Windsor Terrace Alliance :: Brooklyn, New York

Issues

•	Education and Child Care
•	Potential Sites
•	Residential Development
•	Traffic
•	Environment

Resources

Issues

Education and Child Care:

Windsor Terrace resident and local parent Mark Miller reports: If you can’t make the Wed. 3/19 rally at City Hall Park in Manhattan, 4:00 p.m. (and even if you can), another way to help out is very easy and very effective: Stuff the emailboxes of your elected officials. Bill DeBlasio, city council rep, is totally on board with the protest. (I think he may have helped to organize it.) Feel free to let him know your thoughts, but my understanding is that it will be much more effective to lodge your complaints at the state level, since they have until March 31 to finish off the budget and that’s where most of the money is coming from. State Assemblyman Jim Brennan is also helping to fight the cuts so you’re preaching to the choir to him. And my understanding from a meeting last week is that the State Senate is more crucial than the Assembly so here are the emails of all the Brooklyn state senators as well as the Brooklyn-based Assembly members. Please let them know your feelings. Just Google for phone numbers for those who have the time to make calls. If you want to just BCC mass mail all of these folks, I included a handy list at the bottom. Go for it! This issue is a question of what kind of society we want to be 25 years from now. The schools can’t afford their own paper towels and ketchup now. What are they going to do with even less money? This cut could mean an 8 percent cut to your school’s budget. And that’s on top of the 1.7 percent that was slashed this school year. That means the loss of teachers along with a slew of programs.

Don’t know what to say? Here are two samples:

SAMPLE EMAIL #1

Dear Governor Paterson:

As the parent of a child in the New York public school system (Brooklyn's P.S. 230) and a firm believer in public education, I am writing to express my dismay at the recent budget cuts and at those proposed for the near future. I urge you to act to restore the funding for our schools: It is critical for delivering the quality education our children deserve. The money helps fund everything from supplies to professional development for teachers to vital academic intervention services for our children; its loss will be felt.

Our principals are already being asked to make significant budget cuts in the middle of a school year when many funds have already been committed. After-school programs that many of us rely on will be eliminated. Special teachers and consultants who directly help our children will be dismissed. The proposed cuts will have an even greater impact, and come at a time when we are placing ever more demands on our schools.

State and city elected officials have promised to do more for our schools. Please do not break your promises to our children:

-- The state legislature must restore the $193 million in foundation aid for New York City cut under the proposed budget.

-- The state must keep its 2006 promise for on-time delivery of the building aid needed to construct and repair schools.

-- The Mayor and the City Council must restore the $180 million in school cuts this year and the $324 million in cuts next year.

In addition, I strongly believe that the DOE should refrain from cutting at the school level and instead eliminate wasteful practices and expenditures at the administrative level. You should evaluate no-bid contracts, exorbitant spending on testing and expensive consultants rather than cutting programs that directly affect our children. They are our future, and should be our top priority.

Signed, YOUR NAME

SAMPLE EMAIL #2

Dear NAME OF ELECTED OFFICIAL:

Please do not make the proposed budget cuts to New York's public schools. My son/daughter attends SCHOOLNAME and I am appalled that the state and city governments would consider taking $1 billion out of a public-school system that is already suffering so much that the school has to ask parents to bring basic supplies at the year's start. I am a big believer in the public-school system and would like to believe that every time I vote, I am voting for someone who will help the schools get stronger so America can continue to be a strong leader in every field of innovation. These public schools are crucial to our country's future. Please don't cut out the building blocks of our children's education. These cuts aren't just little extracurricular projects. These cuts will eliminate all of those and the jobs of our teachers as well.

I urge the state legislature to restore the $193 million in foundation aid for NYC cut under the proposed budget.

The state must also keep its 2006 promise for on-time delivery of the building aid needed to construct and repair schools. Our kids need to have proper and safe places to learn.

The Mayor and the City Council must restore the $180 million in school cuts this year and the $324 million in cuts next year.

Signed, YOUR NAME

Also please let Mike Bloomberg know your feelings via his online form.

And please email Joe Bruno in the State Senate. He’s now the Lieutenant Governor and the most powerful Republican in State government.

City Council
Bill DeBlasio
718-854-9791
deblasio@council.nyc.ny.us

Governor
Governor David Paterson
518-474-8390
Online form

State Senators

Carl Andrews
ANDREWS@SENATE.STATE.NY.US

Martin Connor
CONNOR@SENATE.STATE.NY.US

Vincent Gentile
GENTILE@SENATE.STATE.NY.US

Carl Kruger
KRUGER@SENATE.STATE.NY.US

Seymour Lachman
LACHMAN@SENATE.STATE.NY.US

John J. Marchi
MARCHI@SENATE.STATE.NY.US

John L. Sampson
SAMPSON@SENATE.STATE.NY.US

Joseph L. Bruno
BRUNO@SENATE.STATE.NY.US

Mass Email List:
deblasio@council.nyc.ny.us, ANDREWS@SENATE.STATE.NY.US,
CONNOR@SENATE.STATE.NY.US, GENTILE@SENATE.STATE.NY.US, KRUGER@SENATE.STATE.NY.US, LACHMAN@SENATE.STATE.NY.US, MARCHI@SENATE.STATE.NY.US, SAMPSON@SENATE.STATE.NY.US, BRUNO@SENATE.STATE.NY.US, brennanj@assembly.state.ny.us, speaker@assembly.state.ny.us, Weinsth@assembly.state.ny.us, hikindd@assembly.state.ny.us, ortizf@assembly.state.ny.us , gordond@assembly.state.ny.us, Jacobsr@assembly.state.ny.us, camarak@assembly.state.ny.us, cymbros@ assembly.state.ny.us, BrookKrasnyA@ assembly.state.ny.us, coltonw@assembly.state.ny.us, abbatep@assembly.state.ny.us, lentolj@assembly.state.ny.us, millmanj@assembly.state.ny.us, lopezv@assembly.state.ny.us, townsd@assembly.state.ny.us, boylandw@assembly.state.ny.us, robinsona@assembly.state.ny.us, jeffriesh@assembly.state.ny.us, perryn@ assembly.state.ny.us, maisela@assembly.state.ny.us

In October 2007, we spoke with Jeremy Laufer, District Manager of Community Board 7 (CB7) which covers Windsor Terrace (WT) and Sunset Park about their plans to advocate for a new middle school.

CB7 voted to make bringing a new middle school (grades 6 – 8) into the district a top priority, as well as advocating for more day care in the district. (Meanwhile, a new early childhood center for pre-K – 2nd grade will be on 4th Ave. and 63rd St. for 380 students, which the Department of Education (DOE) considers small. Also, a new high school is scheduled to open in 2009 on 4th Ave. and 36th St. There already is a group in Sunset Park which is pushing for a grade 6 – 12 school in that neighborhood.)

This past spring, CB7 submitted a list of potential
middle school sites to the DOE:

Locations		Current Use
7th Ave.	19th/20th St.	empty lot & car wash
6th Ave.	20th St.	Yeshiva & small lot
5th Ave.	24th/25th St.	service station
4th Ave.	28th/29t St.	factory & parking lot, next to precinct
Floating school at waterfront park
H.S. of St. Michael’s at 43rd St.
5th Ave.	38th St.	lumber yard
7th/8th Ave.	37th St.	(in 1960s, was scheduled to be a new H.S.)
5th Ave.	36th St.
4th Ave.	24th St.	closed gas station
2nd Ave.	63rd St.	old armory
2nd Ave.	53rd St.	auto shop
Brooklyn Army Terminal & parking lot
Our Lady of Perpetual …

CB7 would welcome suggestions of additional sites. The DOE won’t be making a decision on the location until 2010. We might consider teaming up with CB7’s education committee to push for a school in WT. There is still time for parents of younger kids to work towards creation of a new middle school for our children. For children not yet in middle school, not to rush things, but this is how the dates work out:

Born in:	Begins middle school in:
2000	Sept. 2011
2001	Sept. 2012
2002	Sept. 2013
2003	Sept. 2014
2004	Sept. 2015
2005	Sept. 2016
2006	Sept. 2017
2007	Sept. 2018

Potential sites in Windsor Terrace:

Lot on the corner of MacDonald & Ft. Hamilton Parkway (as per Barbara Puccia): The price on the lot is $2,850,000 & can build 15,000 square feet with a 25 year tax abatement. This refers to residential condos. She is looking into the zoning as far as schools and zoning requirements.

If you can suggest any additional sites in or near WT that we should look into, please let us know!

Residential Development
No listings

Traffic

On Jan. 10, 2008, the Windsor Terrace Alliance (WTA) and Community Board 7 co-hosted a Public Speak Out on Traffic and Transportation issues at the Grand Prospect Hall.

Turn out was great - over 100 residents, officers from the 72nd Precinct, Stable Brooklyn and other community groups, and many Community Board 7 members attended. Also in attendance were Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (and staffers), Assemblyman Jim Brennan and a representative from Councilman Bill de Blasio's office, a great show of support for the neighborhood. News12 Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, etc. did stories on the meeting and on the traffic problems affecting residents throughout Windsor Terrace.

A number of residents spoke out about specific concerns, including the Dept. of Transportation's decision to quietly limit vehicles in Prospect Park during certain hours, a plan for much-needed improvements on Park Circle, and the problem of people from other neighborhoods using Windsor Terrace as a parking lot. CB7 is planning two follow-up meetings (one for Windsor Terrace and one for Sunset Park) focusing on congestion pricing and residential parking permits and the WTA will be working with them on a number of the issues raised at the traffic forum. We hope to have a more detailed summary of the issues raised and an interim report with answers to some of your traffic questions and concerns very soon.

Overall, a great meeting and a great start for a new grassroots community group!
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Environment
Updates on upcoming environment projects coming soon!

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