The demolition of the Manhattan Detention Center (aka The Tombs) is imminent — to make way for an $8.3 billion borough-based jail project across four boroughs. To the best of our knowledge, $8.3 billion is only for the buildings to be built by 2028 and not for services needed now by the inmates and those who work on Rikers Island.
In the interest of time, the Executive Committee drafted the letter below to be sent to Mayor Eric Adams for his attention via email, postal mail, social media, and this video:
Please help circulate this message.
We will vote on this as a club resolution at the next GSD meeting on March 21st.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
The Executive Committee of Grand Street Democrats Marion Riedel, President Sandra Strother-Ribeiro, Vice President Julie Huang, Vice President Melissa Shiffman, Secretary Kenny Wind, Treasurer Lee Berman, District Leader Caroline Laskow, District Leader
On Tuesday, a delegate of Grand Street Dems virtually attended a lobbying visit with Yuh-Line Niou. We joined organizers with NY Renews to urge Assemblymember Niou to allocate $15 billion in the state budget to fund the big & necessary climate initiatives that have already passed (as The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act) but aren’t yet paid for.
Assemblymember Niou understands the urgency and promises to work on her end to get this budget priority through. She also requested our help to make the case.
She urged that constituents send letters to her, our State Senator Brian Kavanagh, and Assembly Speaker Heastie explaining that funding climate legislation is important to us. The more letters they receive, the better; as they argue their budget priorities, elected officials can point to our letters as evidence of constituent support and concern. Because budget discussions are happening now, letters should be sent before the end of day Friday 2/17 to have the greatest impact. We have provided the legislators’ email addresses. To make it as simple as possible, If you click on each of their email address, it will guide you to a template for you to personalize and send right away. If you prefer, there is also the same template below that you can copy and paste and is marked where to personalize. Here is a one-page fact sheet from NY Renews that you can draw from if that’s of interest.
New York became a climate leader with the passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) in 2019. But without significant funding, we risk our landmark climate justice law becoming an unfunded mandate.
I urge you to fight for $15 billion for climate in the state budget, as outlined in the Climate and Community Investment Act. Among many other initiatives, this will electrify bus fleets, support community solar, and help New Yorkers lower their energy costs. These projects and many more will get NY to our ambitious–and very necessary–climate targets.
[Personalize with your own experience/ reason for requesting climate action]
To ensure a future that is safer for us and the generations that follow, I hope you will work with your colleagues in the Legislature to pass $15 billion in the state budget to fund climate initiatives.
Sincerely,
{Your name and address to prove you are a constituent]
GSD co-hosted a community meeting on February 6 about composting with Council Member Christopher Marte and Department of Sanitation NY (DSNY) Curbside Composting Outreach Coordinator, Allie Gumas. To the group of 40 neighbors, Allie presented information about the Curbside Composting program – what is it, why should we participate, how we sign-up, when our neighborhood will receive service, and how we reach out for help. She also answered the many questions from those in attendance. For efficiency, routes for compost service are being added as demand becomes clear. Some of our GSD community’s buildings are already “in the queue,” ready to be incorporated when an LES route becomes established. Chris and DSNY would love to see universally available compost; this will come down to funding for the city agency.
Chris briefly mentioned the new pilot program between Earth Matter and neighborhood NYCHA complex Smith Houses, where compost will be collected and processed on-site, allowing for people to see and participate in the compost process.
The Community Board 3 (CB3) Transportation, Public Safety, Sanitation & Environment Committee met on Tuesday, February 8th to consider a proposal by the NYC Department of Transportation (DoT) to modify some street directions; essentially to create “No Right Turn” from westbound Grand Street onto Clinton, rather having the Grand Street traffic go two more blocks to Norfolk, to turn right to go to Delancey.
The Traffic Working Group organized opposition to the DoT proposal for several reasons:
The DoT was seeking to increase the number of cars going through the neighborhood on Grand Street by 13%;
The DoT plan would only slow the westbound M14A bus by keeping it in Williamsburg Bridge traffic for two more blocks;
The DoT plan ignored other problem intersections like Madison & Grand and East Broadway & Clinton;
The DoT plan did not address Local Law 195 which requires more pedestrian space and an emphasis on pedestrian and cyclist safety;
The DoT plan did not include any enforcement measures either for moving violations or for illegal parking, and had not consulted the NYPD on the plan.
Multiple members of the Traffic Working Group (TWG) attended the committee’s meeting by Zoom to express opposition. Michelle Kuppersmith and Lee Berman are on the committee, and they, along with other TWG and GSD members, provided persuasive arguments and video evidence to convince the committee to vote unanimously on NOT endorsing the DoT plan. The committee’s resolutions were:
Resolved: Community Board 3 does not support in full DOT plans to mitigate traffic and safety at and near the intersection of Grand Street at Clinton Street as detailed above, especially plans to widen Norfolk Street; and
Resolved: Community Board 3 requests that DOT return expediently with a comprehensive plan that includes traffic re-design and public space study for the area to mitigate traffic and safety that centers residents, pedestrians, and cyclists and does not increase the volume of cars traveling through the neighborhood and includes information about how traffic will be re-distributed around the neighborhood between East Houston Street and South Street.
Resolved: in addition to DOT’s proposal to increase the number of Jersey barriers protecting the existing Clinton Street bike lane between Grand Street and Delancey Street, Community Board 3 also supports fully protecting the Clinton Street bike lane between South Street and East Houston Street from incursions by vehicles with physical controls that may include: Jersey barriers, static (not plastic) bollards, and/or raising the bike lanes above the street grade.
This is definitely a win for our side, but the full Community Board 3 will have to approve these resolutions, so SAVE THE DATE and come to the CB3 meeting on Tuesday, February 22to support bringing traffic sanity back to the neighborhood. We’ll provide the meeting details in next week’s newsletter.
Join us for our first GSD General Meeting of 2022! On Tuesday, January 18th, 7p-9p, we have an exciting agenda. We are hosting a Meet the Candidates from several upcoming elections. We will post candidates for the Assembly and State Committee races closer to the 18th as candidates are still declaring. We will also hear updates from our GSD committees on meetings they have held since last we met.
With NYS Senate Candidate Brian Kavanaugh and presentations by Chinatown Working Group and the 5 World Trade Center proposal for all affordable housing
