RELEASE: BREWER SECURES MILLIONS FOR WEST SIDE & CLINTON

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THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

COUNCIL MEMBER
GALE A. BREWER

CITY
HALL

NEW YORK, NY 10007

TEL:
212-788-7357

FAX: 718-853-3858

www.nyccouncil.info

FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 6, 2010

Contact: Kunal
Malhotra

(212) 788-6975

(347) 461-4329

BREWER
SECURES MILLIONS FOR WEST SIDE & CLINTON

After passage of balanced budget for FY 11, Brewer and
Council maintains critical City services

City
Hall – On
Tuesday, June 29, 2010, after tough negotiations with the Administration, the City
Council approved the $63.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2011. Among key
actions, the Council restored $61.5 million to libraries (for five day
service…not six, unfortunately) and $37.4 million to children’s
services, as well as $20 million to the Cultural Institutions that are on City
land, and $5 million to the smaller cultural programs; and $37.4 million to the
fire companies, keeping them all open. $2.75 million was restored to full-day
universal pre-Kindergarten programs; $5.5 million for Meals on Wheels and
senior center meals; $2 million for food pantries (some on the West Side); 202 positions in the Administration for
Children's Services were saved; and millions of dollars for important domestic
violence programs. This list is a partial redress of a much larger cut.

Unfortunately, as
tax revenue as well as federal and state aid decline, and employee salary and
benefit obligations rise, the Council made difficult decisions cutting funds
for social and other programs. Overall, discretionary funding for
community-based organizations declined 20% to $165 million from $207 million in
FY10.

Despite
constraints, Council Member Brewer (Manhattan-6th
District), who co-chairs the Manhattan
Delegation, allocated millions for capital projects on the upper West Side
and Clinton.
Some include:

$1.75 million for the American Museum of Natural
History to renovate and expand an existing building to provide for on-site
scientific educational programs, replace an obsolete ticketing system, and
renovate critical elevators (with an additional $2 million in FY 12)

$700,000 for Women’s Project and Production
to improve the existing building systems

$750,000 for the New York Public Library's
Library for the Performing Arts for exterior rehabilitation

$750,000 to increase bandwidth for computers in
Manhattan Branch Libraries

$300,000 for the restoration of Hamilton Fountain
Plaza entry stairs at Riverside Park

$350,000 for the Museum of Art
and Design to upgrade the information technology system so that Museum staff
may function more efficiently and better serve constituents

$1,300,000 for the reconstruction of the Parks
Department’s Tecumseh Schoolyard, located next to PS 87

$90,000 for a truck for City Harvest

$48,000 for computer equipment for DOROT

$1,000,000 for renovation of facilities at the
Jewish Guild for the Blind

$750,000 for the renovation of the Koch Theater
at Lincoln Center

$445,000 to upgrade the stage lighting equipment
at the Metropolitan Opera (in FY 2012)

$1,166,000 to purchase space for SAGE (Senior
Action in Gay Environment)

Council
Member Brewer secured more millions for capital projects in local New York City public
schools and CUNY. Some of these include:

1.
An auditorium renovation at the Brandeis High School
Complex.

2.
New technological and communications equipment at John Jay
College

3.
Equipment for CUNY TV

4.
A technology upgrade at The Mickey Mantle School

5.
Schoolyard reconstruction at PS 191

6.
An auditorium renovation at the MS 44 O'Shea Complex

7.
Performance Space Lighting for LaGuardia High School

8.
Total renovation of the front and back open spaces at
the MLK Jr. High School campus complex

9.
Seed money for a Greenhouse at PS 333/Manhattan School
for Children (The parents have raised the balance of the funds)

10.
Technology for PS 9

Non-profit and community
organizations, Council Member Brewer
funded hundreds of non-profits and community
organizations in the 6th Council District, including:

Support to initiate and fund at $10,000 the New
York Academy of Medicine which is creating a model Aging Friendly District
on the West Side! Funded other senior
services, such as Council Senior Center,
JASA, J-PAC, New York
Foundation for Senior Citizens, DOROT, Project FIND, Lincoln Housing
Outreach, Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, OATS, One Stop Senior
Services, Project Open at Lincoln
Towers, SPOP, Selfhelp, SAGE, St. Martin’s Housing Corp for a NORC program,
and the West Side Inter-Agency Council for the Aging

Funded the St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital,
Center for Comprehensive Care’s HIV-AIDS Program and Peer-Mentor
Program

Allocated funds to youth programs, after-school
and in-school programs in Council District 6 schools, including the RAPP
program, LACASA/Strycker’s Bay Neighborhood Center; Landmark West!
at PS 199 and PS 87; After-School programs at the Center School, PS 9, and
PS 75; Peace First, Police Liaison Group/SUN; Positive Influence for
basketball at Amsterdam Houses/Addition; Wellness in the Schools, Border
Crossers, Chess-in-the Schools, Cornerstone Learning Center, CSD3
Basketball League (they play other sports too!), DOME Project, Common
Cents, Learning Leaders, Reading Reform Foundation, the YMCA’s Teens
Take the City and the Virtual Y; GrowNYC to work with students at the High
School for Environmental Studies; the after-school Beacons, the New York
Junior Tennis League, Urban Advantage (an extraordinary, citywide
middle school science program), and others

Provided monies for local cultural organizations,
such as: Citywide Youth Opera, the Lincoln Center Theater, the New York
Classical Theater, American Folk Arts Museum at Lincoln Plaza, Arts in
Action, Symphony Space, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, the
Creative Arts Team at CUNY, the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre, the Frog &
Peach Theatre Co., the American Composer Orchestra at Brandeis High
School, the New York Women in Film and Television, the Vital Theatre
Company to work at PS 166, the Women’s Project and Productions, the
Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring to perform at Damrosch Park, the Big
Apple Circus so as to provide tickets for youth in NYCHA developments,
Caribbean Cultural Center, Cool Culture, Jewish Children’s Learning
Lab, Kaufman Center, Kids Creative to work at PS 191, Lincoln Center
Institute to work at PS 191, NAACP ACT-SO, Shadow Box Theater, West Side
Cultural Center, Wingspan Arts to Work at PS 191, Young People’s
Chorus to work at PS 75, Vocal Ease to sing at senior centers,
Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra, Risa Jaroslow and Dancers to work at
Project FIND, and the CASA grants to after-school programs for cultural
enrichment (much thanks to Council Member Domenic M. Recchia Jr.)

Allocated funds for community preservation
programs to: Goddard Riverside’s SRO Law Project and Urban Justice
for free housing clinics for tenants (thanks to Council Member Eric
Dilan), and to the Law Project for general support; to the Committee for
Environmentally Sound Development, the Friends of Hudson River Park, to
the NonProfit HelpDesk for tech support to non-profits; to the Momentum
Project, to the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, the Stratford Arms
Meals Program, the Bridge, the NYU Mobile Dental Van, the Westside Crime
Prevention Program, to the many NYCHA Tenant Associations in Council
District 6, to the West Side Community Garden, to ParentJobNet, to the
Lincoln Square BID to support youth working at the summer information
carts, to both Goddard Riverside Community Center and Lincoln Square
Neighborhood Center as well as the YWCA and the JCC of Manhattan for their
many programs.

For more information, see
Schedule C Expense Budget: http://council.nyc.gov/html/releases/pdfs/FY2011SkedC.pdf

And for Capital Budget: http://council.nyc.gov/html/budget/PDFs/fy11_changes_executive_capital_budget_adopted_by_nycc.pdf