At GVSHP's request, Council Members Alan Gerson and Christine Quinn have introduced legislation to help ensure that cobblestone streets are preserved, and to provide appropriate penalties to discourage their destruction.
Under current lax regulations, cobblestone streets are frequently paved over by the City or torn up and destroyed by utility companies and builders. GVSHP has been working with members of the City Council to draft legislation that would prevent this from happening by providing appropriate oversight, penalties, and regulation.
For a copy of the legislation, go to http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Int%200519-2004.htm?CFID=287227&CFTOKEN=83202367.
To help, please send letters to City officials urging they support this legislation and push for hearings at the City Council on the bill. Sample letters are below.
Please also send copies of letters to:
GVSHP: gvshp@gvshp.org, or (fax) 212/475-9582, or 232 East 11th Street, NY NY 10003
Council Member Alan Gerson: gerson@council.nyc.ny.us, or (fax) 212/788-7727,
or 51 Chambers Street Suite 429, NY NY 10007
Council Member Christine Quinn: quinn@council.nyc.ny.us, or 212/564-7347,
or 224 West 30th Street #1206, NY NY 10001
DATE
Hon. Gifford Miller
Speaker, New York City Council
336 East 73rd Street, Suite C
New York, NY 10021
Fax: 212/535-6098
E-mail: miller@council.nyc.ny.us
Dear Speaker Miller:
I write to strongly urge that the Council hold hearings on Intro. 519, introduced by Council Members Gerson and Quinn, which would help preserve cobblestone streets in New York City.
Currently, cobblestone streets are often destroyed by the Department of Transportation or by contractors doing work on City streets. Potholes on cobblestone streets are filled with asphalt by DOT, rather than being replaced with cobblestone. Utility companies and others doing work on city streets often remove cobblestones and then destroy them or replace them in a shoddy or slipshod manner.
Our city’s few cobblestone streets are a wonderful and unique historic resource which, whenever possible, should be preserved. City regulations should require their preservation, and appropriate penalties should be put in place to discourage the further destruction of cobblestone streets.
Into. 519 would do exactly this. I therefore strongly urge you to schedule a hearing for the bill and support its passage.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
NAME
ADDRESS
DATE
Hon. John Liu
Chair, New York City Council Committee on Transportation
135-27 38th Avenue, Suite 388
Flushing, NY 11354
Fax: 718/888-0331
E-mail: liu@council.nyc.ny.us
Dear Council Member Liu:
I write to strongly urge that the Council hold hearings on Intro. 519, introduced by Council Members Gerson and Quinn, which would help preserve cobblestone streets in New York City.
Currently, cobblestone streets are often destroyed by the Department of Transportation or by contractors doing work on City streets. Potholes on cobblestone streets are filled with asphalt by DOT, rather than being replaced with cobblestone. Utility companies and others doing work on city streets often remove cobblestones and then destroy them or replace them in a shoddy or slipshod manner.
Our city’s few cobblestone streets are a wonderful and unique historic resource which, whenever possible, should be preserved. City regulations should require their preservation, and appropriate penalties should be put in place to discourage the further destruction of cobblestone streets.
Into. 519 would do exactly this. I therefore strongly urge you to schedule a hearing for the bill and support its passage.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
NAME
ADDRESS
DATE
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Fax: 212/788-3229
To e-mail, go to www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html and enter letter on site
Dear Mayor Bloomberg:
I write to strongly urge that call for hearings on Intro. 519, introduced by Council Members Gerson and Quinn, which would help preserve cobblestone streets in New York City.
Currently, cobblestone streets are often destroyed by the Department of Transportation or by contractors doing work on City streets. Potholes on cobblestone streets are filled with asphalt by DOT, rather than being replaced with cobblestone. Utility companies and others doing work on city streets often remove cobblestones and then destroy them or replace them in a shoddy or slipshod manner.
Our city’s few cobblestone streets are a wonderful and unique historic resource which, whenever possible, should be preserved. City regulations should require their preservation, and appropriate penalties should be put in place to discourage the further destruction of cobblestone streets.
Into. 519 would do exactly this. I therefore strongly urge you to call for a hearing for the bill and support its passage.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
NAME
ADDRESS
DATE
Commissioner Iris Weinshall
New York City Department of Transportation
40 Worth Street
New York, NY 10013
Fax: 212/442-7007
To e-mail, go to www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildot.html and enter letter on site
Dear Commissioner Weinshall:
I write to strongly urge you to support Intro. 519, introduced by Council Members Gerson and Quinn, which would help preserve cobblestone streets in New York City.
Currently, cobblestone streets are often destroyed by the Department of Transportation or by contractors doing work on City streets. Potholes on cobblestone streets are filled with asphalt by DOT, rather than being replaced with cobblestone. Utility companies and others doing work on city streets often remove cobblestones and then destroy them or replace them in a shoddy or slipshod manner.
Our city’s few cobblestone streets are a wonderful and unique historic resource which, whenever possible, should be preserved. City regulations should require their preservation, and appropriate penalties should be put in place to discourage the further destruction of cobblestone streets.
Into. 519 would do exactly this. I therefore strongly urge you to support this bill’s passage.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
NAME
ADDRESS