Council member Helen Rosenthal is holding a town hall meeting next Monday, April 27 that will bring together city officials from several agencies to answer questions from locals. These town hall meetings can be a good way to air an issue or get a direct answer to a question involving city services (basically you can stand up and ask a question and the city official responsible and/or Rosenthal will try to answer your question or give you the contact info for someone who can).
The event runs from 6 to 9 at Redeemer Church at 150 West 83rd Street. RSVP for faster check-in.
The list of agencies that will be there is below:
Top photo by Mark Levine.
She may be holding a so-called town hall meeting, but will she actually listen to anyone? I doubt it. Once she makes up her mind on an issue — whether good or bad, factual or not — she won’t listen to any opposition, nor return phone calls, emails, inquiries, etc. Bad constituent services and worst UWS city councilmember ever. I wouldn’t waste my time.
I might have gone, but this is very late notice. Whose fault? West Side Rag, or Rosenthal?
It is disappointing to read (not for the first time) that she is unresponsive to her constituents. I might have voted for her (but I haven’t voted in the past few elections — anyone wants to know why, just ask, otherwise I don’t want to go way OT).
I know a few neighbors who have tried to communicate to Rosenthal about her misguided support of that unfortunate effort to ban carriage horses in the park (a pure political payoff in the guise of “animal welfare” in my opinion), but they never heard back from her. Thankfully that issue seems to be on the back burner for now
OTOH, Rosenthal is to be commended for her efforts to reduce pedestrian deaths from reckless drivers, although it doesn’t seem to have done much good.
Despite the elimination of lanes and new turning rules, cars, trucks buses and cabs still speed and run red lights on Broadway when they can. And WEA is still the drag strip it always was!
Now, if I were going to this town hall, I would bring up the long-standing menace of delivery “boys” riding their bikes on sidewalks. This problem, in my view, only keeps getting worse, and I’m sure it’s not confined to the UWS, but is all over the city.
I can only observe what I see here, and that’s total and complete indifference by the 24th Precinct to this flagrant violation of long-standing law!
And does anyone doubt that it’s getting worse? Just watch as these delivery guys come barreling down your narrow sidewalk, carrying two or three separate orders while talking on a cell at the same time.
What about the proliferation of all these “motorized” bikes on the sidewalks (and not just driven by the Asians).
What does Council Member Rosenthal plan to do for mothers, babies and the elderly who may not be nimble enough to jump out of a delivery boy’s way?
And where does Council Member Rosenthal stand on these new disturbing rumblings of a new proposal to actually give the police more excuses to ignore sidewalk riding?
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/city-council-decriminalize-host-offenses-article-1.2190943
I’d certainly like to know her position on that!
If you’re on her mailing lists, you should have received multiple notices quite a while ago. Soooooo . . . I guess it’s your fault?
This is the same night as the 20Pct community council meeting which her representative usually attends so she had to know about the conflict.
Try Assembly member Linda Rosenthal’s office
at 230 West 72nd St if anyone has problems. Her staff are attentive & are very helpful.
I am told many people voted for Helen thinking they bere voting for Linda.
In the past, I have reached out to her office, via e-mail, and never got a response. Tried twice contacting her constituent liaison to address some safety conditions on my block, but never got any resolution through her office. I ended up writing letters/e-mails to local agency officials, which got the job done. I think her town meeting should consist of her staff and the constituents she represents so she can be questioned. Her predecessor, left some big shoes to be filled , , , and sadly they haven’t
I found Gail Brewer’s office (as well as Daniel O’Donnell’s) to also be unresponsive, so I’m not sure why you think they were any better. I went there to complain about a parking ticket given at a meter one Yom Kippur. I had no idea that only alternate side was suspended, and that it wasn’t like Sunday rules (unlike Christmas). She said she had received many complaints from UWS’ers about this and was going to try and get them dismissed. She went ahead and…. did nothing.
I recently went to Rosenthal’s office to get more info on one of the participatory budgeting proposals I wanted to vote on and they couldn’t figure it out. I also brought up three dangerous safety issues I wanted them to look into and they were very dismissive and condescending. Rather than help me out ..they told me to call 311!!!!
I have found the office to be very responsive. When I told them about crater holes on the riverside Drive exit ramp someone in her office called to ask if they had been fixed. When I told them that was not the case they went back to transportation and the next time I used it they had been filled.
Her predecessor on the other hand never gave a follow up call regarding trees and never did anything about the complaint. In my mind she is GOOD
I can’t attend, but hopefully the topic of addressing the plans to build any number of GIGANTIC (70-100+ floor) buildings within the residential areas between 59th and 79th Streets will be addressed. Developers like Extell and others simply can’t be allowed to turn what’s left of the UWS into a cavern.
I, too, have been disappointed — twice — by her office’s complete lack of response to constituent problems.
Just to clarify: I was referring to Helen R’s office’s lack of responsiveness.