Please join us Tuesday for a meeting with local elected officials and MTA representatives to hear about the MTA plan to eliminate local stops along the M14A and M14D bus lines.
Tuesday, April 2, 6:00 pm.
7th Precinct Station House, Pitt Street & Delancey
The MTA has moved forward with this plan with almost no public input. Tuesday may be your only chance to make your voice heard.
Councilmember Carlina Rivera and nine other local elected officials released a statement today urging the MTA to keep local service along the M14A/D routes in addition to Select Bus Service (SBS) to speed travel times on longer trips.
We want an M14 SBS, but w such a high population of seniors and people w disabilities on the LES, we need to preserve local bus service too. That’s why I wrote a letter to @MTA/@NYC_DOT w 9 of my colleagues urging them to modify their plan to include supplemental local service. pic.twitter.com/xcSzL6RJmj
— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) March 20, 2019
Save Our Bus Stops!
Rally & Press Conference with Councilmember Carlina Rivera
Friday 1:00 pm
Ave. A & East 4th St.
Last week the MTA announced plans to eliminate local stops on the M14A and M14D routes, including four in our neighborhood. Please join Councilmember Carlina Rivera on Friday to say NO to these service cuts.
I’ll give this a little more context, but it still doesn’t make much sense:
The M14 is the second-busiest route in Manhattan, and also the second-slowest in all of NYC, spending 60% of its time in delays or at bus stops. The MTA hopes to alleviate this problem by converting all M14 routes to Select Bus Service (SBS), which means you swipe your card before boarding the bus and can enter the bus at any door.
These are good changes! Pre-swiping will make boarding the bus much faster most of the time. BUT by making all M14 routes SBS, the MTA is also eliminating local stops along the way, creating a huge burden for seniors and passengers with disabilities. This would be the only route in NYC where SBS express buses completely replace local service.
(None of this, by the way, addresses traffic delays, which account for the bulk of that 60% cited above!)
So — if you can in the middle of a work day — please join Councilmember Carlina Rivera on Friday at 1pm to protest these cuts. We’ll be at the corner of Ave. A and E. 4th Street. (You can even take the bus there … for now!)
Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou’s Annual Women’s History Month Event
Sunday, March 24, 12:00 – 3:00 pm
175 Delancey Street (at Clinton Street)
Meet, network, and chat with influential and successful women from all walks of life. The informal networking event at the end of the panel is an opportunity for young women to connect one-on-one with panelists and develop mentorships.
RSVP by emailing info@yuhlineniou.org or by calling 212-312-1420.
Community Town Hall with Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez
Thursday, March 21, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Manny Cantor Center, 197 East Broadway
For an update on the 116th Congress and discussion on the important issues facing our nation, including: Healthcare, Social Security, Immigration, Housing, Education, Economic Development, Criminal Justice, Infrastructure, Voting Rights, and the Environment.
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:
Councilmember Carlina Rivera has called a City Council hearing for Wednesday, January 23 at 1:00 pm to discuss the East Side Coastal Resiliency project that would completely rebuild East River Park for flood protection.
There are many unanswered questions about the current plan. Anyone interested in the fate of our local park is encouraged to attend and to testify.
Following superstorm Sandy in 2012, federal funds were allocated for flood protection along this stretch of NYC shoreline. Much of the East Village is built up on a flood plain, and, as we learned that fall, is particularly susceptible to rising sea level and tide surges that we should expect more of as climate change makes an impact.
A design process over four years produced a plan that would maintain the park’s primary recreational facilities and protect residential areas with berms and flood walls along the FDR Drive.
Last fall, the Mayor presented a revised plan that would also protect the park itself from flooding by raising the entire park with landfill above the flood line. As presented, the project would close the entire park for the duration of construction, estimated at 3.5 years. This new plan was designed to take less time but cost more money, and for many people in the neighborhood the radical nature of the park reconstruction finally hit home. (The headline in this weekend’s New York Times neatly summarized the crux of the problem: “To Save East River Park, the City Intends to Bury It.”)
You can see the City’s recent presentation deck to CB3 here.
The city council hearing on Wednesday is an opportunity to let the City know how vital this park is to East Village and Lower East Side residents, and raise questions about how the project will impact our lives. Is such a dramatic rebuild really necessary to protect the neighborhood from floods? Is complete closure of the park necessary for construction? How can we believe the City’s accelerated timetable when all other construction projects along the waterfront have been many years behind schedule?
If you are able to come out on a workday for this important hearing, please do.
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.
In order to keep things moving along as efficiently as possible, we are asking for questions in advance of our candidates forum on Jan. 29. Please submit your question below and we will do our best to put it to the candidates.