Food trucks have become essential elements to the workday lunch and the job force, but for Upper West and Upper East Side residents and businesses, they can be detrimental to quality of life. That’s why Council Member Dan Garodnick authored a citywide bill that would designate food truck “zones,” creating a sense of order for food truck workers, and a more peaceful community atmosphere. The bill would also cap the number of designated spots at 450.

At the City Council Hearing last week, council members debated on the topic, and Liz Weinstein, the representative from the mayor’s office, determined that while they “share the concerns of the City Council regarding the proliferation of food trucks” they will not endorse the bill in its current form. “We believe this may be an opportunity to take a more holistic view of mobile food vending operations.”

Members of the public listened to testimony from both sides: the Mayor’s office and Business Improvement Districts arguing that the approximately 5,100 mobile food vendors have taken over and created a “Wild Wild West atmosphere” especially in quiet neighborhood communities, and have begun to take away business from local brick and mortar stores – as well as representatives from the Food Truck Association who argued that food trucks add jobs and culture to the quality of life in the city. They brought up the point that food trucks delivered hundreds of hot meals to New Yorkers in need in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

“I respect the importance of food trucks and their popularity, but at the end of the day, it’s important for the city to establish some rules,” said Council Member Dan Garodnick during the hearing.

According to Garodnick, if his bill were passed in the City Council, the Department of Transportation would regulate the food trucks, and designate their specific locations, with the help and input of the local community boards. In addition, he said, to avoid overcrowding, food trucks would be limited to one per block.

Liz Weinstein said that the bill is a good start, but that the mayor would want even more restrictions on food trucks – including stricter hours of operation, requiring food trucks to convert to clean fuel, and the ability for food trucks to “bid” for designated spots.

But for local businesses, this still leaves the problem of what they deem to be unfair competition because mobile vendors like food trucks do not have to pay rent. According to Weinstein, that’s because of a decades-old Good Humor court ruling, which determined that government could not regulate competition between mobile vendors and brick and mortar stores.

“This isn’t competition; we welcome fair competition, but this isn’t a level playing field,” said Teri Slater, a representative from the East 86th Street Association. “Nobody should get rewarded for operating an unlawful business.”

On the West Side, Monica Blum, President of the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District said, “these mobile trucks seem to look for spots directly in front of stores, and we’ve gotten a lot of complaints.”

But according to representatives from the Food Truck Association, many of the food trucks try to abide by the law and add to the community, not take away from it.

“We believe in being stewards of our community,” said David Weber, the president of the Food Truck Association. “We hope we can serve as a model for the city and for our community.” According to Weber, the FTA itself regulates its members.

Although the FTA members make up a fraction of the existing food trucks out there, they must operate only one per block, clean up after themselves and operate without excessive odor or noise pollution.

Joe Glasser, a member of the FTA, who owns La Bella Torte – the city’s only dessert-specific food truck – made several suggestions to amend the bill, including having food truck parks, or sponsoring a food truck rally.

“My truck is spotless. I pay taxes and social security. We are basically restaurants on wheels,” said Glasser. “I hope this passes so I can make a living and everyone else can.”

But with this testimony came several more arguments, including City Council Member Koo, of Flushing, Queens, who said that his entire community smells like barbeque, and that people’s clothes in their closets reek of the food truck wares.

The debate went on for hours, and District 6 Council Member Gale Brewer interjected with several questions, wanting to know how the community can become more involved with the issue.

“This issue is much too complicated to be solved with one bill,” said Brewer.

By Beth Mellow

In a crowded upstairs room at Council House on West 72nd Street last Thursday evening, six Democratic candidates, and one Green party candidate for City Council, debated and discussed hotbed issues ranging from affordable housing to city taxes. The candidates are vying for an opportunity to secure the District 6 City Council seat vacated by Gale Brewer when she announced that she would run for Manhattan Borough President earlier this year. The Democratic primary for City Council will take place in September.
Candidates participating in last week’s meeting included (in alphabetical order) Ken Biberiaj, Debra Cooper, Noah Gotbaum, Marc Landis, Helen Rosenthal, Tom Siracuse, who is a Green Party member, and Mel Wymore. Although there were many nuanced differences, and a few larger divides, in the way candidates viewed topics, a belief that the community needed to secure more control over its destiny emerged as the central thesis of the evening. Time and time again, in regards to various municipal issues including education and housing, the candidates declared that the state government, or mayoral appointees, hold too much of the power in policy making.

In addition, each of the candidates also debated issues not only relevant to the Upper West Side community, but also the city at large, including Hurricane Sandy recovery. As one candidate, Debra Cooper, stated, “The Upper West Side is a specific geographic space but we have always been the leader on progressive issues affecting the rest of the city, state, and country.”

Last week’s event was hosted by the Social Action Committee of the National Council of Jewish Women, New York, West Side Federation of Neighborhood & Block Associations, and the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development. Here is a summary of how candidates weighed in on various topics.

Housing
While all seven candidates expressed concerned over rising rents on the Upper West Side and throughout New York City, each came to the topic with varying opinions on how to cap increasing housing costs. Some of the candidates mentioned problems surrounding the Urstadt law, which enables state government, instead of New York City, to set parameters for rent regulation, while others talked about the need to bring Mitchell-Lama style housing back for the middle class. See their opinions below:

Tom Siracuse: “I live in a rent control apartment, and if it weren’t for rent control, I wouldn’t be here today. Rent regulated apartments form the bedrock of working class and middle class people living in the city.”

Debra Cooper: “We need to repeal the Urstadt law. We can’t accomplish this without getting the Republicans out of control of the state senate. That will require some political organizing.”

Helen Rosenthal: “We have to work harder to connect with the community [on housing issues]. I worked with residents of Trinity House (a Mitchell-Lama building located on West 92nd street) to fend off a purchaser. They are now hoping to have a tenant buyout.”

Ken Biberiaj: “We have to support the young families that are living here and we have to hold HPD accountable to make sure that rent stabilized units are not deregulated.”

Mel Wymore: “Housing is a broken system in New York City because there are so many different programs between the city and the state working at odds with each other.”

Education
From overcrowded classrooms to free tuition at CUNY, all the candidates felt passionately about the state of education on the Upper West Side and throughout the city. Many of the candidates had personal experience with the New York City public school system, including Siracuse, who spent 29 years as a high school teacher; Landis, who helped establish Frank McCourt High School; and Gotbaum, who has been part of school boards and parent organizations over the past several years. Read what some of the candidates had to say about the current school system and how to improve it.

Marc Landis: “We need to give families options that don’t cost $40,000 a year.” He also stated, “I want to make sure the city council has more of a say on educational policies. It shouldn’t be only up to mayoral appointees.”

Noah Gotbaum: “I have fought against charter schools, high stakes testing, and demonizing teachers. The DOE right now doesn’t listen to parents and communities and are out to privatize our schools.”

Tom Siracuse: “We must restore free tuition at CUNY for students who graduate from New York City public schools.”

Debra Cooper: “We need to improve access to early childhood education. When you prepare kids as preschoolers, they do better once they get to grade school.” She added, “We need to work on classroom overcrowding too. The current elementary school bulge, will become a middle school bulge, which will in turn become a high school bulge.”

Ken Biberiaj: He believes it’s important to provide children with access to their local schools rather than sending them to other neighborhoods. “We’re zoned for P.S. 87 and we only have a four percent chance of getting our child into preschool there. When a school is right there, it doesn’t make sense that they won’t enroll your child.”

Mel Wymore: “We need to make sure that our resources are shared more effectively. There are some PTAs with million dollar budgets, while others have only $20,000.”

City Council and the Mayor’s Office
All seven candidates agreed that there was a need for reform, or at least some improvement, in the functioning of City Hall and City Council. In fact, certain candidates believed that Speaker Christine Quinn’s relationship with Mayor Bloomberg had become too friendly, and as a result, is affecting proceedings at City Council. Additionally, others felt that Quinn’s leadership is skewed, claiming that she favors districts where council members are most helpful in pushing forth her agenda.

Noah Gotbaum: “City Council has become a lap dog. Christine Quinn and Bloomberg have gone together like this (shows crossed fingers to the audience). We need a strong City Council.”

Ken Biberiaj: “While I don’t agree with Bloomberg on everything that he has done, I believe that we have made progress on many fronts over the past few years.”

Marc Landis: “We need to break ties that bind in the council. I will only support a next speaker who will work on creating those reforms.”

Debra Cooper: She believes that Quinn favors some council members, and by extension, their communities, based on their loyalty to her. Cooper explained, “You shouldn’t have the power to punish those who do not support you.”

Tom Siracuse: “We need a city council that is not dominated by one party.”

City Taxation
The candidates also weighed in on city income tax. All believed that there were issues with the current system, with many citing the fact that the current tax laws impose the same percentage on all residents who earn more than $60,000 annually.
Ken Biberiaj: “We don’t have control of our destiny. We have a 70 billion dollar budget in New York City, but so much, including taxation, lies beyond our control.”

Marc Landis: “As a member of the Democratic party, I have been a proponent of the progressive tax through and through.”

Noah Gotbaum: “It was our own Democratic party that took a pass on the millionaire’s tax.”

Recovery from Super Storm Sandy
Although District 6 was minimally affected by the hurricane, recovery and future preparation was still important to many of the candidates.

Mel Wymore: “We need to re-design our drainage system because currently our drainage system and sewage system are connected [which creates a whole host of problems during and after a major storm].”

Helen Rosenthal: “We need to demand from the government that they issue bonds [to help with the recovery].”

Noah Gotbaum: “There was a shortsightedness in excluding the community from preparation. We had 20,000 New York Cares volunteers interested in helping out, but no way to get involved.”

“Architecturally,” said Blodgett, “it’s one of the best.”

“A lot of the Village is gone,” he added. “A lot is left, but if it’s not preserved, a lot more will be gone.” At this he indicates a nearby hole in the scenery where a building was destroyed six years ago by developers who are still undecided on how to proceed.

Blodgett is but one of many community members who worries that the impending rezoning of Hudson Square, which has yet to be voted on by the City Council, will have negative fallout for surrounding areas, as well as the Hudson Square area itself, without the necessary safeguards. Blodgett fears further destruction for the nearby South Village. There’s no doubt the Hudson Square rezoning will happen, he says, but as far as the particular repercussions, everyone’s unsure and wary of what to expect.

The plan to rezone Hudson Square into a more “mixed use” area was discussed at the only City Council hearing on the issue last week, after passing the City Planning Commission in late January. A study issued by the Department of City Planning in 2002 recommended rezoning the area for optimal residential use, retention of current manufacturing zoning and in order to guide future growth and land use in the area. The rezoning plan, which would impact City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s district, has seen backlash by groups like the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), which fears the subsequent impact on the South Village.

Some worry development in the area will be out of context with Hudson Square’s character, while developers meanwhile stress the importance of taller buildings for greater affordability and insist contextual appropriateness is still achievable. David Reck, the former chairperson of Community Board No. 2’s Land Use Committee told The Villager, however, residents of Hudson Square are overwhelmingly in favor of the rezoning.

Those in favor of rezoning say it brings promise of more affordable housing and open, recreational areas. Trinity Real Estate, which owns 40 percent of property in the area according to the Wall Street Journal, says the rezoning efforts would transform the area from what is essentially a deserted ghost town at night into a more livable and popular social hub. On its official website, Trinity explains: “The neighborhood’s continued evolution is threatened by its antiquated zoning…Trinity and its neighbors can protect the neighborhood’s historic character while helping it evolve into a unique and vibrant community.”

Community members and advocates for the preservation of the South Village fear the rezoning of Hudson Square will bring spillover and ambitious developers to the Village, which has not been transformed by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). They urge the Council not to approve the rezoning until the South Village has been appropriately transformed. The city is stalling on the decision, say GVSHP representatives, because of pressure from both sides. Many residents and community members want to preserve the Village’s aesthetic and history, while developers see it, like Hudson Square, as an ideal market, ripe for rebuilding.

Blodgett says Speaker Quinn, who did not make an appearance at the City Council hearing, has been all but unresponsive on the issue.

While the LPC has stalled on landmarking the area for years, advocates hope the rezoning plan will perhaps serve as a catalyst to keep the Village intact.

However, Blodgett describes a paradox. Those who visit and live in the Village appreciate it for its character, but this popularity is what drives developers to the area, he explains.

“It’s sad to imagine,” he said, of an area he knows as a historic gem. “It could be destroyed.”

The City Council will cast its vote on the rezoning in March.

What’s going to be the biggest news story to come out of your district in 2013?

Garodnick: Dan Garodnick will kiss every baby in Council District 4 in support of his reelection bid.

Quart: As the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway moves closer to completion, the MTA is going to have to start planning for the next phases of this project. We’ll begin discussing the next phases of construction and how to fund it.

What’s going to be the biggest political upset in 2013?

Garodnick: Hillary Clinton will take Mayor Bloomberg’s advice and run for mayor, but she will lose in a nail-biter to a young, charismatic politician who comes out of nowhere and gives better speeches. He is gracious enough to give her a deputy mayor post.

Quart: Scott Stringer winning comptroller. He has some serious competition in that race.

What will be the single most important development for the downtown community in 2013?

Garodnick: With the Roberts settlement announced, 2013 will be the year Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants get management to work with them on a condo conversion, and begin the process of taking ownership of their community.

What’s one thing that everyone thinks will happen in 2013 that probably won’t?

Garodnick: Joe Lhota will lose the Republican nomination for mayor when his campaign is saddled by allegations that sometimes the MTA’s trains are late.

Who will win the Super Bowl in 2013?

Garodnick: Giants. I got this right last year, so why stop now?

Quart: Anybody but the Patriots.

Read our predictions on literature, Broadway, politics and fashion.

Speakers from the neighborhood addressed a range of local concerns, including environmental friendliness, bad landlords and gun control, which residents considered particularly important following the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“I’m wondering why we can’t register and inspect every weapon that is not going to be under an assault rifle ban, and why we can’t insist upon some kind of liability for gun holders, just like we have for driving a car and driving a power boat,” said Joyce Silver, a Columbus Avenue resident. “And why don’t we have schools for people who have guns, so that they have to pass safety and handling regulations?”

New York state Sen. Adriano Espaillat was sympathetic to Silver’s worries about guns’ accessibility. He said that he and Brewer were pushing in City Hall to establish gun buyback programs in neighborhoods across the city. “I think that locally, at the ground level, we have to do the best we can to bring back every gun possible,” he said, mentioning that political debate was not enough. “We want to do this at the grassroots level and bring it from the bottom up. … Every community must do what they can to eradicate guns.”

He noted, “I don’t see why people should have a semiautomatic rifle in their closet. I just don’t understand. It’s not part of my psyche or my culture.”

Assembly Member Richard Gottfried also spoke out against lax gun laws, saying, “It is outrageous that it has taken such an escalated series of mass murders to apparently put this issue on the front burner. We hope that it will produce results.”

Brewer voiced her support of stricter gun regulation as well. In response to a question about funding a march in Washington, D.C., to lobby for change, though, she said that the approach had to be tactical: “If we went to Washington, we would have to make sure that it included people from other parts of the country where there is stronger NRA [National Rifle Association] support, even upstate. Sometimes I feel like we’re talking to ourselves. I obviously think it’s a good idea from my perspective. The question would be, if we could pinpoint what legislation we could pass to actually do the kinds of things that we’re concerned about.”

One of her main concerns, she said, was firearms getting into the hands of people with mental health conditions, like the mental and personality disorders Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza is rumored to have been suffering from. “That can be lethal,” Brewer said.

In addition to guns, many locals talked about rats. Residents from West 89th, 80th, 72nd and 60th streets complained about the creatures taking over parks and garbage receptacles, and worried that even with the city’s recent efforts to curb infestations—including the “West Side Rat Academy”—not enough has been done.

“We’re quite good at getting rid of rats when we have a specific situation,” said Brewer, noting that she and the Department of Health do building-specific walkthroughs and then collaborate with building owners to address problems. Department officials further stated that the city was installing many “rat-proof” trash compactors and improving garbage cleaning and collection efforts around the neighborhood to prevent rats from prospering in residential areas.

The final heavily discussed issue of the evening was what city officials were doing to reduce the neighborhood’s environmental impact. With urgent concerns about climate change in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, locals asked about ways of switching to alternative energies and reducing carbon emissions.

Brewer was optimistic that the City Council would begin tackling the issue. “The discussion of Hurricane Sandy is going to be formal,” she said. “I think we could use that as an opportunity to try to get other aspects of a more appropriate environmental approach involved. It would be like a whole series of hearings to be planned out on the hurricane, and the ways in which the energy situation should be addressed in every single building. I think that’s the way to approach it.”

She added that this improved environmental approach could be a “silver lining in a horrific situation.”

Council Member Margaret Chin fights to keep Lower Manhattan a vibrant and thriving community

While Hurricane Sandy hit Council Member Margaret Chin’s district hard, a blow from which Lower Manhattan is still scrambling to recover, the council member says a lot of major strides have been made this year in her district. Many would argue, with no small thanks to the council member herself.

During the year’s budget negotiations, 70 percent of daycare programs and an even larger percentage of after-school programs in District 1, Chin’s district, were threatened. Chin saw these budget cuts as unacceptable.

“We had to do a lot of organizing and fighting back to restore all these programs,” said Chin. “When we first saw the budget, I thought, ‘That can’t happen.’

“Ultimately we were successful,” she added.

In addition to restoring all daycare and after-school programs in her district, Chin devoted significant time to both stop-and-frisk and living-wage legislative campaigns and oversaw the establishment of 500 permanently affordable housing units at the SPURA site, after 40 years of deadlock over development in the area.

She also assisted in the passing of state legislation to permit intercity buses, brought increased attention to military hazing issues in the wake of the Private Danny Chen case and helped get cancer coverage for first responders by way of the James Zadroga Bill.

Catherine Hughes, chairperson of Community Board 1, said, “She joined the bus departing at 5 a.m. packed with residents and first responders to go to D.C. to lobby for the passage of the James Zadroga bill—she was the only [city] elected official to do this.”

Hughes had a few more accomplishments to add to Chin’s already impressive list.

“She has held hearings on Lower Manhattan’s unique issues, like the effect of increased tourism, parkland development and small business development,” Hughes said.

“This fall she led a march in Tribeca with Speaker Quinn to make our parks safe by stopping budget cuts to NYPD, mental health and homeless services,” she added.

Hughes said the council member has also been enormously helpful in mitigating the impacts of construction in Lower Manhattan, which is crucial in such a physically small area.

“Without fanfare, she quietly pulls people together to get work done and does a lot of good for our community,” said Hughes.

Chin is always eager to talk about the perks of her role as a council member and the important perspective it provides within the community. Chin’s favorite part of her job as a council member is all the people she gets to meet on a regular basis, whether it’s seniors, students or local business owners. She regularly attends performances and celebrations in her district and is consistently in awe of the diversity it confers.

“It’s wonderful to be able to represent a district I grew up in and to be able to find all the different treasures,” she said. “It’s got diversity of interest … it’s a great place.”

The council member added that she loves going shoe shopping among the area’s small businesses.

While Chin has many goals for her district’s future, she knows first and foremost it’s important to be realistic about storm recovery.

“The amount of devastation … it was really unprecedented,” she said, pointing out she’s spent almost 50 years in Lower Manhattan.

“We still have a lot of dark buildings,” she said. “Lower Manhattan is always so lit up.”

Chin also hopes District 1 will continue to be a place where “people love to live and work and visit.”

“We will continue to work on improving the quality of life, whether from complaints about traffic and noise or making sure we continue to build these neighborhoods as neighborhoods people love,” she said.

The council member has a vision for the future that includes more neighborhood interconnectedness. She said neighborhoods are accessible by walking and transportation, but New Yorkers are sometimes wary of taking advantage of this connectedness.

“It’s so easy to travel from one neighborhood to another,” she said. “Hopefully we can do more to let people know all neighborhoods are connected and easy to visit.”

According to Hughes, Chin “spends her days, evenings and weekends making Lower Manhattan even better and addressing the diverse and complex needs of residents and businesses.” Despite all her hard work, however, Chin still manages to have free time.

“I get enough sleep,” she said, laughing. She also practices tai chi, and said she’s always improving her skills.

“I love to go see movies,” she said, “But I prefer movies that are inspirational—movies with happy endings.”

Midland Beach, New Dorp, Tottenville—these are neighborhoods few West Siders had ever visited, or perhaps even heard of, until last week. Few of us will ever forget them now—and not only for the suffering and devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy. We will remember because we made their names, along with Far Rockaway and Coney Island, our own.

The first few days reminded me of the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Life as we knew it had stopped, and everyone seemed to be in shock. The subway, the city’s lifeline, was crippled. We couldn’t get to work, or if we did, it was closed. School was out, and so the kids were home. Refugees from lower Manhattan began moving in with friends. Soon there was no bread, and before long, no gas. What we did have was a glut of television images of survivors pleading for help and of damage that seemed to dwarf the capacity of government to respond.

I believe it was in part those images of hungry, dispossessed people and shattered lives that inspired West Siders to do what comes naturally to us: lead, organize, network and donate what’s needed, but especially to give of ourselves. The problems weren’t all far away. Hundreds of people came to our neighborhood shelters seeking care. After a tour of the evacuation centers at IS 118/Joan of Arc School, Brandeis High School and John Jay College, I called Shelly Fine, head of the Upper West Side CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) and he went into action, finding volunteers, locating dry clothing, delivering food and even getting sponsorship for a hotel room for two disabled seniors.

And then there were the donations of food, clothing and bedding that poured in from every part of the community. Members of the JCC of Manhattan were generous with contributions, and their lobby quickly filled. They found cars with gas and drove to where the need was. But then all West Siders wanted to donate, and they brought more supplies to JCC, so my office working with City Council colleagues in devastated communities organized truckloads to go to Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and downtown Manhattan. At the same time, a shout-out on Facebook for contributions to be dropped off at the Firehouse Restaurant brought supplies and a line of people to load them into trucks bound for the Rockaways. The Fourth Universalist Society collected donations and working with Congregation Rodeph Sholom brought them to Staten Island and the Rockaways. Congregation Ohab Zedek, Lincoln Square Synagogue, Advent Lutheran Church, Community Free Democrats and Congregation B’nai Jeshurun did the same, and there are more.

Fairway and Fresh Direct donated food, as did Carmine’s and the New York Hospitality Alliance, and trucks from the City of NY as well as Mel Wymore made deliveries. Bike and Roll is now doing the same.

We used social media to tell West Siders how they could volunteer. They went on Council-sponsored buses and on their own to clean up homes, visit seniors on high floors and give out supplies. When they were told that blankets, not clothes, were needed, they took it in stride and donated to the Salvation Army. Members of our local NYPD volunteered in their off hours. Staff at LaGuardia High School, where students come from all over, identified those families who no longer had a home, and found apartments and funded clothing and new books.

Riverside Park suffered serious flooding and tree loss, and the docks at the boat basin were damaged—luckily, everyone had evacuated. Riverside Park belongs to the West Side, and once word went out that it needed help, volunteers poured in: Community School District 3 families, Manhattan New York Temple of the Church of Latter Day Saints, teens from Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Hippo Playground families, gardeners, bicyclists, runners and neighbors—more than 1,000 people swept the park clean of debris and leaves from Riverside South to the “Great Gray Bridge.”

West Siders want to continue their support of the post Hurricane Sandy efforts, but they also want to know what are the lessons learned and what changes should be made to our infrastructure in the near future.

Gale Brewer is the City Council Member representing District 6, which includes the Upper West Side and Clinton.

Hurricane Sandy outdid even the most aggressive projections of its impact on New York. In my district on the East Side of Manhattan, and some of the West 50s, we had severe flooding throughout Zones A and B, power and heat outages that lasted for over a week, and—as if that weren’t bad enough—a crane that hung precariously in Midtown, forcing residents from their homes.

The situation presented an important opportunity for local government to respond. The flooding left thousands of my constituents stranded in their apartments and in need of assistance, particularly in Peter Cooper Village, Stuyvesant Town and Waterside Plaza, home to nearly 30,000 right next to the East River. Residents—who include me and my family—lacked electricity, heat and hot water, and just as dangerously, any telephone service.

Without the ability to call in our out, seniors and residents with limited mobility were cut off from the outside world, with family members who were worried about them.

In response, we set up our volunteer operation starting on Thursday morning, and worked hand in hand with both properties’ management with the goal of knocking on every door in both communities every day until power began to be restored. We put out a call for volunteers; we secured donations of food, blankets, batteries and water with the help of Speaker Quinn’s staff; we set up a volunteer center (and City Council mobile office) in the Stuyvesant Town Community Center and in the Management Office of Waterside Plaza; and we got to work.

It was inspiring to see how many New Yorkers turned out to help, with hundreds of volunteers from New York Cares, religious groups, local tenants associations and many others, including my colleagues in government. We dispatched them door to door, checking on our neighbors, assessing their needs, and then sending volunteers back out immediately with the relevant supplies, to the extent we had them. This continued over several consecutive days, until the power and heat started coming back.

One of the most pressing needs was that of seniors who worried that their prescriptions were running out, and needed immediate refills. In response, we called for local nurses and doctors to arrange health visits for seniors who were trapped—and we had volunteers make runs to fill their prescriptions, and bring them up the dark staircases in the buildings.

We even had a couple of very nice surprises. We had generous donations of food from the Setai Hotel, Riverpark restaurant, which also offered hot coffee in Stuyvesant Oval, and a delivery of hot soup from celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito, which he had made himself. And we had countless volunteers who pooled their own funds and made emergency runs for supplies, including prescription refills and batteries. A particularly entrepreneurial group of volunteers at Waterside borrowed a shopping cart from a local store and wheeled 300 bottles of water across the FDR for residents at Waterside.

The most incongruous image that sticks out in my mind was 40 members of the Air Force National Guard showing up late on Thursday in the Stuyvesant Town Community Center, in full military fatigues and an army truck, passing boxes of “meals ready to eat” down an assembly line into the center. When they were done, we marched with them with flashlights through the dark and desolate Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper up to meet their truck in Waterside Plaza, where they did the same thing.

Another image was one that most New Yorkers won’t soon forget: a crane hanging dangerously above Midtown in 90 mph winds, also in my council district. While the City acted swiftly to evacuate hundreds of residents, many left their homes in a hurry, leaving medication, clothing and pets behind. We worked to help these residents gain safe, temporary access to their apartments to retrieve the items they needed. I’m happy to report that as of Monday night, the crane was secured and all residents in the West 50s who had been evacuated were allowed to return home.

While the communities in my district are slowly getting back to life as usual, there are still large parts of the city that are not so lucky. If you are able to get out to Staten Island or the hard-hit areas in Brooklyn and Queens, I strongly encourage you to lend a hand there.

Dan Garodnick is the City Council Member for District 4 on the Upper East Side.

Growing opposition prompts City Council to discuss reform of NYPD’s controversial policy

By Paul Bisceglio

For some New Yorkers, the recording says it all.

“I just got stopped two blocks ago, yo,” argues Alvin, a 17-year-old walking home in Harlem.

“You know why?” says one of the three cops approaching him. “Because you look very suspicious.”

The cops search Alvin, and as he badgers them with questions, an officer threatens to take him to jail.

“What am I getting arrested for?” Alvin asks.

“For being a f—ing mutt,” the officer responds.

Alvin talks back, and a sergeant tells him to shut up. “I am going to f—ing break your arm,” the sergeants says, “then I’m going to punch you in the f—ing face.”

The Nation released this recording last week in a short documentary on Stop, Question and Frisk, the NYPD’s controversial inspection policy that allows cops to stop and examine anyone who arouses “reasonable suspicion.” Alvin captured the confrontation—the only known audio clip of “stop-and-frisk” in action, according to the magazine—on his phone last summer, on a day that he was approached multiple times by police for walking with his hood up and casting wary glances at patrolmen. The officer’s racial slur, though, suggests that these cops may have had ulterior motives for stopping him.

City advocacy groups have opposed stop-and-frisk for years on the grounds that police use the tactic to racially profile citizens and abuse their rights. For these groups, Alvin’s recording was not shocking. It was proof.

“This video confirms what communities of color have always known,” said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman in an interview. “The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk regime is out of control and undermining the ability of communities to be able to trust and respect the police.”

The New York City Council also worries about stop-and-frisk’s damaging effects on communities.

Two days after The Nation’s documentary was released, the Public Safety Committee held a hearing, on Oct. 10, in City Hall to discuss the Community Safety Act, four proposed bills that aim to reform stop-and-frisk and, more broadly, the NYPD’s accountability. A crowd of New York citizens joined advocacy group representatives at the hearing to testify in the bills’ favor, but first endured a three-hour wait as council members grilled Michael Best, chief counselor to the mayor and the sole testifier against the proposed bills.

“Stop, Question and Frisk is a critical element in NYPD’s law enforcement strategies,” Best repeated again and again in response to council members’ attacks on the policy. He was the administration’s only representative at the hearing, a fact lamented frequently by council members who believe Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly owe the Council a constructive dialogue on the issue. Bloomberg’s and Kelly’s absences spoke for them, though: Neither acknowledges any discrimination in stop-and-frisk practices.
“Do these bills get at a problem?” demanded Councilman Jumaane Williams, one of the bills’ lead sponsors, as he questioned Best.

“In general, the police is doing a very good job,” Best responded.

Council members cited plenty of statistics to the contrary, most popularly New York Civil Liberties Union’s analysis of NYPD stop-and-frisk records that found 84 percent of the 685,724 New Yorkers stopped last year were black or Latino (groups that together make up only 52 percent of the city’s population), and the NYPD’s own report that 88 percent of stopped citizens were innocent. Best objected that numbers alone could prove or disprove stop-and-frisk’s efficacy, arguing that the practice works in tandem with the NYPD’s other approaches that have significantly reduced the city’s crime and murder rates in the past decade. Mistakes are inevitable, he insisted, but in accordance with the law, police are only stopping and frisking on reasonable suspicion.

Yet when is suspicion reasonable? Underlying the hearing’s exchanges was a question of whether the alleged racial profiling is promoted by stop-and-frisk itself, or cops’ unlawful abuse of it. The Community Safety Act’s proponents face the challenge of writing legislation that holds cops accountable in interpersonal interactions that are very difficult to regulate. As Quinn put it in her opening remarks, “We’re here to discuss how the police themselves are policed.”

The four proposed bills would require officers to identify their name, rank and reason whenever they perform stops, as well as to inform the individuals stopped of their right to refuse searches. People or organizations affected by discriminatory profiling would be allowed to bring a lawsuit, and an independent office of the Inspector General for the NYPD would be established to oversee police practices.

Public testimony in favor of these changes lasted for hours, stretching into the afternoon as the hearing’s audience and council members diminished. Black, Latino, Middle Eastern, LGBT and homeless citizens shared one anecdote after another of mistreatment, and urged the Public Safety Committee to push for reform.

“There has never been a better opportunity to overhaul our city’s police department and ensure New Yorkers are protected against discriminatory policing,” said a representative of the Center for Constitutional Rights Advocacy Program. “The Community Safety Act can help lay the foundation for a police department that is not above the law, one that can protect our city while treating us all with dignity and respect.”

Proponents’ enthusiasm was checked, though, by Best’s earlier assertion that the bills, justified or not, contradict state law and curtail the mayor’s power, both of which would lead to legal entanglements.

“[The bills] will cause tremendous damage,” he added to emphasize the Act’s impracticability. “There could be immediate lawsuits from almost everyone in the city.” The amount of money required to hear and defend these cases, he argued, would be extraordinary.

Still, like the public testifiers, many council members were not afraid to state their personal investment in reform and to demand change. “It doesn’t work! It needs to be stopped now!” declared Robert Jackson, a black councilman who referenced his unjustly targeted family and friends. When Public Safety Committee chair Peter Vallone asked him to refrain from making speeches, Councilwoman Helen Foster cut in. “If [Vallone’s] father were an 88-year-old who’s being pulled over and called ‘boy,’ then it would be different,” she said.

“I have an obligation and a duty to ask these questions,” Councilwoman Letitia James said to Vallone later in the hearing, “and I will not be stopped by you or anyone else.”
The Public Safety Committee will continue to review the bills and consider public testimony. Two additional hearings will be held next week, in Brooklyn on Tuesday, Oct. 23, and in Queens on Wednesday, Oct. 24.

New York City is home to many registered Democratic voters, but it also contains its fair share of independent or unaffiliated voters who don’t always vote down party lines. Many of those residents might be surprised to find out, however, that if they want to cast a vote in next year’s primary elections in the city, they have to register with a party this Oct. 12.

Ken Biberaj, who is running for City Council on the Upper West Side, has been doggedly reminding potential voters that they have to register now. He’s been canvassing subway stops, and his campaign sent out a mailer to over 700 “blank” voters (those who are registered but have no party affiliation) encouraging them to sign up with the Democrats.

“There’s a lot of folks who in my opinion, and I have talked to, who have voted in general elections, but because there wasn’t a competitive council race or assembly race, they’ve just voted in the general election,” Biberaj said. “Everyone’s waking up and realizing that in 2013 it’s a new mayor, a new council. So many folks I’d talked to were planning on participating and didn’t realize the deadline was coming up.”

For example, according to the city’s Board of Elections, there were 57,649 active Democratic voters in the downtown District 1, Council Member Margaret Chin’s District, as of last April. That’s roughly 65 percent of all active voters. The number of voters without a party affliation is 18,701 or about 21 percent of active voters in the district.

In a city with often times at least a few Democratic candidates running for the same seat and a small number of Republican voters, it’s entirely likely that whoever wins that primary will win the general election.

“If the disaffected independents were voting in the primaries of the Republicans and of the Democrats, I think you’d see very different choices of candidates,” said Michele Wucker, an Upper West Side resident who runs a global policy think tank and considers herself politically engaged.

“I have registered as a Democrat because I want to be able to vote for Ken [Biberaj] in the primaries,” Wucker said.

Wucker said that she had no idea the deadline was approaching until she noticed Biberaj’s posting on Facebook about it, and quickly registered as a Democrat.
David Loewenthal, another resident who is a friend of Biberaj’s, also switched from blank to Democrat after hearing about the upcoming cut-off date.

“I don’t want to be affiliated with any party, [but] I believe in Ken for this particular election,” Loewenthal said. As a libertarian-leaning independent voter, he said that he bristles at the assumption some people make that those who don’t check the box for a major party aren’t as engaged in politics.

“I’m actually very opinionated in my set of beliefs,” he said. “When you always have the red team versus blue team, you don’t have a lot of choices.”

The election laws are set up this way to prevent people in one party or another from easily switching sides for the primary to sabotage the opposing party, by purposefully voting for a weaker candidate.

“Political parties want to prevent party raiding, people from other parties joining up at the last minute,” said Jerry Goldfeder, an experienced election lawyer. “Generally speaking, it’s extremely rare that somebody would want to change parties. There aren’t that many people who fall into that category.”

But in a five-way primary, where a handful of votes could determine the outcome, Biberaj doesn’t want to take any chances that the system cuts potential voters out of the process.
“Lower turnout will always benefit the establishment candidates. If we can dramatically increase the Democratic party for this election, we can really have an honest turnout,” Biberaj said. “We’re not leaving any stone unturned.”

To register to vote in New York City, visit vote.nyc.ny.us.