Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Measure covering workers at city-owned and subsidized buildings clears final legislative hurdle to become law.
The City Council voted Tuesday to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg's veto of a prevailing wage bill covering dozens of workers at city-owned and subsidized buildings. With a vote of 44-4 in favor, the effort cleared the necessary two-thirds hurdle earlier this afternoon for the bill to become law. A key sponsor of the bill, Councilwoman Letitia James, D-Fort Greene, dismissed the Mayor's contention that the legislation would hurt job growth. "With a growing number of New Yorkers unemployed or underemployed, I have difficulty interpreting the opposition to living wage as anything more than a divisive scare tactic," James said. "New York City’s unemployment rate is at 9.6 percent, and we have seen the issue of income inequality become a …
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Funding increase hinges on teacher evaluation agreement, mayor says.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the final executive budget on his watch could increase school spending by about $300 million without a tax hike. If he gets his way, that is. The main beneficiary of the budget is the public school system, which would see a funding increase from $13.3 billion from fiscal year 2012 to $13.6 billion for 2013. But it comes with a catch. Unless the United Federation of Teachers agrees to a teacher evaluation system, "amendments to the education budget will be necessary to compensate for the loss of funding," the mayor's office said in a release. In a statement, UFT president Michael Mulgrew praised Speaker Christine Quinn and the rest of the City Council's efforts to increase the number of teachers. However, on the…
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Councilmember blasts proposal for Brooklyn Community Arts & Media H.S. building on Willoughby Avenue.
Students enrolled in four educational programs sharing a single building at 300 Willoughby Ave. may have a lot more company in the school's lunchroom, library and brand-new track and field. The Panel For Education Policy will vote Thursday on the proposed co-location of Urban Dove Charter School for Sports, Health and Fitness at Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School. If approved, Urban Dove will be the fifth program, including BCAM, to be located at 300 Willloughby Ave. in a building that was orginally a middle school. Councilwoman Letitia James, D-Fort Greene, blasted the proposal to add another program to a near-capacity facility that already houses several programs, like Urban Dove, that are geared towards students who have …
Friday, April 20, 2012
Exact terms of legislation covering businesses receiving city development funds was released today.
A "living wage" bill advocated by union leaders, community groups and elected officials just took one big step towards becoming a reality. On Friday, the City Council released what amounts to a working draft of the legislation, which seeks to lift wages to account for the rising cost of housing, fuel and most other basic necessities. The bill would require employers receiving city economic development subsidies pay workers at least $10 an hour—$2.75 over the state's minimum wage of $7.25. The language of the bill released today includes entire categories of businesses that would be exempt from the proposed minimum $10-an-hour rate—including those in the nonprofit and manufacturing sector, as well as those with gross revenues under $5 …
Monday, April 2, 2012
Dozens march to protest crime and lack of jobs, community resources for public housing residents.
It was a protest that attracted elected officials, throngs of police and residents of the rapidly gentrifying blocks of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. However, it was the young men and women of Whitman, Ingersoll and Farragut Houses that represented the true audience for Sunday's demonstration against gun violence—as well as the hopelessness and despair at its root. "People have to remember that this is one of the poorest census tracts in the city," said Councilwoman Letitia James, D-Fort Greene, who with Rev. Mark Taylor of Church of the Open Door, organized the rally. "This is a place that can no longer be ignored." Sunday's march came in response to a particularly violent month in Fort Greene Houses that saw two young men gunned down not…
Friday, March 30, 2012
Event starts at 3 p.m. near the site where 20-year-old Justin Cherry was shot and killed on March 5.
In the wake of three shootings at Fort Greene Houses in March, community leaders and tenants planned a demonstration against the scourge of gun-related crime. The event will kick off at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 1 at Whitman Houses on Carlton Avenue, with Councilwoman Letitia James, D-Fort Greene, Ingersoll Tenants Association president Ed Brown and Whitman Tenants Association president Isabella Lee planning to attend. The march comes in response to the violent death of Justin Cherry, Jaquan Webb and an unidentified 21-year-old man who was taken to Kings County Hospital after being shot three times in the chest and groin on March 21. With all three victims African-American males in their early 20s, the recent spate of violence highlighted …
Friday, March 23, 2012
'New Voices In Black Cinema' founder died Monday.
Friends and relatives of Aaron Ingram, a pioneer and key backer of artists of color from Brooklyn and throughout the U.S., marked his passing at Emmanuel Baptist Church earlier today. The service took place just blocks from Brooklyn Academy of Music, the site of arguably one of Ingram's greatest achievements, "New Voices in Black Cinema," a rare and prominent showcase for African-American filmmakers that began as a small screening series at local bars. "His support of the African-American creative process is legendary," Councilwoman Letitia James, D-Fort Greene, said in a statement shortly after Ingram's death on Monday. "A gentleman with a wonderful spirit, he kept on fighting the fight for artists of color, and today his vision is …
Friday, March 16, 2012
Uncertainty reigns as 88th Precinct house is deemed too small and 78th Precinct will require debate and a vote by City Council to take charge.
The Barclays Center footprint straddles two police precincts and two community boards—making the decision of which precinct should police the arena when it opens in September a hard one. Initial reports said that the 78th Precinct, which is only a block away on Sixth Avenue, will police the arena. However, the Barclays Center is technically located within the 88th Precinct’s borders, but it is a half-mile away from the precinct’s station house in Clinton Hill. On Wednesday Patch reported that the decision, which will be finalized by the Mayor and City Council, is still up in the air. But, before the "personnel allocation plan" is finalized, the NYPD's Office of Management and Planning (OMAP) will need to analyze census data, crime …
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Fort Greene Councilwoman makes appearance at civic meeting in Queens on Tuesday night.
Update, 9:52 p.m.: Apparently far from mulling a run for Public Advocate, Tish James recently launched a campaign website and sent out a fundraising letter. According to the New York Observer's Politicker blog, potential rivals for the job include former Congressional candidate Reshma Saujani and state Sen. Dan Squadron, D-Cobble Hill. ---- Councilwoman Letitia James, D-Fort Greene, told attendees at a meeting of the Forest Hills Civic Association in Queens on Tuesday night that she was "considering" a run for Public Advocate in 2013. "I am considering, assuming I have the ability, assuming that there is a vacancy, meeting all those conditions, of running for public advocate of the city of New York," James said. In her remarks, the …
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Housing chairman John Rhea to join CM James at Town Hall-style meeting.
New York City Housing Authority chairman John Rhea will give residents of Fort Greene Houses an update on ongoing repairs and renovations at a Town Hall-style event at Fort Greene Houses tonight. Rhea will join Councilwoman Letitia James, D-Fort Greene, to gather input from participants about how to address the halting pace of repairs and renovations at the units, mostly located at Ingersoll Houses. The meeting tonight comes a week after public housing residents and advocates filed suit against the city at Brooklyn Housing Court for delayed repairs, renovations and, in some cases, unlivable conditions. James' spokesperson said the event aims to provide an "un-confrontational" setting for residents to air their concerns. Rhea last held a …
Paul Leonard
10:04 am on Wednesday, May 16, 2012
A bill creating a panel to oversee banks that the city deposits money and otherwise does business with passed, 44-4. The bill allowing for the transfer of muni-meter time also passed, 48-0. more ›