Anyone going to the Kingsbridge Armory Rally on Saturday 10/27? (Union: coop, how much) - City-Data Forum

Elvira Black · 10-26-2007, 01:33 AM

Some info from the Armory News (sorry for the typos):

After years of waiting, the city will finally accept a developer for the Kingsbridge Armory this fall, marking a crucial step forward for this development. The Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA) has been at the forefront of the push for redevelopment.

When the developer is selected, their plan for the Armory will still be preliminary, but will be far from the Community's vision. We must apply pressure throughout the approval process to make suer that the development serves our interest. KARA wants the neighborhood to improve with diverse retail options like a bookstore, family restaurants, a quality movie theatre, and a recreation center so we can give the youth an alternative to the streets. KARA wants jobs created here that provide living wages with union protectioon and benefits so our famiies can make ends met. KARA wants our community to come together with cultural activities and beautiful public spaces where we can relax. However, KARA does not want to see this area aralyzed and polluted with a ton of increased car traffic.

KARA will ask the developer to sit down to hear tthe community's concerns and negotiate an agreement in writing, called a Community Benefits Agreement, to ensure hat these commitments are enforceable.

Overcrowding at Crisis Level.

How can the Department of Education tell this community there is no need for schools at the Armory? From Kindergarten through High Schoo, Bronx students, teachers and staff suffer because our schools are overcrowded.

According to school administrators, students are in closets and hallways receiving instruction. Science labs, art rooms, and music rooms become gneeral classrooms to deal with overcrowding. Special needs students don't have the space for the services and therapy they need. School starts at 8:30 am and students eat lunch at 10:30 in the morning or at 2 pm in the afternoon. There isn't enough space or time to exercise in gyms (if there are gyms) or outside where outdoor play space is taken up by temporary classroom units. Classes are too large. Multiple schools are housing the the same big faility with not enough space. And the DOE says we don't need schools? Their construction plans depend on only 1/3 of Bronx 9th graders to make it to 12th grade in four years. Tell the DOE we plan on our students' success and they must build four school in the Armoryy and thousands more spaces for students the the Bronx.

Rally for community benefits, jobs, and schools on Saturday, Oct 27 at 12 pm.

Gather on the corner of Kingsbridge Road and Reservoir Avenue

Excerpt from a letter from my coop board:

Local elected officials and community representativeswill be in attendance along with media.

KARA (Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance) has identified the type of improvements residents would like to see in this area. Most significant of these are:

4 nedw schools to help relieve overcrowding

Good qauality jobs with beneefits for local Bronx residents

Affordable entertainment, recreation and athletic space

Better selection of retail stores such as bookstores

Pre-apprenticeship training programs as a path into the union for our local young adults and

Community space for cultural programs, to name just a few.

Once again, the main points are:

Living wages
Union jobs
New schools
Recreation facilities
Community benefits

I think this is a very important (and strangely underpublicized, imo) event. I plan to attend along with members of my coop's board of directors and fellow coop residents.

If anyone else is interested and would perhaps like to meet up, please let me know either here or via direct message.

Time for us to put our money where our mouths is...so many of us say it is up to the community to rally for positive change. This is a huge development in the making, and the issues outlined above will impact the community immensely.

Hope to see some of my fellow forumers there!

yodel · 10-26-2007, 08:43 AM

Elivra,
Did you mention a time? Thanks.

NooYowkur81 · 10-26-2007, 08:47 AM

I'm a bit confused, does the community want an entertainment/retail setup there or schools? Both?

mead · 10-26-2007, 08:51 AM

The community probably doesn't know what they want, therein lies the problem.

NooYowkur81 · 10-26-2007, 08:58 AM

Well maybe some kind of compromise can be reached. I don't how much of a need for a retail there is but some sort of Chelsea Piers type thing and/or a movie theater would be great for that area. There is always a need for schools.

Songbird42 · 10-27-2007, 02:28 PM

There was a article in the Riverdale Press last week, about how local teachers are dissatisfied with their principals, they don't trust them, they don't work with the teachers planning lessions. MS 141 was mentioned as well as PS 95 Shelia Mencher Van Cortland School.

I heard a rumor that Walton HS next to the Armory was being closed down, as it was too old a school to renovate? Any truth to that?

Meanwhile they have taken schools and divided them into sub schools, Roosevelt HS is one of them and I think Horace Mann is too. I don't understand what the board of ed. is trying to accomplish.

Ms Black, please give a update on the Armory and the plans of what will be going there. Thanks.

Songbird42 · 10-28-2007, 03:44 PM

So do you go to the rally? Lets get a update on what's going to happen to the Kingsbridge Armory?

Elvira Black · 10-28-2007, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mead

The community probably doesn't know what they want, therein lies the problem.

I didn't know that people on this board took reading as a second language. Yes, they want all of the above. In case any of you "neighbors" of mine have never seen the Kingsbridge Armory (though you know the hood far far better than I) it is a HUGE STRUCTURE WHICH HAS ROOM FOR CLASSROOMS, RETAIL, COMMUNITY CENTERS, BOOKSTORES, MOVIE THEATER, ETC.

Yep, them coloreds are so childlike...dem ghetto dwellers don't know what they be wantin', ey Mead?

Un freaking believeable.

I took a break from this board for a few days. Now I remember why. I have a history of heart disease in my family, and somehow i don't think raising my blood pressure up to sky high levels can be very good for my health...

Thanks for all yer concern....and remember folks....there's this thing called the...um....internet that can answer most any question you have....if'n you actually read the text, like the one I sent!

Sorry again 'bout defendin all dose simple minded colored folks...thems not be knowin what be good for dem, dats da problem, yo straight up...

Elvira Black · 10-28-2007, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Songbird42

So do you go to the rally? Lets get a update on what's going to happen to the Kingsbridge Armory?

Open a paper and find out for yourself, my friends. I'm not the South Bronx community bulletin board, ok?

Elvira Black · 10-28-2007, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NooYowkur81

Well maybe some kind of compromise can be reached. I don't how much of a need for a retail there is but some sort of Chelsea Piers type thing and/or a movie theater would be great for that area. There is always a need for schools.

No, dems coloreds don't be needin any retail, like bookstores an' ####--everybody be knowin' the boyz in da hood be almost as illiterate as da peeple on dis done thread!

De Board of Dread be sayings dere be no needs for no mo schools becuz dey already knows dat only one quarter of dem colored folks be grad-u-atin' anyhow.

Lordy, lordy, lordy Amos! Time for me to exit from dis hear board! Feets, don' fail me now!