Re-Elect Jo Anne Simon, New York Democratic State Committee
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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 13th Primary Election.

Sincerely,

Jo Anne Simon

What does a District Leader/State Committeeperson do?

Latest News

May 15, 2013

Vito Lopez must resign. No one should support him for election to the City Council or any other public office.

The pattern of abuses by Vito Lopez towards women staffers is as disgusting as it is irrefutable, as the release of the JCOPE report proves.  However, despite the JCOPE report and the findings of the Special District Attorney, a loophole has thus far enabled him to escape criminal responsibility for repeatedly sexually harassing and abusing multiple former staffers.  

While we would all like to believe there have been exhaustive and comprehensive investigations into Lopez' wrongdoing, the fact is JCOPE only covered Lopez' actions since November 2010, and even then they only focused on violations of the Public Officers Law. JCOPE didn't even interview Lopez staffers hired before November 2008. This limited investigation leaves a 25 year gap in which Lopez' likely carried on his sex attacks. 

Special District Attorney Donovan, who carried out many of his interviews in cooperation with JCOPE only looked at the incidents in June & July 2012, and was careful to say he couldn't find "a chargeable crime was committed within the confines of Kings County" (emphasis added). 

Even with their limited investigation JCOPE found "Lopez engaged in a pervasive pattern of abuse of public office and resources, not for a personal financial gain but for his personal gratification and desires." Given this detailed pattern of Lopez' outrageous behavior, the amount of time and staff in Albany, and Lopez' taking female staff on overnight trips outside of Brooklyn (indeed, outside the United States), there were far more opportunities for Lopez to prey on staffers than have been investigated.  

At the beginning of these horrendous revelations the public cried out for a full investigation of Assemblyman Lopez' actions. But today, despite a documented pattern of abuses, we still do not have a complete investigation into Vito Lopez' actions. 

The overwhelming evidence of Lopez' attacks beg the question of what criminal conduct by Vito Lopez is still hiding in the shadows -- acts that deserve to be criminally prosecuted. 

Lopez refused to appear before JCOPE because his "counsel would advise him to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination." That's his right, but these reports have every appearance of having exposed only the tip of the iceberg as far as Vito Lopez' criminal wrongdoings.  The public is still waiting for a full investigation, and it's long overdue. 

Vito Lopez must resign.  No one should support him for election to the City Council or any other public office.

Comments on the Gowanus Canal Proposed Remediations

My comments are as follows:

 

Thank you for this opportunity to offer comment on the EPA's Proposed Remedial Action Plan (PRAP) for the Gowanus Canal. I congratulate you and your colleagues with the EPA on your extensive engagement of the community in a transparent, conscientious and timely manner.  The community has benefitted greatly from the agency's patience and dedication in educating us all about these complex and confounding issues as we seek to attain our mutual goal of cleaning up the Gowanus Canal.

 

To that end, I am generally supportive of the PRAP and its remedy preferences, but it is clear to me from the many community meetings and conversations that there remain unanswered questions and concerns regarding (a) opportunities for recontamination (as particularly seems to be the problem near the Manufactured Gas Plant sites and attendant the Fifth Street Basin); (b) the movement of Non Aqueous Phase Liquids (NAPLs) and those that are less dense than water (LNAPLs); (c) the maximization of community benefits including workforce development and the minimization of negative impacts such as disruptions to local businesses; (d) the improved coordination of the relevant agencies, responsible parties and stakeholders involved; (e) the increased opportunities for inclusion of diversity and greater participation of all the affected communities in the next steps (both design phase and actual clean-up) and (f) resource allocation decisions. Read more...

April 21, 2013

Brooklyn's Public Libraries in Danger

Below see my letter to the NYC Planning Commission regarding the Brooklyn Public Library's intention to sell the historic Pacific Branch library and use the money to fit out an expensive new library near the Brooklyn Academy of Music.The video of the testimony is here.


March 18, 2013

Amanda Burden, Chair

City Planning Commission

22 Reade Street

New York, NY 10007

 

Re:       BAM South Application: Special Permit for Use and Bulk Modifications for Cultural Use in Certain C6-2 Districts - Calendar Items 15, 16, 17 (C 130116 ZMK, N 130117 ZRK and C 130118 ZSK

 

Dear Commissioner Burden:

 

I write with regard to the three actions before the City Planning Commission on March 20, 2013 related to the "BAM South" site including a text amendment, a zoning map change and a special permit, which proposes the construction of a large, multi-use building across from the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

 

My concerns about the land use applications before the City Planning Commission on this ULURP stem from (a) a decade of participation in community dialogue about local economic growth which evolved into the Downtown Brooklyn Plan, and (b) my alarm that the library component of BAM South (a part of the Downtown Plan), as currently described by the Brooklyn Public Library, would violate the social compact and the principles underlying community support developed through careful public dialogue amongst the neighborhoods adjacent to the Downtown Plan area.  The Brooklyn Public Library, through presentations at recent community meetings and postings on its website, has made clear its intentions to snatch from our midst a cultural, architectural and historic resource - the Pacific Branch Library.  In other words, a neighborhood outside of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan's boundaries will sacrifice a treasure to support the construction of a library within the Plan's area at the BAM South Project site, which will necessarily serve a different demographic. READ MORE...


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