The Manhattan Times

Community Board 12 Roundup

by Daniel P. Bader

Resolutions pass on Rev. Ike, livery cabs, Washington Heights Academy; board names budget priorities

CB12 endorses co-naming of street in honor of Rev. Ike 

Followers of Rev. Frederick Eikerenkoette, better know as “Rev. Ike” cheered at the Nov. 24 general meeting of Community Board 12 after the all volunteer body voted to support the co-naming of the street adjacent to his church, the United Palace, as Rev. Ike Square. The resolution, passed almost unanimously, requests two signs to be placed on the street, one at the corner of W. 176th Street and Broadway and the other at W. 175th Street and Broadway, to recognize the popular and controversial spiritual leader who died earlier this year.

CB12 names budget priorities

In its annual ranking of funding and capital project requests, CB12 has asked the city to make increasing the number of officers in the 33rd and 34th Police Precincts its top priority for Northern Manhattan for the 2011 budget.

Its second top request is for the city to increase funding for day care providers. Adding a  Beacon program at I.S. 52 was the board’s third most important issue, while adding more Park Enforcement Personnel and increasing funding for elderly home care services ranked fourth and fifth.

The board’s top five capital items, things they would like to see the city build or buy, include: creating new daycare centers, building a new high school, improving the physical structure of senior centers, renovating the Engine 67 firehouse on W. 170th Street, and purchasing new bikes, cars and vans for both police precincts.

Boards are typically granted their top one or two requests, but given the state of the city budget, this year’s funding is more up in the air than usual.

Last year the board ranked increasing funding for elderly home care services as the top expense item and expanding and improving the buildings of senior centers in Northern Manhattan as its number one capital priority.

CB12 supports expanding Washington Heights Academy

Parents and teachers of P.S. 366, Washington Heights Academy, earned the support of CB12 in their bid to expand the kindergarten through fifth grade school to eighth grade. The school, located temporarily on Nagle Avenue until its new building on Sherman Avenue and W. 204th Street is complete, received a failing grade on its first progress report and has had its petition to expand rejected by the Department of Education.

A teacher, speaking for the entire group of supporters, said despite the grade, his school is highly sought after, and that the failing grade was in part due to a high number of English Language Learners and the fact that it’s the first year the school has been graded.

“We’re not trying to challenge the DOE, but we do want it to know we have community support,” he said.

The board later gave the school that support, passing a resolution asking the DOE to allow the school to expand.

CB12 asks for tougher enforcement of traffic laws and livery cabs

CB12 voted in support of a resolution to request that the 33rd and 34th Police Precincts and the Taxi and Limousine Commission step up their enforcement of traffic laws and that livery cab companies be more respectful of community concerns.

The board has received complaints from community members who have dealt with the cabs taking up metered parking and double parking in several areas of Northern Manhattan, but specifically on W. 187th Street between Ft. Washington and Cabrini Boulevard and on W. 181st Street between Ft. Washington and Pinehurst Avenues.

“Representatives of the precincts, the TLC, local elected officials and the base stations have met to discuss some of these issues, and there has been some, intermittent improvement, but not enough,” the resolution reads.

The board’s Traffic and Transportation Committee had submitted a similar resolution in the spring, but withdrew it after learning of elected officials’ attempts to address the issue. It was taken back up again after an Oct. 14 story in the Manhattan Times about the problems caused by the cabs.