The New York Daily News featured a story today on how the planned $100 million Harlem Children's Zone building on West 129th Street has met resistance with some of the surrounding housing project residents. While the 130,000 square foot building that will be breaking ground this year will serve 1,300 children from K-12 (with priority to the St. Nicholas Houses residents), provide jobs and health programs, many are concerned that the existing playground and parking lots at the end of the street's cul-de-sac will be displaced. An interesting quote from the article states that education advocates question the need for any new schools because lack of students. "Public schools in Harlem's District 5, they note, have one of the lowest utilization rates in the city. Last year, only 63% of the district's public school seats were filled."
So parking lots are more important than schools, jobs, and health programs?
ReplyDeleteFor people who live in a city with a comprehensive mass transit system?
And live in public housing--how on Earth can they afford cars?
The notion that tenants would organize against a major educational initiative by HCZ -- and do so primarily because some of their free parking spots will be *relocated* a couple of blocks away -- is absurd on just about every level.
ReplyDeleteNot least of which is that the reporter appears to have given an outsized voice to a rather marginal, ad hoc smattering of residents. The "129th Street Preservation Group" would seem to exist nowhere but in this article, whereas the St. Nicholas Residents' Association is actually a strong backer of the project.
As to safety, any "new" street of this sort will no doubt incorporate a number of "traffic calming" measures currently being pushed by NYCDOT and by transportation activists -- i.e., the same kind of traffic measures a different assortment of naysayers will predictably protest against whenever they are applied to an existing street.
Look, I can understand organizing and trying to influence the design using public feedback (which has already been done in this case), but I'm really baffled as to how they expect to stop the project -- with a court order no less. Nothing here involves their property, and there is no suggestion of people's housing being threatened. The existence of an agreement between NYCHA and HCZ means it is a done deal. Residents who are citizens get a "formal vote" in the election of city, state and federal officials who direct the disposition of public property and services -- a process that provides a large net positive benefit to residents of public housing in particular.
Regarding the anonymous source on public school underutilization that is indirectly quoted in the article, "some education advocates" almost certainly translates to "(an) official(s) from the teachers' union."
I support unions generally and believe they perform an important role in a variety of trades and professions -- however I think it is time to stop conflating their advocacy for the labor interests of teachers with a broader advocacy for "education" or for "the children."
Teachers' unions will by definition back their membership's narrow interests and engage in economic rent-seeking -- some portion of which will necessarily run counter to the broader interests of the public. I can understand why the teachers' unions would want to encourage and perpetuate some degree of misunderstanding in this area, but it is up to the rest of us to push back and call them out on it when necessary.
At minimum, the NY Daily News shouldn't allow them to hide behind such a label while facilitating their sniping from the sidelines.
So it's obvious where these parents' priorities lie. Disgraceful. I suppose the schools are half empty when half the parents don't give a s**t whether their kid attends or not. I really am baffled with the whole parking lot thing. Why in the world do they get to have and keep their parking lots when for every other NYer parking is a fecking premium. Same goes for the project on 123rd. The new affordable housing lot comes with 60 parking spots. Cushty.
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show that people will protest any change. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteBill Perkins is very anti-charter school, although in his numerous mailings he tries to gloss over the issue. He is especially hostle to the Harlem Success schools but I am sure HCZ schools also meet his and his teachers' union supporters' wrath. I would not doubt that he has a behind-the-scenes hand in these ridiculous protests.
ReplyDeleteMarkM: I hope you're aware that Mr. Perkins has a credible primary opponent who is on the other side of that issue in particular -- Basil Smikle.
ReplyDeleteAs it happens, that race is the one local election where it seems plausible that the incumbent could truly go down, but we'll have to see how it goes...
Meh.
ReplyDeleteAt least with parking spaces and basketball courts there's no lottery involved in your being able to use them. Either HCZ services the community its in or it doesn't.
Say what you want about the public schools in the area, at least with them if you live in the area your kid gets in, space permitting.
I'd have an amazing succes rate running a school too, if you let me use a process that weeded out anybody i thought was gonna be problematic.
- Cool Blue Reason
ReplyDeleteAmen.
It comes as no surprise that people in housing projects are against schools.
ReplyDelete