Join the New York Junior League’s Playground Improvement Project to help beautify and improve Corlears Hook Park.
Lunch provided if you RSVP by May 4.

Corlears Hook Park — our neighborhood’s entryway to East River Park — has undergone significant upgrades over the past five years thanks to local organizing by Friends of Corlears Hook Park.

This year, the park has been selected as the subject of an intense month-long volunteer project by New York Junior League’s Playground Improvement Project. Working weekends since April 14, volunteers are gardening, landscaping, and renovating the park and playground.

We will join them during the final weekend of park improvements, on Saturday, May 12. Volunteers should be ready to start working at 8:30 am. Lunch will be provided only if you RSVP below.

Corlears Hook Park is a vital outdoor space for our community, with playground, outdoor grills, baseball and soccer field, a dog run, and one of the most vibrant displays of Chinese magnolias in New York City. It’s important that we do our part to make sure this park has the local resources necessary to keep it looking its best.

This year’s state primary is heating up! Hear from Democratic candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and Comptroller. Open to the public.

We are grateful to Village Independent Democrats for arranging the event. GSD and other downtown clubs are co-sponsoring the event to make sure members of our community have a chance to hear directly from all these Democratic campaigns.

PS 41 is close to the West 4th Street subway stop (D, B, F, A, C). From our neighborhood you can also take the M14A to 6th Ave. and walk down just three blocks.

At our next regular meeting we will:

• Discuss and vote on endorsements for NYS Assembly and NYS Senate elections.
• Nominate and select delegates to the NYS Democratic judicial convention.
• Discuss and vote on resolutions regarding the MTA’s current contingency plan for the L Train shutdown.

The meeting is open to the public. Only members with voting privileges* will be allowed to vote on endorsements and resolutions. (Members with voting privileges who cannot make the meeting may designate in writing any other member to vote on their behalf.)

* A member has voting privileges if they meet the following conditions:

1. is a registered Democrat;
2. has been a member for at least 90 days;
3. has completed a participation requirement as defined by the Executive Committee.

If you are unsure if you meet these requirements, please email hello@grandstreetdems.nyc.

If Democrats have any hope of gaining control of the New York State Senate this year — gaining an upper hand on progressive priorities like expanding voting rights, campaign finance reform, promoting reproductive justice, affordable housing, criminal justice reform, and gun control — then we have to win the April 24 special election in lower Westchester.

Volunteer with GSD President Jeremy Sherber in Westchester on Sunday, April 15 to canvass for Shelley Mayer. This will be classic campaign door-knocking: after a brief orientation, volunteers will be sent out in pairs with a list of target voters. (If you’ve never done this before, you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly.)

Actor and public education advocate Cynthia Nixon is challenging Andrew Cuomo for Governor of New York this year. Grand Street Democrats has not yet had a chance to make an endorsement in this important race, but two GSD members in Seward Park are opening their home for a fundraiser and meet & greet for candidate Nixon this month. If you want to get a head start on understanding the issues and personalities that will dominate this year’s NYS political news, consider coming by.

Thursday, April 12
6:30 – 8:00 pm
at the home of Ella & Brett Leitner
417 Grand Street, Apt. D1704

RSVP and donate on ActBlue.

Grand Street Democrats made it to rallies in NYC and Washington, DC on Saturday. District Leader Caroline Laskow and her family and GSD President Jeremy Sherber and his family joined other members and neighbors on a bus to Washington. GSD Treasurer Daria Segalini with her family lead locals uptown to join the NYC rally.

Grand St Dems out in force at the #MarchForOurLives in DC & NYC! Inspired by the #Parkland Students, their allies & our students— together we can make change & #commonsensegunlaws a reality. #GSDMarches

A post shared by Grand Street Democrats (@grandstreetdems) on Mar 24, 2018 at 2:49pm PDT

America, finally, is at a turning point. Large majorities of us favor common-sense gun safety legislation, yet Washington has ignored even the most reasonable regulations because of the outsized influence of the NRA. Now there is a growing movement, inspired and led by the survivors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, strong enough to take on the NRA.

Join that movement on March 24 for the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC. Sign up below for a spot on the Grand Street bus. Space is limited, cost is $50 per seat. (And thank you to East River cooperator Cynthia Pappas for chartering the bus and letting us team up.)

Let’s celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the start of Grand Street Democrats’ campaign to bring progressive, active, local politics back to the neighborhood! Join us Monday night for a drink at Lucky Jack’s and try your hand at our Civics Trivia Quiz.

No cover. Cash bar. $10 quiz entry. Kitschy prizes for the trivia-est in the neighborhood. See you there!

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who represents NY Congressional District 12, is being challenged this year by a first-time candidate, Suraj Patel. We will have a chance this Thursday to hear from both candidates, ask them questions, and then decide whom to endorse for the Democratic primary on June 26.

Please show up at 6:45 pm so we can get started with the first candidate promptly at 7:00 pm. (The meeting is open to everyone, but only GSD members with voting privileges will be allowed to vote on our endorsement.)

7:00 pm — Suraj Patel
Patel is an alumni of Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012, president of his family’s hospitality company, and a lecturer at NYU’s business school.
Website: surajpatel.nyc

Sister District is a national organization created out of the ashes of the 2016 presidential election. Its goal is to harness Democratic energy from deep blue districts like ours to help get out the vote in truly swing districts around the country. Focused especially on state legislative races (which will help determine new congressional districts after the 2020 census), Sister District helped with the tremendous successes in Virginia in 2017, and now is resetting targets for 2018.

First up is a special election for Florida State House in February, where Democrat Margaret Good is hoping to flip this Sarasota District.

 

Grand Street Dems launches its 2018 partnership with Sister District with this phone bank for Margaret Good on February 12. Help us make calls and participate in this year’s Democratic #BlueWave across the country.