We are entering a new year, but some of the same unresolved issues remain in New York: open criminal investigations, dramatically diminished affordable housing, and workers’ rights in limbo.

Clearly, there is plenty of advocacy work to carry over from the last year. So in 2009, there must be a renewed commitment to defending the voiceless and vulnerable. Community leaders, elected officials and civic organizations must keep the pressure up for just resolutions to a long list of open questions. Among them:

A number of criminal cases remain open, including that of Reyna Isabel de Los Santos. The remains of the Queens mother were found in a suitcase in March but no arrests have been made in this homicide.

For weeks, Laura Garza has been missing after last being seen with a sex offender.

While arrests have been made for hate crimes in Long Island and Pennsylvania, the killers of Jose Schuzanazy in Brooklyn are still on the loose.

If the U.S. Attorney’s Office is allowed to remain silent, another year – the 18th – will pass without a full investigation into the hateful killing of Manuel Mayi.

Earlier this year, we called for Commissioner Raymond Kelly to fire Police Officer Sean Sawyer after he shot an unarmed man, Jayson Tirado, and then failed to report that shooting. Sawyer remains suspended with pay by the NYPD and our city is still without a penalty on the books for cops who disappear after firing their weapons.

With affordable housing units rapidly disappearing, our state legislators must undo the deregulation of rent controls.

Both city and state leaders must act on behalf of the workers who continue to be left venid – from day laborers to domestic workers to child care workers.