Legislation formalizes and enhances the City’s veteran coordinator program

The Council votes to crack down on operators of gaming cafes and arcades – known as “internet sweepstakes cafes” – that offer cash prizes.

Today, the City Council and I voted to improve the delivery of services available to veterans by formalizing and enhancing the veteran coordinator program at all City agencies.

The Council and I also voted to crack down on operators of certain gaming cafes and arcades – known as “internet sweepstakes cafes” – that offer cash prizes. This practice is illegal under City and State law.

As the intercity bus business has grown exponentially in the past several years and accidents involving these buses are far too common, the Council and I voted on a bill to allow greater access to bus safety information.

Additionally, the Council and I voted to enhance reporting requirements for youth in Administration of Children’s Services (ACS) non-secure and limited secure placement facilities.

Establishing Veteran Liaisons at City Agencies
A 2008 Executive Order requires each agency to designate a coordinator to work with the Mayor’s Office of Veteran’s Affairs (MOVA) to provide information on the agency’s available services for veterans and its personnel policies that apply to veterans. However, subsequent Administrations are not required to follow Executive Orders, and the informal program has become largely ineffective.

Today, the Council and I voted on a bill (Intro 480-A) to require each City agency to appoint a liaison responsible for connecting veterans to the benefits and services it offers. Appointees would also be required to assist the 7,875 veterans and more than 1,000 reservists employed by the City with personnel matters related to their veteran status. This initiative would ensure that veterans’ needs are addressed regardless of whether they contact MOVA or an agency directly.

This Memorial Day, as we honor those heroes who have fallen in the line of duty, we also have an obligation to honor the heroes who are still with us. We hope this legislation will help to alleviate any burdens veterans have faced in the past when navigating City government and allow them to seamlessly access the services they need and deserve.

Resolution Calling on the New York State Legislature to Enact the NYCHA Real Property Public Review Act
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) recently announced that it intends to lease property for private development in certain locations. These plans were formed without resident or stakeholder input, and NYCHA has been reluctant to meaningfully engage these stakeholders.

The Council and I support the NYCHA Real Property Public Review Act, which would require the agency to comply with the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure before selling or leasing its property. This would ensure that any such plans go through a transparent review process in which residents and community stakeholders have the opportunity to meaningfully impact proposed plans and ultimately shape their own neighborhoods.

State Education Resolutions
The Council and I voted on a Resolution calling on the New York State Department of Education to immediately stop all stand-alone field testing for students.

Each year, the State assigns schools to administer stand-alone field tests to students, of which the sole purpose is for the testing company to try out questions for future tests.

These tests are not designed to measure students’ learning, do not count toward students’ grades and parents and students never see the results.

The Council and I also voted on a Resolution calling upon the State Legislature to pass a bill amending the New York State Education Law to afford houses of worship equal access to school property.

Internet Sweepstakes Cafes and Arcades
The city has recently seen a proliferation of internet sweepstakes cafes, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, which blatantly advertise the chance to win money. While it is currently at the discretion of the DCA Commissioner to revoke licenses of gaming cafes or arcades illegally offering cash rewards, this bill (Intro1035-A) will now require the DCA to revoke the license of any gaming cafe or arcade operator who does so.

Several states have taken steps to stem the spread of internet sweepstakes cafes, most recently Florida and Ohio. New York City already has a licensing structure in place for gaming cafes and arcades, but this much-needed bill will strengthen it by facilitating stricter enforcement by the DCA.

Intercity Bus Bill
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) maintains a website that provides information about the safety of intercity bus companies. However, the information is difficult to access. Today, the Council and I voted to require DOT’s website to link to FMCSA’s website.

Specifically, the bill (Intro 591-A) would require a listing of federal passenger carrier safety ratings, a link to an explanation of these ratings and a link to the FMCSA’s Safety and Fitness Electronic Records System.

ACS Juvenile Facilities Reporting Bill
Last year, Governor Cuomo enacted the “Close to Home” initiative which allows ACS to operate non-secure and limited secure placement facilities for adjudicated juveniles in New York City so that they may be placed in facilities closer to their families and communities. Today, the Council and I voted on a bill (Intro 981-A) to require ACS to report demographic and safety data for youth in the new facilities pursuant to Close to Home.

Additionally, the legislation requires the reporting of two very important metrics. Currently, ACS does not collect data when youth are targeted because of their LGBT status. This bill requires the agency to report such information if it is voluntarily reported by a child. This data will allow ACS to identify any patterns of maltreatment and to explore ways to better serve this at-risk population. The bill would also require ACS to publish data on the number of youth who transfer between facilities. There is little information about transfers between juvenile facilities, and this data could be useful for policymakers to examine in order to improve services for youth under ACS care.

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Surely, as Mr. Kennedy states, in the art form “known primarily as social practice, its practitioners freely blur the lines among object making, performance, political activism, community organizing, environmentalism and investigative journalism, creating a deeply participatory art that often flourishes outside the gallery and museum system.” Many titles have been coined along the way, Community Art, Relational Art, Socially Engaged Art Practice, Dialogical Esthetics, just to name a few. More Art is less interested in ephemeral names and more in the goal of making contemporary art more accessible and socially conscious. This has been our mission from the very start.

Pablo Helguera, who worked with More Art in 2011 on a project titled “El Club de Protesta/The Portest Club”, is quoted in the article: “(T)he shift began happening sometime after 9/11 [spurred by] the question ‘What is the meaning of making art in the world like it is today?’” “El Club de Protesta,” organized in collaboration with the Hudson Guild Community Center, consisted in a series of bilingual (English/Spanish) song-writing workshops open to the public with the purpose of promoting and revisiting the tradition of the Latin American and North American protest song as a historical form of expression often connected to significant social movements. The project gave members of the community a chance to speak out about issues they were passionate about and gave each participant the confidence needed to actually do it on a public platform.

Mr. Kennedy’s article highlights the new-found popularity of such practices and therefore highlights how “(A)rt institutions around the country are grappling with how to bring [social practice] within museum walls and make the case that it can be appreciated along with paintings, sculpture and other more tangible works.” This is where we challenge the premise. We challenge the idea of bringing public art, community art, relational art or socially conscious art practices “within museum walls” because that would defy its very essence. Notwithstanding the importance and centrality of museums for contemporary art, we believe that there should be art forms or art practices that remain free and accessible to all and in the public domain.

Mr. Kennedy notes that “many artists say the motivation is…to make a difference in the world that is more than aesthetic.” We do feel that our projects prove this to be true. In our recent work with Krzysztof Wodiczko, the artist literally gave a voice and a platform to veterans from the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This stunning nighttime public projection in the heart of Union Square, “Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Project”, is indicative of our mission statement: to seize opportunities to enable people from all walks of life to approach and access art. We want everyone — with no admission, coat checks or walls — to have access to the work of artists. We encourage artists to address issues and concerns that are relevant to them and to us all. We will continue to strive for such projects to be offered to the public so that anyone and everyone may encounter thoughtful and engaging art in public spaces such as Union Square Park in Manhattan.

Kristina Van Dyke, foundation director at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, ultimately asks “Could we effect social change through art, plain and simple?” The answer is simple: Yes. It is and continues to be our mission at More Art.

We went to see the performance by Nick Cave at Grand Central. Vanderbilt Hall was so packed it was hard to get to a spot where you could as much as take a peak at the action. The hall, with its high vaulted ceilings, is a beautiful, if unusual, space for a performance. Thousands of people go through every hour, and although most are hurried, this project shows that many are willing to stop, and even wait a while, for a free art encounter. At 11 am a group of dancers from the Alvin Ailey dance company entered and put on horse raffia suits. The horses, Nick Cave explained, are a reference to the history of Grand Central, as they originally brought travelers to their trains, and appear on the decorated ceiling of the hall in the shape of mythical winged horse Pegasus. Accompanied by an harp and a drum, the horses started to wriggle and shake as if they were grazing in a field. At some point the front separated from the back and both went into a crazy frenzied dance, until they calmly rejoined for a final bow to the crowd. It all lasted 15 minutes. The audience cheered and applauded. People looked genuinely happy. Why is HeardNY so successful? Because it engaged both the old and the young, and made perfect use of the space: it was pure, family-friendly fun. Kudos to Creative Time for being able to pull off such a complex feat in one of the most historical places in New York City.

Learn more about the Project on Creative Time’s website

please follow the following link to see the video:

Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection

Click on image to watch short video.

Thank you to everyone for believing in the project, and special thanks to:

NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, The Union Square Partnership, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and The City Council, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Polish Cultural Institute, Galerie Lelong, A Blade of Grass, the Lambent Foundation

and

The Moderns for their extraordinary design and Duggal Visual Solution for the flawless printing and production of panels and graphics.

The day began with a guided tour around the museum, seeing both original and hand-drawn artwork from the animated feature The Rise of the Guardian, exploring nineteenth century optical toys, and getting to make our own digital flip-books.

Later in the afternoon, the class attended a workshop titled “The Living Room,” where we discussed the role of positive and negative TV ads in presidential campaigns, and the techniques employed in these commercials in order to elicit emotional reactions from voters.

We had a great visit, but left wishing we’d had more time to see the rest of the museum!