File photo by Jefferson Siegel
Keen Berger.

BY KEEN BERGER  |  Victory! Victory! Victory! It was a very good year, with three great victories, all many years in the making.

DISTRICT LEADER

The most astonishing one is the new public middle school at 75 Morton St. Six years ago, local parents and Assemblymember Deborah Glick spotted it — a building belonging to New York State, about to be empty and sold. We rallied, begged and lobbied, but the city’s Department of Education did not bid, claiming neighborhood schools were not overcrowded.

Then came years of disappointments: long wait lists; the state took 75 Morton off the market; we lost our only middle school (on top of P.S. 3), only to have those rooms filled with younger children; politicians told a community board meeting to forget 75 Morton because it was “dead in the water.” But we didn’t forget. And in March 2012 the state and the city — City Council Speaker Chris Quinn, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott — miraculously agreed that 75 Morton would be a city school.

Much more must be done: contracts, lawyers, plans, budget, construction. But parents and the community are pushing hard. (I chair the 75 Morton Street Task Force, co-sponsored by Community Board 2 and the Community Education Council for District 2). Our new 75 Morton school will open by September 2015.

The second victory is national. We will never have to say, “President Romney.” More crucial is the victory in the U.S. Senate. We all knew Kirsten Gillibrand would win (hurrah!). But my favorite prognosticator, Nate Silver, predicted that three Senate candidates I worked for (Tester, Heitkamp and Carmona — that’s Montana, North Dakota and Arizona) would lose. Yet two of them won: I am proud.

I also cheered for my birth state, Minnesota. I knew Senator Klobuchar would win, but I told my daughter — Rachel Stassen-Berger, political reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune — that marriage equality needed to win in Minnesota and that their rigid voter ID proposal should lose. She said, “Mom, I am a journalist, not an advocate. I must be fair.” I answered, “Just report the facts, the voters will do the rest.” She did and they did.

The final victory is also the most personal. Brad Hoylman has been my co-district leader for seven years. Together, we judged judges; we debated issues and candidates; we advocated progressive causes; we attended dozens of events with the Village Independent Democrats, the Village Reform Democratic Club, the Manhattan Democrats, and so on.

I listened when Brad first thought about becoming a father. I admired a sonogram on his iPhone (only a speck, but he thought it was beautiful). I was thrilled at Sylvia’s birth; I enjoy her now, as a toddler.

When Brad decided to run for state Senate, I cheered and worried. I went to his headquarters to give campaign advice and I saw that he was brilliant and dedicated — as usual. No more worries. His victory was no surprise, just another joy. I also am happy that County Committee voted 55-4-2 for Jonathan Geballe as Brad’s replacement as district leader.

So — three victories. I hope for more. We need better Election Day procedures. (Those lines in September were terrible.) We need paid sick leave and a living wage for workers. We need Hudson River Park to thrive without threat of luxury housing or pier collapse. We need to re-elect Jonathan Geballe in the upcoming primary election. But all those past victories make me realize that more are possible. Last year was good. Onward!

Berger is the female Democratic district leader for the 66th Assembly District, Part A

BY DAVID GRUBER  |  This past year we have seen many changes at Community Board 2.

In June our then Chairperson Brad Hoylman chose not to stand for a second term and instead run for the vacated state Senate seat of Tom Duane, which he did successfully.

BOARD TWO

I was honored to be elected chairperson after that.

I said to folks before I became chairperson, that one of my main goals was to prepare Board 2 for a new generation of leadership moving forward, and we are on our way. More than 25 percent of the current board members have been on C.B. 2 less than 18 months.

All but two of our committees have new chairpersons or co-chairpersons. Two newly created task forces have brought other faces into leadership positions.

We are truly a battle-tested, experienced board, having gone through the massive St. Vincent’s/Rudin, N.Y.U. and Hudson Square ULURPs in the past 18 months — more than some neighborhoods do in years and years, or forever for that matter.

We have learned much about both the technical and political processes of large, complex zoning and land-use projects.

I cannot say that much of our community was happy with the New York University outcomes, but it was a great learning experience on how the process really works in the final, endgame stages.

What has happened is that many, many board members have stepped forward and become more active and involved. All boards tend to have just a handful of its members run it, but we have really worked hard to open spaces up for others to be more fully engaged in the issues facing our board.

Of course, that also means that the experienced veterans need to be in place to mentor the new board appointees — by having them write resolutions and then critiquing them, by bringing a wider base of the board to meetings with community groups and elected officials, so they are exposed to the inner workings of the planning and decision-making process.

Two committees — Parks and Waterfront, along with Sidewalks and Street Activities/Film Permits —have been created by merging committees, so that we have fuller agendas throughout the year, rather than seasonal peak periods, and thus a more meaningful experience for our members.

We have created two very effective and focused task forces, including the 75 Morton Street Task Force, jointly run with Community Education Council District 2, which combines appointed and public members to ensure that our promised new school at the currently state-owned facility doesn’t get stalled by bureaucratic delays and inertia. This task force has reached out to a cross-section of stakeholders for creative ideas and suggestions on what kind of school we should have there.

We are a battle-tested board, having gone through three massive ULURPs in the past 18 months.

The other task force concentrates on beaming a spotlight on our nonprofit theaters and performing-arts organizations in the district. Many theater companies and actual brick-and-mortar theaters have had to fold their tents the past few years due to rising rents, as well as the general economic downturn.

Last year we had a variation of a pub crawl: We opened four local theaters and had owners, directors, actors, stage designers and lighting experts on hand to explain how plays are produced and staged. About 100 people went from theater to theater, weaving through West Village and Soho streets, accompanied by local tour guides who spoke about interesting buildings and Village folklore.

We are currently at the final stages of the massive Hudson Square rezoning. This special zoning will transform the character of much of our district’s southwestern section. We are fighting hard to make sure that the proper amenities, such as sufficient open, active-recreation space, required by law are, in fact, created to accommodate the expected increase of 7,000 to 8,000 new residents in a formerly manufacturing zone.

This will be our third major land-use project in C.B. 2 in under two years and it is the last one that is in the pipeline for the foreseeable future.

So we turn our attention to the Hudson River Park, and our beloved Pier 40, the main open space and active recreational center for our community. Both the pier and park are in desperate need of an immediate influx of cash, not only for ongoing operations, but for basic structural maintenance and repairs, most urgently, for Pier 40’s aging support piles, which are quickly coming to the end of their useful life. This requires a massive amount of capital.

Everybody agrees that something needs to be done quickly and the debate of just what course of action is best for the long-term health of this precious resource is being hotly discussed, with many different approaches being put on the table. The active financial involvement of the city and state is fundamental to this process, and all of our elected officials are truly engaged in the process.

We are looking forward to and very excited about the opening in the next few years of the new Whitney Museum, now under construction in the Gansevoort Historic District (Meatpacking District). Many feel that the Whitney will be a neighborhood-changing building, with other, smaller museums, galleries and art-related businesses to follow.

After St. Vincent’s — where we used to meet —— closed we were kind of a nomadic community board, moving from one gracious host to another for the last two years. Finally, Scholastic has generously allowed us to use their state-of-the-art, large, comfortable auditorium for our monthly full board meeting. This has been a real lifesaver for us and, as I have said repeatedly, we do important work for our community and we need a space commensurate with that work.

So we have had a full, overflowing plate this year, but this board has met the challenges and will continue to do so moving forward.

–  Gruber is chairperson, Community Board 2

BY COREY JOHNSON  |  I want to thank The Villager once again for allowing us the space to report on what Community Board 4 continues to advocate for on behalf of residents and business in the Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and Clinton neighborhoods.

BOARD FOUR

To start, we applaud the M.T.A.’s proposed new bus route on the Far West Side of Manhattan from W. 59th St. to Spring St., referred to as the M12. Board 4 has long been on record asking for such a route to service the thousands of new residents that have settled in this corridor since the 2005 Hudson Yards and West Chelsea rezoning.

The M12 would run between W. 59th and W. 24th Sts. on 11th and 12th Aves. From W. 24th to W. 14th Sts., buses would use West St. (the West Side Highway) for both northbound and southbound services. From W. 14th to Spring St. the buses would use Washington and Greenwich Sts. The buses would run every 30 minutes, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. The stops would be spaced and provide easy transfer to other major cross-town buses and subway connections.

However, there are a few issues that should be addressed. First, bus shelters are critical because of the long wait between buses and the windy conditions on 11th and 12th Aves. Shelters should be installed at all bus stops along the route in C.B. 4.

Second, C.B. 4 is disappointed that the service will be limited to every 30 minutes. We have requested — without changing the overall number of buses — that the service be every 15 minutes in the morning and evening peak hours and less frequent in between. We also recommend that the service be extended to 1 a.m. in the morning to accommodate cultural events on the piers.

Most important, we strongly requested that all the M12 buses be hybrid-electric or C.N.G. (compressed natural gas) vehicles with a lower floor, for easy access.

On another issue, C.B. 4 was asked to review and respond to the Manhattan borough president’s Good Jobs and Responsible Development Resolution. Board 4 has always required that all developers, property owners, and employers allow all workers the right to seek fair and just compensation for their services —including family-sustaining wages with affordable healthcare and retirement benefits — and allow all workers the right to collectively bargain with employers to seek such compensation, without fear of reprisals.

In connection with these principles, C.B. 4 will require that developers, among other things, support a community jobs program for their projects and work with the community board to implement the program. C.B. 4 also requests that developers and/or property owners hold periodic job fairs in coordination with the community board, place a link to job openings on our Web site, and work with current and future commercial tenants to identify and hire employees from within the local community.

The buses should be hybrid-electric or C.N.G. All the stops need shelters.

Board 4 also supports the Department of Transportation’s efforts to redesign the Gansevoort Plaza – Chelsea Triangle (a.k.a. Chelsea Plaza) to improve access and safety for pedestrians and bicyclists in order to create a more rational traffic pattern.

There are several elements of D.O.T.’s initial proposal we found appealing and hope can be pursued. These include the extension of the Chelsea Triangle along W. 14th St., and the proposal — which I understand C.B. 2 endorses too — to ban right turns onto W. 14th St. from northbound Ninth Ave.

There are several other recommendations we asked D.O.T. to integrate into the new design, such as, planting as many trees and greenery on the Chelsea Triangle as feasible. We also support including some fixed, city benches, though maintaining a majority of space for movable chairs and tables. We also called for “No Honking” signs along Ninth Ave. near W. 15th St. to encourage increased ticketing and enforcement. Finally, all intersections should include accessible, audible street signals for handicapped accessibility.

Board 4 looks forward to engaging with residents, community groups, small businesses and our local elected officials on these and other important issues in 2013.

Feel free to send us your concerns at   negonzalez@cb.nyc.gov. We look forward to hearing from you.

Johnson is chairperson, Community Board 4 

Ed Koch in 2003 at his law office at Bryan Cave LLP. File photo

BY ALBERT AMATEAU | Edward I. Koch, three-term mayor of New York City who began his political career in Greenwich Village and defeated Tammany chief Carmine DeSapio 50 years ago, died Feb. 1 at the age of 88.

Ed Koch’s casket was borne out of Temple Emanu-El on Monday to the jaunty strains of “New York, New York” on the synagogue’s organ and a standing ovation by the 2,000 people in attendance. It certainly was a fitting tune for the colorful, larger-than-life former mayor. See inside for extensive coverage on Koch. Photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio

In and out of the hospital over the past few months, he died of pneumonia on the day that “Koch,” a documentary film by Neil Barsky, opened in the Village.

Outspoken and brash, Ed Koch guided the city as mayor from 1978 to 1989 as it emerged from the depths of fiscal insolvency, a homelessness crisis and a crippling transit strike. He was by turns a pragmatic and combative politician whose philosophy shifted by the time he became mayor from progressive to what many of his old Reform Democratic colleagues viewed as right of center.

His third term as mayor was marred by scandals that ended in disgrace and jail for several politicos with whom Koch had been friendly, although the mayor was not tainted personally.

Nevertheless, the Koch legacy includes municipal financial stability, a $5 billion middle- and low-income housing program and reform in the selection of judicial candidates. He was also an important supporter of the state-sponsored 42nd St. Development Project.

“As he did for a generation that grew up in a very different city than the one in which we live today, he inspired me to pursue a career of service to our the city,” said Muzzy Rosenblatt, director of the Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC) — a nonprofit housing agency based in Chelsea — and former acting commissioner of the city Department of Homeless Services. “At the BRC gala in 2012, he spoke with passion about his administration’s achievement of the largest affordable housing program of any city in the nation and of our duty to reach out to people in need and provide them with care. Because Ed Koch, our best champion, left this legacy to our city, he will always be with us,” Rosenblatt said.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement, “New York would not be one of the safest big cities in America if Ed Koch had not spearheaded one of the most important criminal justice reforms in the city’s history: the selection of Criminal Court judges based on merit instead of political connections,” Vance said, citing Koch as having had foresight, vision and courage.

As mayor, Koch extended the Manhattan Reform policy of establishing screening panels to pass on judicial appointments citywide.

His outsized personality and zealous focus on his political career and on his image kept him in the public eye long after his defeat for a fourth term as mayor in 1989.

In 2008, after a couple of hospital stays, Koch bought a burial plot in Trinity Cemetery on 155th St. and Broadway for $20,000. He erected a marble headstone that proclaimed his Jewish faith with an English translation of a Hebrew prayer. The headstone goes on to say Koch fiercely loved the city of New York, its people and, above all, fiercely loved his country and served in its armed forces in World War II.

Born in the Bronx and raised in Newark, N.J., Ed Koch earned a law degree at New York University in the Village, where he campaigned for Adlai Stevenson for president in 1952 from a soapbox in Sheridan Square, according to Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

A resident of the Village since the 1950s, first at 81 Bedford St., then 72 Barrow St., then 14 Washington Place and finally 2 Fifth Ave after he left office, Koch was one of the founders of Village Independent Democrats (V.I.D.).

A Reform club that included former members of the Stevenson campaign, V.I.D. was part of a movement to defeat Tammany, partly because the old guard did not go all out for Stevenson against the war hero, Dwight Eisenhower, who was elected president.

By 1961 when Koch was V.I.D. vice president and Village demographics were changing, Carol Greitzer, who later became a city councilmember, and James Lanigan won the co-district leader race against DeSapio and his running mate. But the Tammany chief ran again for male district leader in 1963. Koch, who always said he became the Reform candidate because no one else wanted the task, beat DeSapio by a scant 41 votes. He won again with more comfortable margins in 1964 and 1965.

“We saw him evolve into the political personality that everyone knows,” Greitzer told a reporter for this paper last week. “He was a strong speaker for Stevenson and other candidates but he was a terrible campaigner for himself,” she said of Koch’s early races.

In 1962 he ran in the Democratic primary against state Assemblymember William Passannante and positioned himself to the left of the incumbent by promising to liberalize state laws against sodomy, abortion and divorce. Koch lost, taking only 38 percent of the vote.

“He said himself that he ran a terrible campaign, but he became more confident the next year after he beat DeSapio,” Greitzer said.

In 1967 Koch ran for City Council from the Silk Stocking District, which then included the Village as well as the Upper East Side. He won, campaigning in person at subway stations, issuing newsletters and answering every piece of constituent mail. The same kind of campaign in 1969 won him the congressional district seat.

The city’s finances tumbled and its infrastructure crumbled in the 1970s, and Koch ran for mayor in 1977 as a centrist candidate who would stand up to municipal employee unions and make the city whole. He won, and won twice more, but in 1989 lost the primary to David Dinkins. In 1982, when Koch ran for governor, his own V.I.D. club refused to endorse him against Mario Cuomo and Koch joined the V.I.D. offshoot Village Reform Democratic Club, but he fell out later with that club, too.

Tony Hoffman, current V.I.D. president and a former Village district leader, recalled the club’s split with Koch as the mayor became more politically conservative.

“It’s understandable that a progressive Village club would have a different take on things from the mayor of the city, but Koch didn’t understand that,” Hoffman said. “He didn’t like to be questioned. The differences escalated. We thought his closing of Sydenham Hospital in Harlem during his first term was racially insensitive. Koch later acknowledged that. We also supported the teachers’ union when he turned against it.

“I blame Ed for the bitter split,” Hoffman said. “He was mayor and should have gotten people together amicably. But that wouldn’t have been Ed Koch; he was pugnacious.”

Koch demanded loyalty from his friends and would break completely with old comrades who did or said things he didn’t like. One permanently broken Village friendship was with the late Ed Gold, a member of Community Board 2 and a journalist who frequently contributed articles to The Villager.

Sometimes, however, Koch remained cordial with old friends despite irreconcilable differences, like with the late Martin Berger, who succeeded Koch as district leader.

“By the time he invited us to a dinner event at Gracie Mansion, he knew we disagreed on a lot of issues but he didn’t consider us enemies,” said Keen Berger, Martin’s wife and currently the Village’s female district leader.

Betsy Haggerty, who worked in the Mayor’s Office of Single Room Occupancy (S.R.O.) Housing from 1980 to 1985 and at one point led the Family Hotel Inspection Unit, recalled the complex relationship between Koch and housing advocates.

“We were dealing with families living in crowded apartments under terrible conditions,” Haggerty said. “We saw our jobs as defending S.R.O. tenants, families living in welfare hotels, and educating the mayor about how things were. The policy was that we could tell the administration anything and disagree with the city’s responses. They didn’t always do what we wanted but they listened. They expected us to push and we did, often pushing further than they liked,” Haggerty said.

Koch never married, and his sexuality was an issue in his 1982 try for governor. One poster in that campaign said, “Vote for Cuomo, not the Homo,” but Andrew Cuomo, who was running the campaign for his father, denied being responsible for it. Koch said often that it was nobody’s business, but he told a reporter in 1989 that he was heterosexual.

Nevertheless, when Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats (GLID) criticized him for what they said was the city’s weak response to the AIDS epidemic, pro-Koch gays organized the Stonewall Democratic Club.

Koch, who often crossed party lines to endorse candidates, became friendly in recent years with the black activist Reverend Al Sharpton, who used to picket the mayor’s Washington Place apartment. A civil rights marcher in Mississippi in the 1960s, Koch as mayor had lost favor with black leaders.

Congressmember Jerry Nadler called Koch the “quintessential New Yorker.” Nadler said in a statement that he was proud to have been at Koch’s side “…on so many issues affecting the city and the state of Israel, of which he was an unflinching supporter.”

“He was irrepressible,” said George Arzt, a public relations executive who had covered City Hall for the New York Post, served as the mayor’s press secretary during Koch’s third term, and remained a friend. “His leadership qualities were often underestimated,” Arzt said, adding, “He always wanted to do the right thing and he raised the bar for public service.”

Presenting a unified front last Friday on proposed bus regulations were, from left, Julie Menin, Community Board 1 chairperson, Councilmember Margaret Chin, state Senator Daniel Squadron and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. (Photo by Aline Reynolds)

By Aline Reynolds

On the morning of the second day of the Chinese new year, community activists and politicians weren’t celebrating at a restaurant or a park. Instead, they were huddled outside in the cold, announcing a proposed new state law intended to streamline the intercity bus pickup and drop-off system in Chinatown and around the city.

The bill, if passed, would implement a citywide permit system for private buses in Chinatown — known informally as dragon buses — that currently chaotically pick up and unload passengers on city streets. The new requirement would mean safer conditions for pedestrians and result in fewer fines for bus drivers, according to proponents.

“Right now, the streets of Chinatown are like the Wild West,” said state Senator Daniel Squadron at a press conference last Friday at Canal and Allen Sts. in Chinatown.

Buses today, Squadron noted, can stop anywhere, double-park and continuously circle around blocks to avoid tickets, while sidewalks overflow with anxious passengers who often don’t know where they’re being picked up.

“The fact is,” Squadron said, “we love having low-cost buses. We love the fact that we have an industry that’s growing and that’s centered in the Chinatown community. But it has to grow and thrive in a way that works for the community.”

“Permits would allow the legitimate bus companies to have a process they can depend on and that riders can depend on,” said City Councilmember Margaret Chin, who also spoke at the press event.

“Both from a customer point of view and the provider point of view, you want a certain reliability,” echoed Wellington Chen, executive director of the Chinatown Partnership. Bus drivers, he said, would prefer to have a dependable way of dropping off passengers than risk paying fines.

At a Chinese New Year celebration in Sara D. Roosevelt Park last Thursday, a man asked Chen if he knew where a bus coming into the city would drop off his relative.

“I didn’t know, and he didn’t have a cell phone,” Chen said of the confused man.

The new regulations would also tighten the reins on bus companies that break traffic laws, according to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Apart from issuing permits to the companies and designating spaces for pickups and drop-offs, the law, Silver said, would “hold the bus operators accountable for their actions, including fines for violating these regulations.”

The permit would cost the bus companies a maximum of $275 annually. The elected officials purposely kept the fee low, they said, so companies wouldn’t have to adjust ticket prices in order to afford permits.

The politicians didn’t specify a timeline for the bill, but said they would like it passed “as quickly as possible.” Chin said she’s confident the City Council will approve the bill, since Council Speaker Christine Quinn is very supportive of it.

Oversight of intercity, long-distance buses has been a priority for Community Board 3 for several years, according to David Crane, chairperson of the board’s Transportation Committee. Recently, more and more Chinatown residents have expressed concerns to the board about congestion, pollution and safety surrounding the frenzied bus system.

“The bus companies need regulations that provide ways for them to comply with the law, to operate safely and coexist on our congested streets,” said Crane.

Eastern Coach, a bus company that shuttles passengers between New York, Washington and Philadelphia, accrues about $30,000 in parking fines each year from idling or parking illegally.

“Now, we have no space on the street,” said David Wang, Eastern Coach’s president, of the lack of designated, legal pickup and drop-off spots.

The company’s bus drivers frantically scramble to avoid the traffic police, according to Wang, causing a precarious situation for pedestrians.

“When the drivers see the cops, they get so scared, they try to pull out,” sometimes even during passenger pickups, Wang said.

Police tend to issue parking tickets arbitrarily, according to Jimmy Cheng, president of the United Fujianese American Association, a nationwide nonprofit organization based on East Broadway that has garnered community support for the bus law in the past few years.

Wilson Yau, who owns a discount store in Chinatown, agreed that today’s unregulated system is not working, either for passengers or the bus companies.

“If the government controls the spots, gives the license and separates the buses, they’re much easier to control,” he said.

Passengers now, he added, have a hard time deciphering the street signs that indicate which buses stop at a given stop.

About 20 intercity bus companies currently operate in Chinatown, according to Councilmember Chin’s office. They would all require permits if the law is passed.