News

JULY 7, 2016 BY CASSIDY DAWN GRAVES

(photo: Cassidy Dawn Graves)

“On the northern side of Sara D. Roosevelt Park sits a large brick structure. Once a youth center, the Stanton Building was shut down during a time of high crime in the Lower East Side and is now used only for storage by the Parks Department. Since the late ’90s, there’s been talk of returning it to community use, but that has yet to happen…”

Read more at…

Bedford + Bowery

By Allegra Hobbs | July 6, 2016 5:18pm

“… Community members have launched a series of workshops aimed at convincing the city to turn a run-down storage facility into a community center with much-needed public restrooms — a cause advocates have been pushing for since 1994…”

The Stanton Building Task Force,…gathered outside the Parks Department building on Stanton Street to pass out surveys to park-goers in order to gather feedback on how best to revitalize the space, which the department has been using as a storage facility since the 1980s …

…[Webster said] ..community members care deeply about the park space and want very much to see its facilities open to the community.

But the department has shown no interest in moving forward with the community’s demand … a demand supported by Community Board 3 …”

Read the full article in DNAinfo 

Many thanks to the Park-going community and nearby neighbors who came out to give us your thinking on what you’d like to see here! A number of adults who grew up playing checkers and ping pong inside the building and using the woodshop (that used to be in the basement) came by to tell us they hoped their children could use the building some day too.

And a big thank you to all the volunteers who showed up in force to help:

Charles Krezell, Max, and all the teenagers from LUNGs summer internship program who worked hard in the heat to clear tree pits, mulch, weed, clear trash and plant and water the Pachysandra as well as work in the side beds.

Thank you to Kirsti Bambridge and James Morris for guiding the volunteers in the planting and for getting tools, T-shirts and gloves for the young people.

Thank you to Parks and Parks Manager Terese Flores who brought us mulch, checked in with us, had the trucks and cars moved for the day, and made sure PEP was nearby (and 5th Precinct).

Thank you to our interns for their invaluable help posting flyers and making sure surveys got out to the neighborhood, and for documenting us: Chyna, Eddie, Tony, Lee and Noel. You were all superb.

Bob Humber from M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden (and the Elizabeth Hubbard Memorial Garden) helped organize and supervise and let us borrow tables and chairs!

Aziz Dehkan of Gardens Rising and the NY City Community Gardening Association  came by too (he’ll be visiting Baltimore soon).

Josh offered Bike Repair with The New York Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op, Bee keepers came with fresh honey samples, the Zumba instructor came and the elders from University Settlement worked out (yes in this heat)!, The New Museum’s Annie Sultan stopped by to help and to distribute information on their exhibit “The Waiting Room” which has a series of “care sessions” (real hands-on care!) and brought the New Museum’s history of local artists, and Jina was on hand all day for sign language interpretation. Council Member Chin was represented as was Assembly Member Alice Cancel and Christopher Marte came by.

And 596 Acres brought their very informative exhibit “What Do We Do With Our Land”?

Wendy drew a lovely outline of the building so people could get a sense of the size of this space.

We had translations from Jin Xiu Chen and Kevin Tobar Pesantez and others…

Jennifer and Kevin and Katie and K did a lot of work too – and sweated….

University Settlement, Green Map System, and The Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition want to thank our partners at NYCommons for their help. And thank you to Susan Lerner who stopped by too!

Thanks to the press for coming out, seeing what we are doing, and letting others know!

Here are more photos of the day….

 Tomorrow, July 6th, you are invited to join in for It’s My Park Day and a Community Visioning in the Sara Roosevelt Park at Stanton Street from 3-6pm!

The Stanton Building in Roosevelt Park could be an awesome community space. Help Parks envision its future  – check out our website for more information.

Bathrooms for the public? And for sports events in the park? Already funded! How do we help get them built?

We’ll be cleaning up and mulching and weeding the tree pits and green areas!

Located on Stanton between Forsyth and Chrystie, the building is a blank slate – drop by for a few minutes and share your ideas! 

The Stanton Building Task Force will be joined by: 

– Gardening via It’s My Park Day by M’finda Kalunga, Sara Roosevelt Coalition, LUNGS Youth Program & Partnerships for Parks!

– Bike Repair by The New York Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op

– Renewable Energy with Solarize LES

– Composting & Green Jobs with Green Map System

– Beekeeping with Alpha Bee City Honey

– LES History with the New Museum

– Awesome exhibits by 596 Acres, Hester Street and other community groups

– Zumba with University Settlement

– Sign language thanks to Jina Porter and The Collective for Community, Culture and Environment

All welcome! stop by and share your insights!

You can RSVP to apple@greenmap.org or via Facebook or just drop by. 

Special thanks to NYCommons and Partnerships for Parks!

We are hosting two more events on July 13th and 27th at 6:30PM The first one will be held to help this neighborhood learn “tools to impact decisions around the future of their park…” specifically with the Stanton Street Building in mind. The third workshop will be for all Park’s groups to learn “accessible information about who controls these public assets, how decisions about these assets are made, and how members of the public can influence these choices in their park buildings and public green spaces” for fuller community use.

Those two workshops will be led in partnership with NYCommons (a coalition of three organizations: Common Cause, 596 Acres and Urban Justice Center) 

Stanton Building Task Force

Facebook 

For generations, Mohawk Indians have left their reservations in or near Canada to raise skyscrapers in the heart of New York City

From Tribal Link Foundation…

To see Photos click here.

How does this move forward to prevent this from happening elsewhere?

NYTimes

Rivington House…sold at great profit to a condominium developer — leading to questions about the arrangement, a moratorium on new deed changes, and state and federal investigations.

….Melissa Mark-Viverito, the Council speaker, suggested there would be a hearing specifically addressing the city’s handling of deed restrictions.

“There’s room here to do some oversight,” Ms. Mark-Viverito…

But the hearing, which was tentatively scheduled for this week, was postponed until the fall.

…several Council members said they were recently told by Ms. Mark-Viverito’s office that when the hearing does occur, the Council would not be delving into the events surrounding how the nursing home came to lose the deed restriction, which had prevented any use for it other than nonprofit residential health care.

…the speaker’s office was concerned that the hearing would give renewed attention to an issue that has been problematic for Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat whose administration approved the deed change that allowed the Allure Group, a nursing home operator, to sell the building to the condominium developer for $116 million. Each requested anonymity in order to discuss the private exchanges.

“I want to get to the bottom of what happened at Rivington, St. Nicholas and other sites,” said Councilman Ben Kallos, an Upper East Side Democrat whose committee oversees the Citywide Administrative Services Department, which grants deed restrictions. “The Council has a responsibility to hold an oversight hearing on deed restrictions.”…

596 Acres at It’s My Park Day at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side

Wednesday, July 6 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

At Sara D Roosevelt Park at Stanton Street (between Forsyth & Chrystie) on the Lower East Side

Join us and The Stanton Building Task Force of the Sara D. Roosevelt Park Coalition to envision a new community space in the Stanton Building, which was built as a community center and has been closed to the public for decades.

596 Acres will be there with our “What Do We Do With Our Land” exhibit, which highlights the use of eminent domain and community land trusts to create community controlled land and housing on the Lower East Side. We originally installed this in front of the Stanton Street building in 2015 for the Ideas City Festival.

You can listen to the audio pieces at the link, but you will need to come to the festival to experience the energy of the neighborhood!

It’s My Park Day Clean up, plant and make this area beautiful! 

and

Campaign to Restore the Bathrooms in SDR Park! Do you use the ballfields in SDR Park? Want open and clean bathrooms there?

and

Envision a New Community Space at the Stanton Building!  what would you like to see here?

Wednesday July 6, 13 and 27 in Sara D Roosevelt Park

Envision a New Community Space at the Stanton Building!
Weds July 6th • 3 to 6pm – Stanton Street between Forsyth and Chrystie

It’s a blank slate! Drop by and make a big impression. Explore resilient possibilities with the Stanton Building Task Force and NYCommons. Get inspired by:

• Gardening via It’s My Park Day by M’Finda Kalunga & Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition & the LUNGS Youth Program & Partnership for Parks
• Bike Repair by The New York Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op
• Beekeeping with Alpha Bee City Honey
• Renewable Energy with Solarize LES
• Composting & Green Jobs with Green Map System
• LES History with the New Museum
• Awesome exhibits by 596 Acres, Hester Street and other community groups
• Zumba with University Settlement

Thank you to Council Member Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Jina Porter, Interpreter for our deaf neighbors, the Sara D Roosevelt Park Community Coalition, University Settlement, NYC Parks Department, Partnerships for Parks, Bowery Rescue Committee, Materials for the Arts, NY4Parks, LES Ready and the Collective for Culture, Community and Environment.

Clean Up the Park!

Campaign for the Park Bathrooms to be Restored!

Campaign for the Return of the Stanton Building to the Lower East Side Community

3 events in July to expand the vision and learn how to effectively generate change!

Wednesday July 6, 13 and 27 in Sara D Roosevelt Park

In 1998, residents were promised their community space would soon be returned. Instead, it’s used for storage and in poor condition, which attracts other misuse of the Park as well as trucks coming and going in an area where children play and bicyclists ride.

This coastal community needs a space to generate relationships and resiliency. Located one block south of Houston Street and a block east of the Bowery in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, the Stanton Building could be an important anchor to the community and a gateway to Sara D Roosevelt Park. As one of the few public buildings located outside all the flood zones below Houston, it could function well as a refuge in times of disruption. It is in the heart of a community that is being priced out of financially viable democratic spaces.

For more information or to RSVP, contact apple@greenmap.org

Thanks to the neighbors, small businesses, Elected officials, local community based organizations and farther afield organizations who worked to make this day happen.

We want to thank in particular University Settlement House and Melissa Aase and her amazing staff for pulling the press conference together.

What a great way to spend the morning/afternoon.

Thanks to everyone for every single thing you did that we know about and for the very many we don’t. 

Thank you for every single pressing personal issue you put aside to help make this happen.

Reporters came from Gothamist, NY Post, Daily News, DNAinfo, Village Voice, Villager, WNYC, Epoch Times, and our favorite… The Lo-Down.…Politico is following up.

The elected officials were better than ever: Margaret Chin and Daniel Squadron were with us. Gale Brewer’s Deputy came in support. Bob Humber and Rhonda from Roni-Sue’s Chocolates spoke eloquently, personally with compassion and smarts.

Melissa hosted with a vengeance – her opening remarks were brilliant and to the point.

We had detail-fixers, tweeters, speakers, table-movers, moviemakers, organizers, experts, electeds and their hard working staffers, our beloved and passionate community members, community board reps, tech supporters, errand runners, petition signers – and petition outreachers, water bearers, advisors, sign-makers, flyer -putter-uppers, designers, greeters, press wranglers, former staffers of Rivington House, witnesses, strategists, researchers, email writers, family of RH residents and investigative reporters. 

No job was beneath us or above us. It was collective effort at its best.

The Settlement Houses local and city-wide, Hand in Hand, GOLES, CAAAV, ACT-Up, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, National Domestic Workers Alliance, M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden, Educational Alliance, 10 Stanton Street, members of BRC Nutrition Center, Sara Roosevelt Park Coalition Members were with us….VOCAL -NY said they’d push our petition…just heard from GMHC…and more on the way…

We’ve already helped to press for tougher and transparent reforms to protect communities from the next Rivington Houses and we’ve helped block the sale of two nursing homes that would have fallen to the same tactics. We have opened up a window for transparency and accountability.

1528 signatures and more networks asking members to sign.

And my new favorite ‘hope quote’ from Jesse Williams “A system built to divide, and impoverish, and destroy us cannot stand – if we do”

articles thus far: 

Village Voice    by Alexandria Neason

Gothamist by Emma Whitford

Daily News by Mary McDonnell and Erin Durkin

Not able to make the Press Conference but asking the right questions:

Politico by Susan Goldenberg (the city-commissioned report referred to is the one the Mayor asked for himself).

Real Deal video of the entire history Alistair Gardiner

NY Post by Michael Gartland 

Bowery Boogie by Elie

Epoch Times by Sarah Lu (in Chinese)

And the Lo-Down continues its investigative reporting and posts all news of Rivington House

Neighbors to Save Rivington House

Facebook

Twitter #CareNotCondos #RivingtonHouse

Petition 

BAN (Bowery Alliance of Neighbors) “Windows on the Bowery”

See nice article in Bowery Boogie: “Bowery Alliance of Neighbors co-founder David Mulkins says. “We wanted people to see how important this street is.”