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Georgia is ground zero for the fight over voting in 2022, and women of color are on the front lines

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Georgia is ground zero for the fight over voting in 2022, and women of color are on the front lines

Bee Nguyen said she watched with alarm as the lies began trickling in about alleged widespread voter fraud in Georgia after the 2020 election. What the Democratic state representative heard behind closed doors from Republican lawmakers, she said, was different from what they said publicly.
They sowed doubt, she said, even as they privately “admitted that they didn’t believe the election was stolen, but went along with everything that was being facilitated in Georgia and across the country.”

Bee Nguyen, Candidate for Georgia Secretary of State.


Nguyen challenged those false assertions, including at a highly publicized legislative meeting late last year about election results. One day after polls closed on a pair of close U.S. Senate races in Georgia that gave Democrats control of the chamber, the January 6 insurrection became a physical manifestation of the flawed fears of a rigged election. Soon, Georgia’s Republican-led legislature was introducing bills with a host of changes to the state’s election system.
Not all made it into law, but lawmakers ultimately passed legislation that restricted absentee voting, added new voter identification requirements and limited drop boxes. Nguyen said she was most troubled by new oversight of local election administration that voting experts said would add partisanship to the process.


“The bill that they passed was not just about making it harder for people to vote, but it was about being able to open the door for the subversion of democracy,” she said.


Nguyen is now running, along with a handful of other Democrats, for the party’s nomination to be Georgia’s secretary of state — a once low-profile elections administration job that has been propelled to key race status in the state’s midterms next year. Also on the ballot will be the race for governor, where Democrat Stacey Abrams is seeking the party’s nomination after leading a nationwide effort to get people access to the ballot. A high-profile Senate race features incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock.


The three races, against the backdrop of baseless attacks by former President Donald Trump on election integrity and nationwide voting restrictions, effectively places Georgia at the center of the country’s 2022 midterm elections. While Warnock’s reelection bid could mean the difference for Democratic control in a deeply divided chamber, it’s Nguyen’s and Abrams’ campaigns that solidify Georgia’s standing in the fight for voting rights next year.


“We all understood that everybody would still have their eyes on Georgia with Sen. Warnock being back on the ballot in 2022,” Nguyen told The 19th. “But now with the addition of Stacey, I think it creates even more excitement and mobilization across our state.”


The increasingly purple state, which has had massive population growth due in part to people of color, nearly put Abrams in the governor’s mansion when she first ran in 2018. Abrams accused her opponent, Brian Kemp, then Georgia’s secretary of state and now its Republican governor, of unfair tactics that led to her loss. He denied those allegations.


As governor, Kemp refused to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results and signed new voting restrictions into law. Next year could be a rematch for the two though that has yet to be determined; Kemp has lost Trump’s backing and now faces a primary challenge from former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who has said he would not have certified Georgia’s 2020 election results. The Republican primary for secretary of state is expected to include a supporter of Trump who has claimed inaccurately that the 2020 election was rigged.


LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, isn’t surprised that voting is shaping up to be such a defining topic for candidates next year.
“It is an issue that will determine whether we have a reflective democracy or if we have a plutocracy. It is the single most critical issue because it is the fundamental foundation of having a democratic system,” she said. “If we don’t have a democratic system, every other issue that we care about is actually at stake and is vulnerable.”


At the forefront of this fight are women of color, who are also running for key elective seats in other parts of the country with a focus on voting rights. Several U.S. Senate seats — including in Florida and North Carolina — could help determine which party controls the chamber and future policy discussions about federal voting legislation.


The secretary of state office is expected to get new attention in 2022, as Trump has already backed a handful of candidates seeking the job. At least 27 elections for secretary of state are scheduled next year, with many of them focused on oversight of elections. But it’s the offices in battleground states that could have the most outsized role.


Trump has endorsed in multiple races, including in the key states of Arizona and Michigan, where he’s announced backing for Kristina Karamo, a Black woman who challenged Michigan’s 2020 election results and is now seeking the Republican nomination for secretary of state. Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, among several women election officials who challenged disinformation after the 2020 election, is expected to seek reelection.
https://thefulcrum.us/Elections/Voting/new-georgia-voting-law

Voter Suppression and Book Banning:
Attempts to Erase History

David Mark Greaves
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Voter Suppression and Book Banning:<br>Attempts to Erase History

Black History Month in the Midst of Madness


Black History Month is here, and it is a time to celebrate, and a time to recognize we are in one of the darkest times in America. Simultaneous with a Black woman about to be nominated for the Supreme Court, all stops have been pulled out on suppressing and if necessary, nullifying the Black vote, and books about racism and the history of African Americans in this country are being banned from schools and libraries, erasing our rights as citizens and the reality the nation and of our existence. The placing of an incredibly qualified Black woman on the Supreme Court is a recognition of excellence and a symbol of what’s possible for the young women who will grow up seeing her on the court, but it will not make much difference on a court dominated by conservatives in an authoritarian state.
The people who attacked the Capital building on January 6 have been called terrorists, insurrectionists, Trumpists and rioters, but more than that, they were a lynch mob complete with gallows. And if they were fired up enough to threaten to lynch the vice-president, then they are capable of anything, and nothing should be thought beyond them.


We had said that Trump would be particularly upset with African Americans leading investigations in Georgia for interfering with the election and in New York for his business practices. This past weekend in Texas, he called them “racists” for investigating him and called for “the biggest protests we’ve ever had” at the courthouses. This prompted Atlanta’s top prosecutor, Fani Willis, to ask the FBI to conduct a security-risk assessment and provide protection for the courthouse and her office, including her staff. Donald Trump is making clearer and clearer his criminal, thug mindset, most recently at that Texas rally where he promised to pardon the members of the January 6th mob, who he says have been treated “So unfairly.” A bully like his idol Russia’s Vladimir Putin, he will not stop doing whatever he wants, not recognizing any law or norm that stands in his way. Evidence is emerging that he went so far as to orchestrate an administration-wide conspiracy, that included the Justice Department, Homeland Security, and the military to, in his own words, “overturn the election,” allowing him to rule as a full-out dictator.


Further evidence of what’s happening in America are the multiple bomb threats at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Eight threats on January 4, 6 threats on January 31 and another 12 threats on February 1. This is madness and we cannot expect it to stop soon.


It is at times like these when we must strengthen our inner selves, it is inspiring to remember the deeds and efforts of our forebears and try to match their resilience, courage and persistence and be mindful of our health, physical and mental, as we fight this unending battle.

Voting Rights for African Americans:
A look back

Editor, Our Time Press
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Voting Rights for African Americans:<br>A look back

A terrible and bloody Civil War freed enslaved Americans. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1868) granted African Americans the rights of citizenship. However, this did not always translate into the ability to vote. Black voters were systematically turned away from state polling places. To combat this problem, Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. It says:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Yet states still found ways to circumvent the Constitution and prevent blacks from voting. Poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud and intimidation all turned African Americans away from the polls. Until the Supreme Court struck it down in 1915, many states used the “grandfather clause “ to keep descendents of slaves out of elections. The clause said you could not vote unless your grandfather had voted — an impossibility for most people whose ancestors were slaves.

This unfair treatment was debated on the street, in the Congress and in the press. A full fifty years after the Fifteenth Amendment passed, black Americans still found it difficult to vote, especially in the South.” What a Colored Man Should Do to Vote”, lists many of the barriers African American voters faced.
The fight for African American suffrage raged on for decades. In the 1930s one Georgia man described the situation this way: “Do you know I’ve never voted in my life, never been able to exercise my right as a citizen because of the poll tax? … I can’t pay a poll tax, can’t have a voice in my own government.”

Many brave and impassioned Americans protested, marched, were arrested and even died working toward voting equality. In 1963 and 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brought hundreds of black people to the courthouse in Selma, Alabama to register. When they were turned away, Dr. King organized and led protests that finally turned the tide of American political opinion. In 1964 the Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibited the use of poll taxes. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act directed the Attorney General to enforce the right to vote for African Americans.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act created a significant change in the status of African Americans throughout the South. The Voting Rights Act prohibited the states from using literacy tests and other methods of excluding African Americans from voting. Prior to this, only an estimated twenty-three percent of voting-age blacks were registered nationally, but by 1969 the number had jumped to sixty-one percent.

— Excerpted from the Library of Congress website

New Interim Executive Director at The BILLIE : Sandra Bowie

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New Interim Executive Director at The BILLIE : Sandra Bowie

From the BILLIE
Dear Friends and Family,
The Board of Directors is happy to announce the appointment of  Sandra Bowie as the new Interim Executive Director for The Billie Holiday Theatre! 
Sandra will work closely with The Billie’s Board of Directors to lead the institution during this transition period and the Board will launch a search for the new Executive Director in the new year.


Bringing both vital leadership skills and a wealth of extensive knowledge in the arts with her, Sandra’s expertise will be invaluable as The Billie prepares to celebrates its milestone 50th Anniversary in 2022 and as the Theatre continues to define and build its future for the next 50 years and beyond.


Sandra Bowie is a renowned non-profit arts leader, award winning actress, educator, and cultural strategist and has spent the last two decades serving in leadership roles for the non-profit and university sectors with an emphasis on culture, education and the arts. Her background includes program management, organizational development, leadership, fundraising, strategic planning advocacy for social change, professorships in the arts and professional performance. Her career has encompassed professorships at major Universities including Howard University and Yale University; Arts Leadership in organizations that include, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy and University Leadership at New York University and New School University. Sandra is also Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the National Guild for Community Arts Education which promotes and advocates for quality arts education for students and communities nation-wide and Co-Chair of the Racial Equity Committee.


Sandra is an enthusiastic leader, raising organizational profiles with quality education and programming with a mission to always ensure equity and diversity within social/educational systems and non-profit organizational practice and philanthropy.


Sandra is excited to be joining us stating “I have always viewed the Billie Holiday Theater and Restoration Arts as a monument to thriving Black Theater ingenuity and genius. The Billie was founded and continues to be the artistic anchor for the Central Brooklyn Community and beyond… This unique and enterprising model of art and culture as creative community development has served as a catalyst for the sustenance of 50 years of excellence for The Billie Holiday Theatre.”


She went on to share “A favorite poetic statement of mine by Frederico Garcia Lorca exemplifies the mission of The Billie and Restoration Arts from my perspective:
The poem, the song the picture
is only water drawn from the well of the people
and it should be given back to them in a cup of beauty
that they can drink, and in drinking 
understand themselves.


I am honored and delighted to have the opportunity to play a role in the continuance and growth of this great institution.”


Please join us in welcoming Sandra to The Billie family! 

Vote on Your Participatory Budget

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Vote on Your Participatory Budget

What is PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING?
www.participate.nyc.gov
Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. PB gives people real power to make real decisions over real money. The process was first developed in Brazil in 1989. There are now over 3,000 participatory budgets around the world, most at the municipal level.
PBNYC: The People’s Budget enables New York City residents to propose, evaluate, and vote on projects in their City Council districts. Successful projects will be funded by Council Member discretionary funds. Discretionary funds are monetary resources Council Members typically allocate based on their local priorities.
The idea collection phase for PBNYC Cycle 11 has closed and district volunteers are currently evaluating the proposed ideas. If you submitted an idea, you will be getting a response soon. You also are welcome to comment on the ideas that have been suggested on your district page.
You can vote for as many projects as you like, but only the project with the most votes will be funded.
To vote securely and privately, you need to sign in with an existing account or create an NYC ID account, if you do not already have one. Creating an account is quick and safe, and it protects your vote.  (You may use the same ID you use for City services such as Fair Fares, SNAP or afterschool programs, or another ID such as Yahoo, Gmail, Apple, Facebook etc.)

Below are some of the 53 ideas submitted from the community for Council District 36, covering Bedford Stuyvesant and parts of Crown Heights. Part of the criteria the evaluators are looking at, is that the idea must be for an infrastructure project that would last a minimum of 5 years and cost at least $50,000. To see all the ideas and to vote, go to: www.participate.nyc.gov (Residents of other districts can see and vote on ideas for their communities as well.)

Re-do the baseball field at Herbert Von King to make a multi-use turf field
Targeted Agency: Department
of Parks and Recreation
Project Name: Herbert Von King
Turf Field Renovation
Description: Convert Herbert Von King Baseball Field to Turf. Line the field for baseball and soccer. Add lights so it can be used in the evenings.
Need: This field is currently poorly maintained and therefore seldom used. You can redo the field with turf, which will require less maintenance. The lines for baseball can remain but you can also draw lines for one or two soccer or small football fields. It will give kids and adults in the community a place to be active. In addition, it would be great to add lights and for it to remain open into the evening.

Brower Park Library
Computer Workstations
Targeted Agency: Brooklyn Public
Library
Project Name: Brower Park
Library Computer Workstations
Description: Brower Park Library Computer Workstations should be funded to provide at least ten (10) computer workstation equipped workspaces where library visitors can: 1) access materials not available to the library in hard copy, 2) attend virtual tutorials on their school curricula and/or advanced classes.
Need: This project will dramatically expand & help to ensure the capacity of the Brooklyn Public Library branch at Brower Park / Brooklyn Childrens Museum to serve this underserved community. The equipment provided must include: high speed /gigbit modems, 5G Wi-Fi extenders, the ability to transfer select data to a portable device, printers, and camera-equipped video screens /workstation displays. The project network should be connected to the existing program offered at the main libraries to facilitate membership management & data security. The access routines should connect student users to the schools in which they are enrolled.

Maintenance of Kosciusko pool
Targeted Agency: Department
of Parks and Recreation
Project Name: Maintenance of
Kosciusko pool
Description: The pool and it’s facilities look and feel completely neglected. The paint work is crumbling. The bleachers are corroded. There is a children’s pool which is never open.
Need: The pool is packed in the summer. It’s a Sanctuary for the community on hot summer days when the kids are out of school.

Nostrand Ave A/C Subway Station (Nostrand Ave/Fulton St)
Accessibility Rehabilitation
Targeted Agency: Department of
Transportation
Project Name: Nostrand Ave Subway Station (Nostrand Ave/Fulton St) Accessibility Rehabilitation
Description: The Nostrand Ave A/C subway station at Nostrand Ave/Fulton St is central to the community and hosts high daily commuter traffic. It requires improved accessibility and ADA compliance upgrades.
Need: ADA compliance upgrade service needed for wider community access.

Big Kid Swings, Tile Repair, and Better Drainage at Hattie Carthan
Playground, 308 Monroe Street.
Targeted Agency: Department
of Parks and Recreations
Project Name: Big Kid Swings,
Tile Repair, and Better Drainage at
Hattie Carthan Playground
Description: Hattie Carthan Playground is a community playground that serves children in the area as well as students at Arts & Letters 305 United, a public K-8th grade school at 344 Monroe Street. Currently, it has four swings for babies and no big kid swings, so older children and students are too big for them and can’t use them safely. We would like to add a set of big kid swings or replace at least two of the small swings for ones that can accommodate the neighborhood and the school’s children. The ground has several spots that are cracked and warped which are a tripping hazard, and large puddles form under the playground structure whenever it rains. This makes the slides unusable and unsafe in the winter when the puddle freezes.
Need: Hattie Carthan Playground is a community playground used by the many children in the area as well as serving as the playground for Arts & Letters 305 United, a public K-8th grade school at 344 Monroe Street. Children of all ages use this playground. Currently, it has four swings for babies/toddlers and no big kid swings, so older kids are too big for them and can’t use them safely. We would like to add a set of big kid swings or replace at least two of the small swings for ones that can accommodate the community and the school’s students. The ground is currently warped and cracked and serves as a tripping hazard. Large puddles form under the playground structure because of drainage issues and whenever it rains the slides are unusable and unsafe in the winter when the puddle freezes.

Improve, Upgrade, Connect, And Active District 36 Community Gardens
Targeted Agency: Department of Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Queens Land Trust, maybe GrowNYC and Healthbucks
Project Name: Improve, Upgrade, Connect, And Active District 36 Community Gardens
Description: District 36 has one of the highest amount of community gardens of any council district! GreenThumb Garden Info | NYC Open Data (cityofnewyork.us) 
Find Your Community Garden: NYC Parks GreenThumb (nycgovparks.org) 
Why not fund ways to connect and improve and better activate these spaces so that they can better serve our communities? Work with them and GrowNYC and health department to coordinate on growing vegetables for distribution and for farmers markets and giving out Healthbucks. Improve growing spaces to grow more produce with metal raised beds that last and vertical trellis gardening especially for Bengali gardeners. Improve pathways to make spaces more accessible. Coordinate with councilmembers office staff for volunteers to help keep open hours so that these spaces are even more engaging and lively and accessible to communities. Increase signage, including in other languages. Even establish art projects to draw more people in! Work with transportation – maybe the department or a nonprofit? – on walking and biking tours that can be shared events. Theres so much potential!
Need: According to open data linked above, there are almost 50 community gardens in the district. Wow! The council members office can work with parks department and other agencies and nonprofits to help create a shared vision. Not just how to physically improve these spaces (new beds, more vertical trellis gardening, some accessible pathways), but on how to create joint signage and events and artwork and coordinate visiting hours and to truly welcome communities to enjoy and activate and participate in these spaces.

Add an outdoor story time garden near Macon Library
Macon Library is a treasured Bed Stuy resource with wonderful children’s programming. Due to the pandemic, children’s programming, including story times and craft projects are all online, which is not accessible for all families. Using the small green space on the south side of the library, let’s create a small garden with seating for a librarian and small groups of children to organize safe, outdoor activities.
361 Lewis Ave, Brooklyn, United States

Raymond Bush Playground – taking care of the green space,
adding big kid swings & adding lights for night
Targeted Agency: Dept of Parks
and Recreation
Project Name: Raymond Bush Playground – taking care of the green space, adding big kid swings & adding lights for night
Description: Raymond Bush Playground could benefit from adding 4-8 lights around the playground and basketball courts and seating areas with tables, to make it feel safer when the sun goes down and families are still at the park in the Fall & Winter months.
Raymond Bush Playground could benefit from adding 2 big kid swings where the swings for smaller children are, perhaps we can swap out 2 of those swings for swings for bigger kids.
Raymond Bush Playground could benefit from a thought out landscaping plan in its green spaces to avoid those areas from filling with trash.
Raymond Bush Playground could benefit from more trash bins.
Need: This project will serve families and children in the community. Its important for parks to be will lit, accommodate a range of ages and have green spaces not filled with trash. This will boost up the community around it.

Von King skate park
Targeted Agency: Parks & Recreation
Project Name: Von King
Mini Skate Park
Description: There are always skaters working on skills around the amphitheater at HVK. Why not build an official skating area. This could be a win-win; a dedicated space for skaters and less risk to cross-traffic (often little kiddos, since the amphitheater is right next to the little kid playground). There’s an unused parcel of land near the bigger kid’s playground that could be repurposed for this.
Need: There are all kinds of people who skate in the neighborhood, so this project would serve the area’s diverse skating community.
670 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, United States

Road maintenance on Broadway between Eastern Parkway
and Flushing Ave
Targeted Agency: DOT
Project Name: Road maintenance
on Broadway 
Description: The stretch of Broadway that serves Bed-Stuy is full of huge potholes, broken signals and unmarked crosswalks.
Need: Broadway is a vital road link for Bed-Stuy and its surrounding neighborhoods and services. It’s a hazard for pedestrians and drivers. 1165 Broadway
 
Mobile Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM)
Labs for Students at Bed Stuy New Beginnings (84K782)
Targeted Agency: School Construction Authority
Project Name: Mobile STEM Labs for K-8 students at Bed Stuy New Beginnings (84K782) 
Description: Our goal is to create a sustainable STEM/STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) program for our students and educators at 84K782 by providing them with a comprehensive set of technology tools. These mobile labs are designed to provide students with hands-on, inquiry-based learning that will lead them to develop a high interest in science, coding, virtual reality and technology. Our goal is to be a model site for Bed Stuy for students to explore careers and opportunities in technology, coding, virtual reality and the arts, which can be replicated across the community.
 A+ Mobile STEM Lab for Coding and Design
 A+ Mobile STEM Lab for Literacy
 A+ Mobile STEM Lab for VR
Need: Located at 82 Lewis Avenue, between Hart Street and Willoughby Avenue, Bed Stuy New Beginnings (84K782) is a K-8 Title I school that serves over 700 students, 95% of whom receive free or reduced lunch. As proud members of the community, BSNBCS students learn in a warm, enriching academic environment where they have opportunities to pursue their scientific, artistic, social-emotional and civic education. We serve primarily African American and Latino students, including students who are English Language Learners (16%) , Students with Disabilities (24%) and students experiencing homelessness (20%).  
Access to the latest STEM/STEAM technology through these mobile labs will promote stronger education in Bed Stuy for students who are traditionally underserved and under-resourced. The next generation will learn STEM/STEAM right here in Bed Stuy through the study of literacy and science, virtual reality and coding to bring their knowledge back to the community.

Make Myrtle Ave/ Broadway
subway station accessible
Targeted Agency: DOT
Project Name: Make Myrtle Ave/ Broadway subway station accessible
Description: There are few accessible subway stations serving the community of Bed-stuy and the stairways are very steep. We need some sort of lift or ramp system.
Need: It’s very difficult for elderly/ disabled and those traveling with young children carrying strollers to use the subway.

Bike Lane on Nostrand Ave
Targeted Agency: Department
of Transportation (DOT)
Project Name: Increase cyclist
safety with a bike lane on Nostrand Ave
Description: The section of Nostrand Ave that runs through the district is a busy traffic corridor, but currently unsafe for cyclists. There are multiple busy intersections on the road, and biking along the avenue often turns into a competition with other cars and buses. A bike lane would help increase the safety, usability and overall comfort of this crucial avenue.
Need: This project would benefit everyone using Nostrand Ave to get to their destination, including drivers, bus riders and cyclists by improving public safety on the road. A bike lane would also decrease the amount of vehicles on the road by providing an alternative transportation option to motor vehicles, and could help improve air and noise pollution as a result.

Renovating blacktop space/tennis courts at Tompkins Houses and
resources needed for related sports-based youth development programming
Targeted Agency: New York City
Housing Authority, Department of
Youth and Community Development
Project Name: Tompkins Houses outdoor space renovation and additional resources needed for sports-based youth development programming
Description: The blacktop space at the center of NYCHA’s Tompkins Houses development is in need of repairs, including either repainting or the application of acrylic to make it more appealing and playable for the children who live in and around the development. Over the past 10 years, Kings County Tennis League (KCTL) has provided free tennis programs at Tompkins Houses and learned that public housing developments are viable locations to establish and protect additional play space in the highly-built environment of Central Brooklyn. By bringing tennis and play opportunities to Tompkins Houses, children living in, as well as around, the developments began to play together, thereby dismantling the stigma often associated with public housing, a product of redlining and a construct of systemic racism. The free tennis programming at the developments where KCTL established “tennis clubs” have become spaces where youth and their families in the neighborhood play, socialize, and form relationships with children/families of color from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Need: 700 youth between the ages of 4 and 17 reside at the Tompkins Houses development. Last year, KCTL provided free tennis instruction and positive youth development activities to more than 100 children on this space. It has also been used by the Tompkins Children’s Center, for which KCTL provides physical literacy and structured play to its pre-K students. An investment in renovating the play space and additional programming resources would make it possible for KCTL to provide more quality tennis and play opportunities to more children living in and around the development. Last year, KCTL provided Saturday tennis play and twice-a-week girl-only tennis play on the Tompkins Houses space. It also was the site for a celebration that was done in collaboration with the United States Tennis Association to celebrate Women’s Equality Day.

Increasing Pedestrian Safety and Preventing Repeated Traffic Accidents on Lewis Ave/Bainbridge St Intersection
Targeted Agency: Department
of Transportation, DOT
Project Name: Traffic Calming on
the Intersection of
Lewis Avenue/Bainbridge Street
Description: 1) Install Speed Cameras on the Intersection of Lewis Avenue/Bainbridge St to enforce speed limits for drivers coming down Lewis Avenue
2) Install signage with a message similar to “ Slow Down, Speed Cameras In Use” on :

  • Lewis Avenue between Fulton and Bainbridge
  • Troy Avenue between Atlantic and Fulton
  • Fulton between Stuyvesant and Marcus Garvey
    3) Study the feasibility of installing additional traffic calming methods such as:
  • diagonal parking on Lewis Avenue between Chauncey and Bainbridge
  • reducing the corner radius on Lewis Avenue between Fulton and Bainbridge
  • installing “road humps” on Lewis Avenue/Bainbridge Street intersection
    4) If the study shows that the above is feasible, then implementing as many traffic calming measures as funds allow.
    Need: The intersection of Lewis and Bainbridge has seen numerous accidents. Partially due to the long radius of the curve between Fulton and Bainbridge, drivers come down Lewis Avenue at high rates of speed. As drivers approach the intersection they sometimes find themselves about to hit cars that are exiting from both sides of Bainbridge onto Lewis Avenue. 
    In order to avoid collisions, the speeding drivers on Lewis Avenue end up diverting their cars into the parked cars on Lewis Avenue. 
    Many neighborhood residents have had their parked cars destroyed by speeding cars that were trying to avoid accidents. 
    To our knowledge, at the intersection there have been no traffic-related fatalities to date. And we hope to never any traffic-related deaths. But right now, it is only luck that has prevented serious injuries or fatalities.
    With three schools (The Brooklyn Brownstone School, MS 35, and PS 141) within one block of the intersection, there is added urgency to implementing traffic calming measures.

PS 262 School Playground
Targeted Agency: NYC Department of
Education
Project Name: PS 262 School
Playground
Description: PS 262 is in desperate need of a renovated school playground (Macon Street near Stuyvesant Avenue).
Need: Please describe why this project is important and who it will serve primarily
PS 262 Playground is the original playground which was built when the school was built in 1950. There has been no updates to the playground, there is no updated play materials and no place for students to play safely. The playground will serve the students of PS 262 ages 3 – 12 years old. During heavy rainstorms, there is flooding and the playground cannot be utilized until after the custodial team resolves.
The concrete ground is not safe, when students run and fall – a childhood experience- they bruise their knees, hands, and elbows, resulting in an unnecessary trip to the Nurse.

Create a multisport playspace/court at Brevoort Houses that is conducive for tennis and other sports and fitness activities
Targeted Agency: NYCHA, DYCD
Project Name: Create a multisport playspace/court with painted lines for tennis at Brevoort Houses 
Description: There is an outdoor space at Brevoort Houses, adjacent west to Brooklyn Children’s Center that would be an ideal space for a multi-sport court. The space can accommodate 1 full-size (60’) tennis court and 1 “short” (36’) tennis court could be for free tennis programming that has been offered by sports-based youth development non-profit, Kings County Tennis League (KCTL) since 2015. It could also be used as a contained playspace for the PreK students at the Brevoort Children Center, where KCTL provides a curriculum that supports physical literacy and structured play opportunities.
Public housing developments are viable locations to establish and protect additional playspace in the highly-built environment of Central Brooklyn. By bringing tennis and play opportunities to 6 developments, children living in, as well as around, the developments began to play together, thereby dismantling the stigma often associated with public housing, a product of redlining and a construct of systemic racism. The free tennis programming at the developments where KCTL established “tennis clubs” have become spaces where youth and their families in the neighborhood play, socialize, and form relationships with children/families of color from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Need: Brevoort Houses is located in Community District 3 where there is less than 1.5% land zoned for parks.
While there are handball courts and basketball courts at the nearby Brevoort Playground, Parks will not allow tennis lines to be painted on the surface there.
For more than 10 years, KCTL has provided free tennis programs at 6 public housing developments in Central Brooklyn. In 2015, KCTL established the Jackie Robinson Tennis Club; youth are recruited from Brevoort Houses as well as in the surrounding neighborhoods, and programming has been carried out on tennis courts at Jackie Robinson Park. Annually, KCTL offers more than 300 hours of tennis programming that takes place several days a week, April – October. Unfortunately, the courts at Jackie Robinson are in high demand, and permitting has been a challenge.

Brooklyn Academy of
Global Finance Ventilation
Targeted Agency:
School Construction Authority, SCA
Project Name: Global Finance
Music Studio & Weight Room
Ventilation
Description: Ventilation for weight room and music studio and installation of ventilation
Need: This project is important because our students have lost access to our music studio and weight room as a result of the pandemic. These spaces are located in our basement and have no windows or ventilation, so students are not allowed to access these spaces currently. These spaces provided valuable enrichment for students to perform and produce music with support from music industry professionals, as well as health and wellness activities to support the whole child. Without proper ventilation, we do not know if these spaces will ever be able to be utilized by students again.

Upgrade and Modernize
Von King Dog Park
Targeted Agency: Department
Parks & Recreation
Project Name: Upgrade and
Modernize Von King Dog Park
Description: Signage for large and small dog sections, water fountain for dogs, sprinklers for dogs in the summertime, get rid of the dirt for a dog and people-friendly flooring option, stationary equipment “toys” for the dogs, proper water drainage for when it rains or the snow melts
Need: The project is important for the community because it gives dogs a safe space to exercise and roam around freely without getting dirty. Currently when it rains or snows the dog park is a muddy mess. Currently, there is no signage to indicate what section is for big or small dogs and owners have to guess which section to take their dog. The upgraded modernized dog park will add to the community bonding and building of our neighborhood.

Renovation, beautification and funding for performances at the Almira Kennedy Coursey
Amphitheatre at Herbert Von King Park
Targeted Agency: Department of Parks and Recreation and Department of Cultural Affairs
Project Name: Renovation, beautification and funding for performances at the Almira Kennedy Coursey Amphitheatre at Herbert Von King Park
Description: The amphitheater as a whole needs to be renovated. It is run down, dirty and overall sad looking. The seats needs to be redone along with the stage and walkways. I am also requesting budget to fund performances at the theater focused on an array of different performing arts from music, to dance to theater.
Need: This project will serve all of those in the Bed Stuy/Northern Crown Heights community and beyond. Especially during this time of COVID it is so important that we have ways to come together as a community in a COVID safe way. I cannot not think of a better way to do this than via an outdoor amphitheater which will also help to foster the arts which were especially hard hit during COVID. This not only brings the community members together but gives performers, artists, producers, etc…an additional outlet to share their talents.

BPL-Bedford Library (Franklin Ave/Hancock St)
Beautification & Maintenance
Targeted Agency: Brooklyn Public
Library
Project Name: Bedford Library
Beautification & Maintenance
Description: The Bedford Library on Franklin Ave/Hancock St is a historic institution and efforts should be made to beautify and maintain the building’s surroundings and entry way to be reflective of such.
Need: Maintenance of historic buildings and institutions in the community is needed.

Lafayette Ave Bike Lane
Targeted Agency: DOT
Project Name: Lafayette Ave
Bike Lane
Description: Extend the Lafayette Ave.
bike lane to Broadway.
Need: The bike lane on Lafayette stops abruptly at Grand Ave, putting cyclists continuing on into Bed Stuy at risk. Extending the bike lane would improve safety.

Seating and Shelters at Bus Stops
Targeted Agency: NYC Department of Transportation
Project Name:Install more seating at bus stops in the North Crown Heights 36th Council District
Description: Seating including benches and leaning bars should be installed/increased , preferably at all bus stops but at a minimum where there are high concentrations of seniors & people with ambulatory disabilities. Seating should include bus stop shelters. DOT would be able to help identify locations and numbers where seating is most needed
Need: NYC is promoting use of public transportation. Older adults and those with ambulatory disabilities who are unable to navigate the subways would most benefit from benches/ leaning posts at bus stops. However, all those who travel via public transportation might consider buses, expanding their use of public transportation travel options.

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