Happy Rosh Hashanah
Vol. 53 No. 36
NYS Democratic Primary On Thursday, Sept. 13
With no local state legislative offices being contested by other Democrats this election season, the New York State Democratic primary comes down to a fight for the Democratic slot on the November ballot for three of the four highest elected positions in the state – Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General. Involved Co-op City voters are already quite familiar with the candidates and the issues as five of the eight candidates vying to represent the Democratic Party in November for these three races came to Co-op City’s Bartow Center just two weeks ago for a Candidates’ Forum co-sponsored by Co-op City’s Working Families Party and the Coalition to Save Affordable Housing. Incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo is being challenged for the Democratic nod by actress Cynthia Nixon. The governor has based much of his campaign on fighting the policies of President Donald Trump. Nixon, who spoke at the Co-op City forum, has run on a platform of equality across all racial, ethnic and gender identities on many fronts, including education, health care, criminal justice and employment. She also stated that while the governor’s campaign rhetoric might be progressive, his record over the last eight year isn’t. Governor Cuomo and his campaign staff dispute Ms. Nixon’s contentions, pointing to numerous accomplishments in areas such as access to higher education, women’s reproductive rights, strengthening statewide gun ownership restrictions and increasing access to health care. The race for the Democratic nod for lieutenant governor closely mirrors the race for governor with incumbent Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul running in close association with Governor Cuomo being challenged by Brooklyn-based City Council representative Jumaane Williams who, while appearing at the Co-op City forum, promised to be a more independent lt. governor, not existing to merely echo the policies of the administration in power, but to present independent thoughts and policies on a number of issues, chiefly, in his case, criminal justice reform. The fight for the current vacancy in the position of state attorney general is between four candidates, three of whom came to Co-op City last month, each of them presenting a progressive platform based on criminal justice reform and investigating the in-state businesses and charities of President Trump. The three candidates who came to Co-op City last month and who appear on the statewide ballot for next Thursday’s primary are current NYC Public Advocate Letitia James and attorneys Zephyr Teachout and Leecia Eve. The fourth candidate for Attorney General is Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, a former White House staffer (Continued on page 2) BY BILL STUTTIG
Open Board Meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 12 in Einstein Center Saturday, September 8, 2018
An Open Board Meeting will be held in room 45 of the Einstein Center on Wednesday, September 12, at 7:30 p.m., and all shareholders are encouraged to attend. “I hope to see a lot of shareholders out at this Open Board meeting. It is important that the Board knows what shareholders are thinking and feeling,” said Board President Linda Berk. “It is also an opportunity to share with them, first hand, developments in the community. Shareholders have been very influBY ROZAAN BOONE
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ential in their speaking out regarding issues facing Co-op City, and I look forward to that continued involvement with this Open Board meeting.” Following the approval of the meeting’s agenda, Board President Berk will give her report, which will be followed by a management report from Riverbay’s Executive General Manager Bob Klehammer detailing important upcoming work throughout the community. In the September 1, 2018 issue of the Co-op City Times, Mr. Klehammer (Continued on page 2)
Bill Stuttig Retiring From Co-op City Times After 19 Years As Associate Editor
The long-time associate editor of the Co-op City Times, a voice of the community and colleague to his fellow Riverbay employees, is retiring after nearly two decades of service here. Bill Stuttig, who came to the paper in January 2000, is finishing up his employment next week and will retire on Sept. 14, after 19 years of helping to produce the community’s local newspaper. Bill was the primary reporter over that span that included almost 1,000 issues of the Bill Stuttig paper. He reported on major issues in the history of Co-op City, covered annual Board elections and informed the community each week about public safety, maintenance, education and political issues that effected the daily life of all shareholders. Bill also produced numerous feature stories through the years, sharing the lives of individual Co-op City BY JIM ROBERTS
Co-op City’s 50th Anniversary Banquet Tickets Available Online
Shareholders who would like to attend Co-op City’s 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner Dance on December 10th at Marina Del Rey can now order tickets online by logging onto www.co-op citygala.eventbrite.com. Tickets are $125 each with a limited number of discounts available to shareholders qualified under SCRIE and DRIE. For more information, call 347-913-4226.
residents with the entire community through his inspiring portraits of their many accomplishments. “I owe thanks to the many Board directors, managers, department heads and staff members who shared their knowledge and expertise with me over the last 20 years, allowing me to help the community better understand the issues they were facing and still face,” Bill said to his many readers and friends in Co-op City. “Especially, I would like to (Continued on page 4)
New Parking Access System Switchover Begins This Month In Garage 2 Work will begin next week in two more parking garages to prepare for switching shareholders over to the new garage access system using RFID stickers that is replacing the current card access system. Garage 2 parkers will start to make the changeover beginning on Monday, Sept. 17. The enrollment can be done right onsite at Garage 2 and should take approximately 10 minutes to fill (Continued on page 2) BY JIM ROBERTS