Sunday, September 9, 2007

HOMEWORK! and...FIRST CORD MEET WITH COUNCILMAN’S OFFICE


**Homework!

FIRST CORD MEET WITH COUNCILMAN’S OFFICE

On August 30, 2007, some CORD members met with Tom Gray, Councilman DeBlasio’s District Director, for the first time since the 8/23 Town Hall Meeting. The Councilman himself, was not present, and there were others invited from several organizations. But, we did begin discussing the possibilities, the legalities and difficulties of putting an interim building moratorium into effect. A Council Resolution was suggested by Mr.Gray.

Late Friday, Sept 7th, we received an email from District Director Tom Gray which read:
“The legislative request for the resolution is being processed but we cannot do any actual legislation because the city charter will not permit it without the proper land use procedure.”
A Resolution, more or less, an unenforceable agreement, is not exactly what we had hoped for, but it is a small first step….maybe one we can build upon. We knew that this would not be easy. We knew one town hall meeting would not be enough. So, we need your help again. We have written a short letter for you to copy and paste and send to our Councilman, Bill DeBlasio. We also would ask you to send the same letter, addressed as is, to ALL of the email addresses/links below. We want them to see our request to our Councilman. Each of these individuals, in different ways, possesses the ability to speed up or to delay the “proper land use procedure” process, if they choose to do so. LET’S MAKE THEM HEAR US. We know that this is work for you, but, please…don’t give up yet!

**Homework: Copy,Paste,and Send to ALL of the addresses/links below-same letter to all**

Dear Councilman DeBlasio:
I appreciate your efforts to take steps to enact an interim building moratorium, here in
Carroll Gardens. Thank you for hearing us. A Resolution is good. But, an interim moratorium is NECESSARY. I am terribly concerned about our safety, our sanitation needs, our transportation needs, our education needs, our weakened infrastructure and our quality of life .We are not physically prepared for this overdevelopment. INTERIM MORITORIUM NOW! Councilman, you publicly agreed that these very concerns justify our demands. Please go to work for us. We now number in the thousands and all of us are counting on you.

Signed, xxx
The addresses/links are as follows:

Councilman Bill DeBlasio: deblasio@council.nyc.ny.us

District Director Tom Gray tagray1@gmail.com

Mayor Bloomberg http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

Amanda Burden, DCP Chair http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildcp/html

Purnima Kapur,Comm.,Bklyn DCP http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildcp/html

Melinda Katz katz@council.nyc.ny.us

Borough President Mary Markowitz askmarty@brooklynbp.nyc.gov

Councilman Tony Avella Avella@council.nyc.ny.us

Christine Quinn, NYC Council Speaker quinn@council.nyc.ny.us

Craig Hammerman, CB6 info@brooklyncb6.org

Betsey Gotbaum, Public Advocate bgotbaum@pubadvocate.nyc.gov

CORD HISTORY:

With the "Protect Our Homes" petition, CORD was formed in May, 2007. This petition arose as an overwhelmingly negative response to the coming of the over-sized 360 Smith Street Development at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place (Aka Oliver House; aka 131 Second Place). This petition, which had well over three thousand signatures, led to a new zoning text amendment in summer of 2008.

To: Our Elected Officials, Community Leaders, The MTA:
(MAY, 2007)

We the undersigned Carroll Gardens homeowners and residents, are appalled by the "as of right" ruling which allows owners and developers to erect buildings in our neighborhood with no regard to the impact they will present to our quality of life and the value of our homes........

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?crlgrdns