We’ll be out this Saturday to greet the start of early voting. Meet up at Ahearn Park (the triangle at Grand Street and East Broadway) at 11:00 am so we can walk over to JHS 56 together and cast our votes.
We’re delighted to be joined by Seward cooperator and award-winning author Joan Silber on May 27 to discuss her new book Secrets of Happiness. This conversation will be hosted by our last book club guest author, Ian Rosenberg.
Silber’s last book, Improvement (2017), won the the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. With Secrets of Happiness Silber again tackles a layered story from multiple points of view — each chapter has a different narrator with a different stake in the events.
“Secrets of Happiness is a beautiful novel of interconnected New Yorkers, whose lives and actions have far-reaching consequences, for better or worse. Silber imbues this tapestry of characters with an empathy and humanity that is so resonant, especially at this late-pandemic moment, when we’re reckoning with our losses and our community”
— District Leader Caroline Laskow
You can buy Secrets of Happiness from McNally Jackson and other booksellers.
In a new vote on Monday evening, Grand Street Dems members endorsed Kathryn Garcia for Mayor.
GSD members’ close second choice for Mayor is Dianne Morales.
Members spoke in favor of Garcia’s highly-regarded managerial experience within city government. Especially given the scale of economic recovery New York faces in the next several years, and the opportunities for challenging reforms within city agencies, her no-nonsense, goal-oriented approach to problem-solving would be a huge asset for all New Yorkers.
At the same time, many GSD members who are looking for transformational change in the way we talk about race, housing, equity, and policing were drawn to Dianne Morales, who is running as perhaps the most purely progressive candidate in the race. As our own ranked choice voting process peeled off the outliers, Morales came in a close second to Garcia.
This new endorsement meeting was called by the GSD Executive Committee ten days ago so that members could reconsider our previous endorsement of Scott Stringer given the sexual misconduct allegations recently made against him. The new vote was a full do-over among all 13 candidates who will be on the Democratic primary ballot on June 22, including Stringer.
To help our neighbors navigate the ranked choice ballot we will all use for the primary this year for the first time, the Executive Committee also voted prior to last night’s endorsement vote to release the club’s first and second choices for Mayor, as opposed to the single endorsements GSD has made public previously.
In response to sexual abuse allegations made against Scott Stringer this week, the GSD Executive Committee has voted to hold a membership meeting on Monday, May 10 to reconsider the club’s Mayoral endorsement.
All GSD members are invited to attend, and all members with voting privileges will be able to vote to endorse one of the candidates on the primary ballot for NYC Mayor.
Monday, May 10, 2021 7:00 pm Members will receive Zoom link by email
In the meantime, there are a few Mayoral forums coming up over the next week that you might want to attend to brush up on the state of the race:
Multifaith Justice Mayoral Forum — Sunday, May 2, 3:00 – 4:30 pm The leading six candidates for Mayor are hosted by a broad coalition of faith-based groups, including Collegiate Middle Church and East End Temple. Register for the event.
Downtown Women for Change — Monday, May 3, 4:00 – 5:00 pm Meet the women running for Mayor — Kathryn Garcia, Dianne Morales and Maya Wiley — to hear how they plan to address the many challenges facing New York. Register for the event.
NYIC Forum on Immigration — Thursday, May 6, 7:30 – 9:00 pm New York Immigration Coalition hosts a forum moderated by reporters from The City and Gotham Gazette. Register for the event.
We were so happy to be able to speak with author Ian Rosenberg about his new book The Fight for Free Speech. Ian’s book connects ten essential Supreme Court cases about the First Amendment to contemporary questions and issues in the news right now. It’s a timely and relatable guide to learning what your free speech rights are and how to use them.
At our meeting on February 23, Grand Street Dems voted to endorse Christopher Chin and Edward Irizarry for the two open seats on the New York Civil Court, Judicial District 2.
Author Ian Rosenberg is Assistant Chief Counsel at ABC, Inc., where he has provided pre-broadcast counsel for ABC News clients on libel, newsgathering, intellectual property, and FCC regulatory issues since 2003. He’s also a founding a member of Grand Street Dems.
Ian’s new book — The Fight for Free Speech — is timely, relatable, and wonderfully readable. He connects ten essential Supreme Court cases about our First Amendment to contemporary questions and issues in the news right now.
