News

Senator Daniel Squadron’s Community Town Hall  happened last night, Tuesday, November 15 @ DCTV Firehouse Building, 87 Lafayette Street, Manhattan. (btwn White and Walker Streets below Canal). It was packed.

The Senator answered questions, encouraged activism and calmed fears without pretense.

We went to remind our Senator that we are here, paying attention and to remind him of our ‘asks’. We went to support his efforts – to let them know we have his back. Our role is to help politicians govern better and smarter.

Daniel is a good bet. He’s principled and very very smart. That doesn’t mean we will always agree on everything.

Many of us will be going to ask for help on getting Parks to return Park buildings in SDR Park to public use and to think about the earth and environmental sustainability State-wide.

Many of us will go to encourage him to be even more active in fighting for Rivington Houses return. And to ask for his help creating a more inclusive and human approach to elder care, disabled care, caregivers and institutions such as nursing homes.

SDR Park.

Sen. Squadron has been a good supporter of the park and greenspaces in general. He organized and led a park’s equity group (SDR Coalition was a part of) to figure out ways to support parks that had no wealthy advocates.

In these coming times we will need publicly accessible community spaces to meet in and to anchor all of our efforts as stewards here. The Stanton Street Building could play that role.

We could provide an intelligent push on the environment. Senator Squadron understands climate change, but how should that translate in terms of his job as a Senator? What kind of legislation should he be looking to craft (that could pass the NY State Senate! or could send a message or educate his colleagues)? What are the points of common interests in the entire State of NY?

Rivington House

Senator Squadron immediately joined the voices to protest Rivington House debacle and supported the community wish to fight for the return of Rivington House.

Rivington House: Neighbors to Save Rivington House supported his Rivington House Bill S8208.

This bill would ensure that the community is warned of any potential nursing home closures. In addition to the community being warned (which this bill ensures), we agree that language should be added to make sure the residents and their families are also warned (at least a year’s notice). Follow up on the issue. How can we help?

At the City Council hearing on DCAS failures it was noted by CM Landers that nursing home residents have fewer (or no?) rights than even those in rent stabilized apartments. We mentioned this to Sen. Squadron who said he’d take it to Albany. It will be good to follow up.

Positions Sen. Squadron fought for: Below are his positions on parks, housing, and a bill off of what happened with Rivington House (RH):

An advocate for parks and open space, Squadron made a proposal that led to over $15 million for neighborhood parks through a voluntary agreement with the largest park conservancies, an agreement that was hailed by New York Times columnist Ginia Bellafante as one of the “surprises from 2015, and reasons for hope.” He has long worked towards a Harbor Park — a Central Park for the center of the city. He  helped secure the future of Brooklyn Bridge Park, Governors Island, and the Lower East Side’s Pier 42, and brought the Macy’s fireworks back to the East River.

A fighter for affordable housing, Squadron sponsored the law bringing over $1 billion in federal funds to NYC public housing, and worked to end the practice of charging public housing residents for policing. Squadron successfully led the charge to ensure families were not charged rent by city shelters. He has also pushed for better protections for rent stabilized tenants, including individual apartment improvement rent increase (IAI) reforms. In 2013, Squadron passed a law expanding eligibility for middle class families in Mitchell-Lama housing.

Senate Bill S8208

Relates to the approval of the closure of nursing homes and residential health care facilities by the commissioner of health.

Bob Humber and Council Member Chin accept thanks from the hardworking Transportation Alternatives. The SDR Coalition requested a meeting from the Dept. of Transportation (DOT), accessible to the local neighborhood. Thank you to both DOT and Transportation Alternatives for fighting for safer streets and for reaching out to the local community and working with us. Thanks Ollie, Chelsea and all the other members.

First, we thank the parks department for obtaining a newly painted basketball court. Personally, I think it’s kind of pretty.

BoweryBoogie article. Added: Lo-Down article. More on local Parks, community consultation.

We would have wished we had been asked in the first place about such a big change in a park that has a very active park coalition and a very reachable Community Board. As a courtesy?

We would have wished to have the neighborhood invited and not be, yet again, spectators outside the fence watching a rich corporation using a public park, privately. With a private security guard who apparently flashed a police badge to intimidate a questioner when they asked to enter? And yes we know children were brought in to play and that’s fun for them. Thank you.  But somehow it’s not the same as asking a neighborhood if you can have a loud, glaringly lit, generators running, private party in their front yard past the 9pm permit.

Maybe they would have said yes?

It changes everything about how it feels to be asked, to be considered, to be invited.

And maybeParks Department Commissioner Silver should have informed and checked with the Community Board and Park Coalition?  Again, plain courtesy, sign of respect, for the decades of labor the neighborhood donated to change this park from a drug infested, pimp -owned place that Park’s Department wouldn’t even set foot in – to a place with pockets of utter beauty and joy?

Oh, and being sent an email two hours before the event doesn’t count.

This week has been a rough one for many of those who don’t feel included in the new America.

This didn’t help.

I suspect many of us are struggling post election. Might be useful to remember what we will continue to try for:

To build community and model, to the best of our ability, how to stay connected, care about one another, share the resources we have and insist on a more honest, open, fair and inclusive world.

To hold ourselves accountable and hold those who lead us accountable.

To encourage all of us to see ourselves as leaders in the true sense.

To be fierce in pushing back against every single form of oppression that exists without descending into using those same poisonous tactics.

To, even in disagreement, work to create community: we’ll talk and listen until we find common ground.

To continue to steward this park as our part of sustaining our planet.

We will spend these next years creating the hope we long for.

Look back over this website and you will see the efforts of decades of countless community members and generous people from far away. Many not recorded here. The people who began this Coalition were not certain of success: there was little help and a lot of danger.

Last, here are thoughts from just a few of our elders who knew a thing or two about struggle (for those moments of doubt):

“If you are not angry you’re either a stone or to sick to be angry. You should be angry. You must not be bitter. ….bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. You write it, you paint it you dance it, you march it, you vote it. You talk it. Never stop talking.” – May Angelou

“History, written by power, taught us that we had lost… We did not believe what Power had taught us. We skipped class when they taught conformity and idiocy. We failed modernity. We are united by the imagination, by creativity, by tomorrow. In the past we not only met defeat but also found a desire for justice and the dream of being better. We left skepticism hanging from the hook of big capital and discovered that we could believe, that it was worth believing, that we should believe- in ourselves. Health to you, and don’t forget that flowers, like hope are harvested.”

-Marcos of the Zapatistas

“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” -Washington Irving

‘If you’ve come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. But if you have come here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.’ -Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal Elder

Gloria Steinem: “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off”.

“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.” – Arundhati Roy

Lincoln at Gettysburg: “We are not enemies”

On Tuesday November 8th a large delivery of rock and pavers for a path were worked into a lovely pathway. 20 young people from Emma Lazarus, along with ‘The Hort” (and a little help from a Millennium High School student) were there to help with mulching and path making. 

Here tis:

From NYPD Community Affairs Bureau

The 43rd Annual Halloween Parade is set to take place on Monday, October 31, 2016 at 7:00 PM.  The parade will begin on Spring Street, continuing north on Sixth Avenue, and will end on West 15th Street at 11:00 PM.  If you plan on attending the parade, using public transportation is highly recommended, as there will be significant traffic delays in the surrounding areas of the parade.  For travel information, click: HERE.