Sign the Petition

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Thank You for This Great Victory

Hi All -

I want to personally thank all of you who stepped up to help in various ways.  I won't name you but you know who you are:  the folks who sometimes braved insults handing out flyers,  the folks who collected petition signatures, those of you who drummed up support from neighborhoods and friends, those who attended community meetings,  those who participated in the Lincoln Square Community Coalition, those who spoke up at building board meetings and lobby meetings and especially those who stood  up to challenge the "wait and see" approach of the P.S. 199 PTA.  

I will mention some people by name:

Roberta Semer who lives in Lincoln Towers, called the first meeting with elected officials in early March, got the ball rolling for us as a community, had the idea for LSCC and has worked with me every step of the way.

Melanie Brazil who stepped up to rally those parents at P.S. 199 who wanted to save their school and wanted to speak up now.

Stacie Loraine and Susannah Blum who organized the P.S. 191 community.  They were amazing and passionate, and the P.S. 191 community was critical in getting the DOE to recognize that the UWS was united in opposition.

I also want to mention how supportive City Council Member Gale Brewer and State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal have been.

Gale pushed the DOE to tell us what their plans were going to be, asked for more transparency and public review, and pushed them to make a decision before the end of the school year.  She has also been pushing for P.S. 199 landmark status, has attended our meetings and spoken strongly and publicly against the ECF proposal.

Linda has been one of our strongest advocates, writing letters and introducing legislation - which we will continue to fight for - to prevent this type of proposal without public review happening again.  Linda made her staff available to us, they helped us strategize and plan our march, rally and last week's amazing forum.  They did robo calls (first one I ever liked!), handed out flyers and really got the word out about the forum.

I also want to acknowledge that Laurie Frey and Noah Gotbaum of CEC3 were particularly strong supporters as was Mel Wymore of Community Board 7.

Also, Batya Lewton and The Coalition for a Livable West SIde, The United Federation of Teachers, Olive Freud who made sure that the issue was raised at all her candidate events and anyone else whom I forgot!

A very big thank you to all of you.

This is real proof that a community can come together, speak up and affect change. 

Best Regards,
David Saphier and the 199demolition.com team.

No comments:

Post a Comment