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** Dear Neighbors,
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As we prepare to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this Monday, I am especially mindful of Dr. King's incredible ability to build bridges between communities. Today in 2020, it feels again like our country is being torn apart, and that different races, ethnicities, and faiths are sometimes being pitted against each other.

That's why it was especially important for me to stand with Jewish organizations, Rabbis, and other elected officials today as we expressed our firm support for the recent reform of New York's bail laws. Extremely troubling anti-Semitic incidents across our city are being used as a rationale for rolling back the reforms. This is dead wrong on several levels.

The recent attacks against Jewish New Yorkers are an outrage against every single one of us, no matter our background. Like all of us, I want safety-- safety for my family, my neighbors, and all New Yorkers. But the hard truth is that we cannot arrest our way out of this. Real safety from hatred and bigotry will not come through jails -- it requires much more profound change. I think we all know this at our core, but it is difficult to face.

Speaking at today's rally in support of the New York bail reform laws, and against hatred and bigotry.

We have long known that cash bail and pretrial jailing has little to do with public safety, or guilt or innocence, and much more with who has the ability to pay for freedom.

I understand the power of criminal justice reform from my experience as a legislator. In 2016 Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito and I sponsored Local Law 71 ([link removed]) , also known as the “Criminal Justice Reform Act”. Before our bill was passed, NYPD officers could issue a criminal or civil summons when enforcing misdemeanors and non-criminal offenses. For many years, over 500,000 criminal summonses were issued annually -- an overwhelming proportion of which were for “quality of life” offenses like “open containers.”

Our bill mandated that criminal summonses should only be used for certain low-level offenses in limited circumstances. By 2018, the number of criminal summonses issued by the NYPD had dropped to under 100,000, and now most of the charges are for State offenses.

Our bill literally kept thousands of New Yorkers out of city jails, people who often would not have been able to afford bail. The human impact of keeping men and women out of jail for quality of life offenses, and not completely destabilizing their lives, cannot be underestimated. And, just as important, public safety did not suffer as a result.

We cannot allow despicable acts of hatred and bigotry, like the anti-Semitic attacks we have witnessed recently, to discourage us from carrying out reforms that we know have been needed for decades. Two wrongs do not make a right. In Dr. King's honor, let’s fight hatred of all stripes, and continue to reform our criminal justice system.

Women's March this Saturday
Please join me this Saturday (January 18th) at the 4th Annual Women's March on NYC! Tens of thousands of women and their allies will march to demand gender equality and pay equity, justice for all survivors of harassment and abuse, justice for LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities, immigration reform, and an end to gun violence. Learn more here ([link removed]) .

Line up: 10:30am; 72nd Street & Central Park West
Rally: 11am-12 noon; Columbus Circle (entrance for persons with disabilities is at 61st and Broadway)
March: 12 noon; We will march down 6th Ave to 43rd Street

****A second Women's March ([link removed]) will begin at Foley Square on Saturday at 10am, and proceed uptown. The two marches will meet in Times Square.****

Important:
You are free to bring signs, but the NYPD does not want them affixed to wooden sticks or metal poles. Please hold your sign or use cardboard tubing.

City Council Capital Funding
The application period for City Council FY21 capital funding is now open. Capital funds support projects that are structural in nature; they must be permanent or semi-permanent with a life of at least 5 years. Deadline for submission: March 24th, 5pm.

I encourage anyone applying to go to my website ([link removed]) to learn more about the process itself and our specific requirements.

District 6 non-profit organizations should apply for capital funding by filling out the City Council application here ([link removed]) . Please note: the application process includes requesting an user i.d, which can take up to two days.

District 6 schools, parks and other public entities fill out different forms which can be found here ([link removed]) . The minimum capital funding request is $50,000. I encourage any public entity (school, park, library, police precinct, fire house, NYCHA development, etc.) to contact Marisa Maack at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or (212) 873-0282 to discuss their capital funding application prior to submission.

Water Main Break
Finally, thank you to the NYC Office of Emergency Management and other City agencies for their rapid response to the water main break on the Upper West Side this week. Local businesses and residences are still struggling to get back to normal. We are coordinating with the Dept of Small Business Services and other City agencies to provide as much support as possible.

Warmly,

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