Discuss Land Use Issues (like PS 199) with City Council Candidates June 27th

Read the New York Times article on real estate influence in the race.

JCC Forum for City Council Candidates

City Council Candidates will speak on Youth and Education

Another good opportunity to quiz the CC candidates on their views concerning PS 199 and PS 191.

June 18th at the JCC

6:00pm - 7:30pm

Details can be found here:

http://www.jccmanhattan.org/cat-content.aspx?catid=2994&progID=28393#/EJCCCC00S3

RSVP is required.

Gale Brewer Writes Letter to DOE Requesting Timely Decision

Click on the image to enlarge or view the PDF here.

Follow the Money in City Council Race

An article in the New York Times today exposes a new PAC, Jobs for New York, which is attempting to influence the City Council elections.  

"A group of real estate executives and corporate leaders, bracing for the departure of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, plans to spend up to $10 million to make sure the City Council elected this fall is friendly to business. 

The organization, made up of real estate developers, property owners, banks, insurance companies, investment firms and others, has established a political action committee to direct donations to back candidates in both parties who support pro-development policies. 

Called Jobs for New York, the PAC represents an aggressive new involvement in New York’s heavily regulated city elections by a major independent expenditure group."

We are not endorsing any particular candidate for District 6, but we do think it's important to know if any of the candidates are being backed by organizations that want to promote further development of our neighborhood.  If would not be surprising if these same interested parties are backing the DOE proposal to build luxury high-rises above three schools in Manhattan.

Read the full article here.

Mark Landis, Candidate for City Council Statement re PS 199

Here's an excerpt:

I call upon both NYC DOE and NYCHA to submit these proposals through ULURP, to provide for a full analysis of the environmental impact of each proposal, and to abide by any ULURP determinations. These proposed developments are likely to increase traffic, create additional demand for seats in already-overcrowded local schools, and impact the character of the neighborhood. Both proposals will inevitably reduce open and “green” spaces. Some sites may require environmental remediation; the NYC DOE projects also require finding safe, convenient temporary school locations so that educational activities are not disturbed – which will be next to impossible to find!

Going forward, we must ensure that any future proposals of this type and magnitude are required to be subject to ULURP, so that the general public, community boards and elected officials can do their jobs by having a full and fair opportunity to review, common upon and approve or disapprove of future proposals.

Read the full statement here. 

Gale Brewer Writes Letter Urging Landmark Status for PS 199

See the full letter here.

Statement from Ken Biberaj, Candidate for CIty Council, District 6

West Side City Council Candidate Responds to City’s Plan for Demolition and

Redevelopment of P.S. 191 and P.S. 199

New York City (April 3, 2013)- Democratic City Council Candidate (6th district - Upper West Side), Ken Biberaj, issued a statement about the news that the City is entertaining plans to tear down P.S. 191 and P.S. 199.  It was recently reported that the Department of Education had requested proposals to demolish P.S. 191, P.S. 199, and a school on the Upper East Side and replace them with high-rise apartments and new schools on the ground level.  The initial report came as a shock to our neighborhood.  While more details continue to emerge about the plan, our students, parents, and community deserve full involvement in this process.

“Like many on the Upper West Side, I have serious concerns about the plan to demolish P.S. 191 and P.S. 199 and that the community was not approached at the outset.  Public education in our neighborhood is reaching a crisis point and while we have a desperate need for more quality seats for our growing family population, it has to be balanced with over development on the West Side” said City Council candidate Ken Biberaj.  “Any plan to rebuild these schools within a new development must be done in a responsible and transparent way. The community must be involved in the decisions that are made so that we ensure that if there is a development it creates additional school seats, provides affordable housing and addresses the serious concerns about increased density. Far too much development has taken place over the years on the UWS without our community getting enough in return. This practice needs to stop. “

Statement from Noah Gotbaum, Candidate for City Council, District 6

STOP THE DEMOLITION OF OUR COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

By Noah Gotbaum | West Side Spirit | February 28, 2013

Concerns that the Department of Education has offered PS 199 (West 70^th St) and PS 191 (West 61^st St) as development sites to be demolished and then rebuilt inside of luxury apartment towers has spread like wildfire through our community.  And with good reason.  DOE’s consultants drafted and distributed a detailed 80-page “Request for Expressions of Interest” memorandum for developers interested in the sites - and subsequently received dozens of draft plans – which could hugely and negatively impact thousands of children, families and community members without so much as a phone call to our elected officials, Community Board 7, Community Education Council (CEC3), and the affected school communities.

And while ensuring multiple and attractive “benefits” to the prospective developers – including “markets starved of luxury housing” – the DOE memorandum is far less concerned with the negative impacts on our schools and community. The memorandum neither requests nor proposes a definitive and clear plan or discussion of the developers’ (or the DOE’s) responsibilities to our families and community during construction or even where those displaced students would go. Equally troubling, the proposal expects that the new schools will be no larger than the current schools. This despite significant overcrowding district-wide – including at 199 as well as 191 – and a district-wide push for new seats, especially at the middle school level. Incredibly, the DOE proposal doesn’t even require developers to provide additional space for the influx of hundreds of additional school-age families who inevitably will be drawn to the new developments which actively market our schools as a key amenity.

Noah Gotbaum Campaign Kick-off at PS 199 this Saturday

Campaign Kickoff

Saturday, April 06, 2013 at 12:00 PM

PS 199 in New York, NY

Join Noah, his children, former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, parents, community members, and Chubby the English mastiff, for Noah’s Campaign Kickoff.

Note:  This is not an endorsement but it is an opportunity to show support for the opposition of the PS 199 proposal and to hand out flyers!

Letter from Mel Wymore, Candidate for City Council, District 6

The Importance of ULURP (Excuse me)

ULURP is the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.  Here is a short blurb about it:

"Prior to 1976, the City Planning Commission reviewed only applications related to zoning, the city map and urban renewal and housing. In 1976, the list of applications subject to Commission review was enlarged and now includes, pursuant to the City Charter enacted in 1989, those itemsdescribed below. The Charter's intent in requiring ULURP was to establish a standardized procedure whereby applications affecting the land use of the city would be publicly reviewed. The Charter also established mandated time frames within which application review must take place. Key participants in the ULURP process are now the Department of City Planning (DCP) and the City Planning Commission (CPC), Community Boards, the Borough Presidents, the Borough Boards, the City Council and the Mayor."  For more detail see: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/luproc/ulpro.shtml#ccr

Right now, the proposed development does not require ULURP. It is important to get the DOE to agree to ULURP because it puts the decision making process in to the hands of other players including the Community Board, the Manhattan Borough Present and the City Council.

Helen Rosenthal, City Council Candidate in the NY Press

How The Department of Education Made New Schools A Cause of Community Anger

Written by NYPress on March 22, 2013. Posted in Opinion West Side Spirit, West Side Spirit.

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By now, most Upper West Siders are familiar with the City Department of Education’s decision to demolish one of our local schools, P.S. 191 or P.S. 199, to make way for luxury housing towers in already crowded neighborhoods. There are so many fundamental questions about how this proposal came to be, a lack of discussion about whether or not it’s ever acceptable to sell public assets to a private developer, and why this proposal was dropped on the Upper West Side with virtually no notice that it has put an indelible taint over the entire project.

Go to the Article

Meeting Tonight for City Council Candidates

Meet the Candidates for City Council, District 6, the seat being vacated by Hon. Gale Brewer.

Come and let your voices be heard about the PS 199 Development proposal.

The event will be on Thursday, March 28th, 2013, 7PM at

Council House
241 West 72nd Street
Between Broadway and West End Avenue

To date the following candidates have declare:

Mel Wymore
Helen Rosenthal
Marc Landis
Noah Gotbaum
Debra Cooper
Ken Biberiaj

Meet the Candidates for City Council District 6

Meet the Candidates for City Council, District 6, the seat being vacated by Hon. Gale Brewer.

Come and let your voices be heard about the PS 199 Development proposal.

The event will be on Thursday, March 28th, 2013, 7PM at

Council House
241 West 72nd Street
Between Broadway and West End Avenue

To date the following candidates have declare:

Mel Wymore
Helen Rosenthal
Marc Landis
Noah Gotbaum
Debra Cooper
Ken Biberiaj