Uptown Action

Obama club launches endorsement process

2009-04-11T17:22:00.003-04:00

The newly founded Barack Obama Democratic Club is getting some great press: see coverage in this week's Manhattan Times here.

As the article mentions, we will convene our next general meeting on Tues., April 11th, 7:00 pm. The agenda will include a forum for all the major candidates for New York City Comptroller and Public Advocate, in advance of our May endorsement vote for these and other offices. This will be an important opportunity for our community to make its voice heard in some incredibly competitive races. Our meeting on Apr. 21 will be held at the Common Room at the Church of the Intercession, 550 W. 155th St. (just east of Broadway). You are welcome to join us!

And mark you calendars for the Obama Club's first annual spring fundraiser, to be held Sun., May 3rd. Details are here. To RSVP to the fundraiser or for more info: nic179 (at) hotmail.com

Zero hour on the MTA rescue plan

2009-03-21T23:38:00.001-04:00

With just days to go until until the MTA's March 25th deadline for passing a Draconian package of service cuts and a 25% fare increases, and with Gov. Paterson and the Assembly Democrats signed on to a plan that would avert this disasterous scenario, only one thing stands in the way of a successful resolution to the crisis: the State Senate.

The MTA rescue plan, developed by the Ravitch Commission, would itself require some tough medicine, including an 8% fair increase, a 0.33% hike in the payroll tax, and the imposition of $2.00 tolls on the inbound side of East River and Harlem River bridges.

But it's clear that Upper Manhattan would be far better off under this plan than under the steep cuts and fare increase that the MTA Board will be forced to impose on Wednesday if Albany doesn't act.

Mass transit is the lifeblood of our community. We depend on the A/C and 1 trains, as well as over a dozen bus lines, to get to work, to move around the neighborhood, and to conduct business. Our local subway stations need more, not less, investment. Our trains and buses need more frequent, not less frequent, service.

Critics claim that all this is outweighed by the cost of new tolls on the Harlem River bridges. But many, if not most, of those who would pay would be from outside our community. Drivers commuting into Manhattan are the group likely to pay the largest share of any new charges.

Furthermore, the tolls would actually solve a number of problems for us here uptown. Our streets would be less clogged (and our air less polluted) thanks to the reduction in automobile traffic. Fewer commuters would cross into our neighborhood and park their cars on our street before jumping on the subway. And Inwood would avoid what today is the vexing problem of cars speeding down Broadway or Seaman Ave. to avoid the long-standing toll on the Henry Hudson Bridge.

But the State Senate appears ready to pass up all the benefits of the Ravitch plan, leaving the MTA no choice but to enact its "doomsday" budget this week. Thankfully, our local Senator, Eric Schneiderman, is not one of the obstructionists. It's important for us to thank him for taking such a courageous position, while letting nay-saying senators elsewhere know that we will hold them accountable if their actions degrade our mass transit system. You can send both types of messages by visiting this website.

Let's hope that wisdom prevails in the Senate during the final crucial hours before the deadline for action.

Yes We Can (in Upper Manhattan)!

2009-03-01T18:19:00.002-05:00

I am thrilled to announce the formation of the “Barack Obama Democratic Club of Upper Manhattan”— the first new Deocratic club in a generation for Northern Manhattan’s 71st Assembly District, and the first in the nation named for our president.

The club will be dedicated to electing progressive candidates to local office, advocating for the needs of Upper Manhattan’s residents, and supporting the Obama administration in its efforts to advance a progressive agenda.

Local politics is where committed volunteers can have an immediate, direct impact on government. But it’s an arena in which far, far too few of our neighbors have been able to make their voice heard. Our club aims to change that, by reaching out to new voters, young people, and all those who until now have only thought about politics as something which takes place far away in Washington.

The Obama Club will of course be taking a stand on a variety of issues critical to our community: housing, schools, public safety, mass transit, parks, immigrant rights, jobs, marriage equality, and more.

But just as importantly, we will seek to put the Obama ideals into practice in our own community—through being animated by ideas, being honest about policy questions even when not politically convenient, and mobilizing citizens from outside the usual political structures to help determine the course of government in New York City.

The club will be up and running just in time to be a player in the New York City-wide elections this fall, in which there will be hotly contested races not just for mayor, but for comptroller, public advocate, Manhattan District attorney, and may local judgeships. And the political world is already taking notice of our potential (see coverage by Liz Benjamin of the Daily News here.)

You are invited to join us at our first general meeting, Thurs., March 12th, 7:00 pm, at the Armory--216 Ft. Washington Ave. (between 168th & 169th St.). Please RSVP to obamadems -at- gmail.com.

For more info, see our brand new website: www.ObamaDems.org.

Obama and King

2009-01-25T22:20:00.010-05:00

I was fortunate enough to be in DC to witness history this past Tuesday. In my lifetime no one in American politics has inspired me more than Barack Obama. His eloquence, confidence, intelligence, temperament, charisma, and conviction are awe-inspiring. From the moment I began following his career in early 2004, I've been especially impressed by his courage--in taking on the establishment, avoiding the easy political pander, and daring to re-write the conventional political playbook.

On the Mall on Tuesday the symbolism was thick in the cold air. The day after the nation marked the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the inauguration of our first African-American president was cause for jubilation and amazment among the spectators all around me.

Pres. Obama himself only made glancing reference to the issue of race in his inaugural address (he didn't feel the need to state the obvious), and he totally eschewed any overt comparison to Dr. King throughout the weekend's events for fear of appearing self-agrandizing.

But how could any of us have missed it? As the film maker Ken Burns has observed, the ascendency of Obama to the presidency marks the beginning of America's third age. The first began when Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln's emancipation proclamation ushered in the second. And now Obama pushes us into yet another new world.

I would only amend Burns's analysis by adding Dr. King as another bringer of a new American era. A little-known quote from MLK (unearthed by my friend Noah Leavitt) speaks directly to this point, and is eerily relevent today:

[We are] privileged to live in one of the most momentous periods of human
history. It is an exciting age filled with hope. It is an age in which a new
social order is being born. We stand today between two worlds – the dying old
and the emerging new... [Yes] as we face the fact of this new, emerging world,
we must face the responsibilities that come along with it. A new age brings with
it new challenges...If I may speak figuratively, Old Man Segregation is on his
deathbed. But history has proven that social systems have a great last-minute
breathing power, and the guardians of a-status quo are always on hand with their
oxygen tents to keep the old order alive...If we are to speed up the coming of
the new age we must have the moral courage to stand up and protest against
injustice wherever we find it.

Words to remember as we witness the dawn of another new age--the age of Obama--in 2009.

Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, 1943-2008

2008-12-22T17:11:00.004-05:00

For the second time in 4 months, our community has lost one of its giants. This past Thursday Jordi Reyes-Montblanc died after a bout with cancer.

Jordi (aka George) was a larger-than-life figure in the Hamilton Heights/West Harlem community. For decades he was one of the area's most energetic activists, fighting for safe streets and cleaner parks, and especially championing the cause of affordable housing and homeownership for New Yorkers of modest means.

Jordi's story was the stuff of novels. He fled his native Cuba as a young adult. He joined the US Marines, where he engaged in covert operations in Southeast Asia and--it was said--even Cuba (Jordi never spoke much about his past to those outside of his closest circle of friends). He loved to hunt, and demonstrating his trademark frankness he told the Columbia Spectator last year, "When things get to me, I go up north to Canada and kill something and then I feel better." I can see Jordi smiling as he said this--he always derived more than a little joy from being provocative.

Jordi was a pioneer in the movement to allow low- and middle-income families to purchase their own apartments through the city's HDFC program, and in 1993 he lead the conversion of his own building on Broadway & 136th St. to such a limited-equity coop.

This activism on housing issues secured his appointment to Community Board 9 in the mid-1990s. It was during that period when he developed a close bond to Councilman Stan Michels (the other signficant local leader who passed away this year). Jordi eventually rose to serve as Chair of CB9, a role he seemed to have been born for. Jordi was fearless in speaking his mind on local issues, regardless of who he might offend. That quality could have earned him nothing but detractors on the Board, but instead the reverse happened: he was almost universally repected for his even-handedness and devotion to the community.

Columbia University's plan to expand to a new campus in Manhattanville defines Jordi's tenure as CB9 Chair. While maintaining that he wasn't opposed to the expansion per se, he became a vocal critic of the displacement of local residents and businesses which would result from the specific plan Columbia was advancing. Jordi thrust CB9 into the center of the fight on this issue, and he become a fixture in the city's media as an outspoken critic of the expansion.

Jordi delighted in his many contradictions. He was staunchly proud of his Cuban heritage, but never self-identified as a Latino. He was a fierce opponent of Communism who nonetheless fought for not-so-Capitalistic affordable housing policies. He liked to recall what his political mentor, the late neighborhood activist Al Blumberg, once told him: "Jordi, you're so far to the right you're a leftist!".

For many years Jordi served as a friend and mentor to me, and I am immensely proud of the support he gave to my political career. Upper Manhattan won't be the same without him, and I'll be one of the many who will miss his singular voice.

Redevelopment of GWB bus terminal moving forward

2008-11-30T21:07:00.003-05:00

As reported recently in both the New York Times and the Manhattan Times, the plans for major redevelopment of the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal are moving forward. Apparently the dismal economy hasn't been enough the spook the developers, though it has thankfully convinced them to abandon their plans for one or more big box retailers on the site.

The redevelopment will move the bus operations to a new indoor space on what is now the roof of the landmark facility. That will create enough room on the lower levels for over 200,000 sq. ft. of retail, including new space to be opened up in the portion of the complex which is on the east side of Broadway.

The developer, P/A Associates, offers some early details and images on their plans on their website. But many questions still remain, including:

How will the massive $150 million, 36-month construction process impact the surrounding neighborhood? The developer will need to do everything possible to minimize noise, street closures, etc.
Will the Port Authority incorporate green technology into the new bus facility? This should include mechanisms to prevent diesel fumes from exiting to the street, and also provide for inside parking of MTA buses so these vehicles don't have to continue to idle on 179th St.
Will the developer give guarantees to hire locally for construction and permanent jobs?
How will the problems of traffic and parking be handled for the new facility? (200 existing parking spots on the roof of the bus station will be lost.)
What kind of businesses will be located in the newly renovated facility? My informal poll shows that a book store is the number one request!

The answers to these questions will help determine whether or not this project is a boon or a bust for Washington Heights, and we should make sure the Port Authority answers them quickly. Do you have another question about this project? Let me know...

Let the people's voice be heard

2008-10-20T17:40:00.002-04:00

The City Council is on the verge of striking a serious blow to democracy. Over 1 million New Yorkers have voted in two seperate referenda to limit City office holders to two consecutive four-year terms. Now that the mayor and most of the City Council are near the end of their maximum eight years, they want to change the rules of the game by extending term limits another four years. And they don't want to let the people decide on the wisdom of such a change---they want to vote themselves another term through legislative fiat.

Whatever you think about the merits of term limits, whether you aprove or not of Mayor Bloomberg's performance, it's imperative that all New Yorks stand up to this unprecedented power grab. I urge you to sign an online petition to express your opinion at http://itsourdecision.org/.

Below is the testimony I submitted to the New York City Council at the hearings on the topic last week:

Thank you Mr. Chairman. My name is Mark Levine. I am a Democratic District Leader and a likely 2009 City Council candidate. I wish to speak in the strongest possible terms against the proposal to extend term limits through legislative action.

Those who advocate overturning the 8-year term limit rule for city office holders routinely claim that all they want to do is to give the voters a fair chance to make a choice. Some even claim that any election is a form of term limits--since voters, they would have us believe, can easily vote an incumbent out of office. But such statements fly in the face of the reality of elections in New York.

The reelection rate for incumbents in New York is 98%. That's higher than the reelection rate was for officials in the former Soviet Union. In Albany, where there are no term limits, tenures in the state legislature routinely run past two and even three decades. The same was true for the City Council before term limits were instituted here in 2001. For all practical purposes, absent term limits, incumbency in New York is a lifetime privilege.

Now there are many things that those who oppose term limits could do if they were sincere in their desire to provide free and fair choices to voters:
We can, and should, reform the state's election laws, almost universally acknowledged to be the most Byzantine in the nation, to make it harder to knock grassroots candidates off the ballot by invoking obscure technicalities.
We can, and should, end gerrymandering, which is used to draw districts that
favor keeping incumbents in office.
We can, and should, bring the City's Board of Elections into the 21st century, by ending the practice of staffing entirely with patronage hires.
But those now calling for a weakening of the term limits law have not acted to implement ANY of these reforms over the past 7 1/2 years, which makes it
obvious for all the world to see that their interest is in anything but "giving voters a fair chance to make a choice." Their interest is in giving themselves the chance to run for reelection under a system that they--and we--know is designed to virtually guarantee they will stay in office. That is neither fair, nor democratic, and it's a path that I urge the Council not to follow.

Uptown vols hit the streets of S. Philly for Barack

2008-10-18T18:23:00.009-04:00

Last Sunday Northern Manhattanites super-charged the South Philadelphia office of the Obama-Biden campaign for the second time in two weeks. Once again we filled two buses, sending what the S. Philly campaign calls the largest contingent their office has ever seen. Our 95+ volunteers knocked on 4,000 doors and made hundreds of phone calls. Based on this huge sample, Barack Obama is poised to win a MAJOR victory in the home neighb of "Rocky".

We even had our own international press entourage. (OK, two reporters came along, but one really was from Sweden). For all you Swedish speakers, see an impressive article on our trip in Dagens Nyheter. For those who prefer their news in English, you can get the full story on p.4 of this week's Manhattan Times.

Ride the bus the PA for Obama!

2008-09-13T11:17:00.005-04:00

New York may not be a "swing state" in the 2008 presidential election, but
that doesn't mean our community can't have an impact in this historic race.
In the coming weeks I'll be leading bus trips from Upper Manhattan to
Pennsylvania so that local residents can volunteer with the Obama-Biden
campaign in this key battleground state.

We will be registering voters and canvassing in West Philadelphia. The
trips, co-sponsored by the Audubon Reform Democratic Club, will be held on
the following dates:

Saturday, Sept. 27th
Departing at 7:00 a.m. from 145th St. & Convent Ave.

Sunday, Oct. 12th
Departing at 7:00 a.m. from: 179th St & Ft. Washington Ave.

We'll be returning by around 7:30 p.m. on both dates.

Cost: $30, to help pay for bus rental. (Accommodations will be made for
anyone unable to pay the full cost).

SPACE IS LIMITED. To RSVP and for more information, contact Laura Kavanagh:
laura (at) theadvancegroup.com. You can mail checks in advance, made out to "Audubon Reform Democratic Club", to Mark Levine 255 Cabrini Blvd., 1J, NY, NY 10040.

Spread the word!

Stan Michels, 1933-2008

2008-08-01T15:06:00.006-04:00

Today our community lost one of its giants. Stanley Michels, who served as our City Councilman from 1975 to 2001, left an indelible imprint on Upper Manhattan. Nowhere was his impact felt more than in the many parks here uptown, which thanks to Stan's leadership became some of the most beautiful in the city.

I had the pleasure of working with Stan on many local issues over the past 12 years. He was one of the earliest and most important supporters of the community development credit union I founded (this photo was taken at the credit union's opening ceremony on March 20th, 1997).

Our condolences go out to his wife Molly and their children and grandchildren. Click here for a moving tribute to Stan, written by his lifelong friend and former Council colleague Henry Stern.

Our efforts have won more local police officers

2008-07-23T09:48:00.003-04:00

Amid mounting concerns about quality-of-life public safety issues in Washington Heights-Inwood, I posted a petition online on Sunday calling for the addition of 20 officers to the 34th Precinct. In just 2 1/2 days 500 people have signed on. And I am thrilled to report that our message is getting heard: Dept. Inspector Capul, commanding officer of the 34th, called to tell me that he is assigning an additional 9 officers to the night-time Quality-of-Life Conditions Squad! I will be delivering a print-out of our petition to him so that he can read the many specific points which everyone has raised in the comments section.

We definitely still want to keep the pressure on, so continue to pass on the link for the petition to anyone who hasn’t yet signed: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/more4d34/petition.html.

First image of condo coming to 192md & Bway

2008-07-04T20:09:00.007-04:00

The new luxury condos uptown just keep on coming. At right is an image of the building to be developed on the emptly lot at 4469 Broadway (@ 192nd St.). Here's how the architect's website describes the project:

"The first floor will have retail space, the second will be doctors offices and the 3rd through 8th will be luxury condominium apartments. There will also be parking in the cellar. Amenities will include a gym for the tenants, washer and dryer in every unit and terraces and balconies in various locations."

I applaud the developer for designing a building which fits into the scale and context of the surrounding community--unlike the infamous 25-story tower going up at 184th St. & Overlook Terrace. But I wish there were some affordable units included in the project. And we'll have to be vigilant during the construction process to make sure disruption to the neighbors in minimized.

Mega-project is underway

2007-11-11T00:06:00.000-05:00

Residents living near the vacant lot at 184th St & Overlook Ave. have been worried for years about plans for a giant 23-story tower to be built on the odd-shaped site. Early renderings of the project showed a building that would dwarf its surroundings. AFter numerous false starts and delays, construction finally began last week. The structure will straddle the entrance to the A train on Overlook, and construction crews have already blocked half the entranceway.

There's even a bizarre bare-bones website marketing the soon-to-be built condos with an image of the final product: here. Many mysteries, and much cause for concern, remain...

Parents rejoice: public toilet coming to 181st St.

2007-09-11T07:28:00.000-04:00

New York may be the most advanced city in the world, but we're behind San Francisco, Paris, and many other places when it comes to at least one piece of infrastructure: public toilets. After decades of debate and drama, we're finally about to catch up. The City will soon start installation of 20 toilets on streets around the five boroughs in a pilot phase this fall, and Washington Heights has been selected as one of the target communities. At this evening's meeting of the Traffic & Transportation Committee of Community Board 12 (which I chair), we learned from the City's Dept. of Transportation that an Automated Public Toilet will be installed on the southwest corner of Wadsworth Ave. & Broadway. This will be a sleek, modern-looking structure built and managed by the same company which is installing the new bus shelters you've seen all around town. If you're curious to know what it will look like see:
http://polisnyc.wordpress.com/2006/03/03/its-about-time/

Construction should begin by mid-October, so pretty soon they'll be no more mad dashes into the McDonald's when the little one REALLY has to go...

Help save 159th Street!

2007-05-24T23:11:00.000-04:00

If there is one street in all of Upper Manhattan which is symbolic of the struggle of local residents to improve their neighborhood it is West 159th. Families on the block between Broadway and Amsterdam have waged a decades-long fight against drugs, crime, substandard housing, and poor schools. A home-grown non-profit, the Community League of W.159th St. (now known as the Community League of the Heights) has helped lead the way. Though residents have seen their share of setbacks over the years, there's no mistaking the steady improvements they have won over time.

But that precarious balance may soon be upset. A social service agency from the Upper West Side, Veritas, Inc., has acquired a property on 159th Street with plans to build an in-patient/out-patient drug addiction treatment center on the site.

Patients and staff at the facility are projected to exceed 200, and the steady stream of substance abuse clients entering and leaving the Veritas facility would transform West 159th Street. Local activists have been vocal about fears for the well-being of children on a block which is currently home to two day care programs and an after-school program, with an elementary school just around the corner.

West 159th Street and the surrounding blocks remain a major open-air market for narcotics, and representatives from the 33rd Police Precinct express concern that the presence of the Veritas facility would complicate their local fight against drugs. Then there's the welfare of the patients themselves--since placing someone struggling with addiction in an area where drugs are available on every corner seems about as wise as taking a diabetic to a candy factory.

Veritas is by all accounts a well-run, well-regarded organization. And there is no doubt that our community's fight against the scourge of drugs must include treatment for addiction as a key strategy. But Veritas serves clients from all over the five boroughs and beyond. It's this influx of hundreds of patients and staff which would undoubtedly transform the character of a fragile street.

Developable land is the rarest of commodities in Upper Manhattan. Does the Veritas plan meet the most pressing needs of the community? No need ranks higher for us than affordable housing--and in fact just such an alternative project has been proposed for the site by none other than the Community League of the Heights.

Veritas’s main funder and regulator is the state Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Services (OASAS). Write to let them know where you stand on this project: Karen Carpenter-Palumbo, Commissioner, NYS OASAS, 1450 Western Ave., Albany, NY 12203. We need to demand that a better location be found for the Veritas project. Now is not the time to jeopardize decades of hard work on 159^th Street.

Fix the 215th St. Stairs--NOW

2007-04-23T22:43:00.000-04:00

A long-time resident of Park Terrace East was hospitalized this week after an incident in Inwood that left her with severe lacerations to the legs and face. Was it from a mugging? A car accident? No, she was a victim of the extreme state of disrepair of the steps rising west of Broadway at 215^th Street.

The 215^th Step-Street, as it is officially known, consists of no fewer that 11 flights of stairs, and is a pedestrian thoroughfare for residents of the Park Terrace area and others going between Broadway and the parks above. But in recent years it has become a treacherous path, as the stairs have crumbled and cracked with age. Landings have poor drainage and routinely flood, creating hazardous conditions which only worsen in winter when the pools of water turn to ice. Many of the pre-WWII era lamps are broken, leaving stretches of the steps in darkness at night. Hand railings are only partially usable.

And so it is that last Friday an Inwood resident had to be taken away in an ambulance after tripping on a hole in one of the steps and tumbling down.

Local activists have been calling for the City’s Dept. of Transportation (DoT) to completely reconstruct the 215^th Step-Street since at least 1999. In 2005 Assemblymember Adriano Espaillat allocated $300,000 toward the project, and the Manhattan Borough Commissioner of DoT, Margaret Forgione, came to the steps for a photo-op with the Assemblyman in October of that year.

But there’s been little movement on the project by DoT in the year and a half since that picture was taken. This past September Community Board 12 passed a resolution imploring DoT to expedite the reconstruction (I chair the CB12 Traffic and Transportation Committee, which produced the reso). Today it’s still not even clear what the total cost of the project will be, let alone where all the funds will come from or when the work will begin. We need to let DoT know that our community will not tolerate further delay. I urge you to write to Commission Forgione directly (c/o NYC Dept. of Transp., 59 Maiden Lane, 35^th Fl., NY, NY 10038) to demand that the reconstruction of the steps be put on a fast track once and for all.

Every day that the reconstruction is delayed means further deterioration of the already hazardous conditions. Last Friday’s incident wasn’t the first time blood was spilled on the 215^th St. stairs. And if the community board, local officials and DoT don’t come together to take action quickly, it won’t be the last.

Is crime going up or down in Northern Manhattan?

2007-01-06T21:41:00.000-05:00

Murder was in the news in 2006 in Washington Heights & Inwood. There was the tragic killing of 81 year-old Jacob Gerstle during a robbery in the lobby of his building on 186th St.; the death of Leslie Bloom on Broadway in Inwood from random gunfire; and the stabbing murder of Janet Fernandez by her teenage step-son in their apartment on 177th St. No fewer than 20 lives were lost to violence in 2006 in our community’s two police precincts—a rise of 25% over 2005.

But the statistics tell a mixed story. Overall crime in the 33rd and 34th precincts actually fell this past year by 5.6%, thanks largely to a substantial drop in grand larceny. And even the murder rate is down dramatically when compared to its terrifying peak of 119 killings in 1991. The officers of our local precincts have worked heroically to achieve these results, and they continue to win praise for their effectiveness and professionalism.

This success is all the more amazing when considering the dramatic drop in police resources Washington Heights-Inwood has experienced. Ten years ago each of our two precincts was staffed by 250 officers. Today there are just 165 officers in the 34th and 140 in the in 33rd. In part this is due to a city-wide shrinking of the force. And a precipitous drop in the salary for new officers—now a just $25,100—has exacerbated this situation, creating a growing stream of talent leaving for suburban departments with higher pay and less stressful conditions.

But Washington Heights-Inwood has lost significantly more than its fair share of police resources, and worrying trends in our local crime statistics make this impossible to ignore. City-wide, the NYPD employs one officer for every 219 residents. But in our densely populated neighborhood the average is now an astonishingly low one per 688 residents. The steady drop in local crime in past years has no doubt justified a draw-down in resources. But the disturbing rise in murders, coupled with an apparent resurgence in the drug trade and gang activity, means the time to increase staff at our local precincts is now. And we can easily afford it: the City’s budget surplus is expected to reach nearly $4 billion this year.

Our community has shown that we get results when we speak out on public safety. When Mayor Bloomberg faced a barrage of complaints from hundreds of local residents in a town hall meeting here in the fall of 2004, there was an immediate, visible increase in the number of officers on the streets—but unfortunately the move proved only temporary.

We need to start the new year with a campaign of letters to Mayor Bloomberg (c/o City Hall, NY, NY 10007) to demand a PERMANENT increase in officers for Washington Heights-Inwood. This may be the only way to assure that in 2007 there will be far fewer news reports of lives lost in our streets.

Parents must fight for a voice in our schools

2006-04-30T21:38:00.000-04:00

With the New York City public schools nearing the end of their fourth full year under the control of Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein, it is increasingly clear that one constituency is being left behind: parents.

The 32 Community Education Councils (CECs) which replaced the old local School Boards throughout the city give their parent leaders virtually zero formal power. At the individual school level, the once-active School Leadership Teams, which bring together staff, parents, and administrators, have had their duties steadily curtailed. The parent coordinator position created in every school four years ago has largely been a disappointment.

These and other policies, part of the Chancellor’s aggressive move towards centralization, have left parents with little direct say in how our public schools are run at the very moment when the system is undergoing their most profound changes in a generation.

But as Josh Karan, a member of our District 6 CEC, explains, “there is one power which can not be taken away, it can only be abdicated: the power to organize.” Here Uptown we’ve proven this theory with some big successes—and a few shortcomings.

Last month a successful grassroots organizing effort under the leadership of the CEC marshaled new data, built a broad coalition, and held a major community-wide forum on the chronic problem of overcrowding in District 6 schools. As a result, the Department of Education has finally started to inch away from its plainly mistaken position that our community has a declining number of children and thus needs no additional schools beyond those already budgeted.

Other important victories won by parent activists include the creation of a widely-successful alternative school program, the Hamilton Heights Academy, housed at PS28 on 155^th Street. (Despite a four-year track record of success, however, DOE has so far stubbornly refused to grant the Academy the autonomy and additional resources that would come with official school status.) Inspired by the work of the Hamilton Heights parents, a group farther north successfully launched the Washington Heights Academy two years ago. And now an active coalition in Inwood is looking to create a new school of its own.

Despite these accomplishments, parent activism in District 6 remains far too limited. The CEC has actually had trouble filling all its seats, recently hitting a low point when 6 of 11 slots were vacant. Of the 36 schools in our District, at best half have functioning parents associations. Even at schools with the most engaged PAs, usually no more than 5% of parents attend monthly meetings.

It will take dramatically increased involvement—and smart organizing—if we hope to push DOE into action on the most critical challenges facing our district: the need for smaller class sizes, universal pre-Kindergarten, and improved services for English-learners, to name a few. And then there’s the mother of all educational battles looming on the horizon: the pending reauthorizing of mayoral control of the schools after the current law expires in 2009. Forces on all sides are already gearing up to influence the design of the system’s next incarnation, and parents will have to unite to make sure our voices are heard in this debate.

So make a point of going to your school’s next PA meeting. And, parent or not, reach out to the CEC (by emailing CEC6@nycboe.net) to get involved in one of the task forces now assembling to take on the key issues. This is the only way we can make sure that in the coming years parents, and our kids, are not left behind.

Here's what 23 stories look like

2006-03-18T19:03:00.000-05:00

Those of you following the progress of Washington Heights' biggest--and most controversial--development project will want to check out yesterday's post over at Curbed, which features the first publicly available image of the plan, and other info. We already knew that its mammoth scale was totally incongruous with the surrounding neighborhood, but now it's clear that its aesthetic is, too.

The Looming Threat of Overdevelopment Uptown

2006-01-18T22:16:00.000-05:00

For most of the past half century, the livable scale of buildings in Washington Heights and Inwood that makes our community so distinct—and beloved—has been almost completely unspoiled by development. Even the construction boom which has swept the five boroughs in recent years has largely left northern Manhattan intact. But signs are everywhere that this is finally about to change.

No fewer than a half dozen large-scale development projects are now on the drawing board in our community—featuring towers that will be double or even triple the heights of surrounding buildings.

For decades the nearly complete lack of vacant land here uptown has made new development impractical. But the white-hot real estate market has now turned sites with parking lots, rocky terrain, and even existing low-scale buildings into economically feasible targets for new construction.

On 172^nd and Broadway, the Taco Bell has been closed to make way for a 14-story office building. On Sherman and Broadway, next to Ft. Tryon Park, a 2-story building housing City offices will be coming down soon to make way for 12 floors of high-end condos. The owner of the single-floor commercial building on 187^th St. between Cabrini Blvd. and Pinehurst Ave. is rumored to be considering knocking down the existing structure to put up a 7-floor residential building.

And then there is the mother of all development projects: a 23-story behemoth proposed for 184^th St. and Overlook Terrace.

This site is currently covered by a large rock outcropping that until now has made it impractical for construction. But soaring real estate values have turned even this unlikely plot into a potential goldmine, and the developer has chosen to shoot for the stars—literally—with a tower of unprecedented scale which would dwarf the surrounding neighborhood, blocking light and air. The structure as proposed would straddle the subway tunnel on Overlook and would abut buildings that are as much as a century old and sit on stilts, raising serious structural and seismic concerns. The new tower would even have an entrance on Ft. Washington Ave., thus placing it in the already severely overcrowded zone for PS187.

In September, the Buildings Department rejected a first draft of the plans, but NOT BECAUSE OF ITS HEIGHT. The City only cited technical complications which the developer is likely to have addressed on the next submission. Remarkably, there is nothing in our city’s (antiquated) zoning code which prohibits such a gargantuan project.

But our neighborhood has a chance to change that.

New York City’s Charter offers a framework that communities can use to create plans for their “growth, improvement, and future development”. These so-called “197a” plans (named for the section of the City Charter) have been used by communities around the city to put new zoning guidelines in place that call for all new development to be in scale with the existing neighborhood. East Harlem has such a plan in place. West Harlem/Hamilton Heights is well on its way to implementing one. Washington Heights and Inwood deserve the same.

Now is the ideal time for you to make your voice heard in this debate, as a group of urban planners at City College have undertaken research to prepare for creation of a 197a plan here, and they want residents’ input. Click here to print out the feedback forms which you can mail in.

Sadly, it is probably too late for a new zoning plan to block the super-sized projects now underway in our community. But if left unchecked this current wave will turn out to have been only a prelude to an even larger, more damaging, boom in overdevelopment. So if we are to assure that our community remains livable for the NEXT half century, the time to act is now.

GeoMart in a new home

2006-01-18T22:12:00.000-05:00

Follow-up: GeoMart hardware store is sadly gone from its long-time home on Ft. Washington Ave. & 187^th St. But he’s now reopened in Inwood on the corner of 206^th St. and 10^th Ave. Be sure to stop in and buy something!

Tha Malling of Washington Heights?

2005-10-30T19:26:00.000-05:00

On November 30th, 2005, an era will end on the corner of 187th and Ft. Washington Ave. That’s the date when GeoMart Hardware’s lease is up for renewal. The landlord is tripling the rent to a staggering $9,600 a month—for a storefront measuring less than 1,000 square feet. That leaves GeoMart, a local fixture for over a decade, with no choice but to close its doors for good. Rumor has it that a bright new Bank of America branch is set to open in its place. That means the local neighborhood will lose not only a convenient place to shop for an impossibly large variety of house wares, but a source of free home improvement advice and local gossip from the owner and fellow shoppers alike.

GeoMart is a victim of forces convulsing through commercial districts all over New York City. Growing neighborhood prosperity has brought about remarkable improvements in quality of life in recent years in Upper Manhattan and communities all over the five boroughs. But there’s an inextricable downside to this prosperity: rapidly rising housing prices have brought real pain to families facing apartment rents soaring beyond their reach. Likewise exploding commercial rents are forcing the closure of the locally-owned mom-and-pop stores which give neighborhoods their vibrancy and uniqueness.

What kind of businesses can afford today’s inflated commercial rents? Increasing, the answer is chain retailers. There was a time when national retail businesses largely ignored New York City, and especially places like Upper Manhattan. No longer. Today there are no fewer than 10 chain drug stores north of 155th Street, putting enormous pressure on our many independent pharmacies, some of which have already closed. Dunkin Donuts now has six locations here Uptown. Local pizzerias face competition from multiple Domino’s and Papa John’s outlets.

Look beyond Upper Manhattan and the picture is even more dramatic. New York City—where the corner deli is practically part of our DNA—is today home to over three dozen 7-Elevens. Most of these are in Queens and Brooklyn, but one opened recently on E. 23rd St. in Manhattan, and there are now even four in the heartland of the bodega, the Bronx. And no less a behemoth than Wal-Mart is moving aggressively to enter the largest urban market in America. Its first attempt to open a mega-store in Queens was defeated this spring by a coalition of community and labor groups, but now a second effort to establish a site in Staten Island seems like it may succeed.

Parts of Upper Manhattan still face commercial blight, and in such areas the addition of any clean, well-maintained business—locally owned or not—is a welcome improvement. But in our community’s most vibrant commercial districts, we are seeing the earliest signs of a trend which has been playing out for years on the Upper West Side, where even Starbucks stores (yes Starbucks!), are being priced out in favor of bank branches, and quirky independent establishments are becoming an endangered species.

For now, the closing of GeoMart may only be a loss of one store on one corner. But I’ll sure miss the convenience of being able to pick up a pack of screws, and a little home improvement wisdom, right on my block. And I hope the day will never come when the unique streetscapes of the neighborhood which I so love end up looking like the Mall of America.

March for peace in DC

2005-09-21T20:49:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Katrina has knocked Iraq off the front pages, but while Americans are focusing on a crisis closer to home, hundreds of innocent civilians have died in Baghdad in the last week alone. The need to change course in Iraq grows ever more urgent. And next Saturday you have a chance to do something about it.

If the false pretenses, incompetent execution, and exorbitant cost ($300 billion and tens of thousand of lives, including nearly 1,900 U.S. soldiers) aren't reason enough to end the U.S. military's role in Iraq, there is this: rather than producing security, our continued presence there appears to actually be fueling the mounting violence.

That's why an increasing large portion of the American public--even including many who supported the war at its outset--have concluded that it's time to bring our troops home. This is a view endorsed by no less than 52% of Americans in a poll released in today's New York Times. Our ability to put pressure on the Bush administration has never been
greater.

This coming Saturday, September 24th, residents of Upper Manhattan will be traveling to Washington, DC, for a massive national march calling for the immediate return of U.S. troops. (see http://www.blogger.com/www.unitedforpeace.org). Three buses will leave 179th St. and Broadway at 6am, returning that evening. Tickets cost $35 round trip, and $20 for those who cannot afford this. To reserve your seat, and for more information, contact Dave Dubnau at dubnau@phri.org.

I'll be there, and I hope you will join us in standing up for peace.

Speak up for Parks

2005-09-10T00:57:00.000-04:00

It’s been hard over these last two weeks to focus on anything but the horrors of the Gulf Coast. But alas New York City’s elections are coming this Tuesday, and the stakes are great, so for the next few days matters closer to home must compete for our attention. For Washington Heights and Inwood, now is the time to let our voices be heard on one of the least addressed issues of this campaign season: our parks.

Fully one-third of the area north of 155th Street consists of parkland. This includes some of the most beautiful (if underappreciated) parks in all of New York City. But thanks to the ever-shrinking Parks budgets, these green oases have vast unmet needs: crumbling paths in Ft. Tryon, poor drainage in Inwood Hill, collapsing stone walls in J. Hood Wright, poor lighting in Highbridge.

Repair problems, however, are overshadowed by pervasive concerns about park safety. Inwood Hill park was the site of a gruesome murder last year, and has seen several assaults since. Much of Highbridge is too dangerous to enter after dark. And parks of all sizes throughout our community suffer from an almost total absence of public safety personnel.

In fact, all of Manhattan north of 155th Street is served by a grand total of one full-time, dedicated officer from the Park Enforcement Personnel (PEP) force. It’s no wonder that so many feel so insecure.

How did this come to be? New York City now spends just $45 per resident annually on its parks—less than nearly every other large city in the nation. And two decades of cuts have reduced Parks professional staff by 65%.

But wait...Central Park doesn’t look so bad, does it? That’s because, like a handful of parks in upscale areas around the city, it’s supported by the donations of wealthy residents living nearby. This private funding has allowed the City to reduce its general parks budget without fear of a backlash from those living in the toniest (and most politically powerful) neighborhoods, since their parks remain well cared-for. But smaller parks around the five boroughs have had no such luck. And the resulting disparities are enormous: private money funds 18 PEP officers at Battery Park alone—exactly 18 times the allocation for all of Northern Manhattan.

The Mayor and other elected officials need to hear our demands for adequate parks resources. We know that when we stand up we get results. When at a Washington Heights town hall meeting last June City officials were greeted by a chorus of howls over appalling late-night parties in Ft. Tryon, the police began immediately closing and securing the park every evening.

With just days to go before the primary election, you can add your voice to a campaign calling for a doubling of parks funding, by signing on at http://www.parks1.org/. The website also tells you which candidates have pledged to support this effort, information you should be sure to remember when you walk into the voting booth on Tuesday.

With Funding Delayed, Our Schools Pay The Price

2005-05-24T01:16:00.000-04:00

At PS 176 near 204th Street there is no science lab...the space has been converted to a classroom. At an overflowing PS 192 on 135th Street, hundreds of students must attend classes at a nearby middle school, where they have no access to the gym or library. Scenes like these are repeated at virtually every school here in District Six, and our children pay the price every day.

The root cause of all these disruptions is simple: our school district is among the most overcrowded in the city, with an estimated shortfall of at least 7,500 seats.

But help may be on the way. Thanks to a lawsuit filed by the Campaign For Fiscal Equity and championed by Councilmember Robert Jackson, the state’s courts have ruled that New York City schools are due billions of dollars to remedy decades of underfunding by the state. And the court ordered that over $9 billion must specifically be earmarked for capital expenses, making it possible for us to erect desperately needed new schools here in Upper Manhattan to relieve rampant overcrowding.

But don’t expect to see a state-funded school building boom any time soon. Governor Pataki and his Republican allies in the State Senate have steadfastly refused to implement the court order, and another legal hearing on the matter isn’t even scheduled until October. Meanwhile an effort to force the issue through legislation in the Democrat-controlled State Assembly has stalled after the unexpected hospitalization of the chairman of the Education Committee.

In the wake of total inaction in Albany, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller has launched a campaign to provide an infusion of $400 million to city schools next year through the extension of an existing income-tax surcharge on those making more that $250,000. But even this comparatively modest plan is threatened by opposition from Mayor Bloomberg, and the income-tax surcharge looks set to expire.

In case all of this hasn’t already brought tears to your eyes, there’s more bad news: the Department of Education’s formula for assessing school overcrowding so grossly distorts reality (by claiming, for example, that a closet turned into a classroom represents legitimate added capacity!), that Upper Manhattan threatens to be shortchanged no matter how much new money is available.

So if we hope to ever end the overcrowding crisis here in District Six, then we have battles to fight on multiple fronts. Pataki, Bloomberg, the State Senate and the DOE must all hear our voices loudly: our kids deserve adequate educational facilities, not classes in trailers, auditoriums, and closets.