Dear friends,
Happy New Year!
We will be having our first meeting this Tuesday, January 10th, at 6:00pm. We will be meeting at the Seward Park Library Branch located at 192 E Broadway, New York, NY 10002. Once you enter the library, head for the staircase leading downstairs in the back and we will be in the room across from the stairs. The meeting will be from 6:00 - 8:00pm.
This meeting is open to the public, but please RSVP below if you are planning to attend via
.
In this meeting, we are planning to devote most of our time to organizing of an upcoming auction/exhibition to benefit the new lawsuit brought by Coalition to Protect Chinatown + Lower East Side with Chris Marte’s Campaign.
Our monthly meeting is the second Tuesday of every month. All are welcome!
*Photograph by Chris Marte Office, featured in their newsletter
Help Re-Elect Chris Marte!
After Chris' first productive year in office, he needs our help to be re-elected to fulfill a full four year term as city councilmember. The first fundraising deadline is Jan 11th. We need a strong turnout to show that his leadership represents all of District 1 as he prioritizes a legislative and budgeting agenda that works for our entire community.All donations before Jan 11th are matched $8 to $1 so any amount helps.
*Image by Two Bridges Against Displacement
Two Bridges Against Displacement is hosting a Winter Raffle to support the recently launched Coalition to Protect Lower East Side + Chinatown + Council Member Christopher Marte's new lawsuit to stop the luxury high-rises in Two Bridges!
will go to cover the legal cost of this fight, including fees for the lawyers and engineers. Please spread the word to save people's lives and the environment from the unscrupulous big developers!
To buy a raffle ticket, please visit NMASS at 345 Grand St #1E, New York, NY 10002. At this moment, raffle tickets cannot be purchased online. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].
*Image by Youth Against Displacement
Please join Youth Against Displacement for a night of music and poetry at The People's Forum at 320 West 37th Street on Thursday, Jan 19th. Doors open at 6:00pm! We hope to see you there to help raise funds to fight against racist displacement in Chinatown, LES, and beyond.
PRESS CONFERENCE FOR A TREEWHEN: Tuesday, 9AM, January 10, 2023 WHO: Mathilde, an 83-year-old London Plane Tree with 1000people1000trees WHERE: At the southeast corner of the southernmost grassy field in East River Park, just off the Houston Street entrance IG @1000people1000treesTwitter @1000treesNYC This is a gathering of media, local politicians and educators, artists, community members, environmentalists and activists to underline the scorch and burn approach taken by the DDC, City Planning, The Parks Department, the City Council and two mayors over the past twelve months in the name of Climate Resiliency, wreaking havoc on the abundant biodiversity of East River Park, home to 120 varieties of birds, squirrels and endangered bumblebees, offering to people of all ages access to green space, river views, sports, relaxation and health. Mathilde is an 83-year-old London Plane, recognizable in the neighborhood for her solitary stance at the southern end of the largest field in East River Park. People, since the half-razing of the park, come to hug and be near her. There’s a new nest at her top and by state law it is illegal to cut this tree down. One local resident has taken a photo of Mathilde every day for the last 2 years. We call attention to this tree because of the violent uprooting of 700 trees before this one; trees are speechless, and we gain so much from their life-giving powers. A sewer is now being built in the park and with the enormous resources of our city we are demanding an alternative approach to cutting down this tree and ask the broader question of how to protect the five hundred and five trees that remain north of this tree. New York City Parks Dept. is proud of their intention to expand our city’s tree canopy. By cutting down trees that are seven and eight decades old, one by one? Is that the way forward? London planes live for 200-300 years. Mathilde was originally accompanied by seven other London Planes, all blown down during Sandy, but Mathilde survived. The day after Sandy, the field she resides in was mostly dry and so this tree stands as an exemplar of true storm and flood water mitigation. She protects us. In 2013 the Parks Dept. planted a row of saplings and this tree was an elder to them, entangling roots and exchanging nutrients and info with the new family. And those trees were torn out when the city began its demolition of this park last December under the auspices of a non environmentally friendly and deeply unpopular flood protection plan (ESCR). We want to begin a broader conversation by talking about just one elder tree. The destruction of this park has often been explained by the city as done in response to an overriding need to protect the residents of the NYCHA housing across the street. It’s been recently revealed that there are high levels of arsenic in the drinking water of the same public housing and even one fatality and it is not being treated like a crisis. We say it is all a crisis and we know we can do better.
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