The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) filed a lawsuit to stop the closing of 19 public schools, including Sheepshead Bay High School and three other area schools.
The city announced late last month that Sheepshead Bay High School at 3000 Avenue X, Franklin D. Roosevelt High School at 5800 20th Avenue, John Dewey High School at 50 Avenue X, and William E. Grady Vocational High School at 25 Brighton Fourth Road were on their list of “persistently lowest achieving” high schools. The schools on the list would receive federal funding to close or restructure in one of four models put forth by the Race to the Top program.
Teachers and parents are riled up at the city’s betrayal, as the Department of Education moves to abandon students to charter and private interests, rather than fix public education.
City Councilman Lewis Fidler and Assemblyman Alan Maisel, both of whom attended Tilden High School which closed in 2007, are joining the UFT lawsuit.
“When your proposals can affect the futures of so many, you can’t just go through the motions and ignore the letter and spirit of the law,” Fidler told Courier-Life. “Unfortunately, that’s what has happened here. We’re talking about public education. The Department of Education should be listening to people, investing to fix schools they feel are broken, not abandoning them.”
Local leaders pressed MTA officials and the agency’s contractor for proposals and promises from the authority this morning, but the biggest payoff appears to be for residents of Gerritsen Beach and communities east of Sheepshead Bay.
“Did a magic bullet appear? No,” said Councilman Lew Fidler of the meeting. “The thing that probably will come out of it – and we’re optimistic will come out of it – and it doesn’t affect a whole lot of people, but it does affect Weinstein’s constituents and mine – there was some willingness to consider reversing some of the service cuts on the BM3 and BM4 buses. That’s the thing we’re most optimistic will happen, but obviously it doesn’t help the vast majority of people affected by the construction.”
It appears the MTA came unaware of the demands and complaints awaiting them.
“They were there to tell their side of the story, and I think that’s all they thought they were there for,” said George Broadhead, president of the Gerritsen Beach Property Owners Association. Broadhead said they came to discuss the construction plans, not alter them. However, the meeting changed direction when Broadhead brought up the recent service changes to the BM3 and BM4 buses, which provide alternative Manhattan-bound service to Gerritsen Beach and the eastern portion of Sheepshead Bay. Those bus routes now leave many riders with only the handicapped B/Q line.
The MTA officials present only represented the subway service, and according to sources at the meeting, they were unaware of the bus division’s actions and dismissed it as the other branch’s responsibility.
“[State Senator Carl] Kruger blew his top,” said one source who asked not to be named. “[The MTA was] there to really apologize for all the bullcrap. But I think they got a taste of it from Kruger.”
Kruger scolded the MTA for its dismissive attitude towards bus alternatives, reportedly saying, “We bailed you out with billions of tax-payer dollars, and now you’re telling me the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing?” Continue Reading »
Today the area’s elected politicians are meeting with MTA officials. On the agenda? The B train.
One full week after the B train kicked off its two-year hiatus – though it’s three weeks if you count the unannounced termination of service before that – the area’s leaders are gathering at Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein’s office on Nostrand Avenue with MTA officials. In attendance are Councilmen Lew Fidler and Mike Nelson, Assemblymen Weinstein and Maisel, State Senators Carl Kruger and Marty Golden, as well as Community Board Chairperson Theresa Scavo. An invite has also been sent to Congressman Weiner’s office.
The gang of seven-ish is hoping to press the MTA to seek alternatives to the current plans, which will see the B train running local until late 2011.
“We want to hear from them on what they want to accomplish. They’re inconveniencing a lot of people,” Fidler said. He added that he’s looking for assurances that they’ve looked into alternative plans. “There’s got to be a better way. I’d like to hear there’s an option that’s more convenient for the public.”
Assemblyman Maisel said he hoped the gang could gain some ground with the agency by airing the community’s grievances. However, he also noted the MTA isn’t required to accomodate the group’s demands. “They’re called the authority for a reason,” he said, and pointed out that the authority system has been a troubled one for decades.
As the only unelected party in the group, Theresa Scavo was more blunt with her assessment. “I don’t think anything’s going to get accomplished,” she said. “I think they’re basically going to ignore us.”
Sheepshead Bites will check in later with the pols to see how it went. Stay tuned!
Fact: The Brigham Street Park Project is without question the Bay’s most innovative and captivating community initiative in recent years. The project’s benefits to the community are many, including developing a blighted lot into a sprawling greenspace for public use, adding a fantastic viewing point of the Bay’s mouth (take that, Breakers), and giving the neighborhood a venue for concerts and shows. But the real clincher for me, and where it deserves the highest praise, is in its focus on protecting the environment by preventing thousands of gallons of polluted storm runoff from mixing with Sheepshead’s water.
(Click image for full view)I don’t think I can emphasize this enough – this system is really cool. Like, super cool. Gene Berardelli, the attorney for Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association and one of the lead organizers of the effort, calls the park and its runoff system an “example of how proper planning can benefit the environment.” Using a network of bioswales – a natural landscaping feature designed to collect, filter and redirect water through channels – storm water from Emmons Ave. and Brigham Street’s de facto parking lot will be prevented from entering the Bay. Instead, the oily, crack- and condom-filled fluid will run down a slope and through the park in an irrigation ditch of sorts. Nature takes over from there as a collection of plants such as Cinnamon Ferns, Giant Sunflowers and Turtlehead flowers filter the pollutants out of the water. The system is estimated to keep more than 35,500 gallons of icky-sticky water out of the Bay over 10 years.
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