At a town hall meeting Wednesday evening, around 300 Upper West Side residents packed into the Goddard Riverside Community Center on 88th Street, to rub elbows with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and a host of other prominent local politicians.
The effects of the city’s $63.1 billion budget, passed two weeks ago and the expected closing of several neighborhood senior centers were hot topics to the many elderly attendees.
“It’s sad because they don’t have no place to go,” Deborah Makonnen and Upper West Side resident and member of the Community Free Democrats said.
The goal of the town hall, Stringer said in his introduction, was to speak to residents about where the Upper West Side stands in relation to the state and city deficit.
After a brief introduction, Stringer, along with representatives from the State Assembly, State Senate, the Department of Education and a number of other elected officials and agency representatives, fielded questions from the audience.
“It’s open mic, it’s your night,” he said.
For years Makonnen said she has heard from politicians that a senior center or affordable housing units for seniors would be built on 96th, an area that’s undergone rapid development in recent years.
“But all I see when I look around there are those expensive high rises,” she said, adding her frustration that developers are pricing seniors out of the neighborhood.
“When you close a center you destroy that person’s life and they become shut-in’s,” Stringer said, adding that it is ultimately more economical to maintain senior centers then shoulder the financial burden of homecare attendants.
City Council member Inez Dickens—who represents West Harlem, Morningside Heights and parts of the Upper West Side—said her office has fought to save three of the seven centers that had been slated to close in her district.
“We did get one good thing,” she said. “Along with East Harlem, we will be the only two places in the city working with the Academy of Medicine to improve the health and well-being of our seniors," she added, referring to a healthy living curriculum.
Keeping libraries afloat has also been a major part of the battle to preserve city services amid cuts. Dickens said that the city agreed to keep all branches open by cutting schedules to 5 days a week.
“Everywhere we go, from the potholes to the schools is going to be a challenge," Council member Gale Brewer said in an interview. Tackling a budget full of cuts to programs her constituents utilize will be very difficult, she said, but added, “We have a wonderfully active community, with so many questions. I go to a lot of these meetings and you don’t always find people with such informed, articulate questions."
Jean Lee Anderson, a resident at the Riverside Goddard Community Center, said she came to the town hall to hear the latest on the senior centers and the budget cuts.
“I just hope they get some more money by the commuter tax or whatever way they can,” she said.
Stringer also announced that his office has been working on a program to encourage New Yorkers to set up bank accounts and establish credit.93,000 people living in New York City do not currently have a bank account, he said, which could be a major obstacle for people interested in starting small businesses.
Noah Gotbaum, president of the District 3 Community Education Council, said he wished the town hall had focused more on overcrowding in schools. This has been a hot topic for education advocates in the neighborhood where some argue that new residential developments are putting strains on already overburdened schools.
“It’s a major problem," he said. “Our elected officials have to be on top of education, because what’s happening right now is a travesty,” he said.
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy