Friends,

Just about two years ago, we launched this club and our district leader campaign, determined to encourage and enable accessible, progressive political engagement from the grass roots on up.

Since then has been kind of a fairy tale: working together with so many of you on local issues; bringing candidates and elected officials to the Lower East Side to listen to your concerns; joining forces with organizations like Sister District and Planned Parenthood to campaign, march, and lobby; and getting out the vote for new Democratic majorities in the N.Y. Senate and the U.S. House.

And now, with sincere gratitude for the indefatigable support you’ve given us since day one, we’d like to officially announce that we are running for re-election as your district leaders, with the endorsement of Grand Street Democrats.

The election calendar this year is somewhat accelerated: We begin petitioning for signatures on Tuesday, February 26 to get on the ballot. (Yes, that’s the same day as the special election for Public Advocate.)

We’d love your help for our re-election campaign. If you’re ready to collect signatures to get us on the ballot, or will pledge to sign our petition at the end of February, please sign up here:

With appreciation for all you’ve done, and all we will continue to do together,

Caroline Laskow & Lee Berman
Democratic District Leaders, AD65 Part A

Grand Street Democrats voted this week to endorse Ben Yee for Public Advocate.

Ben is a “traveling civics superhero” who has brought workshops in civic engagement to groups throughout the five boroughs. His platform is aimed directly at engaging citizens, empowering community groups, and punishing bad actors who degrade our civic institutions.

We made our endorsement last night after a heavily attended candidate forum at Manny Cantor Center where we heard from 14 candidates running in the February 26 special election. (Many thanks to the other downtown political clubs and community groups that supported the event.)

We will let you know more about Ben in the coming weeks. For now, if you are so inclined, you can contribute to Ben’s campaign. With public matching funds, your small donation is multiplied nine times to make a big contribution to this short campaign:

We’re pleased to announce that Educational Alliance President & CEO Alan van Capelle has agreed to moderate our forum on 1/29 with candidates for NYC Public Advocate.

Alan runs one of the most significant community organizations in the city, lives right in our neighborhood, and has participated in many important progressive movements in New York and nationally.

As president of Bend the Arc, Alan launched that Jewish action organization to the forefront of the national progressive movement. As executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, he helped pave the way for marriage equality in New York State.

Update: Alan was not able to make it on Tuesday, but Joanna Samuels, Executive Director of Manny Cantor Center, stepped in and did a fantastic job moderating the candidate forum.

Two important neighborhood initiatives have moved steadily through the process of community input over the past few years only to have plans upended recently by our elected executives. For the upcoming L Train repairs and East River Park rebuild, what we are left with right now are a lot of questions.

East River Park

After Superstorm Sandy in 2012, federal funds were allocated to build flood protection for lower Manhattan. Because of the vulnerability of Con Ed at East 14th St, and flood-prone neighborhoods of the East Village, the waterfront from East 23rd St. to Montgomery was prioritized and plans were developed over years with plenty of community involvement.

But at the end of last year, the Mayor’s office announced some significant engineering changes to the plan and, for the first time, proposed a real timetable for the project, which included the entire park being closed for the duration of new construction, estimated to be three years.

The immensity of this project is finally hitting home, and community members are demanding more answers. Council member Carlina Rivera has pushed for a hearing a City Council hearing on the project on January 23, starting at 1:00 pm at City Hall.

L Train shutdown

Governor Andrew Cuomo has declared there will be no L Train shutdown, instead proposing repairs take place on nights and weekends. New York City Transit president Andy Byford told CB3’s Transportation Committee this week that Cuomo’s plan needs to be vetted through independent engineers and a full safety review before getting approved. So the fate of the shutdown is still unknown.

If Cuomo’s plan does go through, a lot of local questions will have to be answered again. Will the Williamsburg Bridge still be limited to HOV and bus traffic? Will the Clinton Street approach to the bridge still be closed?