Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community.
Vol. 48 No. 32
© Copyright 2013 Co-op City Times
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Co-op City residents urged to send in questions for Mayoral candidates BY BILL STUTTIG Residents are being asked to send in their questions for the Mayoral candidates participating in a Mayoral Forum hosted by Riverbay on Monday evening, August 19th in the Dreiser Center auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. Residents should send in questions regarding the candidates’ views on the wide variety of issues facing the next Mayor of New York City, and especially regarding issues that directly impact Co-op City. Questions for consideration should be either mailed into the Co-op City Times (Room 21, 2049 Bartow Avenue, Bronx, New York 10475) or e-mailed to forum@riverbaycorp.com. The deadline for receiving the questions is Thursday, August 15th. There is no guarantee that all the questions will be used during the forum because repeat or similar questions will be narrowed down to the use of just one or two on each particular subject. The subject matter of the questions should be limited to issues facing New York City, and particularly, Co-op City. Questions that are thinly-veiled editorial comments and/or condescending or critical of the invited candidates will be eliminated. While the questions can be related to a
number of current citywide issues, such as “stop and frisk,” education reform, or emergency preparedness, cooperators are reminded that a number of local issues that come under the purview of the Mayor’s office directly affect the quality of life and finances of Co-op City and this forum will represent the community’s opportunity to bring these specific local issues to the attention of the candidates, one of whom might be the next Mayor of New York City. “Over the last several years,” said Co-op City’s General Manager Vernon Cooper, “this community, along with Management, has been asking for the help of city departments and officials regarding a number of concerns which directly affect our finances and quality of life, including inadequate local bus service, poor upkeep of the city-owned properties surrounding this community, the lack of local road improvements to keep up with the exploding commercial development surrounding Co-op City, the overwhelming cost of unnecessary asbestos abatement requirements, and the lack of local tax relief given to the community in spite of the services that shareholders fund which relieve the city of some of their financial burden –
Schools in Co-op City score better than Bronx schools overall on state tests BY JIM ROBERTS Faced with a much more challenging set of tests designed to better measure deep analysis and creative problem-solving, students in the public schools in Co-op City scored better than other students in the Bronx on this year’s state standard tests. Two schools in particular – IS I8I Pablo Casals and PS 153 Helen Keller – scored significantly higher test results than their Bronx peers. This year’s state assessments are the first for New York students to measure the Common Core Learning Standards that were adopted by the State Board of Regents in 2010. The Common Core standards, endorsed by the Obama administration as one of the most significant changes to education in modern history, have been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. The Common Core State Standards require students to think more critically about reading material and understand how Math concepts work, not simply how to get the correct answer. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other national education leaders have said the new tests better measure students’ ability and readiness for college and work. The annual state tests are given to
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all students in grades three through eight and cover Math and English. The test results are scored on four levels, with Level 4 the highest score. Students who reach Level 4 and Level 3 are considered proficient and meet the state’s standards for that subject. Level 1 and Level 2 results indicate that the student has a partial or below grade level mastery of the subject. In New York City, 26.4% of students met or exceeded the English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency standard and 29.6% met or exceeded the Math proficiency standard on this year’s results, which cover the 201213 school year. Last year, under an easier test, 47% of city students passed in English, and 60% in Math. Eighth-grade math students at Pablo Casals scored a 35.1% proficiency rating this year, more than double the 14.5% rating of Bronx students overall. Sixth-grade Math students at Casals scored 34.2% proficiency compared to the overall Bronx rating of 20.2%. The eighth-grade proficiency rating in English at Casals was 31.3%, while the Bronx overall rating was just 17.4%. The other public school located in (Continued on page 4)
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September 3rd is deadline to comment on carrying charge increase State HCR to hold rent conference on Sept. 12 in Dreiser
BY ROZAAN BOONE Shareholders who wish to comment on the proposed upcoming 1% carrying charge increase scheduled to become effective on October 1, 2013, must do so on or before Tuesday, September 3, 2013. Written comments should be mailed to George Chan, NYS Division of Housing & Community Renewal, 25 Beaver Street, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10004 by Tuesday, September 3, 2013. In addition to soliciting comments from shareholders on the carrying charge increase, HCR has also scheduled a conference to be held on Thursday, September 12, at 7 p.m. in the Dreiser Auditorium, so that shareholders, their representatives and representatives of the housing company may meet with HCR staff to discuss the proposed carrying charge increase and budget for the Riverbay Corporation. The rent conference follows Riverbay’s
application for an increase in the maximum average monthly room carrying charge, which includes utilities. The application asks for a 1% increase effective October 1, 2013, to be followed by zero percent increase next year. Riverbay’s Finance Director Peter Merola notified Riverbay’s executive management recently that HCR, the state supervisory agency for Mitchell-Lama developments such as Co-op City, had informed him that they are close to finalizing their review of Riverbay’s budget and that so far, pending comments from shareholders, they agree with Riverbay’s application for a 1% increase. “I am very pleased that DHCR has preliminarily agreed with the two year budget that Riverbay submitted to them which includes only a one time 1% carrying
Film, fun and togetherness mark another successful National Night Out celebration in Co-op City (Continued on page 2)
BY BILL STUTTIG A cool, clear, beautiful summer evening served as the backdrop for another successful National Night Out celebration on Co-op City’s north Greenway this past Tuesday evening. Hundreds of families brought blankets and lawn chairs and gathered for a showing of the recent hit superhero film, The Avengers, which began shortly after sundown at 8:30 p.m. just north of the Greenway stage. But before the film began, As the Co-op City National Night Out gathering neighbors gathered to enjoy free waited for the sun to go down and the movie to hot dogs and snacks, be enter- begin, they were entertained by local dance groups tained by local dancers or just including the acrobatic moves of the Co-op City take advantage of some of the Cowboy Football Program Cheerleaders. Photo by Bill Stuttig free information being handed out by local community organidents to emergency notifications conzations and the 45th Precinct and Co-op cerning the community via e-mails and City’s own Public Safety Department. text messages to mobile digital devices. Public Safety officers were on hand The evening also featured dancing throughout the evening to disseminate performances on the Greenway stage free DNA sample kits and instruct parfrom both the young and old. The coments on how to take a DNA sample from munity’s senior line dancing troupes, the their children, and properly store them so Bartow Swingers and the Dancing Gents they can be provided to law enforcement of the Bartow Senior Center, joined agencies to help in identifying their child together for a series of dances. They were in case he or she ends up lost or missing followed by the acrobatic, energetic steps in the future. Public Safety officers also of the Co-op City Cowboys Cheerleaders. distributed information on the commuBob Bieder of the 45th Precinct nity’s RUOK program which is a daily Community Council served as the phone check-in program for seniors livemcee during a brief presentation of ing alone, updates on its emergency data speakers which preceded the evening’s base, and recruiting residents for Co-op entertainment. City’s Mass Emergency Notification Program which contacts and alerts resi(Continued on page 4)