Under the mayor’s CreateNYC effort, arts funding is up across the board — from increases for major institutions to extra cash for borough arts councils — but there have been relatively small grants to local artists.
A uniquely open process is shaping a proposal to rezone the increasingly rent-pressured neighborhood. Difficult decisions on affordability might lie ahead.
On Monday, October 17, the Justice for All Coalition (a coalition of concerned stakeholders in Long Island City) hosted a grassroots forum to explore the potential rezoning and issues like affordable housing, union jobs, the proposed BQX light rail, and displacement. Our coverage produced these two videos.
In a neighborhood where he was once known as ‘Bad News’, Dedric Hammond has made the decision to become a positive beacon. Now named Brother Beloved, Hammond works with Street Corner Resources’ Iesha Sekou to make a difference.
If New York City faces another catastrophe on the scale of September 11, city residents now are more prepared for the aftermath. The question is: Are our primary care health centers, churches, businesses and other community institutions charged with taking care of us? On June 2, that question brought together a spirited group of 36 community leaders and professionals living, working in or representing Manhattan’s Community District 5, which roughly encompasses the area south of Central Park between Lexington Avenue and 8th Ave from Columbus Circle to Union Square. During a six-hour meeting, the group drafted a plan–one of only five district-level plans that have been crafted in the city– to enhance the area’s emergency preparedness by coordinating the sharing of medicines, health professionals and other resources.”There should be criteria to access the resources so no one can hoard [them]” a middle-aged woman told the group, which sat clustered around her in a nearly empty auditorium. “There should be criteria for how you access what you need and organizations should be held accountable for the resources that they use.”A man who sat nearby – David Fortino, the Region II program manager of Citizen Corps, a division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that coordinates volunteer emergency response teams – raised an additional issue.
A closed door meeting — prompted by deals like Atlantic Yards, Yankee Stadium and Columbia University’s expansion — is examining how developers deliver community benefits in New York.
If enacted, the cuts would slash about 2,000 of New York’s public day care slots. The city claims less families are using the service.
Pedro Espada, the Bronx senator at the center of last year’s leadership battle in Albany, has been sued for allegedly looting a nonprofit he helped run. Read the attorney general’s complaint here.
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