Tree Safety and Community News

 This comes from the Office of Council Member Mark Levin, Chair City Council Parks Committee

 
On Tuesday, Council Member Mark Levine will  host his first committee meeting as Chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee. The committee members will examine NYC trees’ safety and maintenance during this crucial time following record snowfalls coupled with a large expansion in the number of trees as MillionTreesNYC approaches its goal of one million trees planted. The Department of Parks and Recreation, New Yorkers for Parks, Trees New York, and members of the public will offer testimony on maintaining and inspecting trees and explore solutions for ensuring tree safety throughout the five Boroughs.

All committee meetings are open to the public. If you can’t attend in person, you can live stream it via: http://council.nyc.gov/html/committees/hearings.shtml. 

Our office has hit the ground running in delivering results to our neighbors. Some of the highlights from the month include: 

• Aligned with Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan,  we have been among the most vocal in the City Council on safety issues throughout our district. We will not stop pushing until our community is pedestrian-friendly and bikeable and until traffic regulations are routinely enforced. "We cannot live in a city where pedestrian safety is second to the rights of drivers breaking traffic regulations," said Council Member Mark Levine. "We need greater traffic law enforcement and a redesign of the way traffic is managed. Lowering the speed limit and installing more cameras to monitor illegal driving behavior will give the NYPD the tools to prevent these pedestrian accidents." Full Article.
• Sabine Franklin, our scheduler and community liaison worked with the Applicant division unit at Police Plaza and the Traffic Safety Unit at the 24th Precinct to bring a crossing guard to the corner of 97th and Broadway with support from the Borough President’s office. 
• With the kickoff of Dominican Heritage Month, Council Member Levine began celebrating la cultura Quisqueyana on Sunday February 23rd, recognizing several leaders in the uptown Latino community for their commitment to progress in Manhattan Valley, Morningside and Hamilton Heights. Our community liaison Fidel Malena worked closely with Dominican Sunday to make this year’s event memorable. 

It's budget season in the City Council, which means that we've been meeting with the various organizations and looking over applications as they come in to our legislative office. If you haven't applied yet, please submit your application by the deadlines listed below.

Reach out to us if there’s anything going on in the district that you think we should know. Tweet @MarkLevineNYC, call us at 212-928-6814 OR email us at District7@council.nyc.gov.