Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Scott M. Stringer
Borough President
Dear Friends: I am proud to present this annual report, which details the work my office has done in 2010 to make New York City safer, healthier and more equitable for all of us who live here. It was a productive and prolific year for the office. In the pages that follow, our accomplishments are organized into seven categories, from food justice and sustainability to education and family. I hope you will take a few moments to read about our work, which includes efforts to protect neighborhoods, relieve overcrowding in our schools, safeguard affordable housing, increase access to healthy local food, advocate for the rights of underrepresented communities, and so much more. We have been able to make such progress because of the help and encouragement of people throughout the city, and I want to thank every one of you for your hard work. The results have been tremendous, but of course the work is not finished. I look forward to your continued collaboration, which will be critical in the year ahead. Sincerely,
Office of the Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer Annual Report 2010
Office of the Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer Annual Report 2010
executed DOE co-location and re-siting proposals. The Borough President sent this catalogue to Chancellor Klein and urged the DOE to engage communities earlier in its process when proposing changes to a schools space and conduct more substantive assessments of the impact of changes on students. By implementing these recommendations, the DOE would be able to reduce the prevalence of school space issues affecting our borough. Over the summer the Borough President advocated for atrisk students and their families after the New York State Education Department announced it had recalibrated Math and English Language Arts exams, which rendered more than one hundred thousand New York City public school students in grades 3 8 suddenly below the bar of proficiency and in need of Academic Intervention Services. He urged the Board of Regents to ensure that the DOE provide mandated tutoring services to students in greatest academic need, and called on the DOE to notify families directly of students exam results so they could obtain proper academic supports for their children in a timely manner. Recently, the DOE, UFT and City Council announced a program to further help students who did not meet the standards of last years English and math exams. The DOE will direct an additional $10 million to 532 schools where more than twothirds of students performed below grade level on New York States proficiency tests.
This fall Borough President Stringer worked with the DOE to improve Chancellors Regulations A-190, which guide DOE actions around significant changes it proposes for schools. In particular, the Borough President called for the inclusion of language that would protect special needs children who are part of District 75, which serves the school systems most vulnerable students and their families. Finally, in December Borough President Stringer launched Your School, Your Voice, a virtual town hall aimed at laying a foundation for revitalizing and strengthening conversations between school communities and the DOE. Your School, Your Voice asks parents, guardians, students, teachers, principals, and other concerned New York City residents to share their thoughts on which issues that new DOE leadership should focus on over the next three years. Over the course of three weeks, 1,046 parents, teachers and principals participated and shared their opinions in the virtual Town Hall. The results were clear: participants ranked their top three priorities as class size, budget cuts/teacher layoffs, and overcrowding (classrooms, schools and buildings). By highlighting these important views at a time when new leadership is taking over the DOE, we can begin a new, constructive dialogue about our schools.
Office of the Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer Annual Report 2010
Office of the Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer Annual Report 2010
Office of the Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer Annual Report 2010
Borough President Stringer, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, Councilmember Daniel Garodnick, and Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh rally with the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association.
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Borough President Stringer joined City Council Members Robert Jackson and Ydanis Rodriguez, community members and students at a groundbreaking for the Lucille Bulger Center for Community Life in Washington Heights.
housed in the Borough Presidents Topographical Bureau. These maps represent the blueprints of our boroughs history. In addition to being a Charter-mandated responsibility, the Topographical Bureau houses irreplaceable pieces of Manhattans past. This grant will fund an effort that is true preservation with a purpose - once the collection has been restored, preserved and digitized, the office can welcome the public and the city planning community to study and enjoy these remarkable historical maps. The Manhattan Borough Presidents Topographical Bureau is home to more than 3,500 maps. With the oldest piece in the collection dating back to 1749, these maps are tangible pieces of history.
Office of the Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer Annual Report 2010
Democracy in Action
Borough President Stringer honors Jean Corbett-Parker & Jackie Rowe-Adams, Founders of Harlem Mothers Stop Another Violent End (S.A.V.E.); John Starks, Former NBA Player & Education Advocate; and Iesha Sekou, Founder & Executive Director of Street Corner Resources, Inc. at the Borough Presidents Fifth Annual Trailblazers Award Ceremony in honor of Black History Month.
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at key subway stations across the borough. The group focused on neighborhoods in Manhattan that traditionally have severely low Census response rates, such as Central, West and East Harlem. Through these efforts, Manhattans response rate was one of the best in New York City.
Democracy in Action
Office of the Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer Annual Report 2010
Borough President Scott Stringer and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal speak to a constituent at the Assemblymembers Annual Senior Day at the American Museum of Natural History.
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Rodriguez and many other elected officials signed a letter calling on Governor Paterson to rescind New York States participation in Secure Communities, a federal program that would inappropriately entangle New York Citys local law enforcement in the business of deportation.
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