Location: Manhattan, NY
Website: www.civitasnyc.org
We are a union of citizens dedicated to improving neighborhood quality of life in the Upper East Side and East Harlem since 1981.
CIVITAS promotes urban planning, zoning and land use policies that are sensible and sensitive to residential life in our neighborhoods.
CIVITAS supports environmentally sound development, vibrant retail activity at street level, uncluttered sidewalks and access to good public transit.
CIVITAS opposes overbearing towers that are non-contextual and cut off light and air from surrounding buildings and the sidewalk below.
CIVITAS commissions urban planning studies, speaks out at public hearings, issues reports and keeps its members informed on current issues impacting on urban life, including traffic congestion, historic preservation, zoning variances, water quality and public access to parks and the waterfront.
In 1981, when CIVITAS was founded, August Heckscher, its first chair, hearkened back to the Roman Republic to find a name that would express the spirit of the new community organization. The name chosen, “CIVITAS,” referred to that quality of a citizen that made him deeply involved in the life and fate of his city. Such has been the guiding spirit for CIVITAS ever since.
The mission of CIVITAS is to foster, mobilize and coordinate civic concern in the community of Manhattan’s Upper East Side and East Harlem. To that end, CIVITAS seeks to promote, preserve and protect residential neighborhoods that are lively and livable.
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The Urban Assembly
Location: New York, NY
Website: www.urbanassembly.org
The Urban Assembly was founded in 1990 to address a wide range of poverty issues. In the mid-'90s we spearheaded a major planning effort to transform a 300-block area of the South Bronx.
That effort identified the lack of high-quality local secondary schools as a major concern and recommended creating three model high schools, each tied to a major local institution.
In 1997, in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and New Visions for Public Schools, the Urban Assembly opened the first of these schools, the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice, and in 2002 it opened the second, the Academy for Careers in Sports.
Based on our success, the Urban Assembly was invited to submit proposals for two more schools. In 2003, we opened the Bronx Academy of Letters, and, inspired by the commitment of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, shifted the organization’s focus exclusively to the creation and support of new small schools.
Twenty-one Urban Assembly schools are now up and running.
We are reaching into the communities where kids need us most and giving thousands of students the education they deserve. By every measure, our children are among the city’s most underserved.
94% of our students are African-American and Latino. 69% of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch programs. 70% of 9th graders enter our high schools with scores below city and state proficiency levels in math. 64% are below proficiency in reading. 50% of our students speak a language other than English at home.
Our schools demonstrate that at risk students can achieve incredible success with the right learning environment, instruction and support. The Urban Assembly’s network-wide graduation rate is 76% — 15 points higher than the New York City average and seven points higher than the national average. Several of our schools have graduation rates above 90%.
Website: www.urbanassembly.org
The Urban Assembly was founded in 1990 to address a wide range of poverty issues. In the mid-'90s we spearheaded a major planning effort to transform a 300-block area of the South Bronx.
That effort identified the lack of high-quality local secondary schools as a major concern and recommended creating three model high schools, each tied to a major local institution.
In 1997, in partnership with the New York City Department of Education and New Visions for Public Schools, the Urban Assembly opened the first of these schools, the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice, and in 2002 it opened the second, the Academy for Careers in Sports.
Based on our success, the Urban Assembly was invited to submit proposals for two more schools. In 2003, we opened the Bronx Academy of Letters, and, inspired by the commitment of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, shifted the organization’s focus exclusively to the creation and support of new small schools.
Twenty-one Urban Assembly schools are now up and running.
We are reaching into the communities where kids need us most and giving thousands of students the education they deserve. By every measure, our children are among the city’s most underserved.
94% of our students are African-American and Latino. 69% of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch programs. 70% of 9th graders enter our high schools with scores below city and state proficiency levels in math. 64% are below proficiency in reading. 50% of our students speak a language other than English at home.
Our schools demonstrate that at risk students can achieve incredible success with the right learning environment, instruction and support. The Urban Assembly’s network-wide graduation rate is 76% — 15 points higher than the New York City average and seven points higher than the national average. Several of our schools have graduation rates above 90%.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Regional Plan Association
Location: CT, NY & NJ
Website: www.rpa.org
It gives us great pleasure to welcome you to Regional Plan Association. We hope that you will find our website a helpful resource for information and a useful tool for two-way communication about our far-reaching initiatives and programs.
For 90 years, RPA has been an indispensable source of ideas and plans to policy makers and opinion shapers across the tri-state area. RPA's in-depth studies, relentless advocacy and staying power ensure that critical transportation, urban development, housing and open space projects move forward across business downturns and election cycles. And RPA's America 2050 program is advancing national efforts to strengthen our aging infrastructure and protect vital natural resources.
Just consider some of RPA's recent successes:
- RPA has been helping guide the region's development of climate change and resiliency strategies, calling for a new approach to the way we manage storms in the tri-state region.
- In December 2012, RPA co-hosted an event on the New York City's future after Superstorm Sandy at which Mayor Michael Bloomberg laid out his vision for the city, and former Vice President Al Gore called on political leaders to do more to confront the threat of global warming.
- RPA published influential research on why large infrastructure projects take so long to complete in the U.S. and how the work could be accelerated.
- Other prominent research quantified the expected increase in housing values in Queens and Long Island as a result of the Long Island Rail Road's future connection to Grand Central Terminal.
- In June, RPA convened more than 125 national experts on large landscape conservation to discuss how to ensure that wildlife habitat, water supplies and working farms and forests throughout the U.S. Northeast are protected for future generations.
- RPA's America 2050 and the Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility continued to build the case for investment in our rail system nationally and in the Northeast corridor. America 2050 has become a national leader in the debate on high-speed rail, and where and how federal and private funds should best be employed.
- RPA's annual Assembly is New York's premier civic event, bringing together nearly 1,000 top business, civic, philanthropic and government leaders from across the metropolitan region and the country. Each year the Assembly focuses on a priority issue.
The 2012 Assembly, "Bold Plans - Big Innovations - Bright Future," on April 27, 2013, featured high-level panel discussions with the region and nation's leaders on economic development, housing, sustainable design, energy, mobility, technology and governance. The program featured a keynote address by Mayor Bloomberg. The 2013 Assembly will be held on Friday, April 19.
Last year's Assembly also served as the culmination of the first Transit Leadership Forum, a weeklong summit, hosted by RPA, for the leaders of the world's largest and most dynamic transit authorities, who shared their experiences and ideas on how to deal with the myriad challenges running integrated transit systems. A second summit will be held in Singapore in March 2013.
It has been and will continue to be a unique time for RPA as we work on the front lines to find sensible solutions in tough times. Unquestionably, what RPA does best - bringing together diverse interests, advising government and private interests, and providing recommendations based on smart policies - is what will be the driving force in making monumental and sustainable changes happen.
We look forward to continuing to plan for the future of our region and around the nation.
Website: www.rpa.org
It gives us great pleasure to welcome you to Regional Plan Association. We hope that you will find our website a helpful resource for information and a useful tool for two-way communication about our far-reaching initiatives and programs.
For 90 years, RPA has been an indispensable source of ideas and plans to policy makers and opinion shapers across the tri-state area. RPA's in-depth studies, relentless advocacy and staying power ensure that critical transportation, urban development, housing and open space projects move forward across business downturns and election cycles. And RPA's America 2050 program is advancing national efforts to strengthen our aging infrastructure and protect vital natural resources.
Just consider some of RPA's recent successes:
- RPA has been helping guide the region's development of climate change and resiliency strategies, calling for a new approach to the way we manage storms in the tri-state region.
- In December 2012, RPA co-hosted an event on the New York City's future after Superstorm Sandy at which Mayor Michael Bloomberg laid out his vision for the city, and former Vice President Al Gore called on political leaders to do more to confront the threat of global warming.
- RPA published influential research on why large infrastructure projects take so long to complete in the U.S. and how the work could be accelerated.
- Other prominent research quantified the expected increase in housing values in Queens and Long Island as a result of the Long Island Rail Road's future connection to Grand Central Terminal.
- In June, RPA convened more than 125 national experts on large landscape conservation to discuss how to ensure that wildlife habitat, water supplies and working farms and forests throughout the U.S. Northeast are protected for future generations.
- RPA's America 2050 and the Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility continued to build the case for investment in our rail system nationally and in the Northeast corridor. America 2050 has become a national leader in the debate on high-speed rail, and where and how federal and private funds should best be employed.
- RPA's annual Assembly is New York's premier civic event, bringing together nearly 1,000 top business, civic, philanthropic and government leaders from across the metropolitan region and the country. Each year the Assembly focuses on a priority issue.
The 2012 Assembly, "Bold Plans - Big Innovations - Bright Future," on April 27, 2013, featured high-level panel discussions with the region and nation's leaders on economic development, housing, sustainable design, energy, mobility, technology and governance. The program featured a keynote address by Mayor Bloomberg. The 2013 Assembly will be held on Friday, April 19.
Last year's Assembly also served as the culmination of the first Transit Leadership Forum, a weeklong summit, hosted by RPA, for the leaders of the world's largest and most dynamic transit authorities, who shared their experiences and ideas on how to deal with the myriad challenges running integrated transit systems. A second summit will be held in Singapore in March 2013.
It has been and will continue to be a unique time for RPA as we work on the front lines to find sensible solutions in tough times. Unquestionably, what RPA does best - bringing together diverse interests, advising government and private interests, and providing recommendations based on smart policies - is what will be the driving force in making monumental and sustainable changes happen.
We look forward to continuing to plan for the future of our region and around the nation.
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