| State Senator Daniel Squadron may be the polar opposite of what most people perceive about elected officials, in that he is more interested in listening than in talking. A case in point is his eighth annual Community Convention, which he will host on Sunday (May 15), at location at P.S. 124, on the Lower East Side.
“One of the great things about this event is that it’s not about what I focus on,” he explains. “It’s about what community focuses on. We start with a brief, plenary session and talk about how participation makes a difference. But then we break into 14 discussion groups, and the agenda is driven by the people who attend. This is true participatory governance.”
Asked to anticipate the agenda that the participants will devise, he says, “if I were attending as a member of the public, the issues I’d most want to talk about would be storm resilience, affordable housing, a greater community voice in governing Battery Park City, the need for more schools, and the need for construction coordination.”
He emphasizes that, “the issue of affordable housing is an existential question for the City as a whole. But it is more urgent in Lower Manhattan, which has a larger combined total of workers, visitors and residents than almost anyplace else. If we can’t get affordability right here, we have a very serious problem.” He also adds a note of professional frustration: “this is an area where the State legislature should be able to make things better, but the Republican majority in the Senate does everything it can to stop this.” Sharing another disappointment about the body in which he serves, Senator Squadron says, “the public has made very clear that they want ethics reform in Albany, but the Senate has consistently blocked it. This is as shocking as it is disappointing.”
Taking stock of the last 12 months, Senator Squadron is most encouraged by headway on resiliency, where City, State, and federal allocations totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars have been earmarked for Lower Manhattan. “On this issue, it’s been an encouraging year,” he says, “and I’m expecting more progress in the next 12 months.” Also looking ahead, Senator Squadron says, “the issue of a voice for the community in governing Battery Park City has picked up momentum. I’m hoping to see progress on this soon, because it lends itself to a straightforward, significant fix.” The Senator recently introduced a bill in the State Senate that would require the Governor to appoint Lower Manhattan residents to the board of the Battery Park City Authority, until they comprise a majority of its seven seats.
He is less sanguine, however, on the question of construction coordination. “I am frustrated that we are coming into the convention without good news,” he says. “This should also a simple matter of making the right decision.” Senator Squadron and a coalition of elected officials representing Lower Manhattan have been lobbying the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to creative a mechanism for choreographing the 90-plus major building currently under way in the 1.5 square miles below Canal Street.
While governance in Battery Park City and construction coordination are theoretically subject to near-term improvements, the Senator says, he foresees the need for a long game when it comes to the issues of storm-proofing Lower Manhattan, and making it possible for residents who are not wealthy to remain here. “These are ongoing, multi-year efforts,” he says, “that require a larger strategy.”
Reflecting on what the community at large can do to catalyze progress on these (and other) issues, Senator Squadron says, “Lower Manhattan is very fortunate to have a deeply engaged community, but sometimes there is a year-plus lag between the time people move in and the moment when they start participating in civic life. If we could shorten that gap, everybody would benefit.”
“The more people participate in the process, the better the outcomes are,” he says. “The biggest challenge is getting people to commit time in their very busy lives. All the reasons that people have to be cynical make this hard to convey. The mistaken perception that local politics is driven by forces much bigger than local communities makes people reluctant to believe that a relatively small number of organized citizens make an impact. But they fact is, they have an amazing impact. Just look at the progress in getting new schools built in Lower Manhattan. That credit for that goes as much to the local activists who fought for it as to the politicians who presided over it.”
Sharing a counterintuitive insight, Senator Squadron notes that, “the public often imagines that elected officials have all the power, but the truth is almost the opposite. We are most effective when we function as the tools of an active, vocal community.”
He adds that the annual Community Convention is a venue tailor made for members of the community to become more active and more vocal. The event will be held on Sunday (May 15) from 2:00 through 5:00 pm, at P.S. 124 (the Yung Wing School), located at 40 Division Street (between the Bowery and Market Street).
Admission is free and all interested members of the public are invited to attend and participate. No R.S.V.P. is required, but Senator Squadron’s office requests that (for planning purposes) that anybody planning to come let them know by calling his office at 212-298-5565. |
