Borough President Scott Stringer and other elected officials held a town hall meeting on Wednesday night to hear the concerns of Upper West Siders who live in the 90’s and 100’s. Nick Prigo, a local Democratic district leader and a member of Community Board 7, wrote in to tell us what happened. As you can see, he’s a fan of the borough president, who is running for mayor:

“Borough President Scott Stringer hosted a town hall for residents of
the West 90s and 100s this evening at Congregation Ansche Chesed.
Since taking office as Borough President in 2006 he has been regularly
holding town hall events throughout the borough in which he brings in
representatives from city agencies to help address local issues on the
spot. It’s a really wonderful way that he engages individual
neighborhood concerns and helps those in need.

As should be no surprise to anyone, the Upper West Side residents of
the West 90s and 100s came out in force despite the weather. Also of
no surprise was the array of issues intelligently addressed by
residents who were not afraid to express their opinion.  Within
seconds of the start of the meeting 20 people lined up ready to ask
questions.

The concerns covered a lot of territory. Interestingly, some of the
most passionate appeals were on issues that the Borough President has
been leading on for quite some time. These included three comments
against fracking, an effort the BP has championed. He started a ‘Kill
the Drill’ campaign in early 2010 and appeared in the documentary Gas
Land. Another two comments addressed the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk policy,
which the BP has been aggressively advocating to reform.

Additional local issues that will be familiar to regular West Side Rag
readers include three people speaking out against the proposed Jewish
Home Lifecare building on West 97th Street and the problems with
Papasito’s Bar on Broadway and 105th Street. Other community members
addressed increases in the rat population, affordable housing issues,
NYCHA down-sizing problems, and other quality-of-life concerns.”

Photo by Nick Prigo.