please know that EVERYone that you see walking PAST you, is going straight to the entrance and getting in before you. the lines aren’t real! i know because i made it to the front. they’re not letting ppl in.

How did @NYPDnews allow this madness of massive line cutting for Entrance C in Brooklyn. 90+ minutes of near single file down Atlantic Avenue to this complete mess, @NYCMayor @NYCMayorsOffice? Went from peaceful to almost chaos in 30 minutes, stuck under a bridge…

@GaryHershorn @Macys Many people with lottery tickets for Brooklyn Bridge Park did not get entry to any of the spots in Zones A + B. The worst Macy's fireworks I've experienced. Poor crowd control. Many children and elderly got stuck in a crowd and had safety issues with no view of fireworks.

As much as I love @NYCMayor the ticketed fireworks event was an entire shit show. Crowded and unsafe lines leading to nowhere, no one directing anyone at all or checking tickets. I’d rather go the rest of my life without witnessing fireworks than experience that again.

In line for the nyc fireworks and they've paused entry into Brooklyn Bridge park because of a weather event. Surely, it's less safe to have thousands of people packed into a few streets than in the park!

Total chaos trying to get to Brooklyn Bridge Park for the Macy's Fireworks. Waiting on line for hours. Little communication. Unsafe crowd control. Disorganized queue control. Ticketing platform not reliable. Not a very good look for NYC. 100k ticket lottery was not well run. ❌️

@nypost The worst Macy's fireworks I've experienced. Many ticketed lottery winners for the fireworks at Brooklyn Bridge Park didn't even get entry to any spots and no one was there to give people directions to any of the Zones A & B. Event was incredibly poor managed and crowd control.