By Robert Press
Telling the audience gathered at the Union Community Health Center located at 260 East 188th Street that seventy-four million Americans have no dental care Councilman Ritchie Torres said that that there are seventy-four dentists for every hundred thousand NYC residents.He then said that in the Bronx there are only twenty-five dentists per hundred thousand residents. Council,am Torres then announced that he was providing $334,000.00 to UCHC for a mobile dental van.
Dr. Douglas York said that the mobile dental van would cover the areas not served by the three current Union Community Health Centers which provide dental services. Dr. York said that the Mobile Dental Van would go to schools, shelters, and NYCHA centers to provide the much needed dental services to people who do not have any dental care.
Councilman Torres was asked a question about his vote on building four new borough jails, including one jail in the congressional district he is running where the residents of the Beekman-Diego Houses next to the proposed Bronx jail site were vehemently opposed to the new jail. Torres replied that he voted for the new borough jails because Kalief Browder was held for three years in solitary confinement, brutally beaten, and who committed suicide after being released innocent of any crimes. He added that Rikers was outdated, the buildings are falling apart, and that the eleven total NYC jails would now be only four jails that would be borough-based and much more humane.
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