Eager to tell Borough President Scott Stringer and other local officials their worries about school overcrowding, affordable housing, air quality and more, nearly 150 Downtown residents braved fiercely frigid temperatures on Feb. 7 for a “Town Hall Meeting."

“You remember the Donahue show?” asked Stringer, waving a cordless mike before the gathering at the Museum of American Jewish Heritage. “This is sort of like that.” Stringer, who hosted the meeting, listened to residents’ complaints along with City Councilman Alan Gerson and representatives from the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, the Battery Park City Authority and Community Board 1. Among the most vocal groups attending the meeting was a cluster of P.S. 89 parents who wanted to hear a solution to the growing crowding in their school.

Nancy Ogilvie, who moved to Lower Manhattan from Arizona a year and a half ago, was one of five frustrated parents who stood up to speak.

“I could have moved anywhere in the city and I chose this neighborhood for the schools,” she said. “My daughter is now in the infamous 4th grade class at P.S. 89, the third most crowded 4th grade class in the city. I think everybody knows we need more classroom space. My concern is that there’s nothing in writing promising any given space anywhere.”

Julie Menin, CB1 chairwoman, tried to assure parents that she was working on the problem, saying that the community is “very close to hopefully getting” a school on an undeveloped site in the southern end of Battery Park City, which would be a long-term solution.  That site was originally set aside for the proposed Women’s Museum and Conference Center by now former Gov. George Pataki. But after nearly seven years, the museum project has yet to move forward.

Other parents echoed Ogilvie’s concerns, emphasizing the immediate need for more classrooms and the detrimental effects of crowding. Jeff Mihok, an assistant principal at a school in Brooklyn who has two children at P.S. 89, urged Stringer to remember the importance of small classes. “I hear a lot of talk about new schools and obviously I would like that, too,” he said. “But I’m asking you to counter the corrosive effects of this mayor’s pronouncements about teaching. He talks about holding principals’ feet to the fire, but there’s not one mention of class size.”

Stringer promised to personally meet with a large contingent of Downtown parents to further discuss the matter of school overcrowding.

Independence Plaza residents were also well represented at the meeting. Several of them, now paying their rent through a federally subsidized voucher program, fear the government will end the program and they will be forced out.

“I’m on a voucher and I live in high anxiety about it,” said Anita King, a 28-year resident of the former Mitchell-Lama complex in Tribeca. “I don’t want to move, but I’m really scared and I hate living like this.”

“It’s an injustice for the people who built this community to feel threatened in their late lives with not being able to live here anymore,” said John Scott, another Independence Plaza resident. “We need our elected officials to step up to the plate.”

In response, Gerson pointed to a bill he helped sponsor that gives Mitchell-Lama tenants the right of first refusal to buy their building when the owner wants to sell it. The bill is currently in the courts, having been opposed by building owners. Stringer voiced his support of Independence Plaza residents and spoke of broader initiatives for affordable housing in the city, such as the creation of an affordable housing fund. Residents raised a smattering of other issues. One complained that the Circle Line ferries that depart from Battery Park create long lines of tourists that rob residents of park space.

Others spoke of air quality and health issues as a result of Sept. 11, urging the panel to support more funding to test and treat Downtown residents. A wheel chair-bound woman complained of the lack of curb cuts in Lower Manhattan, and a South Street Seaport resident worried that the ongoing redevelopment in the Seaport would put profit over community needs.

Recalling the recent filming of a Will Smith movie that took over several blocks of the seaport area, John Ost, from Southbridge Towers, complained about traffic congestion. “Maybe there should be a moratorium on all sorts of nonessential activities,” he said.

To nearly all of these concerns, Stringer lent a sympathetic ear, promised to investigate the problem, and then move forward with a solution.

If the Borough President means what he says, his staff likely has some exhausting days ahead.

“I can’t promise we’ll solve the problem,” Stringer told the crowd, “but we guarantee we’ll get back to each and every one of you within 24 hours. You will hear from us.”

 

 

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