March with us Saturday for Reproductive Rights & Fair Access

#BansOffOurBodies

Please join us this Saturday, October 2 at the March for Reproductive Rights & Fair Access.

Join pro-choice advocates in all 50 states to send a loud and powerful message to the Supreme Court and politicians everywhere – Bans Off Our Bodies!

GSD is a co-sponsor of the march, and we are joining a coalition of downtown Democratic Clubs in NYC and a large slate of co-sponsors across the country.

Saturday, October 2
MARCH FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS & FAIR ACCESS

12:30 pm
Sign-making at Seward Park Library Plaza

1:30 pm
March to Foley Square

2:00 pm
Rally at Foley Square &
March to Washington Square Park

Why It’s Urgent to March Now
The right to safe, legal abortions is at risk like never before. Texas enacted an abortion ban, making abortions virtually inaccessible in the state. Now the Supreme Court will hear an abortion challenge that could render the protections of Roe v. Wade meaningless across many parts of the country. The Supreme Court will hear a case concerning Mississippi’s abortion restriction on December 1st.

Thank you to GSD members Ellen Garvey and Joyce Ravitz for including our club in this important event!

Thursday 6/17 at 5:30 pm: 2021 Primary Rally

We have a special event: our first in-person GSD meeting in over a year!

Primary Rally
Thursday 6/17 at 5:30 pm
Hester Lot (Hester & Essex)

Come out to hear from our endorsed candidates as they close out their 2021 campaigns. After the event, if you haven’t voted yet, you can join us at JHS 56, where polls stay open that evening until 8:00 pm.

This event is open to everyone in the neighborhood — please share with your friends and neighbors so they know about early voting and have a chance to hear directly from these amazing candidates.

Saturday 6/12 at 11:00 am: Stroll to the Polls!

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.

After voting, we’ll be out on Grand Street with some of our endorsed candidates to make sure all our neighbors know that early voting has started and runs through Sunday, June 20.

This event is open to anyone, so please get your friends and neighbors to join you on what should be a dry, mild Saturday.

May 27 at 7 pm: GSD Book Club with Joan Silber, author of “Secrets of Happiness”

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.

May 4: Virtual Reception in Support of Lindsey Boylan for Borough President

Please join us to support Lindsey Boylan,
candidate for Manhattan Borough President.

Tuesday, May 4, 2021
7:00 – 8:00 pm
RSVP for Event

Co-Hosts
Tommy Loeb
Marion Riedel

Sponsors
Grand Street Dems, Pat Arnow, Lee Berman, Wendy Brawer, Bill Ferns, Fannie Ip, Jeremy Sherber, Kim Sillen, Vanessa Thill

Zoom link provided before the event.  
This event is private and closed to press.

Suggested Donation Levels:
$175 | $100 | $50 
$25 | $10 | $5
 A donation is not required to attend.  

March 9 at 7 pm: GSD Book Club with Ian Rosenberg, author of “The Fight for Free Speech”

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.

Ian will join us on Tuesday, March 9 for a conversation about his book and to answer your questions. Buy his book from Shakespeare & Co., McNally Jackson, or from Amazon, then join us on Tuesday, March 9 for our conversation with Ian.

Feb. 20: Civil Court Candidate Forum

There are two open seats this year for Manhattan Civil Court (county-wide) and two more open seats for Civil Court Judicial District 2 (where we live), with a number of candidates who were rated “most highly qualified” by the New York County Independent Judicial Screening Panel for Civil Court Judges on Feb. 8.

On Saturday we will have a chance to hear from all these candidates, and then will vote at our general meeting Tuesday whether to make any endorsements for these seats.

Manhattan Civil Court Candidate Forum
Saturday, February 20, 2:00 – 3:30 pm
Zoom link: tinyurl.com/civilCourtForum

Thank you to Downtown Independent Democrats for putting this forum together for all of us.

Candidates for Civil Court Judge County-wide

Candidates for Civil Court Judicial District 2

Sunday 11/15 at 2:00 pm: GSD Forum and Endorsement Meeting for City Council District 1

Next Sunday afternoon we will host all six candidates (virtually, of course) for City Council District 1, where term limits create an open seat in 2021.

City Council District 1
GSD CANDIDATE FORUM AND ENDORSEMENT MEETING

Sunday, November 15, 2:00 – 5:00 pm
Register: grandstreetdems.nyc/zoom-2020-11-15

Please set aside 2:00 – 5:00 pm so that we can give this important local race the attention it deserves. Each candidate will have 20 minutes to answer your questions — for six candidates, that will take two full hours. After that, we want GSD members to have a chance to discuss their choices and make the case for their preferred candidate before we VOTE on our club’s endorsement.

Sunday 11/1: Manhattan Dems Day of Action

Grand Street Democrats is partnering with a veritable Who’s Who of Manhattan Democratic Clubs to co-host a “Day of Action” this Sunday, November 1 — we will be phone banking from 12 pm – 8 pm, to whatever swing states the Biden campaign selects (likely Pennsylvania and Florida) and we want YOU TO JOIN THE ACTION. We’re not asking you to spend all day on a bus to canvass in person, but we are asking you to dedicate at least a few of those hours to make calls.

Please sign up for at least one shift (they’re 2 hours each) and please please consider doing more than one. Caroline and Jeremy and I will be making calls all afternoon so you’ll definitely see familiar faces at those times, but it’s a huge, unified effort across many clubs, and we want to do everything we can to get out the vote in these crucial battleground states.

And no matter where you live, these phonebooks are open to all. Spread the word, encourage a friend to sign up, and reach out if you have any questions.

Stroll to the Polls! Vote early with GSD on Sunday, October 25 and Thursday, October 29

Early voting starts on Saturday, October 24 and we have a convenient poll site in our neighborhood — the public school at 220 Henry Street (enter the school on Montgomery through the Center for Aerospace).

Vote early with Grand Street Dems on Sunday, October 25 at noon or Thursday, October 29 at 10:00 am — meet at the Apple Bank on Grand & Madison and we’ll go vote together!

Why vote early?

  • Less crowded than on Election Day.
  • Your vote is counted on Election Day with all the others.
  • No need to worry about whether your absentee ballot was filled out correctly.
  • You get a sticker and/or wristband!

If you can, we recommend you vote early in person at 220 Henry Street any of these times:

Saturday, October 24 … 10 am to 4 pm
Sunday, October 25 … 10 am to 4 pm
Monday, October 26 … 7 am to 3 pm
Tuesday, October 27 … 12 pm to 8 pm
Wednesday, October 28 … 12 pm to 8 pm
Thursday, October 26 … 10 am to 6 pm
Friday, October 27 … 7 am to 3 pm
Saturday, October 31 … 10 am to 4 pm
Sunday, November 1 … 10 am to 4 pm