Why Women Matter

Spoiler alert: March is Women’ History Month. When did this designation come about? Well, here’s why it’s important to celebrate the contributions women have made in our lives. Women’s History Month had its genesis as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 authorizing and calling on the President to designate the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” For the next five years, Congress passed joint resolutions for a week in March as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987, after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L 100-9 designating the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.” Then from 1988 to 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as “Women History Month.” Since 1995, presidents have continued to issue a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.” Why is this such a big deal? Clearly, women run the world, or should, considering the hot mess that we’re facing with all the saber-rattling on display across the globe.

Granted, there are still some women who have not lived up to the expectations and promises made to make our world a better, safer and welcoming space for people who not only think differently but also don’t “fit in.” Still, women persist. For that reason, I’d like to tip my hat to three women who not only made recent history, but also lived in our community while they were young and ambitious. Here are my designees:

Women of Distinction

First, Tameka Danielle Mallory is an American activist. She was one of the leading organizers of the 2017 Women’s March for which she and her three other cochairs were recognized in the Time 100 that year. She received the Coretta Scott King Legacy Award from the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom in 2018. Mallory is a proponent of gun control and feminism, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Tameka was born in Harlem, and raised in the Manhattanville Houses in Manhattan until the age of 14, when she and her parents moved to Co-op City.

Next, Sonia Maria Sotomayor, who was born of Puerto Rican parents from Santurce, Puerto Rico, grew up in the South and Northeast Bronx where she attended Blessed Sacrament Grammar School. After living in the Bronxdale Houses (renamed in her honor), she and her family moved to Co-op City in 1970. She graduated Cardinal Spellman H.S. in 1972. After graduating Princeton summa cum laude with an A.B. in History in 1976, and influenced by critical race theory as reflected in her writings and speeches, she graduated Yale Law School in 1979. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor became only the second jurist to be appointed to three judicial positions by three different presidents, one of whom included President Barack Obama, who nominated her to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court on May 26, 2009.

Finally, Annamarie H. Sammartino is a Professor of History at Oberlin College and Conservancy who wrote a piece called Freedomland: Co-op City and the Story of New York that focuses on the largest integrated, affordable housing development in the U.S. and a community nestled in the Baychester part of the Bronx. Annamarie tells a people-oriented story of cooperative living in the first 25 years of a liberal housing experiment. According to Annamarie, who attended nursery school in Co-op City and P.S. 181, “15% of ML housing stock is comprised of Co-op City, although the density is the lowest: there are 51 people per acre. Built on swamp land, if laid end to end could reach from NY to Boston and back; and the bathroom tiles, if laid end to end will reach as far as Chicago. Annemarie’s mother still lives here is a 3-bedroom apartment paying less than $1,700 per month making it still affordable compared to the rest of NY.

There are a number of unsung women who also need to be celebrated for their contributions and achievements. Let’s not wait for next year to recognize them because, as the saying goes, “Tomorrow’s never promised.”

Making Progress on Northeast Bronx Youth Center Project

On Feb. 23, the Riverbay Fund submitted an application for a Capital Grant from NYC FY’24 to renovate the former Bingo Hall on Bartow Avenue into a new stateof-the art facility to be called the Northeast Bronx Youth Center. The total amount of the funding request from

NY City Council member Kevin C. Riley (District 12) is $17,500,000 of which 50% has to be matched by other

In addition, the Fund is planning to submit an applicagresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-14) through the Community Project Funding (CPF) Economic Grant Initiative due March 15. Support letters have been requested and received from various community-based organizations that have partnered with the Fund on the CPF Grant for $500,000 awarded by the U.S. Department of gressman Jamaal Bowman in FY’22.

The Fund Board has also expanded the number of pointed by Riverbay Board President Sonia Felicia- no. The Fund members as of February 1, 2023: Aisha Ahmed-Hernandez, Linda Berk, Bernie Cylich, Treasurer; Sonia Feliciano, Laverne Hamilton, Francine Reva Jones, Secretary (Pro-Tem), Sharon Joseph, Andrea Leslie, Mary Pearson, Vice President; Leslie Peterson, appointed by Riverbay Board President, as per By-Laws; Sheila Richburg, Bishop Angelo Rosario, Michelle Sajous (non-voting member, representing the Riverbay Corporation), Claudia Sampson, President; and Anika Watson Green, appointed by Riverbay Board President, as per By-Laws. for April 6. Invitations to the Zoom meeting will be sent out.

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments by reaching out to me via email at: csampson@riverbaybord.com

Board of Directors’ Meeting - March 8, 2023

First Reading – Resolution #23-16

SUBMITTED BY: Lynette Wright

SECONDED BY: Jacqueline Smith

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING, DATED: March 8th, 2023

WHEREAS,

WHEREAS,

WHEREAS,

Second Reading – Resolution #23-04

SUBMITTED BY: Lynette Wright

SECONDED BY: Rod Saunders & Jacqueline Smith

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING: March 8th, 2023

WHEREAS,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,

WHEREAS,

NOW THEREFORE, LET IT BE RESOLVED

BE IT FURTHER `RESOLVED

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, Co-op City Times

YES: Cylich, Feliciano, Lambright, Leslie, Marbury, Richardson, Rosario, Sampson, Saunders, Smith, Watson, Wright NO: Johnson

ABSENT: Coleman, Peterson PASSED

Amended Second Reading – Resolution #23-09

SUBMITTED BY: Bernard Cylich

SECONDED BY: Michelle Marbury& Andrea Leslie

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING DATED: March 8th, 2023

WHEREAS

WHEREAS

WHEREAS WHEREAS

WHEREAS

Amended Second Reading – Resolution #23-10

SUBMITTED BY: Bernard Cylich

SECONDED BY: Michelle Marbury

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING DATED: March 8th, 2023

WHEREAS

WHEREAS WHEREAS

WHEREAS WHEREAS

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED

WHEREAS

WHEREAS

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED TABLED

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED

YES: CYLICH

NO: Feliciano, Johnson, Lambright, Marbury, Richardson, Rosario, Sampson, Saunders, Smith, Wright

ABSENT FOR VOTE: Leslie, Watson ABSENT: Coleman, Peterson DEFEATED

(See more Resolutions on page 13)

When driving in garages, follow all posted directional signs and speed limits. Stay aware of your surroundings. Watch out for pedestrians.