Tapped In: Town Hall Meeting, Winter Concert, City Bus Grades, Stringer Seeks Board

COUNCILMEMBER BREWER TO HOST TOWN HALL MEETING City Council Member Gale Brewer will host a town hall meeting for Upper West Side and Clinton residents on Tuesday, Dec. 18. The meeting will be an open forum for community members to speak to elected officials about quality of life issues in the neighborhood and to ask questions. Guests will include Congressmen Jerrold Nadler and Charles Rangel, state Sens. Tom Duane and Adriano Espaillat, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, local assembly members and community board members, and representatives of the city's various departments. The meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, CUNY, 524 W. 59 St. APPLE SEEDS HOLDS WINTER CONCERT Apple Seeds, an indoor children's playground and development center, is hosting a winter concert on Sunday, Dec. 16, at Stage 72. According to the company, the show-which it says will be "highly interactive" with dance- and sing-alongs-will feature original music by Mr. Ray, popular kids' songs, top 40 hits and Christmas classics. The event promotes Apple Seeds' "Songs for Seeds" program, a group music class for children up to 5 years old that introduces them to music basics by focusing on different international music cultures. The show begins at 11 a.m. at 158 West 72nd St., and tickets can be purchased online at www.stage72.com. LAPPIN PROPOSES GRADES FOR CITY BUSES City Council Member Jessica Lappin introduced a resolution to the Council on Monday that calls for a letter-grading system for buses. Like restaurant grading, Lappin's measure would rate individual bus lines from A (excellent) to F (terrible) based on criteria like cleanliness, timeliness and seat availability. The idea for bus ratings was inspired by Susan Giles, an Upper East Side resident who suggested it to Lappin over the summer. "Grading buses is an easy way to let commuters know what they're getting, and let the MTA know where they need to improve," Lappin said in a statement. "For the past two years, I've issued a report card on Select Bus Service, and it's been a great transparency tool. Why not extend it to all bus lines?" Earlier this year, Lappin issued a report card that gave Select Bus Service (SBS) a "B" for its quality of service. MTA itself conducts customer satisfaction surveys for its overall service on buses, but does not rate individual bus lines. STRINGER SEEKS NEW BOARD MEMBERS Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is selecting next year's class of Community Board members. Manhattan is divided geographically into 12 communities, each of which has its own board of up to 50 unpaid local members appointed by Stringer. The boards have no administrative rights, but present requests to the city's administration that address neighborhood quality of life, business and residential issues. Stringer is holding information sessions about the application process on Thursday, Dec. 13, and Tuesday, Jan. 8, in the Municipal Building at 1 Centre St., and on the Upper West Side on Tuesday, Dec. 18, at 163 W. 125th St. All sessions are from 6:30 to 8 p.m. RSVP to cbinfo@manhattanbp.org.