Food and games and maybe music — join us for our fall event, Saturday, Oktober 17, starting at 4:00 pm for all East River families.
More info and sign up over here –> click click.
Tag Archives: feature
Support our fall campaign
All items available through October 9 only.
Cooperatively Yours is gearing up for a fall campaign — we’ll again be endorsing candidates for East River board of directors and house committee, enlisting volunteers to contact neighbors about our cooperative proposals, and asking for your votes by proxy or in person at the annual meeting (probably on Dec. 1).
To show your support in the neighborhood, and help us cover the cost of printing flyers that help share our message, we’re offering this new fundraising campaign. Buy a t-shirt or tote bag for $20 each through Booster.com and a percentage of your purchase will go toward our fundraising account. These items are for sale through October 9 only.
The t-shirt comes in all sizes, including youth sizes. The tote bag comes in just one size, but you know you can always use another tote bag, right?
Displaying our logo around the coop will also help let your neighbors know that Cooperatively Yours is not a bunch of rabble-rousing instigators, but a movement of clear-thinking cooperators just like you who are determined to reaffirm the guiding principles of cooperative living: Democratic Governance, Shared Responsibility, Constant Education, and Mutual Respect.
Buy your t-shirt or tote bag today — this fundraising event ends on October 9.
Lo-Down: Coop entangled in Silver’s woes
Assemblyman Sheldon Silver’s upcoming trial on federal corruption charges continues to raise questions about whether East River and Hillman are entangled in the charges against him.
Silver’s lawyers are trying to prevent evidence from being presented that would show Silver using his allegedly corrupt relationship with tax certiorari lawyer Arthur Goldberg to benefit Coop Village. (See the article in the Lo-Down.)
Goldberg — who has represented Hillman and East River for many years — is at the crux of one of the bribery and extortion schemes the U.S. Attorney is trying to pin on Silver. Goldberg’s firm allegedly sent kickbacks to Silver for work done on behalf of Glenwood Management, a major real estate player in New York City looking to curry favor with Silver.
In February, right after the charges against Silver were made public, I asked East River board president Gary Altman to clear the air about our coop’s relationship with Goldberg, and invited him to reassure cooperators that no past or present members of East River’s board or management had received kickbacks for our business with Goldberg’s firm. I have sent that question to Altman several more times during the past few months, but have not received any reply.
It may be that we’ll have to wait for answers until November 2 — that’s when Silver’s trial is set to begin.
Altman: FDR pedestrian bridge is a matter of life and death!
East River board president Gary Altman thinks a redesigned pedestrian bridge across the FDR Drive would imperil the lives of cooperators, and he wants you to know that he’s burning through his City Hall rolodex to kill the bridge before it kills you.
In a 1000-word essay to cooperators distributed yesterday, Altman says the concepts presented by the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project this summer — including improved access to East River Park from Grand Street — would bring high-speed bicyclists directly into the path of unsuspecting cooperators and block first responders from reaching building 4 in an emergency.
His fears are unwarranted. The proposed approach to Grand Street included stairs to make sure bicyclists use a safer route. And the idea that every inch of the FDR service road is needed for an ambulance to reach building 4 is just silly.
More to the point, the designs presented in July were concepts intended to evoke constructive reactions and criticism from residents. The conversation about the Delancey crossing included ample suggestions about safety, which project planners were eager to hear and incorporate into future plans.
The designers working on protecting our homes from another storm surge are intent on enhancing our relationship to the waterfront at the same time. They are searching deeply for creative solutions to that challenge, and we should be open to finding one with them.
Altman did not attend the ESCRP presentation in July when the concept designs for four FDR Drive pedestrian crossings were shared with interested LES residents, so his mistaken impression of these design options is excusable — but his overreaction to them is not. Why stoke fear among East River’s elderly cooperators? Why issue a Just-Say-No edict to his friends in city government while a productive design process is underway?
The concepts presented this summer were well-intentioned, thought-provoking, and imperfect. Project planners deserve to know the full range of opinion from cooperators — not just Altman’s. Come to next Thursday’s workshop to see the designs for yourself and help shape this important neighborhood project:
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Henry Street Settlement
301 Henry Street
Doors open at 6:30
Presentation begins at 7:00
Design concepts for East River berms and bridges are eye-opening
Imagine a sloping landscape that blocks traffic noise from East River Park and keeps floods from washing away our cars. Imagine an entrance to the waterfront that starts right at the foot of Grand Street. Imagine walking on a bridge over the highway and already being in the park.
Now imagine five years of construction, and a long concrete ramp permanently installed right outside your front door.
All this and more is what community members were asked to imagine last night as the design team behind the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (the Big U, the Dryline) presented concept designs for each of four FDR Drive crossings.
After Sandy, federal recovery money was allocated to storm surge protection along the East River from 23rd Street down to Montgomery. This area represents low-lying neighborhoods vulnerable to flood, and, crucially, is home to the Con Ed plant that powers almost all of lower Manhattan.
Workshop leaders discussed four current bridges that take pedestrians into East River Park — at 10th Street, 6th Street, Houston, and Delancey — and presented three design options for each one that ranged from low-impact (and lower cost) to expansive (and expensive) redesign.
They explained that the money to erect flood walls, berms (wide, gradual slopes), and deployable storm surge barriers was also an opportunity to increase access to East River Park and improve our neighborhood’s connection to the waterfront. As such, the pedestrian crossings are being looked at closely to determine how to make them more accessible (not as steep, better positioned), and more integrated into the park.
For each bridge, the low-impact version involved keeping the existing span but repositioning the ramps on either side so that they have more gradual slopes. The high-impact version involved rebuilding the bridge so that it is wider, with ramps that are landscaped into the park and reach deeper into the neighborhood. (In the middle was a Goldilocks option somewhere between the two extremes.)
For Delancey Street, the possibilities were eye-opening. From previous workshops, planners had been told that the bridge was too noisy (so close to the Williamsburgh Bridge traffic) and not accessible enough to Grand Street. So the high-impact concept they presented pulls the bridge away from Delancey and places one ramp along the FDR access road, right in front of building 4, letting out on the corner of Grand.
The design was curved and beautiful, and, as all architectural models look, it felt utopian and aspirational. Of course, for those people who live in building 4, on the lower floors perhaps, the prospect of a pedestrian bridge out your window might seem like the end of the world.
There were lots of caveats: these are concepts only, and the designers seem eager to get feedback and see the challenge from all angles.
Board member Lee Berman was at the workshop, along with House Committee members Jeff Super and Ellen Renstrom, and other East River cooperators. Lee spoke with project planners after the presentation and initiated the arrangement of a stakeholders meeting right here at East River, as the redesign of the Delancey Street crossing, one way or another, will obviously have a big impact on our coop.
One last note: The Corlears Hook bridge was left out of the workshop for a simple reason — it already embodies many of the concepts the designers are trying to incorporate elsewhere. The bridge is wide, it is already part of the park, and the amphitheatre is already built up like a berm to cut off flood waters. Aside from better lighting and other cosmetics, designers are not likely to spent too much of their money making alterations there.
DOT to embark on full analysis of FDR/Cherry intersection
Yesterday, representatives from the Department of Transportation and Community Board 3 met with East River residents, including Michael Marino of Friends of Corlears Hook and Jeff Super from the house committee, to look at and discuss options for the intersection of Cherry Street and the FDR Drive access road. Michael Marino had raised safety concerns months ago with the CB3 transportation committee about the lack of a pedestrian crosswalk and the dangerous, blind turn made by cars and buses every day.
During the meeting, the corner’s safety problems were quite evident: double-length buses made the turn at precipitous speeds while two residents in wheelchairs and another with a baby carriage had to make their way along the street to get from one curb cutout to another.
The DOT rep suggested that the removal of two current parking spots on Cherry Street would help “daylight” the corner and give large buses extra room to turn. New signage on the corner might give cars needing handicapped access a place to park without blocking visibility for turning vehicles. And cars parked along the no-parking stretch of the access road with NYPD and FDNY stickers will be verified through the local authorities.
In addition, the DOT will bring analysts to look at traffic pattern during the morning, late afternoon, and evening to see if there is enough use of this intersection by automobiles and pedestrians to warrant a Stop sign or a traffic light, along with a painted pedestrian crosswalk and proper curb cutouts. That analysis will likely happen sometime this fall, so a solution is not imminent, but is on the horizon.
Silver-Rapfogel political machine still rules Grand Street despite conviction, indictment, and scandal
If you thought robbing the poor to fill your mattress with $3 million would lose you friends and influence — if you thought being charged with fraud and extortion would loosen your grip on the local political machine — then you haven’t been living on Grand Street long enough.
This month, petitions were filed for the kind of small, local political posts that machine politics are built on, and the names of candidates and petition carriers read like a who’s who of Coop Village.
Current and past presidents of East River Housing; current and former board members from Hillman, Seward, and East River; even family members and staff of the Coop Village management office had no qualms about carrying petitions for, and running alongside, Rapfogels and Silvers, the wives and children of our disgraced neighbors.
These party positions can hold a big influence in certain situations. If Sheldon Silver were convicted on federal corruption charges, members of the Democratic County Committee would get to choose the nominee for the special election to fill his seat — which in this heavily Democratic district means they would get to hand-pick Silver’s successor.
And since Silver has hand-picked those committee members, you shouldn’t expect his grasp on power to diminish.
Who would pick Silver’s successor?
Silver’s wife, Rosa Silver, would be on that committee. So would Judy Rapfogel, Silver’s chief of staff and the wife of William Rapfogel who pled guilty last year to embezzling millions of dollars meant for the poor from the huge nonprofit he ran for many years. Also Rapfogel’s son, Marc Rapfogel, and sister Freda Rapfogel Fried (a former board member at Seward) would have a hand in deciding the fate of that assembly seat.
Two of Silver’s staff members, Tunisia Wragg and Zachary Bommer, spent time on Grand Street collecting signatures for their boss. This was a calculated, organized attempt to control the future of Silver’s seat if he is convicted this fall.
Current East River board president Gary Altman would also be on that committee. So would former East River board president Leonard Greher, current board member Rachel Ehrenpreis, and Jacob Goldman, the brother of another current East River board member, Dov Goldman.
Longtime district leader for Silver’s assembly district and former Hillman board member David Weinberger would be on that committee as well, as would his wife, Hedy Weinberger. A current Hillman board member, Judith Mitrani, also collected signatures from local Democrats.
Earlier this year, the Forward predicted that Silver’s arrest, following Rapfogel’s conviction, signalled the end of an era on Grand Street, noting that the only member of the “lower east side power troika” left standing was Harold Jacob, general manager of East River and Hillman. But with Jacob’s daughters carrying petitions for Silvers and Rapfogels, and even one of Jacob’s office staff landing a spot on that key county committee, the end of that era still seems a long way off.
Links: 65A Truman Petition 2015 1 of 2 and 65A Truman Petition 2015 2 of 2
Is it Dog Independence Day at East River?
Results are in from our cooperative poll on East River’s pet policy, and the tally is conclusive: just over 75% of cooperators are in favor of adopting a more dog-friendly pet policy.
So is it Independence Day for dogs? Well it’s not that simple. Our proprietary lease — where East River’s no-pet policy is enshrined — can be amended only by a two-thirds majority of shareholders at the annual meeting.
But such a large affirmative response to our poll should make putting such an amendment on this year’s agenda a priority for the board of directors.
Three new towers to rise across the East River
The NYT and DNAinfo report that three new towers are set to rise across the East River, just south of the Williamsburgh Bridge.
The architect is ODA New York, and the developer is Eliot Sptizer.
Of course development on the area just north of the bridge is already underway with an ambitious project designed by SHoP Architects.
Our view of Brooklyn is going to be very different in the next couple of years.
Grand Street ferry stop will be closer to bandshell
Joe Hanania reports that at this week’s CB3 transportation meeting, EDC officials revealed that the proposed Grand Street ferry stop will likely not be quite on Grand Street when it opens for service in 2018.
The new location is closer to the pedestrian bridge from the bandshell to Corlears Hook Park, providing better access to the several bus lines that connect Grand Street to the rest of Manhattan.
The Lo-Down reports that an environmental review is now underway, and public hearings on the proposal should be scheduled this fall.