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Latest News
New voting machines spur concerns about confusion and fraud - June 29, 2010 -
Going green is usually encouraged. However, in the case of new electronic voting machines, pushing the green button may result in your vote getting thrown out. Questions about the confusing nature of New York's new voting machines are at the heart of a lawsuit filed Monday. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, which filed the lawsuit about the new machines, says the new machines could confuse voters and thousands of ballots could be thrown out as a result. Read
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UWS neighbors fight to save mom and pop health food store - June 24, 2010 -
From the outside, Columbus Natural Food market at W. 95th and Columbus Avenue is a well-kept storefront with a cheery red awning. Inside, neighbors say, beats the heart of a neighborhood, one they worry is about to be ripped out. The store's landlord, The Witkoff Group, wants to tear down the store, a neighboring Chinese restaurant and Subway sandwich shop to make way for a larger retail development. Read
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June 28: Learn about NYC's new voting machines - June 10, 2010 - There is no more fundamental act of public participation than voting. New York City will be using the DS200 Ballot Scanner to count votes beginning with the September 14 primary election. Join Common Cause/New York and Westsiders for Public Participation at a community forum for a demonstration by the NYC Board of Elections of how these new machines will work. You may download and print an event flyer here.
NYC Planning Commission to review 95 West 95th Street expansion plan *again* - June 10, 2010 - On Tuesday evening, June 1, Community Board 7 passed a conditional disapproval of a revised proposal to enlarge the first and second stories of the existing building at 95 West 95th Street. After our announcement of Tuesday's CB7 meeting in the Weekly Participant, 33 neighborhood residents appeared before the community board to give public testimony.
Next, the New York City Planning Commission will discuss the proposal at a Review Session on a date to be announced. Although this session is open to the public, it is not a public hearing. Look for this item to appear on an upcoming Review Session agenda here.
Fear (and shopping) when big stores move in - June 4, 2010 -
Mel Wymore, the chairman of Community Board 7, noted that there was more lamentation about the big stores than there were actual battle plans."Everyone complains about the mallification of the neighborhood, but there's not really a concrete approach to mitigate the problem," Mr. Wymore said. "They grumble - but use them. There's lots of mall-creep, but not a sense of outrage around it." Read more
/ Discuss
An open letter to Jewish Home Lifecare - June 2, 2010 -
Audrey Weiner
President and CEO
Jewish Home Lifecare
120 West 106th Street
New York, New York 10025
Dear President Weiner:
It is my understanding that Jewish Home Lifecare (JHL) has plans to build a new facility on West 100th Street - plans that would potentially bring a new building of at least 22 stories to the increasingly overburdened Park West Village neighborhood. Despite the extraordinary impact this new high-rise building would impose upon an historic and vulnerable area already under siege from unprecedented real estate development, JHL has not held open discussions with the residents of the surrounding neighborhood, has not released any significant information about its actual plans, and has not answered many legitimate questions about its intentions and the funding sources it will rely upon to realize them. It is therefore critical that JHL respond to the many questions of neighborhood residents openly and promptly.Westsiders for Public Participation believes that those who are affected by a decision have a right to be directly involved in the decision-making process, and that complete transparency is in the best interest of all stakeholders - particularly where real estate development projects involve public funds and are meant to serve the public good. Yet JHL has not disclosed the smallest meaningful detail of its real estate development intentions for West 100th Street, after summarily abandoning its long agreed plan to redevelop its West 106th Street campus late last summer. Read more / Discuss
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Speak Out
Jewish Home Lifecare replies to our open letter - July 1, 2010 -
On June 2, Westsiders for Public Participation published an open letter to Jewish Home Lifecare, in which we requested complete information about its proposed relocation to West 100th Street.
On July 25, we received a reply from Jewish Home Lifecare. Today we respond to that reply for the purpose of correcting the public record.
Audrey Weiner
President and CEO
Jewish Home Lifecare
120 West 106th Street
New York, New York 10025
Dear President Weiner:
I have received your reply to my Open Letter to Jewish Home Lifecare (JHL) dated June 2, 2010.
The Board of Directors of Westsiders for Public Participation finds that your six-page reply provides no meaningful answers to any of the questions posed in the Open Letter, and sheds no further light on the activities of JHL that have been shielded from both public view and public participation.
Your letter states that JHL has held a series of meetings with Park West Village neighborhood stakeholders, but demonstrates the opposite.
Contrary to the statement on page 3 of your letter, JHL has never met with any representative of Westsiders for Public Participation, which has long been a vocal advocate for preventing the destructive overdevelopment of the Park West Village neighborhood. Your letter states that JHL has met with head of the Park West Village Tenants Association, but JHL has never met with the tenants themselves, who are the stakeholders whose lives would be most directly and permanently disrupted by JHL's proposal to construct a new residential health care facility on West 100th Street. JHL's meeting with the parents and administrators of P.S. 163 was not conducted at a public forum, but came to light only when disclosed by a local newspaper. JHL's meeting with representatives of the New York Public Library - which should have been open to all citizens who use the library - was not conducted publicly, and came to light only when reported by another local newspaper. JHL claims to have met with representatives of Trinity Lutheran Church, but no notice was given of an open meeting to apprise either Trinity's congregation or the residents of the adjacent Park West Village neighborhood of JHL's plans. Read the entire letter / Speak Out
New questions raised about Jewish Home Lifecare - June 17, 2010 - A recent letter from the New York State Department of Health to Jewish Home Lifecare (JHL) obtained under the Freedom of Information Law has left us uncertain of the status of JHL's real estate development intentions for West 100th Street. The letter concerns a "modification" to JHL's application to construct a new residential health care facility on West 106th Street. In order to acquire complete information for the use of citizens and to preserve their right to public participation, we have written a letter to the Department of Health. Read the letter / Speak Out
Speak out about the effects of destructive overdevelopment on the Park West Village neighborhood.
The new Columbus Village development has imposed adverse impacts upon the daily lives of Park West Village neighborhood stakeholders that are increasingly difficult and even perilous to bear. Speak out now about your own experiences of delivery trucks, traffic congestion, pedestrian safety, and whatever other adverse impacts you may have noticed.
Traffic and Pedestrian Engineering Evaluation of Columbus Village
Westsiders for Public Participation has proposed a permanent solution to the traffic and pedestrian safety impacts of Columbus Village on the surrounding Park West Village neighborhood. Read the full "Traffic and Pedestrian Engineering Evaluation of Columbus Village" 
we have commissioned from a professional traffic engineer.
