My Barack O’Lantern Is Awesome! (And the Hallowe’en Party was fun too…)
October 29, 2008
Thank you to everyone who braved the cold rain and wind yesterday to come to my Hallowe’en party at Johnny Foxes on Second Avenue. The event was a great success.
I thought I’d post a few photos from the event. First and foremost, I wanted to show everyone my (awesome) Barack O’Lantern. Or Obumpkin if you prefer.
YES WE CARVE (www.yeswecarve.com) is a great little website that I discovered where you can download stencils, like the one I used, to show your Obama spirit this Hallowe’en. It’s really quite easy to download the stencil; print it; and use it to carve your pumpkin. You simply tape the stencil on to the pumpkin and use a knife to cut through along the lines so that when you carve for real, you have guidelines.
I dressed as a donkey (to keep with the election-themed spirit).
District Leader Frank Wilkinson brought some far, far west side spirit to the Upper East Side.
Here I am with LGBT activist and Upper East Sider, Caprice Bellefleur, whose costume was the best of the night.
My office’s Chief of Staff, Eliyanna Kaiser (the she-devil), and my Community Liaison, Paul Curtis (the clown), goofing off at the party.
My Office Manager, Ashley Roberts, rocked the time-honored black cat getup.
Thanks again to everyone who made the event so special!
Take the GO GREEN! Challenge
October 17, 2008
In the following weeks, I will be distributing free tote bags to constituents at street fairs, greenmarkets, and outside grocery stores. The idea behind the campaign is to promote the use of durable reusable bags for grocery trips and other shopping needs instead of using plastic bags.
The average family uses 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store. These American-made (the company is Fabriko) Eco-Spun Recycler Tote Bags I am distributing are made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, a material known as PET. PET is considered the greenest material on the planet today and regularly using just one of these bags for daily shopping can eliminate over 1,000 plastic bags from entering our waste system.
My great hope is that my campaign will begin to raise awareness about alternatives to plastic bags. Single-use plastic bags accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years. In New York City, they comprise about 2.87% of our residential waste stream, and they are our largest source of plastic waste – and plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups. To read more about this issue, I highly reccomend the website ReusableBags.Com.
My GO GREEN! CHALLENGE comes just after New York City’s Local Law 1, the Plastic Carryout Bag Recycling Law, came into effect on July 23rd, 2008. This new city law requires stores across the City to establish in-store recycling programs for plastic bags and film plastic, such as plastic wrap, dry cleaning bags and newspaper bags. The law applies to stores that use plastic bags and occupy 5,000 or more square feet or have more than five branches operating in New York City. Stores are also required to sell reusable bags.
Introduced just over 25 years ago, the world consumes an estimated 500 billion plastic bags annually (almost 1 million per minute). According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year. Four out of five grocery bags in the US are now plastic. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them.
I will also be exploring policy avenues to have an even larger impact. Using reusable bags needs to rise to the level of a social imperative, and I think it will, once people realize how simple it is to make such a big difference. A good example is Ireland. That country introduced a new tax in 2002, requiring customers to pay at the register if they wanted to use a plastic bag. Within weeks, use of plastic bags dropped by 94% as the Irish began to adjust to carrying tote bags to the store. Now using a plastic bag is socially unacceptable in Ireland. People are just more aware.
Feel free to stop by my office at 315 East 65th Street during business hours Monday to Friday, 10 am to 5:30 pm to get your free tote bag (while supplies last). Go Green!
Join Micah for a Hallowe’en Howl!
October 6, 2008
To RSVP email info@micahkellner.net.
The suggested minimum donation is $40. You can pay at the door or you can mail a check to:
The Kellner Committee
217 East 85th St. #117
New York, NY 10028
Hope to see you there!
Join Me Sunday For a Free Event for Realabilities, NYC’s First Annual Disability Film Festival!
September 12, 2008
This movie poster is for SHAMELESS: The ART of Disability, a film that is being included as part of Realabilities, the first annual New York City disabilities film festival dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of people with different disabilities. The festival will present award winning films in various locations throughout New York City.
As a person with a disability, I am very excited about this new festival and hope that it will bring together both people with disabilities and others in our shared community to discuss and appreciate the diversity of the human experience.
I was honored to be asked to participate in the kick-off event for the festival, being held in my district on Roosevelt Island. This is especially appropriate because Roosevelt Island is home to many people with disabilities, and as a planned community, it boasts some of the most accessible public spaces in New York City. I will participate in a discussion after the film about individual and shared societal beliefs and views about disability in today’s society.
Joining me in that discussion will be Claude Ritman (Executive Director, Coler-Goldwater Hospital) and Virginia Granato (President, Roosevelt Island Disabled Association).
I hope you join me for this free event!
Sunday, September 14
1:30 PM
Goldwater Memorial Hospital
1 Main Street
Roosevelt Island
US Army Corps of Engineers to Hold Hearing on E. 91 St MTS in September
August 22, 2008
Asphalt Green is a beautiful recreation center with outdoor athletic fields, a swimming pool, and a playground for children that is threatened by the East 91st Street Marine Transfer proposal by the Mayor.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced that it will hold a public hearing on the permit application submitted by the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to undertake dredging and other construction work associated with the Bloomberg Administration proposed marine transfer station (MTS) for East 91st Street.
I am very opposed to the siting of an MTS at this location for a number of reasons. I have previously testified against the proposal at a hearing before the New York State Department of Environmental Protection (I’ll get that tesimony uploaded to my ‘Publications Page‘ soon). I have also introduced a bill, A.10891A, that would prohibit the siting of a waste transfer facility within near proximity to a public housing project.
The proposed MTS would be located less than 300 feet from two public housing projects - the Stanley Isaacs Houses and John Haynes Homes Towers and be situated next door to East Harlem, the asthma capital of New York City. Additionally, the MTS would subject neighborhood residents - especially children, who are most vulnerable - to the pollution from constant streams of garbage trucks, while simultaneously destroying Asphalt Green, one of the area’s only parks.
I urge everyone to come testify at this important hearing.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Public Hearing
Public Notice File Number: NAN-2008-00927-EJE
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
New York Blood Center, 310 East 67th Street
Comments are limited to 5 minutes and written testimony may be submitted until 5:00 p.m. on Monday, September 29th by mail to the New York District Corps of Engineers, Regulatory Branch, 26 Federal Plaza, Rm 1937, and New York, NY 10278-0098. Additional information can be found at http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/business/buslinks/regulat/pnotices/aug08/index.htm.
Video from “Traffic Congestion and the Future of Mass Transit: What’s Next?”
July 6, 2008
For those of you who missed the public forum I held on June 26, it was an excellent event. Here is some video of what you missed.
The event started with introductory remarks from each of our three panelists. First, Ted Kheel from the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility spoke.
Next, Gene Russianoff from NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign gave his remarks.
Finally, Jeffrey Zupan of the Regional Plan Association gave his introduction.
Then we took questions from the audience. The following clips show me reading an audience member’s question and different members of the panel responding to those questions.
QUESTION 1: Is the MTA fundamentally broken? Has any third party actually looked at the MTA’s books? And what can be done to make the MTA more responsive?
QUESTION 2: Why do we persist in linking funding mass transit with vehicle reduction?
QUESTION 3: Is is it realistic to expect progress out of Albany on things like bus lane cameras?
QUESTION 4: What can we expect from the federal government in terms of mass transit money in the future?
QUESTION 5: Should we consider changing to a system where MTA users pay based on the length of their ride?
QUESTION 6: How is congestion pricing working in other cities that have adopted it?
QUESTION 7: How do we change the culture of the way MTA riders use the system to make it more efficient (i.e. leaving from the back of the bus)?
QUESTION 8: Why are we investing in old technologies with the MTA?
QUESTION 9: How could free mass transit reduce vehicle usage?
QUESTION 10: If each of you could be the Czar of Mass Transit - what would your plan be?
Pride 2008 - A Photojournal
July 1, 2008
As a member of the LGBT community myself, I’ve always loved marching in the Heritage of Pride Parade and this year - despite the rain - was no exception. Part of what made last Sunday’s celebration so special was that Governor David Paterson marched with us. No sitting Governor in New York State’s history has ever marched in the Pride Parade.
Here’s a short photo diary of the day.
Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats (GLID) President Colin Casey and I pose next to the rockin’ GLID float during our multiple-hour line-up on West 54th Street.
My friend John Reddy, who is running for Manhattan Surrogate and some of his supporters and family.
My Chief of Staff, Eliyanna Kaiser, and her wife, Danielle DeCerbo who works for the New York City Council, hold up their Marriage Equality New York (MENY) t-shirt. They’ve actually been together 4 years, but Eliyanna got confused by the fill-in-the-blanks on the shirt and wrote in how many years they’ve been married. Aren’t they cute?
I spent most of the march with the Stonewall Democrats of New York City, a club I’ve been a member of for many years. Here I am with some of our fabulous Board Members.
Here I am with my friend and colleague, and one of New York City’s greatest LGBT heroes, State Senator Tom Duane, and a phalanx of his New York City staff.
My good friends, Maureen Bobrovnicky and Randi Anderson.
National Stonewall member and GLID member, Jon Winkleman is one of the hardest-working LGBT activists in New York City. He told me he has a big box of the amazing Hillary/Pride shirts like the one he’s wearing, so if you are interested let him know!
Stonewall board member, Aubrey Lees and I actually get along very well. But we put on a show for the camera after Eliyanna demanded that we not just pose and smile.
The moment - and I do mean the moment- that it was our turn to start marching down Fifth Avenue one of the most angry-sounding thunderstorms, complete with lightening and booming thunder came pouring down on us. But LGBT pride will not be rained on and we marched on!
GENDA activist extraordinaire, Melissa Sklarz, and Manhattan Community Board 2 Chair, Brad Holyman, try to keep dry under an umbrella.
The Stonewall Democrats marching down Fifth Avenue.
Then the sun came out and rain went away! Here is Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and I, now almost dry, somewhere in the West 30s on Fifth Avenue.
Finally, I don’t know this mother or her son, but they told me I could take their photo for the blog and I really wanted others to see it. This is what the Pride march is all about - family.
YOU ARE INVITED —– Traffic Congestion & the Future of Mass Transit: What Next?
June 12, 2008
I am hosting a special panel discussion on Thursday, June 26, 7:00 PM at the New York Blood Center, 310 East 67th Street. With the recent failure of the Mayor’s congestion pricing proposal, it is vital that New York continues to seek solutions to the problem of traffic congestion and meeting the mass transit funding gap. This event will bring together leading experts to discuss how to address the challenges posed by too much traffic and not enough funding for mass transit.
The three panelists are a distinguished group that I am proud to have participating. They are Theodore Kheel (Institute for Rational Urban Mobility), Gene Russianoff (NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign), and Jeffrey Zupan (Regional Plan Association)..
I hope to see you there. Space is limited, so please RSVP to my community office by calling (212) 860-4906.
