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NAG's 2009 Organizing Agenda
Old and new residents in Williamsburg and Greenpoint have more in common than separates us. We all care about improving our quality of life, keeping our neighborhood affordable, being able to get around our neighborhood safely and quickly, and preserving the unique mixed character of our neighborhood. By working together, we can help address common problems that we cannot solve on our own.
Find out how you can be a part of the organizing agenda here!
Based on ideas generated by the community at our Oct 2, 2008 Town Hall Organizing Meeting and on feedback from a survey completed by community members, we propose the following issues as NAG's priority organizing issues for 2009:
Preserving Affordable Housing Options for Residents
Rent stabilization is being undermined and the anti-harassment zoning provisions are going unenforced. There are also opportunities to get local residents into new affordable housing that is being built.
Improving Open Space and Access to the Waterfront
The promise of new city waterfront parks made during the 2005 rezoning is in jeopardy and access to new waterfront spaces is being delayed.
Offering Safe and Quick Transportation Options For the Neighborhood
The use of local trains and buses has surged, yet we are facing massive potential service cuts from the MTA. There is a lack of education about how to share the road among bikers and drivers alike, leading to more frequent conflicts on the road as the popularity of biking increases.
Improving our Quality of Life and Preserving Community Character
Our commercial areas are losing their diversity and need more street furniture, trees and garbage/recycling collection. Local nightlife has many benefits, but we need to manage it better in areas where noise is disturbing residents. Construction activity is devastating to neighboring residents' quality of life, while buildings that were pulled down in the real estate boom are sure to remain vacant lots for years. Rezoning changes are being proposed in several areas of the neighborhood that will affect what kind of development can happen in the future.
Our Principles
- Each issue group will set its own goals with guidance from NAG leadership.
- We will seek to avoid duplicating efforts with other organizations.
- We will maintain an open organizing structure, with the general public welcome and encouraged to join.
- We will teach our members to become more effective organizers and citizens.
- NAG staff and board members will support the efforts of the issue groups as long as they remain true to these principles and the core mission of the agenda.
Issues of Additional Concern
We received significant feedback both during the town hall meeting and in other forums that the following issues are of significant importance in the community. However, there needs to be additional research and exploration with these issues before they become organizing campaigns, and we look forward to raising these issues in a 2009 candidate forum:
Environment
There is a need for monitoring and addressing pollution levels in the neighborhood, for disposing waste in a more environmentally friendly way, and for promoting greener buildings in our neighborhood.
Public Schools
There is a need for additional progressive public education options in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. As the neighborhood grows, we need to make sure that the public school system is meeting the needs of all children in the neighborhood.
Police-Community Relations
There is a need to work on improving communications between all segments of the community with local police precincts to improve pubic safety and quality-of-life.
Implementing the Organizing Agenda
We will implement this agenda starting with a working meeting the evening of December 4, 2008. At this meeting we will break into four issue groups (affordable housing, open space/waterfront, transportation, and quality of life/community character) each of which will identify the aspects of the issues they want to work on. These issue groups will report back at a general meeting in February/March about their progress in beginning a campaign.
See the results of the December 4th meeting here
We will hold a series of candidates’ forums in early summer 2009 to ask candidates for City Council, Borough President and Citywide offices to tell the community how they plan to address these issues if elected.
Find out how you can join NAG's organizers in pursing these important goals here!
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