Grand Street Democrats had its first regular meeting Monday night with about 100 neighbors in Seward’s community room.

Thank you to Councilmember Margaret Chin and Councilmember-elect Carlina Rivera for kicking off the meeting (and for sticking around!).

We heard from a number of you about what issues you think GSD should be standing up for, and, importantly, what we can all do to help. Those comments encouraged us to set up several initial committees, including Political & Social Action, Outreach, Big D (electing Democrats everywhere), and our Student Committee.

Incredible turnout at our 1st Meeting! Over 90 people signed up, discussed goals & joined committees to make them happen. You can still join us online (see link in bio) – this is just a grand beginning. #changeishere #togetherwebuild #grandstreetdems

A post shared by Grand Street Democrats (@grandstreetdems) on Nov 14, 2017 at 5:32am PST

What’s next?

We are already working on organizing a public meeting in December to take our concerns about Grand Street & Clinton Street traffic directly to local elected officials as well as the NYC Department of Transportation and our local 7th Precinct of the NYPD.

And we will be in touch after Thanksgiving with dates for initial meetings of our different committees, so that each group can start to set its own priorities.

For many people, the most important items on Tuesday’s ballot are the three ballot proposals. You’ll need to flip your ballot over to vote Yes or No for these three items.

Here is some information prepared by Grand Street Democrats for voters in the neighborhood.

Residents of Seward building 1 were surprised in September to find that their regular polling site in the lobby had been moved to the second floor of PS 134 on East Broadway. The official reasoning from the Board of Elections was hard to believe, that a crack in the sidewalk outside was a burden for disabled voters. (Leaving the building, crossing two streets, and reaching the second floor polling site was obviously a much bigger burden for voters than just coming downstairs.)

Fortunately, the crack was easily repaired by Seward management, and the Board of Elections has approved voters’ requests to bring the polling site back home. On Tuesday, November 7 Seward building 1 residents can easily vote again in their own building, in the community room.

On November 7 there will be three state proposals on your election day ballot. Grand Street Democrats voted Monday to recommend a “Yes” vote on Proposal 2.

It’s hard to believe, but elected officials convicted of corruption charges get to retire with full benefits in the state of New York.

A 2011 state law allowed for judges to reduce or revoke the public pension of officials convicted of crimes related to their office, but because the state constitution protects public pensions as contracts, only officials elected starting after the law went into effect are subject to its restriction. Ballot proposal 2 would amend the state constitution to give judges the power to punish officials even if they were elected before 2012.

There are still two caveats to this proposal, even if it passes:

First, as with the existing state law, pension forfeiture would not be automatic but rather would be at the discretion of a judge.

Second, this amendment would apply only to crimes committed on or after January 1, 2018. That creates a hard-to-resist window of opportunity between November 8 and December 31 of this year when veteran law makers can go all-out on corruption without worrying about risking their pensions. It also means that a certain neighbor of ours, even if re-tried and re-convicted, will continue to receive $79,222 per year from New York taxpayers for his many years of service.

On November 7, don’t forget to turn your ballot over and vote “Yes” on Proposal 2.

Monday night in the Seward Community Room, Grand Street Democrats founding members approved bylaws for our new local Democratic club, and inaugural club members elected officers to help guide the club for its first year.

Jeremy Sherber … President
Nina Watkins … Vice President
Daria Segalini … Treasurer
Judith Wind … Secretary

Bylaws will be posted soon to this website, and we’ll have a formal announcement soon about our first public meeting on November 13.

Our historic win is reported on in The New York Times! Read about the “End of an Era” and what District Leaders can do to make change –> LINK.