VOLUME 6, NUMBER 18 JULY 03, 2014
THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL'S KITCHEN
With One Million for District 3, Participatory Budgeting Process Begins BY SEAN EGAN Have you ever wished that you could have a real, direct say in how your tax dollars are spent in your community? That’s exactly what Participatory Budgeting strives to do — and on June 26, the office of District 3 Councilmember Corey Johnson held a meeting to spread the word about this radical, relatively new city program that will put money in the hands of communities like never before. Over the course of the early evening meeting on the High Line, representatives from Johnson’s staff addressed the District 3 residents who came out, and explained exactly what Participatory Budgeting (PB) is, and how the community can get involved in the process going forward. By 6 p.m., a sizable crowd of people had gathered in the office space of the Friends of the High Line overlooking the park. The meeting began with general introductions. While Johnson himself was not in attendance, the meeting was headed by Matt Green, the office’s PB Director, Jeffrey LeFrancois, Johnson’s Chief of Staff, and Christopher King, a Community Engagement Strategist from Community Voices Heard. After these general introductions, Green, who had previously aided the PB process in Brooklyn and described it as an “amazing, positive experience,” queued up an informational slideshow — kicking the night off with an icebreaking game of “Jeopardy” to gauge audience knowledge of participatory budgetContinued on page 3
THE GOLDEN AGE OF GRAFFITI, PAGE 12
Photo by T. Julian Pertkiewicz
World Cup as National Pastime? America once again flirted with the notion of having two sports it can call “football,” as FIFA World Cup fans packed restaurants, bars, sidewalks, and even the Archway under the Manhattan Bridge. Seen here on June 22 at The Ainsworth (122 W. 26th St.), Sandy Huang holds an American flag and leads the crowd in a cheer. The U.S. men’s national team match against Portugal ended in a 2-2 tie. Flip to page 21, for T. Julian Pertkiewicz’s photo essay charting the progress of Team USA.
CB4 Debuts Ambitious Affordable Housing Plan BY EILEEN STUKANE Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen will have over 11,000 affordable apartments — perhaps more — if the plan envisioned by Community Board 4 (CB4) is fully realized. That number would be achieved through changing an industrial corridor into a residential one, preventing current affordable housing from falling into market rate, and creating many new units (some of which are already under construction). In his determination to make New York City a more affordable place to live, Mayor de Blasio has asked the city’s 59 Community Boards for help in identifying sites, and making suggestions for ways to increase affordable housing in their neighborhoods. The mayor’s drive for affordability has led him in various directions. He recently urged the city’s Rent Guidelines Board to adopt a freeze on one-year
increases for rent-stabilized apartments. Although the freeze was not approved, the Board did vote in a remarkably low 1 percent increase on one-year renewals and a 2.75 percent increase on two-year leases. Promptly taking the mayor’s request to heart, CB4 is the first community board to have undertaken a comprehensive, organized analysis of the options in its community. The result is “Affordable Housing: Community District 4 (Under Construction, Under Public Review, Pipeline and Proposed Sites).” The impressive 60-page plan was unveiled on June 19, at a meeting of CB4’s Housing, Health and Human Services Committee (HHSC). The committee’s co-chair, Joe Restuccia, moderated a page-by-page presen-
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