Help Plan How to Improve McKinley Park!

PS 63 The Star Academy, Neighborhood School

6:30pm-8pm

121 East 3rd Street between 1st Ave & Ave A

EVGrieve: “Reps for the Parks Department will be collecting input this Thursday evening on improving the McKinley Playground on Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue…”

“Worth Dying For?‘

A powerful film about how the murder of famed activist Berta Caceres has unleashed a wave of activism across Honduras”

From The March on behalf of Berta Cáceres Outside the UN 2016:

Politics of Death: ‘Am I next?’ Honduras land activists

“Honduras is the deadliest place on earth for environmental activism, according to a January report by UK-based watchdog Global Witness, with about 120 activists killed since 2010 but most crimes going unpunished.

The dangers involved hit the spotlight when renowned environmentalist Berta Caceres – a prize-winning grassroots campaigner – was gunned down in her home in March last year….

…Caceres led a decades-long campaign against the construction of the $50 million Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam that threatened to uproot hundreds of Lenca people and destroy livelihoods.

Both the government and Desarrollos Energeticos SA (DESA), the private company building the Agua Zarca dam, have denied any involvement in Caceres’ murder.

International backers of the dam – the FMO, the Dutch development bank, and a Finnish state investment fund, Finnfund – suspended $20 million in funding following Caceres’ murder.”

…According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)… there are nearly 840 mining projects, most for gold, in the pipeline or under consideration, covering a third of Honduran territory.

From the Guardian: Leaked court documents raise concerns that the murder of the Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres was an extrajudicial killing planned by military intelligence specialists linked to the country’s US–trained special forces, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

DNAinfo:

NYPD: “The elderly man was walking with a walker east on Rivington Street when [a cement] …truck … hit him while [the truck was heading] south on Chrystie at about 12:51 p.m…”

This area has a new configuration since the two-way bike lane was installed on Chrystie Street on the Park side of the street with a ‘rest area’ included for safety of pedestrians.

CB3 last night passed a resolution joining our electeds in asking the Department of Buildings to create working and timely communications when DOB makes any change to permits to Rivington House. Given the recent history whereby neighbors and CB3 warnings went unheeded and given several open investigations including the Attorney General’s Office it is the least that should be done.

We are honored to learn that the Columbia University Libraries Web Resources Collection Program has selected our Sara D Roosevelt Park Coalition website  for inclusion in its Avery Library Historic Preservation and Urban Planning web archive “to ensure its continuing availability to researchers”.

“The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library collects books and periodicals in architecture, historic preservation, art history, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, city planning, real estate, and archaeology–and now makes archival copies of important web resources for preservation and access purposes.”

We’ll be in great company. Check it out here. (will take two to three weeks for our website to be added).

Columbia University Libraries will provide public online access to the archived version(s) of our website to ensure its availability to researchers.

They will also create a cataloging record for of the website in the international online library catalog Worldcat and the Columbia University online library catalog, increasing our visibility to the scholarly community.

We helped build a great park and a great coalition of people to care for it and one another. Unbeatable.

Thank you to Alex Thurman, Web Resources Collection Coordinator Columbia University Libraries!

Wow.

From “A Walk in the Park” Blog (Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates):

 

From the Lo-Down: 

[Mayor] de Blasio …“we will put in facilities for senior affordable housing, additional, into the community and for additional nursing home capacity of 200 beds or more… to compensate for what happened here, because it wasn’t right.”

[Council Member] Chin … addressed the bigger picture. “Mr. Mayor,” she said, “you heard from the community. We’re not giving up on Rivington House. We have to find a way.”

We deeply appreciate every one of these efforts but CM Chin is correct. Our view on a way forward:

Excerpted dialogue between the Mayor and Council Member Chin:

Chin: “You can invite the people who purchased that building to come in and talk with us and see if we can build a model 21st century nursing facility for our senior with special needs.

Because that company is from China I think they want to do the right thing. But if the mayor reaches out to them. they might want to come in and talk to you and I am more than willing to sit down.” 

Mayor: …I have no problem offering them that they could have a better relationship with the community and with the administration if they came in and considered a different outcome.

Chin: So we’ll follow up mayor?

Mayor: Yes of course.”

Neighbors to Save Rivington House “Asks”

Immediate: 

1) DOB accountability to the neighborhood via our electeds: CM, MBP and/or Community Board. Commissioner Chandler promised “an investigation as to what they are planning” and inspections so they don’t “exceeded the scope of their permit” . 

We’ve seen this companies idea of “exploratory” before.

Short-term:

2) The meeting with Mayor de Blasio, China Vanke, CM Chin, and delegates of the Neighbors to Save RivingtonHouse. The mayor is clearly capable of pushback when he feels something is wrong. He needs to use that skill here. He HAS the bully pulpit. If he chose to challenge this company? It would be a win/win for everyone. They need goodwill in NYC – not a building that will be in dispute forever in a scruffy park (and I suspect the neighboring garden would get a LOT scruffier).

As China Vanke’s LinkedIn page proudly proclaims:

“Built around principles, China Vanke is featured with putting morals and ethics before profits. The Company believes that its success depends on its commitment to core values, resistance to temptations, and fair return based on its professionalism. The Company strives to be the most favourite company of customers, investors and employees, and the most respected company of society through self-regulation, enhanced transparency and a healthy and focused business development model. Thanks to its excellent corporate governance and high ethics codes, the Company was selected as one of “China’s Most Respected Enterprises” for five consecutive years and received the award of “China’s Best Corporate Citizen” for four consecutive years.”

Tragic on all fronts:

From The Lo-Down: 24-Year-Old Man Indicted in Connection With Brutal Forsyth Street Attack

“A 24-year-old man has been indicted in connection with a vicious attack on a 61-year-old woman near Sara D. Roosevelt Park last month…The Daily News reported yesterday that the woman may have permanent brain damage. She has been hospitalized since the morning of the attack…“Her vocal cords were severely damaged so she could barely speak. She still cannot eat or drink without a tube.”

From DNAinfo: Man Who Beat Woman Near Lower East Side Park Indicted for Attempted Murder

“A man accused of brutally beating a 61-year-old woman near Sara D. Roosevelt Park last month has been indicted on an attempted murder charge…The victim was left with bleeding in her brain, and was still hospitalized as of Wednesday, according to prosecutors.

…District Attorney Cyrus Vance:”No one should have to fear walking our City’s streets and my Office will continue to vigorously prosecute anyone who threatens the safety of our citizens.”

A neighbor wrote:

“I just got home, I walked through the park, I counted 15-20 people in Soccer Field tonight.  Make shift boxes, mattress, blankets etc. Wow, is this the norm for the upcoming months?

I’m just worried about the children that play on field, isn’t this a health hazard as far as keeping clean.  I smell Y2K.  I feel bad that we don’t have enough beds for homeless in this City.  Just put up gate.  I notice our park doesn’t have secure areas for kids such as our sprinklers, now the soccer field.  Wow!!!”

Our Answer:

The Police can’t enforce anything without Park’s providing signs or putting up a gate in the field. Parks Enforcement doesn’t have dedicated officers to make this work – AND all law enforcement have other things to do with their time.

We have proposed a solution to the rising use of SDR Park as an encampment for the homeless: a shared building with on-site Homeless Outreach workers and a resiliency/emergency center and meeting space for the community as a whole. It’s a win/win. We have interest (and need) from a homeless provider of good reputation, local community organizations with the know-how and experience who have the trust of this neighborhood.

The Mayor seemed interested at the Town Hall. Our Council Member Chin is on board. The Community Board is with us. What’s the hold up?

We feel the current situation pits vulnerable homeless against other community members and park-users in our neighborhood. It also attracts drug sellers who prey on the homeless. We are urgently in need of an anchor here. One that sites real help for those who are homeless with daily opportunity to build the kinds of relationships that help move people into shelter or homes.

For now:

Call 311 Get the complaint number and call or email the Community Board 3 Office: Susan Stetzer <sstetzer@cb3manhattan.org>.

Disappointing news that the Community Board Transportation Committee okayed this bus stop. We understand the position:

NYC Department of Transportation tends to ‘rubber stamp’ bus stops despite over-saturation on the LES.It’s a larger NY STATE problem. If we don’t get them to sign ‘stipulations’ (controls on bus company behavior) the bus companies operate ‘freely’.

However, as park advocates we are opposed to granting this permit.  Here’s why:

• This bus company moved from Pike Street here – still not sure why? They’ve been operating on Chrystie Street illegally and now want to go legit. We reward this?
• This company alone would have 10 trips daily from 10am to 12:15am.
• On Chrystie now: two bus ticketing/waiting areas though no one is supposed to be operating there. If you see buses leave a comment here?

95 Canal behind the school

147 Canal (Bowery Slip)

• A driver for this company was responsible for the death of an elderly pedestrian in CT in 2013. These buses will be navigating school kids and the many seniors here.  http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/20160908/mass-bus-driver-found-guilty-in-mohegan-sun-workers-death   The driver apparently had prior problems:  http://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20121207/news/312079324
• None of these buses, 6 of them, have pollution controls.
• It’s not optimal to have more exhaust from buses and more traffic here. We are the on ramp and off ramp to the Manhattan Bridge.
• Three schools opposite: Pace HS, MS 131, Emma Lazarus HS. These schools are majority immigrant, of color, and low-income. We think there should be an environmental study with any proposed increase in pollution and traffic – especially alongside parks or schools. For instance, what are the asthma rates in the schoolchildren here? We know adult asthma is almost a third higher than the Manhattan average in LES/Chinatown.
• One of the schools Administrators and a local children’s soccer organization are already opposed.

• The “L” train shut down is going to affect our area. 200 buses will make round trips from Williamsburg to Manhattan. A large number (they don’t know yet) will be coming across Delancey Street eventually making their way up Lafayette or 1st Ave.We are not opposed to bus services in general – we understand the need and that they bring customers for local businesses. But if bus companies want to earn money here they need to protect the children, park users, and elders here by:
  • having a history of respect for local law
  • hiring drivers with good safety records
  • installing pollution controls on their buses (or buying new ones).

   

  If you want a voice in this:

  • Write an email/letter to elected representatives (email addresses below)
  • Come to the full board meeting to speak – This is where the final vote will be taken:

   

  Community Board 3, Full Board Meeting

  Tuesday, June 27, 2017 – 6:30pm

  PS 20 – 166 Essex Street (E Houston & Stanton Sts)

   

Email Addresses: 

Send to:

Mayor de Blasio’s Office: Tommy Lin <tlin@cityhall.nyc.gov>

Community Board 3 Office: Susan Stetzer <sstetzer@cb3manhattan.org>

Senator Daniel Squadron’s Office: Fendi Linan <fendi@danielsquadron.org>

AssemblyMember Yuh-Line Niou’s Office: Mauricio Pazmino <mauricio@yuhlineniou.org>

Council Member Chin’s Office: Vincent Fang <VFang@council.nyc.gov>

Manhattan Borough President’s Office: Andrew Lombardi <andrewlombardi@manhattanbp.nyc.gov>