20210606

While the GLA treasurer is using documents from the voluminous records for more pragmatic ends, from the six boxes of GLA docs I pulled a few bundles and leafed through them just because. The following are a few randomish pulls.

One of six boxes, really five if we combined the two partial boxes.

Dog poop. If you're old enough, you may recall that there were no poop-scooper laws until the 1980s (if I recall the dates properly). I remember rolling down the hill by the new wing of Jefferson School and getting dog shit on my coat. A leather coat with tons of fringe (circa 1970, what do you expect?). The coat was trashed. I think the hill has been regraded to obscurity too.

GLA at the forefront of pooper-scooper legislation. Actually, the letter implies there may have been resistance to it; in this activist community, probably seen as an assault on freedom. A later request in 1990 Backfence for adherence to the law and courtesy,

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The Backfence scan here has an interesting, given our current relationship with police, proposal for community and police cooperation. Other scans regarding crime in the neighborhood I found interesting given how much safer NYC has been since I was a kid.

Signage was something the City consulted the GLA about.

First Woman President and questions about the mission of GLA. The question of whether GLA has responsibility to address broader social issues has been revisited recently spurred on by the police reform effort in early 2021.

Why does City of New Rochelle own Glenwood Lake? I have been disheartened to recently learn about apparent violations of legal commitments for Glenwood Lake to have kept some of the parcels of land lost to sales by the City and apparent encroachment by privately neighbors, but there is a park. Here's a bit of the history of how the park was secured.

Coincidentally, earlier this week I watched Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film Ikiru. It is really a film in two parts. The second part is very instructive of processes of getting local gov't to do anything, in particular getting a park built. (It's also a truly beautiful work of art.)

New Rochelle was considering turning down the offer of land to instead have it auctioned off. GLA pushed for a public park. (There is another letter, not found in these files, that says that after New Rochelle took possession of the land, none of it was to be transferred to private ownership. However, it appears that parcels were subsequently sold or title otherwise transferred in violation of the agreement.)

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I chose this one because of the College of NR students who worked on water testing and the Webster students going to the lake. Continuity past to present, etc. Actually, Webster using the lake as a resource has been more sporatic.

This one is purely of personal interest. Abzug baby sat for my dad. Actually, it was her first paralegal or attorney job at a law firm. My grandfather, her boss, needed somebody to watch my dad when he was visiting the office. This was not one of the stories Fierstein channeled in his excellent Bella Bella; there were plenty of other unfair ones.

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