
Public Affairs: all things govt, comms, PR, grassroots advocacy, CSR. President of @TarsamPA. bsky-tarynduffy
New York, NY
Joined May 2009
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It’s not too late. Walk-ins are welcome tomorrow, and doors open at 8 a.m. Hope to see you there.
#Bronx @NYAmNews @thenewbxcc
Tarsam Public Affairs is proud to have helped coordinate tomorrow’s Bronx Chamber of Commerce (@thenewbxcc) Legislative Summit in partnership with the Chamber. Registration has closed, but walk-ins are welcome. Doors open at 8 a.m. at Maestro’s Caterers. Thanks to @NYAmNews for previewing the event. amsterdamnews.com/news/2026/…
There are days when everything goes wrong and you know you should go home. This is one of those days.
This AZ congressional candidate was raped while fixing a campaign sign. It is far past time for rapists to receive the harshest possible sentences. Rape laws need to change. This is a violent epidemic. Look at the stats. The # of women raped is insane. Lock the rapists up and throw away the key. Lawmakers need to imagine it as their mom, wife or daughter & fight like hell for this.
I’m absolutely heartbroken to hear this news, and I’m thinking of Bernadette and her loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.
We cannot tolerate political or sexual violence in any form. Those responsible must be held accountable.
Thank you for speaking out, Bernadette. We're with you. phoenixnewtimes.com/news/con…
Calling everyone whose work touches the Bronx, public policy, or advocacy.
On October 23, 16 elected officials have confirmed for the Bronx Chamber's Legislative Summit. More to come.
Today is the last day of the $99 member pre-sale.
Companies that want to be visible to the Bronx business community can sponsor or table.
If you know someone who should be in that room, send this their way. Tickets & sponsorships at bit.ly/bxcclegsummit
Last day for pre-sale tickets. 16 elected officials confirmed & counting. Be in the room!
@thenewbxcc's 2026 Legislative Summit is Friday, October 23, from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM at Maestro's Caterers. The program includes a Washington update and policy discussion with Bronx representatives at the federal, state, and city levels.
Get your tickets and sponsorships at bit.ly/bxcclegsummit.
Tarsam Public Affairs is proud to be supporting the Chamber on this event again this year.
Just came across this in an email I sent to my daughter 22yrs ago when she was 14... 😭
WENT TO A PARTY, MOM
I went to a party,
And remembered what you said.
You told me not to drink, Mom
So I had a sprite instead.
I felt proud of myself,
The way you said I would,
That I didn't drink and drive,
Though some friends said I should.
I made a healthy choice,
And your advice to me was right,
The party finally ended,
And the kids drove out of sight.
I got into my car,
Sure to get home in one piece,
I never knew what was coming, Mom
Something I expected least.
Now I'm lying on the pavement,
And I hear the policeman say,
The kid that caused this wreck was drunk,
Mom, his voice seems far away.
My own blood's all around me,
As I try hard not to cry.
I can hear the paramedic say,
This girl is going to die.
I'm sure the guy had no idea,
While he was flying high,
Because he chose to drink and drive,
Now I would have to die.
So why do people do it, Mom
Knowing that it ruins lives?
And now the pain is cutting me,
Like a hundred stabbing knives.
Tell sister not to be afraid, Mom
Tell daddy to be brave,
And when I go to heaven,
Put Daddy's Girl on my grave.
Someone should have taught him,
That it's wrong to drink and drive.
Maybe if his parents had,
I'd still be alive.
My breath is getting shorter, Mom
I'm getting really scared.
These are my final moments,
And I'm so unprepared.
I wish that you could hold me Mom,
As I lie here and die.
No wonder so many are struggling to make ends meet. It’s imperative to remember that small businesses are struggling under the same weight of increasing costs. And for those paying attention, that includes the businesses in residential real estate.
🤯
"Perhaps most tellingly, the unemployment rate for New Yorkers aged 22-27 is higher for those with a college degree than it is for those without one." marklevinenyc.substack.com/p…
Taryn Duffy (She/Her) retweeted
🚨WOW!!!
An 81-year-old man was hauling heavy suitcases up a flight of stairs, 14 HOURS A DAY, to pay for his wife's CANCER TREATMENT...
...then the woman at the top of those stairs opened her door, heard his story, and raised him $600,000 to GO HOME to be with his wife!!!! ❤️
His name is Don Johnson.
He's 81 years old, from The Colony, Texas, just outside Dallas.
His wife Josephine has been by his side for 57 YEARS. She's fighting an aggressive cancer.
Three years ago, when the medical bills started piling up, Don went looking for work.
He tried Amazon. He tried Walmart. Nobody would take him.
So he became an independent contractor delivering lost airline luggage to people's front doors.
Sometimes 14 hours a day. Hundreds of miles in a single shift. Driving as far as OKLAHOMA to get a bag to its owner.
He put over 200,000 MILES on his own car doing it.
At 81 years old.
"I appreciate what we do get from insurance, but it doesn't cover it all. And cancer treatment is very expensive."
Then on a September day he dropped a suitcase on the steps outside a home in The Colony.
A woman named Erin Howell heard the noise on her door cam and came outside.
She offered to help carry it, and she asked him a simple question: why is a man your age doing this?
His answer: "It's the only job that will hire me."
Then he told her about Josephine.
Erin could have wished him well and gone back inside.
Instead she started a GoFundMe and a TikTok page called "Help Don Retire."
She wrote that at an age when he should be resting by his wife's side, he was out on the highway lifting bags to keep her alive.
The goal was $150,000.
It blew past that in DAYS.
Then $281,000.
Then $370,000.
Now more than $600,000 and still climbing.
More than ELEVEN THOUSAND people gave.
But here's the part that got me...
Right before all of this, Don's car had started breaking down and he'd already been forced to cut back his hours.
He was running out of road.
And that's exactly when a stranger he'd talked to for five minutes knocked on the whole country's door and AMERICA showed up.
"I left and thought I'd never see her again," Don said. "And it was an amazing thing she did for me, for us."
His wife, Josephine says after 57 years, she's watching "for better or worse" happen right in front of her.
"I'm so happy that he turned out to be the man he is."
And Don? He's not talking about himself.
"I love her dearly, and I just want her to be well. It restores my faith in people. For her and others to do for me, that was a miracle. I look forward to the day that I can help people just like I'm being helped now."
He never asked for a dime.
He just kept carrying the bags.
GOD BLESS Don and Josephine Johnson, and GOD BLESS Erin Howell.
THIS IS THE AMERICA I KNOW!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
😆 it went sideways real fast. Went down a narrow street (looked like a 1-way but no sign). Only fits 1 car & cars were coming at us. It stopped & put hazards on so we were at a standstill blocking cars. 🤯 Ppl beeping. I tried to use the screen to get it to back up but it stopped again. Called for support, they directed it. He said this has been an issue in Atlanta & LA. Ultimately it took me to the wrong hotel so had to call support again. Ends up it was across the street on the side of my hotel which I didn’t see. I got out. 😰 I’ll stick to human drivers.
Taryn Duffy (She/Her) retweeted
NYC's housing crisis needs more than good intentions. @thenewbxcc's Real Estate & Housing Policy Council added MBD Community Housing and L+M Development Partners, deepening the bench of people actually building and preserving affordable housing in the Bronx. Lots of work to be done. nyrej.com/bronx-chamber-of-c… @NYREJ
G'mar chatima tova 🩷
Yom Kippur begins this evening. For many of our clients, colleagues, and friends across New York, this is the holiest day of the year, a time for reflection, atonement, and renewal. We wanted to take a moment to acknowledge it and to wish those observing an easy and meaningful fast.
G'mar chatima tova.
Taryn Duffy (She/Her) retweeted
.@SpeakerJohnson Mike, you just stood on stage and lied to working families for 5 straight minutes.
You said Republicans inherited "record-high inflation."
They did not. Inflation was 3.0% when Trump returned, not the 9.1% peak from June 2022 that Johnson dishonestly pretends Biden handed him on Inauguration Day. It is now 3.4%.
You said Republicans gave us the "lowest violent crime rate in 126 years."
No. He took a historic drop in the murder rate and falsely called it the violent-crime rate. Violent crime had already fallen to 362.9 per 100,000 people in Biden's final year. The decline continued on the same trajectory. None of their policies have helped with that.
You said you delivered the "largest middle-class tax cut in history."
No. By GDP, their tax law is the sixth largest, not the largest. Almost all of it went to the top. And they helped pay for those tax cuts by cutting Medicaid and food assistance, while preserving more than $1 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy that do not expire.
You said "no tax on tips," "no tax on overtime," and "no tax on Social Security."
Also false. Those are temporary, capped deductions through 2028, not the abolition of taxes he is selling you. The bigger tax cuts for the wealthy do not expire. Plus all that small cut wouldn't even cover the cost of gas increase for a month.
This was a bone thrown at working people, and he knows it.
You bragged about prescription-drug prices falling.
Biden's Medicare drug-negotiation law, generic competition, and biosimilars are major factors. And a price-index decline does not necessarily mean your out-of-pocket cost at the pharmacy went down. TrumpRx is basically a coupon site. Some drugs are cheaper through GoodRx.
You said they created more than a million private-sector jobs.
Jobs are still growing, but hiring has slowed dramatically: about 9,700 jobs per month last year, the weakest pace outside a recession since 2002. Biden's final two years averaged 166,000 jobs a month, much higher than now.
You says Democrats will "explode the debt."
That is a lie. The national debt has passed $40 trillion. Trump alone is responsible for roughly one-quarter of all debt added by U.S. presidents, with nothing to show working families except higher prices and broken promises.
Meanwhile, Republicans are handing out tax breaks, cutting healthcare and food help to cover part of the cost.
That is their entire playbook:
LIES
Take credit for stuff they did not create.
Hide who actually pays.
Call temporary deductions "historic relief."
Call cuts to healthcare and food "waste."
Blame immigrants.
Blame Democrats.
Then tell you not to believe your electric bill, grocery bill, rent, pharmacy bill, or empty bank account.
This ain't "common sense." It's a con man behind a podium thinking American people are too dum"b" to call him out.
Taryn Duffy (She/Her) retweeted
*BRILLIANT*
The French made a short film about what could happen after all immigrants would follow the ‘_white, angry old man’s_’ advice to go back where they came from.*
Taryn Duffy (She/Her) retweeted
Joe Biden — 83, stage 4 cancer, spread to his bones — stood for hours today as 9/11 victims' names were read.
Trump fell asleep at his own ceremony.
One showed up in pain and stood anyway. The other couldn't stay awake.
Taryn Duffy (She/Her) retweeted
DONALD TRUMP WAS TOLD HE COULDN’T GIVE A SPEECH AT TODAY’S 9/11 MEMORIAL CEREMONY
So he didn’t show up.
Let it sink in...
For years, politicians have not been permitted to give speeches at the official Ground Zero ceremony. The day is deliberately kept focused on the victims, their families and the people who ran toward those burning buildings.
Clinton showed up today.
Bush showed up.
Obama showed up.
Biden showed up.
None of them needed a microphone.
None of them needed applause.
None of them needed September 11 to be about them.
Donald Trump wanted to speak. When Ground Zero wouldn't give him the stage, he ran to the Pentagon where he could demand one.
And he gave his speech anyway.
Like a petulant child who couldn't get his way, the President of the United States apparently couldn't simply stand silently with the families and honor their dead.
He needed a microphone. He needed a stage. He needed to make himself part of the story.
That is what makes this so profoundly disrespectful.
2,977 people were murdered on September 11.
Thousands of families woke up this morning remembering a husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister or friend who never came home.
Their grief does not belong to Donald Trump.
Their sacrifice is not a backdrop for Donald Trump.
September 11 is not a Donald Trump event.
There are days when a president should lead.
There are days when a president should speak.
And there are days when a president should shut up the fuck up, bow his head, and remember the dead.
Today was one of those days.
NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU, DONALD.
Especially not 9/11.
Taryn Duffy (She/Her) retweeted
The Shame of Donald Trump
Donald Trump skipped the 9/11 memorial because it would not let him be the main character.
Twenty-five years after the attacks, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush stood at Ground Zero and honored the 2,977 people murdered that day. The sitting president of the United States could not be bothered.
The New York ceremony does not allow political speeches. It is for the dead. That was a deal-breaker. So Trump went to the Pentagon, where he could grab a microphone and turn remembrance into a performance.
Four former presidents showed up for the victims. Trump showed up for Trump.
I spent this day as I typically have for the past 25 years. Quietly. Struggling to go to sleep the night before because the thoughts of the day will penetrate my mind and be impossible to clear. I take something to help me sleep. No surprise. They’re with me. They ways are. I struggle to know whether I should embrace the visions that are burned in my brain and just absorb them deeper out of respect for them and their memory. Or whether I can just push them away because with them come tears that I cannot stop. Ultimately, I don’t have control over any of it. They are with me as they always are. A part of me forever. The people I don’t know, but I feel so completely connected to because I watched them die. I talk to them out loud, cry for them, sit in the sun to feel it on me because I know they can’t, and live my life because I know how incredibly blessed I am to be here. I also know that my experience pales in comparison to what others suffer through and have suffered through for 25 years connected to this day. So I spend the day in gratitude for all my blessings but in solitude because the impact of the day is frankly too much to bear. My heart goes out to everyone carrying their own trauma from this day. Text from friends and loved ones who 25 years ago thought I was also gone. Or those who worked through similar traumas with me related to their experience. Just a ❤️ is all that it takes. We’re forever bound by this day. There’s so many of us everywhere. Just trying to process it and live with it. We all do it in our own way. It’s a perverse thing to be connected by but it’s part of us and forever will be. Sending love to everyone touched by it.
The tension nobody wants to name is that multifamily owners are squeezed by rent freezes and property taxes far higher than co-op and condo owners pay, while nine-figure subsidies flow to new towers. If we want to preserve the existing rental stock, property tax reform has to be the priority. Via @MartinZBraun
NEW: New York is weighing a $100 million property tax break for a new skyscraper in Hudson Yards proposed by Tishman Speyer. It would be the largest economic subsidy since @ZohranKMamdani became mayor. Via @MartinZBraun bloomberg.com/news/articles/…






















