|
Newsletters 2007
February
Betsy Gotbaum This Week
February 27, 2007
Recycling Redux
The City of New York took a great leap backward in 2002 when it scaled back its recycling program, a move I opposed.
I knew that we’d lose some of the critical gains we’d made in conditioning New Yorkers to make recycling a matter of household routine. The very act of recycling had been morphing into a way of life as well as a civic duty.
I knew that if we cut back on recycling, even temporarily, we'd lose momentum.
In fact, "Recycling has dropped," Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association Local 831 IBT, told a Public Forum on Community Recycling that we co-hosted last Wednesday. "When it first started, there was a system. And people adjusted to the system."
And then they de-adjusted, given all the confusion: first the backpedaling on most recycling, then resuming plastic pick-ups but not glass, then resuming all recycling. "It really took the heart out of the people," Nespoli said. And now, "We’re losing on recycling."
There is cause for optimism. Last year, the city adopted a 20-year Solid Waste Management Plan, setting ambitious goals. There is a new Office of Recycling Education and Outreach that is part of the Council on the Environment of New York City. Its director, David Hurd, who attended our forum, is to report directly to the mayor. In another important step, the city is appointing a recycling coordinator for each borough.
Beyond this, it’s time to start thinking outside the box. One city that’s done so is Toronto, pop. 2.6 million, which in 2006 recycled or composted 43 percent of the waste it managed. It helps offset the cost by requiring industries whose products create the trash to share in the cost of recycling. This includes, among others, industries that make fast food, soft drinks, cat litter and newspapers.
Toronto also composts "organic" refuse, making it "as easy and yuck-free" as possible, Geoff Rathbone, acting general manager of Toronto’s Solid Waste Management Services, told the forum. Veggie peelings, used diapers, microwave popcorn bags, chicken bones, pet waste – all goes in the same green bin.
New York must do better. As the city embarks on its new 20-year plan, residents should do their part. Recycling tips are available here.
Forum Reminder
To help more parents navigate the school system, I’m conducting public forums on education in all five boroughs. On Tuesday, February 27, I’ll be at the Queens Borough Public Library Central Branch, 89-11 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Topics include special education, school safety and career and technical education.
Featured guests: Michael Mulgrew, United Federation of Teachers, Udi Ofer, New York Civil Liberties Union, Ellen McHugh, Parent to Parent of NYC, Lorraine Gittens-Bridges. CSD 29 PA-PTA President’s Council.
Schools Coalition
I also want to draw your attention to a city-wide meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 28, called by the Working Families Party and what’s been dubbed the "Stop, Look and Listen Coalition." It’s time to put the "public" back in public schools, and we’re asking Chancellor Klein to listen to elected officials, parents, teachers and students and stop his latest reorganization of the school system.
The meeting is at St. Vartan’s Cathedral on 2nd Avenue, Manhattan, between 34th and 35th Streets. Take the No. 6 train to 33rd Street.
Betsy Gotbaum This Week
February 20, 2007
School Bus Bill of Rights
In the ongoing school bus route botch-up, the Department of Education is forcing two small Queens boys to walk to school, even though it means that they must pick their way across two broad boulevards that swarm and teem with traffic. Never mind the sleet, slush and brutal wind.
The boys, aged 5 and 7, had been taking a school bus, but the DOE put a stop to that because their home lies 53 feet outside the eligibility boundary.
Fifty-three feet!
Their distraught mom, who said the bus service was cancelled without notice, pleaded with the DOE for a hazard variance. The DOE turned her down.
This prompted me to draw up legislation for a School Bus Bill of Rights. The school bus mess, brought about in the dead of winter by a high-priced, no-bid DOE consultant, disrupted thousands of young lives and in some cases compromised safety. We need assurances that this doesn’t recur -- ever.
The legislation includes:
• The Right to reliable bus service throughout the school year. Major route revisions must be implemented before November 1.
• The Right of drivers to become familiar with new routes, including sufficient time for a “dry run.”
• The Right of students and parents to receive ample prior notice of route changes.
• The Right to a grace period that enables students to take their regular bus, at their regular stop, while they appeal adverse routing decisions.
• The Right of elected officials and Community Education Councils to receive prior notice of bus route changes.
School Safety
I just released a report that questions the DOE's ability to create the kind of safe school atmosphere that is conducive to both teaching and learning. The report, titled "Beyond Policy and Reality: School Administrators Critical of Department of Education School Safety Policy," also questions the accuracy of DOE school incident data.
There's a disconnect here: The DOE says that only eight of its nearly 1,400 schools logged 181 or more safety incidents in the 2004-2005 academic year. Yet of the 158 administrators who responded to my survey, 16 reported that they had had 181 or more safety incidents in that same time frame.
The numbers for the 2005-2006 academic year are even worse: 18 administrators said that their schools fit the category.
My survey also found:
• Only one in four of those responding believed that they received adequate resources to effectively handle school safety incidents.
• 17 of the 158 reported increases in superintendent suspensions.
• Only 34 percent of all those responding believed that DOE school safety policy creates an atmosphere conducive to teaching and learning. Only 28 percent of responding high school administrators believed this.
• 98 percent of high school administrators said that only “a few” of their teachers -- or none at all -- received conflict resolution training.
Clearly, teachers can’t teach and students can’t learn if they fear for their safety. We must expand conflict resolution training and programming.
Education Forum
In efforts to help more parents navigate the school system, I’m conducting public forums on education in all five boroughs. On Tuesday, February 27, I'll be at the Queens Borough Public Library Central Branch, 89-11 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Topics include special education, school safety and career and technical education.
Featured guests are Michael Mulgrew, United Federation of Teachers, Udi Ofer, New York Civil Liberties Union, Ellen McHugh, Parent to Parent of NYC, Lorraine Gittens-Bridges, CSD 29 PA-PTA President’s Council. Light refreshments.
Betsy Gotbaum This Week
February 12, 2007
School Bus Havoc, Part 2
With small children shivering in the bitter cold, the school bus fiasco continued last week, a bad situation made worse when the mayor belittled legitimate criticism.
I’m disappointed by this turn of events, since it deflects attention from the core issue: fixing the problem.
Toward that end, we should scrap the bus re-routing plan in its entirety. It simply can’t be salvaged. The Department of Education should restore earlier routes, return to the drawing board and introduce a new plan next fall, when the weather is more accommodating.
Children of tender years, and their parents, should not be made to suffer the wrath of winter as inept, no-bid consultants sit in heated offices. This same consulting firm created a “disaster,” in the words of a St. Louis school board member, when it consolidated school bus routes in that city in 2003. Now we’re seeing more of the same.
I’m all for saving money sensibly, but let’s be reasonable: Forcing young children to navigate six or eight lanes of traffic to get to school or expecting them to take three city buses is as dangerous as it is absurd.
The school bus fiasco is an ongoing embarrassment that ill befits a world-class city. The DOE can do better, and it should. I have called on the DOE to fire the consulting firm that dreamed up this intolerable and indefensible mess.
Fair Share of Heating Aid
I’m calling on the State of New York to change the inequitable formula by which it distributes the federal dollars that help low-income families stay warm in winter.
While 54 percent of all New Yorkers below the poverty line live in New York City, the city received only 18 percent of regular funding last year from the Home Energy Assistance Program. This is because apartment dwellers, whose heating costs are included in their rent, receive less than a third of the subsidies paid to home owners who pay directly for their heat.
This imbalance affects some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. Among the many who called my office is a woman, 72, who has been disabled since 1968, uses a wheelchair and scrapes by on $13,000 a year. She needed a little extra help to heat her apartment, where she’s lived for 42 years.
The HEAP intent is to help low-income families pay for heat, and most of the state’s low-income families live in New York City. Why, then, aren't we getting most of the money?
Public Forum on Community Recycling
The Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association Local 831 IBT and I invite you to a Public Forum on Community Recycling, with remarks by Michael McMahon, chair of City Council Committee on Sanitation and Waste Management, and keynote address by Geoff Rathbone, director, Policy & Planning, City of Toronto Solid Waste Management Services. (A detailed "Litter Audit" found that Toronto reduced litter by 40 percent since 2002.) The forum takes place Wednesday, February 21, 8: 30 a.m. to 10 a.m., 25 Cliff Street (between John and Fulton Streets). Light refreshments. RSVP 212-669-7200 or email RSVP@pubadvocate.nyc.gov.
Betsy Gotbaum Mail
February 5, 2007
School Bus Route Changes Wreak Havoc
Last Monday, with fresh snow and ice on the ground, parents across the city scrambled to get their kids to school as the Department of Education's new school bus plan went into effect. Some parents had to arrive at a bus stop by as early as 5:28 in the morning. Others had no choice but to send their children to school on public transportation.
• We heard from the mobility-impaired parents of an elementary school student whose bus stop, which had been just a half a block away, is now 15 blocks from home. Only receiving notice of the change a few days before, the parents had to spend $15 a day in car service fares so the child could get to and from the bus stop.
• A parent whose child is scheduled to be picked up nearly 30 minutes after the start of the school day called in dismay.
• Other parents were astounded their young children were given MetroCards, or asked to cross major boulevards to arrive at the bus stop.
The hardships faced by these parents and children are a consequence of the DOE’s no-bid contract with Alvarez & Marsal, a consulting firm with an alarming track record in other school districts. In order to save what the DOE first said would be $20 million (then revised down to $12 million), A&M cut bus services.
This ace turnaround expert, A&M neither saved money nor streamlined bureaucracy, but rather disrupted a vital service. This school bus fiasco is another example of the Department of Education’s inability to understand the real needs of parents and kids.
If these are the kind of policies that Alvarez & Marsal initiates, it is clear the DOE must terminate their contract and fix the bus routes.
I urge all parents who have been affected by the school bus route changes to e-mail my hotline at schoolbusroutecuts@pubadvocate.nyc.gov to share your stories.
To read my full statement on the school bus route changes, click here.
Emergency Preparedness Forum in Brooklyn
As part of my ongoing work on emergency preparedness, I invite you to participate in We Are All Brooklyn’s annual forum, "Brooklyn – Ready for Anything: A Community Based Emergency Preparedness Forum." This free event will teach New Yorkers how to prepare for an emergency situation and how to stay safe.
|
