We celebrated the redo of the bike lanes on Chrystie Street adjacent to the Sara Roosevelt Park. Yay!! Safer for bicyclists! And better for car traffic too (I mean who wants to hit someone on a bike?).

We asked for pedestrian crossing signs for this new bike-way. To help bicyclists know to pay extra attention to the pedestrians coming out of the park. We think there should be pedestrian crossing signs at all of the Park’s ‘streetways’ (at Hester, Broome, Rivington and Stanton Streetways).

We had met with DOT (Department of Transportation), called a special meeting with interpreters for the deaf for those who live in the housing nearby, and had senior organization staff present who were fluent in Cantonese/Mandarin. We also invited the local small business community: some came in the middle of their workday (not so easy).

Here is an update on our requests:

The Coalition’s (and CB3) asks:

 1) A Deaf pedestrian crossing sign – requested for Chrystie/Stanton to warn bicyclists traveling in both directions.

– The request for sign to be installed on Chrystie and Stanton has been denied “because it is located on the other side of the park which is away from the facility. The facility is on Forsyth St btw Stanton and Rivington where there is no bike lane there so it is not applicable. We install signs as close to the facility as possible and usually before you reach the facility. Therefore, we would not install one after the facility.”

We now would like pedestrian crossing signs at each of the Park’s Streetways.

Our response: Real actual people don’t just walk in front of their facility! Part of the problem with this new bike lane (as was mentioned repeatedly to DOT) is that it is a new two-way configuration. NO long-time local pedestrians will be expecting two-way bike traffic. That includes little children, a LOT of elders, Blind gardeners, and the people who live in housing set aside for the deaf. These kinds of changes take time to learn. AND we expect bike commuters through our neighborhood to be in charge of thinking about the local community – as we do drivers of vehicles. There is NO warning for bicyclists to pay closer attention to pedestrian traffic coming out of this park.

2) Speed bump – requested for Forsyth between Stanton/Rivington. The request for the study was opened last year April 2016.

Response: All speed bump requests citywide are backed up. Apparently the results for the study are not available. CB3 is asking their Pedestrian Projects group and Traffic Planning Management to take a look at this block to see if there are other potential improvements.

Thanks to Bowery Boogie for keeping up with this saga. And for having a much needed sense of humor.

Posted on: March 17th, 2017 at 5:00 am

“What’s another two years when the community already waited three decades?

Two years.

That’s the estimated timeline for the Stanton Storehouse to finally return to the community, albeit partially. Community Board 3 last night approved the Parks Department proposal to convert part of the building into a public comfort station (which is a euphemism for bathroom).  Thanks to an allocation of $1 million in city funding sponsored by Councilwoman Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, the city can now deliver. The project will reconfigure the west wing of the structure.”

Read more.

After this issue the committee spoke about the need for a conversation on what can we do to enable parks (with no discreet capital budget) to hire more maintenance workers, train them and make our parks safer and cleaner.

Another conversation needs to happen on how we can expedite capital projects to move forward more efficiently and effectively – not just yell at parks when things don’t move forward for years (although that IS enjoyable and therapeutic – for us!).

We want to thank this officer for how he handled a young homeless man who was clearly struggling to keep a grasp on reality.

Two officers quickly moved in to stop his threatening behavior. The young man cried out for his ‘things’. This officer borrowed a fresh garbage bag and picked up every piece of the young man’s belongings (the guy had been fishing his clothes out of a storm drain and scattered them everywhere). The officers then called for an ambulance.

Father Greg Boyle -Homeboy Industries: “The measure of our compassion not in our service but our willingness to be in kinship – away from judgment… to stand in awe rather than stand in judgment -Alice Miller’s ’enlightened witnesses” who return people to themselves.”

Don’t Repeal the Affordable Care Act or unravel Medicaid!!

From Hand in Hand and Caring Across Generations :

“All of us need support or care in our lives in some form—but we need our government to ensure that everyone can afford and have access to this care.“

Please sign: Moveon.Org Petition

From Gale Brewer’s Manhattan Borough President’s Office:

Jobs for Youth

From Chinese Progressive Association:

Remember Sunday is Daylight Savings Time: Move Clocks Ahead One Hour!

Previews from our (still) Free Press:

DNAinfo’s Allegra Hobbs: “Activist group Neighbors to Save Rivington House on Sunday will host an event addressing the dearth of healthcare facilities in the community and brainstorming how best to meet the needs of elderly and disabled locals.”

“Data shows that Lower Manhattan has been hit the hardest by a citywide spate of nursing home closures, having lost more than half of its long-term care facility beds within the last decade.”

BoweryBoogie: “Locals are encouraged to join and get vocal about how best to meet those needs. There will be a slew of panelists and speakers with diverse backgrounds, bringing real stories from the neighborhood, an architect’s perspective, and information stemming from community care experts.”

“Our position is and has been that Rivington House must be returned to public use for the benefit of our Lower East Side community…We will begin with a two-hour panel discussion, hosted by University Settlement House, where several experts (architecture, public health, care giving, disability rights) will give us a vocabulary of ideas to think about in preparation for a charrette later in the spring.”

The Lo-Down: “Rivington House Forum Takes Place on Sunday” Neighbors to Save Rivington House will hold a forum to which the public is cordially invited on Sunday afternoon, March 12^th from 2 to 4 at Speyer Hall on the second floor of University Settlement, 184 Eldridge Street, New York City.”

Patch: Joe Dolice:

Curbed NY Ameena Walker:”Rivington House Fate is Still Being Challenged by the Community”

“Mayor de Blasio has said that there’s nothing the city can do at this point to reverse the transaction, however, local advocacy group Neighbors to Save Rivington House have no intentions to take the blow lying down. Instead, they will hosts two “visioning events” that will discuss ways to return the property to the community, despite de Blasio claiming that it can’t be done..”

Thanks to all for this coverage.

Sunday March 12th @ 2pm -Daylight Savings time- Set clocks ahead one hour!

We have an ‘improbable’, not impossible, road ahead re: the return of the building.

While that effort goes on, we will educate ourselves and our community on the larger, looming, struggle to care for our most vulnerable neighbors – all of us.

We are trying to reimagine how we create options for existing and future care needs, in the very center of our communities, where no one is left out or left alone to deal with mental or physical health challenges. And to reimagine how this beautiful facility overlooking a garden could be creatively used for the good of our community.

A former caregiver at Rivington House will speak out about her time there. Others will speak on disability rights/policy and the rights of older persons – and how to think about the caregivers they require to live their lives. We’ll have two neighborhood women talk about the impact on their lives without Rivington House. An architect who knows the ‘bones’ of the building and the (at the time) groundbreaking retrofitting done there (at quite a cost to taxpayers). 

We’ll also have information on the Sanctuary Homes initiative to protect undocumented caregivers.

DNAinfo

By Allegra Hobbs | March 6, 2017 10:14am

“More than two decades after community activists began rallying for the restoration of a derelict storage facility in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, the city …to restore the building’s bathrooms for public use….the design phase [for]…the Stanton Street building — Community Board 3 Parks Committee meeting on March 16…

Construction is slated to begin fall 2018 and will wrap up about a year later…

The park has one public restroom on Hester Street, near the southern end of the park, while a facility on Broome Street remains out of order due …

“We love to share with all of NYC, but it’s really too big a burden for this neighborhood and narrow park to be asked to have almost all of our buildings resources devoted to out-of-neighborhood needs,”

LoDown

“The moment has finally arrived. Fifty years after hundreds of homes were demolished in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), the first affordable apartments are becoming available on the site.

At midnight last night (Thursday, March 2), the housing lottery for site 5 of Essex Crossing as SPURA is now known, went live on the city’s housing website.”

Grand Street Guild Residents Suspect Their Owners Are Planning Two New Towers 

“The Lower East Side is in the midst of its biggest construction boom in decades.  Several projects now underway are reshaping the neighborhood. Now residents fear another large-scale residential development is about to be unleashed on a community weary of pile driving, barricaded sidewalks and cranes.”

Check out the full stories on the LoDown.

Parks Without Borders Panel:

Learn more about the thinking behind the push to lower fences, etc. in Parks.

Thursday March 9th at 6 p.m. Thursday, the Department of Parks and Recreation will host author Peter Kageyama for its “Parks Without Borders” discussion series. Kageyama will speak with Department Commissioner Mitchell Silver about how “emotionally connecting with parks and public space can make communities stronger, healthier, and happier.”