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Bed-Stuy Slow Zone Hits Speed Bump
Community Board 3 gives thumbs down to city proposal to reduce speed from 30 to 20 MPH
Citing concerns of increased police ticketing and traffic snares along Bed-Stuy’s major auto thoroughfares, Community Board 3 voted 27-4 on Monday to not recommend the city’s proposal to install a Neighborhood Slow Zone that straddles Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Under the Department of Transportation (DOT) plan, the speed limit in a large rectangular area bounded by Bedford Avenue to the east, Washington Avenue to the west, Lafayette Avenue to the north and Fulton Street to the south will be reduced from 30 to 20 miles an hour to adjust driver behavior on local streets. The major thoroughfare running through the center of the zone is the two-way at Gates Avenue, on which the highly utilized B52 bus runs.
The goal of the Neighborhood Slow Zone program, which is a holdover of the Bloomberg Administration, is to lower the incidence and severity of crashes and to enhance quality of life by reducing cut-through traffic and traffic noise in residential neighborhoods. Besides reducing the speed limit, DOT uses signs, markings and speed bumps to calm traffic within the zone.
But following a DOT presentation of the proposal, several board members and residents were critical of both the presentation for not providing enough data to justify the slow zone, and of the slow zone itself, and not having a sufficient and thought-out study. Critics also noted that the project footprint was expanded by about 10 blocks from the original plan.
Among these critics was the Classon-FulGate Block Association, which was one of 14 community groups and officials listed as supporters of the original project when it was introduced last October.
“Our block association is withdrawing our support,” said Demetrice Mills, president of the Classon-FulGate Block Association. “I drove in the area at 20 miles per hour as a test and the bicycles were just zooming past me. Traffic is already backed up real bad in the mornings on Classon Avenue and this will make it worse. When they put in the bike lanes, they made several streets one-way that were always two-way and that slows traffic, too.”
Mills said the city has also installed several stoplights in the proposed zone that are not in synch and that contributes to the traffic snarl-up.
While almost everybody spoke out against the plan in the “public comment” portion of the meeting, Bed-Stuy resident Ben Kintisch defended the slow down zone.
“I can’t remember how many times I’ve been walking with my child and scared to death because of a speeding motorist,” Kintisch said. “Most of us who have little ones, whether they’re children or grandchildren, think about it. If you slow down a little bit and save a life, it’s worthwhile.”
While the community board voted against the plan, it is a nonbinding vote and strictly a recommendation.
DOT said they plan on implementing the zone this spring.
Sen. Montgomery's Open Secret to Political Success
New York State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, a Beloved Crusader and Ambassador for the People, Reflects on 30 Years of Dedicated Serviceby David Mark Greaves and Bernice Elizabeth Green
Last week, the publishers of Our Time Press sat down with Senator Velmanette Montgomery on the eve of our newspaper’s 18th birthday. The 45 minutes we requested expanded to another 45, and could have gone longer. The fervor, commitment and energy she brings to her projects and to finding solutions to the satisfying the needs of the people, she brought to this interview. She took us down many avenues, and that session — which skimmed the surface of a job well done, a career well developed — will be presented in two more parts to be placed in Our Time over coming weeks moving into March Women’s History Month. We started our conversation off with the usual questions, as you will note in Part One to come, but it swiftly intensified to an exploration of the soul of a fighter, a woman who speaks Truth to whoever’s listening, a quality that reveals itself in the upcoming parts.
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery was first elected in 1984 and is now in her 30th year in office. In that time, the changes in her District 25, encompassing Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park, Gowanus and Park Slope, are evident in the changing skyline and the changing skyline, demographics, culture-blends, conversation and descriptive language (these areas, once considered a catastrophe, are now known nationally as “cool.”). Reflecting on the changes in her district, the senator said, “When I first ran it was a district that was fairly specifically defined. A majority-minority district. I remember campaigning in Bedford-Stuyvesant. I’d go and they were always involved in block associations and I’d meet people who had been on their block for 50 years and more. People in that eastern part of the district were very much solidly Brooklyn residents. And they were wedded to a tradition, either in terms of organizations or churches so there was a huge identity with the neighborhood. I also have parts of Boerum Hill, also a brownstone area. It was gentrifying, but gradually. There were still families that had been there many years, but it was still turning. In the middle was Clinton Hill/Fort Greene. Also brownstones. I’ve always considered that I represented the brownstone belt. It was a very exciting time in that part of the district, because there again, it was beginning to be gentrified, but it was very organic, so to speak. People who were pioneers came in, all working on their own property; they were counting trees, planting trees. It was a multicultural movement, we had a political club that was multicultural. I always used to say I had the Buppies, the Black part, the ethnic and nonethnic white communities. So it was always a very interesting district. Very vibrant. But you had to be able to be diverse in the way you responded to different parts of the district. So it was very exciting in that way. As time has gone on, the changes that I have seen, because we were always, the district was always influx. There was always some changes happening. But there was not the pressure on Bedford-Stuyvesant where people were terrified of losing their properties. We had a huge problem long before it became national news. There were indications that predatory lending was wiping out Bed-Stuy. It was the late Nineties that it started in Bed-Stuy. I remember having people come to me in a panic because they had lost their properties. That’s when I began to feel the sense of losing the heart of the area. Especially for the people in Bed-Stuy.
It took, it seems, about ten years for this movement to move into other neighborhoods as much as it was in my district. I remember going to one of my colleagues with a district to the south and he said, “That’s not my issue”. Little did he know it was very big even then but he didn’t know it. Couldn’t imagine it. It was always a problem, big in parts of Queens. This was way before it became headline news. Then we began to see predatory businesses and it has magnified since I’ve been in office. When I was first elected there were maybe one or two bank branches in all of Bed-Stuy– the redlining was amazing. But now, not only are there bank branches but the redlining has lifted and money is starting to flow into Bed-Stuy. That was another pressure. Now we begin to see money being available for certain people. So those are some of the institutional changes that have shifted not only the housing availability but the demographics as they say, euphemistically. Now it’s a very different district.
“I meet people in my office all the time in Albany and they tell me they live in Bed-Stuy, and I mean deep in Bed-Stuy. It’s fascinating the way that’s happening. Part of what I see that is encouraging is that a lot of the young people don’t seem to be intimidated about living in Bed-Stuy. This generation seems just fine living in Bed-Stuy”.
Ten years ago this March, Sen. Montgomery testified on the Downtown Brooklyn Plan
Before the City Planning Commission, her testimony was prescient in terms of what we are seeing with the high rises on Flatbush Avenue creating a wall between neighborhoods. How are the issues of these new residents differ from your traditional issues of child welfare, juvenile justice, etc. How does this new constituency affect what you do?
First of all, we have started to connect with some of the people in some of the new high rises, not as consistently because they don’t need us. When I was first elected I represented Concord Village, that was (at that time) considered an upscale co-op community that was integrated and high income, we had lawyers there, we had political people and I remember I had a great relationship representing them. They have similar issues like, “Can you fix the park down the way”? Kids making noise. They had the same issues as some of the high rises in Bed-Stuy.
But the people who move into these towers, first of all, it is an entirely different income. There are some multimillion-dollar condos in those buildings. I’m not sure, for the most part, a lot of absenteeism exists because they’re not really here and the fact of the matter is they don’t really need my kind of politics. They operate on a whole different level. Which I’m sure is fine with them. I can run around with the formally incarcerated people, and as long as we keep their environment safe, they’re fine.
And then you wake up one day and there’s a median in the middle of Myrtle Avenue with trees growing. They don’t oppose retail politics, but they don’t need it in the same way, unless there’s a big issue they are involved with.
Part II of “People’s Ambassador” will appear in the February 27 Our Time Present.
Rainbow/Push Wall Street Project Economic Summit 2014
*Note: Part One of reporter Dulan-Wilson’s continuing on-location Wall Street Project stories can be seen at www.ourtimeathome.com
The Rainbow Push Wall Street Project Economic Summit got under way with a full house, as usual, as more than 700 attendees showed up to take advantage of the information and opportunities Rev. Jesse Jackson made available in a 3-day panoply of information. To try to detail everything that has transpired thus far is impossible. So these are the highlights of the events, thus far.
The afternoon plenary session examined 50 years after the Civil Rights Act – the unfinished agenda for economic justice. Assembling what could be considered a “blue ribbon” panel of activists, including Rev. Herbert Daughtry of House of the Lord Church, Brooklyn, NY; Julianne Malveaux, President and founder of Last Word Productions (and member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority); Steve Cobble, former Political Director & Speech Writer for the Rainbow Coalition; Dr. Emma Chappell, National Treasurer for Rev. Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign; former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins; Mignon Moore, Esq., Dewey Square Group; among others. They were later joined on stage by former Louisiana Congressman Cleo Fields.
George Curry moderated the panel with Rev. Jackson, fielding questions and reminiscing over the events leading to his running for president and the years that have ensued.
George noted that in 1984 there were a lot of Black elected officials who would not endorse Rev. Jackson’s candidacy for President. He spoke of those who had pledged their support to Walter Mondale and would not change their mind and support Jesse. There were only a handful of so-called political and community leaders who stood with Jesse in New York City – including former Mayor David Dinkins and Rev. Daughtry. “What made you take the stand? What was in your mind – break it down – what made you stand up for him?”
Rev. Daughtry responded that he had a lot of respect for Congressman Charles Rangel, who had called him to say that Jesse had asked for his backing but he had already pledged his support to Mondale. “One thing I learned from Jesse was to not let what happened to him from others cause him to resent them. And not to let it stand in the way of your achieving your mission. So he would kind of cool us all out. We go back to 1968, so I was a part of the ‘Run Jesse Run!’ crowd. My goal was, at the time I chaired the National Black United Front, which was the radical, revolutionary, nationalist, pan-African power group. And somehow it was beautiful that I was also a minister and able to bring together the various groups.” Jesse had set the track record, had been integrally involved in many of the various communities and was familiar with the problems and issues they were facing. He had, in a sense, already tilled the land. He had a way of relating to the votes “stuck at the bottom” so that he was able to get the recalcitrant voters to come out and be counted. Rev. Daughtry’s daughter, who was the CEO of the Democratic National Party and coordinated the 2008 Democratic National Convention, cut her teeth working with Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign.
Emma Chappell also theorized that part of the reason there is so little initial support on the part of Blacks when it comes to supporting major candidates like Rev. Jackson, and later Barack Obama, is that there is so little experience in the way of success on their part; they’ve been so downtrodden – the fact that Rev. Jackson didn’t allow that to deter him from forging ahead speaks to his character. “Rev. Jackson is so motivational and at the same time educational. He educates the public. A lot of people didn’t think that their vote meant that much, even though our forefathers and foremothers died for us to be able to vote, they had given up on whether their vote could be effective. Until, here comes Rev. Jackson and he motivates them and educates them on the importance of us coming out and voting in numbers. And that is exactly what happens. So, therefore, the leaders had to come into the fold because the people were there. {There is an African song entitled, ‘If The People Will Lead, the Leaders Will Follow’ that came out of Mali}.” Basically what she was illustrating was that the so-called leaders jumped on the bandwagon and had to catch up with the people who were so far ahead of them. “They said, ‘Oh yeah, we support Rev. Jackson! We were behind him all along’, as if it was their idea and intention to begin with.”
Julianne Malveaux interjected that the fact that the people took the lead and made their choices long before the leaders actually stepped up to the plate points out the “impotency of endorsements”. She emphasized, “You have people who come forth and believe that their word could sway votes. And their word does not necessarily do so. They believe that if they put in the newspaper that someone is not viable or qualified. When Barack Obama stepped out there, everybody took it as a joke, “they basically said, well, we’ll see how he does in 2012”, “ …but they definitely didn’t expect him to get the nomination, or take the lead, much less be elected as President of the US. “The fact of the matter is that we cannot allow anyone to totally speak for us.”
The consensus of the panel was that Rev. Jackson’s campaign has had an impact across the nation in terms of the number of African-Americans who followed suit and ran for political office subsequent to his run. Additionally, other constituencies began to more closely examine other African-American candidates in terms of their electability and leadership characteristics. Many of those who worked in Rev. Jackson’s campaign went on to have major boosts in their careers, including political positions, career moves that would not have occurred had it not been for their participation in a grass-roots campaign.
George Curry spoke of how it impacted his career as a journalist. Jokingly, he compared Jackson’s run to that of a repuglycon candidate: repuglycon candidates generally give a pre-prepared speech in writing to the media, and deliver the speech as written with no deviation, completely transcribed so that all the press has to do is print it. Additionally, according to Curry, they provide you with full meals so that you are made comfortable and to feel as though you’re a part of the team. You need never exert any of your skills as a journalist under those circumstances – you just e-mail the speech in and you’re done. He contrasted that to having to really work as a journalist in the Jackson campaign, when you never knew from one day to the next what the speech was going to say; whether the candidate was going to deliver it verbatim, who was or was not going to show up for a particular press conference. “You really had to use all your skills as a journalist. And it was because of that that I became a journalist – I cut my teeth on the Jackson campaign.”
(To be continued)
de Blasio Budget Calls For End To NYCHA Residents to Pay For Police
While spending plan helps some in Central Brooklyn, unemployment & charter schools not addressed
As this paper went to press, Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a $73.7 billion fiscal year 2014-15 city budget that includes doing away with the city charging public housing residents to pay for police protection.
Currently, the city charges the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) about $70 million annually for the NYPD officers assigned to safeguard its 334 properties across the five boroughs.
Under de Blasio’s spending plan, NYCHA will be relieved of the remaining $52.5 million that would otherwise be owed to the NYPD in FY 2014, so more money can be steered to service outstanding work orders on the NYCHA repair docket.
De Blasio said to keep the NYPD budget whole, the preliminary budget also provides the NYPD with an additional $52.5 million in city funds.
Initial reaction from NYCHA residents was cautiously optimistic of the proposal, as NYCHA has reportedly been years behind in work orders to renovate apartments and fix buildings.
“I think it’s a good idea, but I’ll still wait and see if the money saved will be put back into NYCHA for building renovations, and repair of apartments and getting cameras in the building,” said Renyeh Alexander, vice president of the Tompkins Houses Residential Association.
While the budget press release did not address such pressing issues in Central Brooklyn as high unemployment and under employment, small business initiatives and charter schools, it did continue to hammer away at the need for universal pre-kindergarten and an expansion to after-school programs.
This includes the wishful thinking of expecting an additional $500 million in revenue from taxing those with incomes higher than $500,00, which needs approval from the state.
Other funding of interest to central Brooklyn includes:
Three million dollars in FY 2015 to set up an independent inspector general at the NYPD. This new office will help bring police and the community together by overseeing department policies and procedures, such as stop-and-frisk.
Restoring about $28 million that the Bloomberg budget cut from the Department of Homeless Services so that families that don’t know each other won’t be forced to live together in a shared apartment.
Restoring about $9 million that the Bloomberg budget cut to community-based mental health and immunization clinics to improve access to mental health services.
“Our budget will be a progressive budget — one that will put us on the road to giving hardworking New Yorkers a fair shot,” Mr. de Blasio said in a news release. “There’s nothing mutually exclusive about being both fiscally responsible and economically progressive.”
At press time, City Councilman Robert Cornegy could not be reached for comment about the budget.