Dear Friend,
I hope you had a nice holiday season and that all is well. I wanted to reach out to share some exciting updates from our office:
1. Combating Shoplifting
2. Solidarity with Striking Nurses
3. Rat Mitigation Efforts Featured in Daily News
4. Street Safety on East 62nd Street
5. Art on the Aves Small Business Tour
6. 79th and 1st Ave Construction
7. Shred-a-Thon on January 27th
8. Giving Back over the Holidays
9. HPD Outreach Event
10. Community Events and Updates
|
|
1. Combatting Shoplifting
As Small Business Chair, I have heard from many businesses suffering from dramatic increases in shoplifting this past year. This is a top concern brought up at the monthly Precinct Community Council Meetings. It is critical that the Council works with small businesses and law enforcement to address solutions to shoplifting and the issue of recidivism. As the New York Post reported, I am calling for a joint hearing with the Council's Public Safety Committee to amplify the voices of the struggling small businesses and work to find solutions. I will let you know when this critical hearing is scheduled and with further updates about the Council's work on this.
|
|
2. Solidarity with Striking Nurses
The COVID-19 Pandemic demonstrated just how important it is to support our nurses. They make tremendous sacrifices on the frontlines to allow our healthcare system to stay running. That is why I joined striking nurses outside of Mount Sinai Hospital multiple times last week to stand in solidarity. These nurses for Mount Sinai and Montefiore were rallying for safe staffing levels: too few nurses on critical floors leads to unsafe conditions for patients and to burnout for nurses. I stood with nurses to join them in calling on Mount Sinai and Montefiore leadership to implement safer nurse-patient ratio staffing levels. I am thrilled that the hospitals have come to an agreement with the New York State Nurses Association that addresses these issues and will create better and safer working conditions.
|
|
3. Rat Mitigation Efforts Featured in Daily News
One of the top complaints we receive from constituents is the proliferation of rodents across the city. I have previously written about our rat mitigation pilot where we've utilized discretionary funding to allocate money to an extermination service and target rat burrows in tree pits and planters throughout the District. The Daily News reported last week that the extermination efforts have seen robust initial success with significant reduction in burrows along East 86th Street. Constituents have flagged many other blocks throughout the whole District to now target and our office is working to expand this work within the scope of the allocated funding. We will hopefully soon have more exciting updates on this important quality of life issue.
|
|
4. Street Safety on East 62nd Street
In my first year as Council Member, I have been a strong advocate for street safety and have been pushing the DOT to focus on redesigning more intersections within our District to make them safer. Recently, constituents from East 62nd Street reached out to my office demonstrating significant safety concerns at the intersection of 62nd and 2nd Avenue. Given its close proximity to the Queensboro Bridge and its thru traffic to the FDR Drive entrance, this is a heavily trafficked intersection in an area with many pedestrians and cyclists. As Patch reported, in response to concerns, I worked with Borough President Mark Levine to write a joint letter to the DOT Commissioner asking for traffic calming and controlling measures to redesign the intersection. You can see a copy of our letter here.
|
|
5. Addressing Retail Vacancies
As Small Business Chair, I have been laser focused on addressing the retail vacancy crisis with many initiatives to make it easier for small businesses to succeed in our city. It is so important to fill our streetscape with vibrant retail small businesses. That is why I am so excited about the success of the joint Art on the Avenues and Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts exhibit in our neighborhood. I took a tour of the exhibit last week viewing incredible art in vacant retail storefronts as well as in quintessential neighborhood small businesses. I was proud to work with these organizations to make this exhibition happen and I encourage you to learn more here and support our neighborhood's small businesses. Learn more about the exhibit here.
|
|
6. 79th and 1st Ave Construction
For many months now my office has heard from dozens of constituents about unbearably loud construction at the site on 1st Avenue between 79th and 80th Streets. Back in October, I conducted a walkthrough with the developer to advocate for mitigation and in response to outreach they agreed to cantilevered walls around the site. Unfortunately, we are still hearing from many constituents and have been strongly advocating on a variety of fronts. We have worked with DEP and DOB to send noise inspectors to ensure the work is within the noise code. We have also advocated for additional soundproofing technology for the developer that we hope will be installed expeditiously. Finally, we are working on a number of legislative initiatives to create a more sound noise code and decrease the deleterious effects that some construction sites are having on our community.
|
|
7. Shred-A-Thon
We have heard from many constituents requesting another Shredding Event. I am happy to announce we have finally details for a shredding event on Friday, January 27th from 8:30am until 11:30am at the Chapin School. Please see the below flyer for further information and thanks to the Chapin School for co-hosting this event with us!
|
|
8. Giving Back over the Holidays
In the midst of the holiday season, my office worked hard to coordinate two great events in the community. First, right before Christmas, we partnered with Stanley Isaacs Center and the Met Council to host a food box giveaway at NYCHA's Holmes Towers and Isaacs Houses. The Community Affairs Team from the NYPD's 19th Precinct also joined us to participate. This past weekend, my office worked with the Resident Association at NYCHA's Lexington Houses and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to facilitate a toy giveaway around a Three Kings Day Celebration. It's always great to partner with our NYCHA tenant leaders to hold these community events.
|
|
9. HPD Outreach Event
Our city faces an affordable housing crisis right now and the Council is working hard to make this a top priority for 2023. Within our District, I am working hard on it as well and also wanted to make sure the resources that the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) are available to constituents. That's why we are partnering with the Urban Outreach Center and the Avenue Church to host an HPD outreach event next month. Please see the flyer for more info and email my office if you have any questions.
|
|
10. Community Events and Updates
We're entering a busy season of events as the year begins and there are many of them and some community announcements that I wanted to highlight. If you want us to include an event in an upcoming newsletter, email Cameron Koffman from my team at ckoffman@council.nyc.gov
Community Board 8 Winter Crafts Show: February 11th, 11am-4pm, Church of the Holy Trinity (316 East 88th Street)
NYC History Day: The Brooklyn Public Library is hosting a contest for NYC History Day. the regional contest for National History Day, an annual contest that encourages Middle and High School students from around the world to create projects based on original historical research.
Registration for the contest is open until January 23. Students can register here. I’ve included an informational flyer as well as a square logo graphic if you would like to use those, but please reach out if you have any questions about New York City History Day. We encourage students from around the District to Submit.
Discretionary Funding Workshop for Manhattan-Based Nonprofits: January 24th, 10am-1pm over Zoom. RSVP Here and see the flyer for more details.
NYC Council Education Committee Hearing on DOE Admissions Policies:
On Wednesday, January 25th at 1pm, the Council's Education Committee is holding a public hearing on DOE with the topic of "Oversight - DOE’s New Admissions Processes." You can sign up to testify or submit written testimony here
Important Info from the Medicare Rights Center Below
|
|
Follow us on Social Media
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
|
|
Contact Us
Email us at district5@council.nyc.gov, call our office at 212-860-1950, or visit us at 444 East 75th Street #1B (75th and York Avenue)
Best,
Julie
|
|
|
|
