BY Margaret Chin
I am writing this piece on November 1, the first day of my eleventh month serving as your Councilmember. In the past 11 months, I have been to every corner of District 1; from SoHo to Battery Park City, TriBeCa to Chinatown, the Lower East Side to the Financial District, the Village to the Seaport. And there have been major issues in every corner of the District.
As Chair of the City Council’s Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee, I get to hold hearings on the activities of some of our most visible and important neighbors downtown. In the past 11 months, my committee has heard testimony from Chris Ward of the Port Authority and Janno Lieber, from Silverstein Properties, on their progress at the World Trade Center Site. We have had presentations on the 9/11 Memorial and Museum from its President, Joe Daniels, and my committee has had the opportunity to see progress at the site first-hand. And we heard testimony from Community Board 1’s Chair, Julie Menin, and Vice-Chair, Catherine McVay-Hughes. We have also heard testimony from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation on their disbursement of funds and demolition of the former Deutsch Bank building at 130 Liberty Street. Moving forward, I intend to use this committee to get the residents of Lower Manhattan the information they need on projects from a bus management plan for the opening of the 9/11 memorial next year to the final development of the 130 Liberty site.
Another significant part of life downtown in the past year has been our schools. From the re-zoning of C.E.C. 2 to the ribbon-cuttings of three new schools (P.S. 276, the Harbor School, and Lower Manhattan Community Middle School) teaching our children has been a major agenda item for our community and me. We all know that we need more seats, and over the next year I look forward to working with my colleagues and fellow parents to find more seats and more sites.
When I came into the City Council, we were just beginning what would be one of the worst budget cycles of the past few decades. However I was able to fight to preserve some important funding, like operating funds for Engine 4 in the Financial District and for the after school program at P.S. 89, run by Manhattan Youth. I also wrote an editorial in this newspaper urging my colleagues in government to consider revenue-generating options.
I have also been able to work on some important pieces of legislation—I am a co-sponsor of over 130 bills in the Council, from green building regulations to air quality monitoring, pedestrian safety improvements, housing discrimination, reforming the City’s education statistics, and posting prevailing wage information. I am also introducing a bill to foster the planting of low-pollen trees in new plantings, and am working on a bill to help combat illegal vending of counterfeit goods.
In the year ahead, there are a number of important projects on the horizon. In the Village, New York University will be applying for a zoning change and seeking to develop additional sites. Progress on the World Trade Center site will continue, as 130 Liberty comes down and the Performing Arts Center planning starts to take shape. And planning will continue for the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area. I will be working closely with the community and Community Boards in Lower Manhattan on these and other development issues.
On a more somber note, one of the things that we have seen in every corner of the District has been fires. There were major fires this year in SoHo, the Lower East Side, the Financial District, and Chinatown. The latter was a seven-alarm blaze at 283-285 Grand Street, which leveled those two buildings, leaving one elderly man dead and over 200 people homeless. My office, along with Speaker Silver, the Mayor’s office, and Asian Americans for Equality, has been working with the tenants of these and neighboring buildings since the fire. But these tragedies must remind us that our firefighters and firehouses are essential services, and I will work hard to protect them in the coming year’s budget. Part of my job as I see it is helping constituents in need, whether it is tenants displaced after the Grand Street fire or helping seniors with their Medicare benefits. My office and I are always available to help if you need us.
One thing I haven’t done in the past 11 months is to find the time to meet everyone in Lower Manhattan. We are the fastest growing community in New York, with over 70,000 new residents since the last census. Lower Manhattan is very different than it was when I first sent my son to middle school from our apartment in the Financial District. So if you haven’t had a chance to meet me one-on-one, I would encourage you to visit my district office at 165 Park Row, #11 on any Friday afternoon, or email my office at chin@council.nyc.gov.
Margaret Chin is a City Council Member.
