From Neighbors to Save Rivington House:

“We can keep evicting the elderly and the ill and the disabled from their homes in secrecy in order to line the pockets of profiteers or ……we can pass this law…”

From the Lo-Down:

“The Senate Health Committee will take up the “Rivington Act,” which would require the state to produce a public closure report when any nursing home is threatened, to reject any closure plan if community health needs cannot be met and to consider recommendations from local stakeholders.”

Livestreamed Senate Committee Meeting.

From Senator Squadron’s Office:

SQUADRON TO FORCE HEALTH CMTE VOTE ON ‘RIVINGTON ACT’ TO ADDRESS NURSING HOME CLOSURES

Squadron/AM Niou Bill Ensures Community Process When Nursing Homes Are Threatened

‘Rivington Act’ to Get Health Committee Vote; Will Be Live Streamed

ALBANY – TOMORROW, State Senator Daniel Squadron’s “Rivington Act” (S.2036/A.4395-Niou) will be voted on in the Senate’s Health Committee. Squadron and Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou introduced the bill in response to the appalling deed restriction removal and closure of Rivington House on the Lower East Side. The Senate Health Committee will be live streamed and can be viewed here. Earlier this session, Squadron used a procedural motion to force this committee vote.

Squadron/Niou’s “Rivington Act” would require that community health needs are met as part of a more public and transparent process when nursing homes are threatened. The “Rivington Act” is based on Squadron/Assemblymember Simon’s Local Input in Community Healthcare (LICH) Act (S.2500A/A.6417A), which creates a similar process for at-risk hospitals.

WHAT: NY Senate Health Committee to vote on Senator Squadron’s “Rivington Act” to require that community health needs are met as part of a more public and transparent process when nursing homes are threatened

WHEN: TOMORROW, Tuesday, April 25^th, 12pm/Noon

WHERE: Capitol Building 124 CAP, Albany; Livestreamed

Our resident scientist was at the March for Science, had rallies and marches in more than 600 places to challenge what advocates see as a growing trend by government to ignore scientific evidence when crafting public policy. Thank you for representing Rob!

Here is a trailer and review of the movie:

From Mother Jones:

The Perfect Movie for Your Earth Day Date Night

A quirky French film finds some unusual solutions to climate change.

“…change is perhaps most powerful when it is community-driven. The most novel innovation proposed is the possibility of “local currencies” that never leave one geographic area, thus encouraging the type of localized production and consumption that the filmmakers believe to be essential to a sustainable future.”

“Nobody believed in a positive documentary about ecology, economy, and democracy.” Instead, the Caésar-award-winning film, originally released in France in 2015, was partly crowd-funded. As French actress Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) implores in the film, “This movie is about thousands of people changing the world so we would like it to be financed by thousands of people willing to do the same.”

From Neighbors to Save Rivington House:

Hello Friends of Rivington House,

We are pleased to let you know that Neighbors to Save Rivington House has won a 2017 Neighborhood Grant from Citizens Committee for New York City.

It will allow us to begin planning the next phase of the Visioning plan to give our community a chance to reimagine what care needs to look like in our community.

We join nearly 300 grassroots groups across the city working to build community and improve our neighborhoods. Good company to be in! (You can learn more about Citizens Committee here)

We are excited to begin planning to invite the neighborhood, our steadfast electeds: Council Member Chin, Senator Squadron, Manhattan Borough President Brewer, and Yuh-Line Niou 

and all those with specific skills and information who have been deeply committed to the issue of care for disabled and/or elders.

When we return Rivington House to its rightful ‘owners’, it will be the perfect location to put into practice what we come up with!

Congrats to us all.

Neighbors to Save Rivington House

Facebook

Twitter #CareNotCondos #RivingtonHouse

Petition

A cautionary tale.

From the NYTimes:

“[Jacobs] feared the collusion and self-dealing that can accompany [certain] projects. She looked around her at urban renewal, and at housing projects in particular, and saw only disastrous outcomes for the poor and enrichment for the developer class.

…“monstrous hybrids,” for the unhealthy partnerships that can arise between governments and big businesses. From the earliest days of his career, Trump has operated on the precise model…relying on contacts in state and city government,…In the 1970s, in a deal with the Urban Development Corporation, Trump acquired the Commodore Hotel, near Grand Central Terminal, in exchange for big tax breaks that would extend for decades. …this was the beginning of the end for New York — the beginning, as she puts it, of displacement for working-class New Yorkers as the city sought to save itself from further decline by ingratiating itself to the wealthy, here and abroad. Oligarchs didn’t just arrive on West 57th Street in 2013; they had, in fact, been systematically courted for a very long time.”

Ted Glass, turtle wrangler, and Bud Shalala, Critter Committee, did the heavy lifting for the M’Finda Garden to the delight of all who came. More photos should be coming on M’Finda Kalunga website.

Red-eared Sliders

Thanks to Charles and LUNGS for the dirt for gardens in SDR Park!

Anyone wanting to pitch in to help redistribute the wealth please join gardeners this Saturday. Ask for Bob Humber or Kate or Carol!

From Daily News:

“A red-tailed hawk died after it ate rat poison that was likely left in a city park, according to a necropsy report the Daily News obtained Wednesday.

The majestic male was found ill inside Sarah Roosevelt Park in lower Manhattan and brought to the Animal Medical Center in Lenox Hill on Jan. 4.

The city’s Parks Department has agreed to use old-fashioned snap traps during the hawk breeding season, from April to August”

We’ve had juvenile Red Hawks die of eating poisoned rats before. We have asked the Dept of Health to allow dry ice to be used to stop rats (they have final say – not Parks). It works and is poison-free. Better for Hawks, People, Animals and Environment.

Wellington Chen and The Chinatown Partnership have worked for this for decades. Nice to see it coming to fruition!

One of the Structures is slated to be on Grand/Chrystie near Sara Roosevelt Park.

From DNAinfo‘s Allegra Hobbs:

“The city is now accepting applications from designers to craft a public art piece to signal the entrance to Chinatown — part of a larger initiative to create artistic markers for several points of entry to the neighborhood.”

From the Gateways to Chinatown website:

“The project will provide a new marker for Chinatown, Little Italy, and the surrounding neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan to engender pride of place, foster connectivity and cultural and social identity, and stimulate economic development. Straddling art and architecture, symbolism and function, the new structure and public space aims to become a vibrant place of exchange at the center of one of New York City’s most dynamic and historically-rich areas.

The project organizers ask prospective design teams to consider the following questions:

• How can the site serve as a “gateway” responding to tradition as well as adapting to ever-changing cultural and generational demographics and technology?
• How can the gateway connect and bring together existing communities and create new opportunities for both locals and visitors to experience the area in fresh ways?
• How can the gateway site link to other gateways within Chinatown, across the city and around the world?

This project was initiated by Chinatown Partnership and is made possible by a grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is funded through Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Manhattan Borough President’s Office.”