Re-Elect Jo Anne Simon, New York Democratic State Committee

Welcome

I cut my community organizing teeth protecting the neighborhoods of Brownstone Brooklyn from predatory developers and unresponsive State and City Departments of Transportation.

During my 6 years as Boerum Hill Association president, I learned a lot about how things work, and about how they don't work, but should! I work hard to combine my commitment to our communities with my legal expertise to fight for our neighborhoods on issues like land use and development, education, transportation, open spaces and transparency in government.

Because of my nearly 20 years of principled community organizing and activism, Assembly member Joan L. Millman asked me in 2004, to run for N.Y.S. Democratic Committeewoman (a position also known as Democratic District Leader). I welcomed this new opportunity to serve the communities in the 52nd Assembly District.

In my professional life, I am a former teacher of the deaf and now a disability civil rights lawyer. As an attorney, I argued - and won - a landmark case before Sonia Sotomayor before her elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court (and I supported her 2009 nomination to the high court.) I am also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Fordham University School of Law, and President of New York's Dyslexia Association. I speak often about disability civil rights and high stakes standardized testing practices. In 2008 my expertise was called on to give testimony to the U.S. Senate on issues related to discrimination in standardized testing and education.

The challenges our neighborhoods face have never been greater. The pressure to develop and strapped government budgets threaten the strides we've made to strengthen our communities. It is for that reason I am running for re-election as Democratic District Leader - and why I ask for your support in the September 14th Primary Election.

Sincerely,

Jo Anne Simon

What does a District Leader/State Committeeperson do?

Latest News

January 23, 2012

Statement on Hydraulic Fracturing in the Marcellus Shale

Here's the statement I recently submitted to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation:

There can be no question that high-volume hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") poses enormous risks to the approximately 9 million people of New York City and tri-state area who rely on clean water from the Catskills and reservoirs upstate. Citizens of upstate New York and surrounding areas are at risk of property value depreciation due to contaminated land and air. There have also been reports of increased illness, including asthma, headaches, nausea, and allergies. These afflictions however are not just affecting humans--it has been reported that pets and livestock have been getting sick as well. In addition, the jobs fracking creates do not necessarily go to local citizens; two-thirds of those working at various fracking sites are from out-of-state.

There has not been enough research done on hydraulic fracturing to deem it "safe." As we learned recently with the unusual earthquakes in Ohio that were directly tied to fracking, we do not yet fully understand the geology of New York State and how it might be affected by fracking, nor how fracking might affect the many aging water tunnels underground. Because the natural gas industry has secured an exemption from the Clean Water Act (also known as the Halliburton Loophole), it need not, and has not, disclosed the chemicals or chemical mixtures it uses in the fracking process. Therefore, we do not know what chemicals are present in the fluids that would be injected deep into the ground, and we do not know how far they will travel within geological formations, or if they will return to surface aquifers. New York must absolutely ban any toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that could be potentially injected into the ground and reach our water supplies.

While natural gas may burn cleaner than other fossil fuels, air pollution from diesel engines, compressor stations, and flaring negate this, with the unfortunate addition of noise and light pollution. We will see the destruction of the environment with the construction of roads to fracking sites, as well as on-site storage pools that can potentially leak extremely hazardous chemicals into the ground, for which presently there is no known treatment or safe method of disposal. These disposal pools are the result of pumping millions of gallons of freshwater and chemicals into the ground to break apart the shale rock, which in the end returns to the surface contaminated and is then considered "hazardous waste." The proposed regulations do not adequately address the many unknowns in a process for which any unknown cannot be countenanced because the dangers are simply too great.

The clean water from upstate that millions of New Yorkers rely on is a special, unique resource that should not be put at risk for any reason. The DEC must protect everyone's water, regardless of where it is. The natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale is not going anywhere--the DEC needs to do more in-depth research before making any decisions that put our water - and our lives - at risk.

December 29, 2011

December News Update

EDUCATION UPDATE

Not unexpectedly, the Panel for Education Policy approved the co-location - of a new K-4 charter school, Success Academy Cobble Hill, to move into and share the building at 284 Baltic Street which currently houses two schools serving grades 6-12 (School for Global Studies and School for International Studies) and a District 75 program for students with disabilities. I testified against this co-location for two reasons: (1) I believe the practice of forcing the co-location of charter schools into public schools is bad public policy, undermining public education, and (2) the public school programs at this location have turned themselves around, going from an F to a B in a short time. I believe school improvements should be nurtured, including the provision of a proper special educational environment for students with disabilities who are routinely left behind in the wake of charter co-locations. There was nothing about this proposal that demonstrated anything different would occur.

NY YOUTH WORKS

On December 9, I was delighted to attend the ceremony where Governor Cuomo signed into law the NY Youth Works bill. The law seeks to attack head-on the disparities in youth employment among those hardest hit - young people of color living in inner city neighborhoods.

NY Youth Works will function in three phases:

Phase 1: For up to six weeks before a youth is placed in employment, youth providers, like not-for-profits and workforce investment boards, will prepare eligible youth with skills such as work readiness, occupational training, and digital literacy.
Phase 2: Businesses will be offered a $3,000 wage subsidy in the form of tax credits to hire disadvantaged youths for six months. Preference will be given to employers in demand industries such as clean energy, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and conservation. Priority will be given to employers that provide on-site occupational skills training during this period. During Phase 1 and Phase 2, participating youth will be provided with up to three monthly stipends of $300 to cover costs associated with transitioning into the workplace.
Phase 3: An additional $1,000 tax credit will be available to employers that retain the participating youths for an additional six months.

NYU-POLY CENTER FOR APPLIED SCIENCES

On Wednesday, December 21st, I joined Borough President Marty Markowitz, State Senators Daniel Squadron and Velmanette Montgomery, Assemblymember Joan L. Millman, NYC Councilmembers Letitia James and Stephen Levin and local technology business leaders to rally for an applied science campus at 370 Jay Street. NYU-Poly has proposed a Center for Urban Science and Progress there.

For those of us who live and work in and around Downtown Brooklyn, we have yearned for a better use that the empty and forlorn looking 370 Jay Street. For more than a decade, it's been deserted and desolate, falling into disrepair and not giving back to the local economy, much less the pockets of transit riders. Putting 370 Jay to work, creating a center for science and technology, will put New Yorkers to work. As you know, I am a small business owner on Fulton Street, and this would make a big difference - bringing a new vitality and a stronger interconnectedness between Downtown Brooklyn's educational institutions, including City Tech, and the surrounding neighborhoods.

November 26, 2011

COME FIGHT FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

Community leaders and educators (including Assemblywoman Joan Millman and former Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farina) are proposing a free public Early Childhood Center in the building that currently houses Brooklyn School for Global Studies and the School for International Studies. The proposed Early Childhood Center would offer pre-K and kindergarten to children in local school zones.

BUT

The Department of Education wants to give the space to former NYC Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz to open a Success Academy Charter School that would serve students in K-4 from all across the district. The DOE's analysis of the available space is dubious, so there is a real concern about its squeezing the schools currently housed there, and harming those schools and the children they serve in the bargain.

Please attend and tell the Department of Education what you think would better serve the needs of neighborhood families.

WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 29th at 5:30 pm 
WHERE: 284 Baltic Street (between Smith and Court Street)

There is an on-line petition you can sign. Also, a number of parents have set up a facebook page to share information.

Visit them at: http://www.facebook.com/events/268718893180043;
Twitter: #NoSuccess

Click to download:
Proposal for Early Childhood Center K293

Flier for 11.29
Success Academy vs Early Childhood