It’s here! The time to celebrate all the hard work Grand Street Dems has done over the past year has finally arrived. We’ve petitioned, knocked on doors, dropped literature at apartments, introduced candidates around the neighborhood, passed literature out on the street, made phone calls and sent texts. We have all earned a drink! We will also celebrate our sponsors, guests, and honorees.
To sponsor this event or to attend with a contribution, please RSVP here.
If you do not want to contribute but still would like to attend, please do! You can RSVP here.
Our September General meeting will be on September 29th at 7pm. The primaries are over, allowing us to take a breath and focus on things other than elections. Please bring your ideas and vision with regard to goals for Grand Street Dems in the coming year.
On 8/11/22, the Grand Street Dems full membership unanimously voted to support the“No More 24” Home Attendant Bill (Int #0175) introduced to the City Council by CM Christopher Marte. As passed, this will become part of the GSD package of resolutions.
The Maximum Working Hours For Home Care Aides bill would set the maximum working hours that an employer may assign to a home care aide. The hours would be limited to 12 hours for any one shift, or within any 24 hours period, and 50 hours within a week. A home care aide could be assigned additional hours in the event of an emergency.
GSD is proud to endorse Mondaire Jones — a true progressive with a proven track record on voting rights, affordable housing, public education, child care, climate change, protecting fundamental rights for women’s health, LGBTQ+ community, affordable healthcare for all.
ACTION ITEM: Call on our state legislators to reauthorize NYC’s speed safety camera program with no restrictions on hours of operation. Tell them you want 24/7 speed safety cameras. Here’s what you can say: “I want New York City’s streets protected from speeding drivers every hour of every day. Please reauthorize the speed safety camera program without restrictions on times and days of operation.”
Together, we can push this bill over the finish line — and more than double the hours that New Yorkers are protected from speeding drivers.
Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou (518.455.3640 or 212.312.1420)
Senator Brian Kavanagh (518.455.2625 or 212.298.5565)
Grand Street Dems is joining with other Democratic clubs from downtown Manhattan to meet with the candidates for the newly drawn NY-10 Congressional district. The forum will be on Zoom, over two nights to accommodate the large number of candidates.
Governor: Jumaane Williams Lt Governor: Ana María Archila US Senate: Chuck Schumer NYS Attorney General: Letitia James NYS Comptroller: Thomas DiNapoli NY State Senate District 29: Vittoria Fariello NY State Assembly District 65: Grace Lee NY Democratic State Committee AD 65 (F): Kathryn Freed NY Democratic State Committee AD 65 (M): Joshua Goodman
The Traffic Committee is looking for people who are willing to mobilize on traffic issues: writing letters to our elected officials, CB3 or call 311. There is power in our voices. Sign up here. GSD plan to have members hold a discussion on congestion pricing in the near future.
Traffic Working Group Message – March 29, 2022
Traffic Working Group (TWG) Colleagues:
ACTION ITEM: Sign Transportation Alternative’s online petition to our legislators to give NYC ‘home rule’ on traffic control cameras: https://p2a.co/ZCLnKkZ This will take only a minute…please do it:
BACKGROUND: Traffic cameras (red light cameras, speed cameras, bus lane cameras) have been shown to reduce accidents, reduce personal injury and property damage, and augment NYPD enforcement. NYS Law, however, limits the number of cameras that NYC can use to only 150 active cameras; this has been the case since 1994 (https://www.transalt.org/home-rule-means-safe-streets-nyc).
I discovered recently that one of our incumbent legislators was not aware of the traffic camera law nor of the limitation the state has imposed on NYC regarding traffic control cameras (https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VAT/1111-A). With this being a state election year, now is the time to press for changes to this law. This petition will go to Governor Hochul and our state representatives (in our case, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, and State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou) asking them to work to change the law and allow NYC “home rule” in setting up traffic cameras.
ACTION ITEMS: ADVOCATE FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE AT ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT! At the City level, Chris Marte’s office helped to lead a community meeting with the Department of Sanitation (DOS) regarding composting, or the lack thereof, in our neighborhood. However, Mayor Adams is suspending rollout of the program. Therefore, no more curbside program is in the works which is contradictory to what he campaigned on. Adams claimed it’s to save money. This program is .02% of the city budget. WHAT CAN WE DO?We send a pre-written letter to Mayor Adams and City Council to share our support for the Curbside Composting program https://act.newmode.net/action/save-our-compost/save-composting-nycAt the State level, the NY State Assembly and Senate are working on the NY State budget. We need to go big and set up funding at the state level that will allow climate justice initiatives to be funded annually. WHAT CAN WE DO?CALL!! This one-click tool will connect you with New York State leadership (the Governor, Speaker, and Majority Leader), so that you can tell your leaders directly: We need to see an immediate, unprecedented commitment to climate justice funding in 2022. Script and Prompts from NY Renews
Let them know you are part of Grand Street Dems when you call At the Federal level, we can contact our Senators to show we support passing major climate and clean energy investments that match the scale of the crisis. Even if our Senators support this, it is important to call so they can log constituents’ interest. Urge them to work with their colleagues. WHAT CAN WE DO?Here is more information and a script to follow www.call4climate.com Does calling Senators matter? Yes. Your representatives use the number of calls they receive for or against a particular topic to decide what to focus on, and what to fight for.
Should I call even if my Senators are Democrats? Yes. Democrats have to follow through on their commitment to pass the bill we need. 50 Democratic Senators say they want Congress to act, it’s up to us to make sure they do. Calling them will encourage them to fight harder.
1. 44 people have signed on to the TWG, 12 since last GSD meeting. We are building an ‘Action Volunteer’ list – 15 people so far. We need more folks – this is really a non-partisan organizing opportunity 2. The CB3 Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee met a second time on Tuesday, February 8th to hear the DoT’s proposed plan for Grand/Clinton Street; -DoT claims changes would be ‘self-enforcing’There were no provisions for bus lanes or pedestrian / bicyclist safety; -DoT said the plan could increase traffic throughput by 13% -The centerpiece of DoT plan is a ‘no right-hand turn” from w/b Grand onto Clinton, and sends w/b traffic down to Norfolk to get to Delancey. -The proposal was mostly small tweaks but still keeps Grand Street as an on-ramp to the Williamsburg Bridge. -We are discussing how to best address this proposal: Ideas range from pushing CB3 to not endorse it to pushing DoT to clarify a lot of the vague details in the plan; -The Transportation Committee rejected the proposal; -The full CB3 also rejected the DoT proposal on 2/22; -Thanks goes to Michelle Kuppersmith and Lee Berman, who are on the CB3 Transportation Committee, and lots of TWG and neighbors who showed up at the CB3 meetings; -It is entirely possible that the DoT will ignore CB3’s position
The Working Group Proposal: Based on participants’ feedback, the TWG has developed a clear set of goals (aka ‘wants’) that IPP Jeremy Sherber has put together in a handout
-The basics:Essex Crossing becomes primarily a pedestrian mall; -A bus lane for the westbound M14A; -Two-way bike lane on the south side of Grand Street to consolidate the bike lanes and allow more space for the proposed bus lane; -Consistent but random traffic & parking enforcementAmending current NYS Traffic Light laws; -Making the Essex / Delancey subway stop fully accessible
There has been some progress: -DoT has put up more safety barriers along the Clinton Street bike lanes from South Street to Delancey; -The pedestrian signal at the corner of Delancey and Clinton was askew so that it wasn’t viewable, but a couple of calls to 311 got DoT out to fix it; -Capt. Barcia of the 7th Precinct has found some funding for part-time traffic enforcement agents (TEAs) on the corner of Grand and Clinton -Relentless 311 reports have started to have an effect on truck parking in the pedestrian crosswalk and bike lanes on Clinton Street, although there are still offenders; -Katie Archer from Essex Crossing community affairs is interested in our efforts because of our pedestrian-friendly orientation.
