Civil Court Judge Leslie Stroth swears in Councilmember Helen Rosenthal as her husband Carmen Marino looks on.
By Carol Tannenhauser
“Helen Rosenthal is a fighter,” said Lauren Keville, principal of PS 191, a brand-new school at 300 West 61st Street, where Council Member Rosenthal’s second inauguration was held last Sunday afternoon. After a hard-fought primary, and an easier general election victory, it was an upbeat celebration of what newly elected Council Speaker Corey Johnson called Rosenthal’s “resolve, strength, and perseverance.”
“People came at her hard,” Johnson said. “Helen kept smiling and talking about the issues and the achievements she was able to bring for this district. She won overwhelmingly, because people saw what Helen Rosenthal could get done over the course of four years.”
Corey Johnson.
What will the next four years bring?
“Our [first-term] accomplishments ranged in a variety of areas,” Rosenthal said, “but they all come back to a common theme: hearing the voices of those who have gone unheard. It’s true of our work on behalf of people with disabilities…it’s true of our work on behalf of tenants living under the weight of unscrupulous landlords…and it is true of our most noteworthy accomplishment: supporting the efforts of public-school parent leaders to integrate public schools on the Upper West Side.
“Our task in our second term is to extend the accomplishments of our first term to women,” said Rosenthal, who is co-chair of the Council’s Women’s Caucus, “to not just hear the voices that have gone unheard, but to do something about it…With the #MeToo movement, women have grabbed the megaphone and demanded that we confront, head on, the challenges that women — especially women of color — face every day. We’re going to get into the weeds and identify concrete ways to interrupt power dynamics to prevent this sort of abuse in the first place.”
Other speakers included former NYC Council Member Ronnie Eldridge, Public Advocate Letitia James, and State Senator Liz Krueger. Musical entertainment was provided by the Riverside School Singers of PS 191, part of the Reaching for the Arts program, funded by Rosenthal’s office. Civil Court Judge Leslie Stroth administered the oath of office as the Council Member stood with her husband, Carmen Marino.
Helen Rosenthal is not a “fighter”. She is a panderer.
She is not a leader or a woman of courage. She ran on an old school UWS lefty platform.
Furthermore, her claims about her efforts to “integrate” public schools on the UWS are complete garbage. She did absolutely nothing and the silence from her on this issue was deafening.
She knew integrating the public schools was wildly unpopular with white parents so she stayed on the sidelines.
This is not leadership. This is cowardice.
i love how you hide behind anonymity to call names and heap invective on people, Sherman.Not exactly a profile in courage, that.
why don’t you come out from behind your tragic curtain and reveal which particular real estate interests you represent?
Another lame ad hominem attack from Bruce… so typical.
Well said, Bruce. I detest Internet/social media cowards who sling mud at people with real names while hiding their own identities.
More ad hominem attacks…
How do either of you know Sherman is not his name? How do we know you are using your own name? You’re baseless attack says more about you than Sherman.
Still more ad hominem attacks.
Clearly, some aren’t up to the challenge to refute others which whom they disagree with facts and logic.
Until such time that this blog steps up and actually does some sort of verification of users (which I whole-heartedly support), you two are just as anonymous as everyone else.
Apparently you don’t know what anonymity means.
So Sherman doesn’t have both a first name and a last name? Really? Same with Jay? 🙂
I’m a writer and teacher. You can find articles of mine online. You can read about my classes on the website of NYU’s School of Professional Studies. I’m definitely not famous, but my work and my identity are quite public.
And, to be as clear as possible, anyone who makes strong attacks against Sherman and Jay through an Internet alias or a less-than-full name is also an Internet/social media coward. This isn’t a left-right issue.
Hey Helen..I’m a woman and I’ve grabbed my megaphone numerous times to voice concerns to your office about a lack of response from numerous city agencies regarding issues near and dear to many Upper West Siders hearts. Like dangerous road conditions and speeding trucks and cars that kill your constituents. And you know what? Your office could care less. And in fact is rude and dismissive. So yeah, I’m a little skeptical about your latest endeavor. Especially when you can’t even help people in your district with problems that YOU should be addressing. Best of luck with your new campaign. But for those women facing these issues I suggest you seek help somewhere else.
There has been no more useless public servant. She and her whole office actually do zero for her district’s citizens. Shameful.
I remember Helen Rosenthal being out there before the primary declaring that she would stop the project going-up at Amsterdam Avenue and 69th street. I pass by the construction site each morning and evening. The work continues. And where is Helen? Nowhere to be seen. Next time, my vote goes to anyone but Helen Rosenthal.
Then why was she re-elected????? I don’t get it!!!
gee, from reading the comments above, you wouldn’t know that Helen Rosenthal just got re-elected in a landslide by the voters of her district.
i guess there are a lot of sore losers out there.
Don’t even get me started on the AMHN land grab that Helen spend all her time orchestrating. A rich man needs his name on a building and thus gets our hard-earned tax dollars. Why did people vote for her? 99% of UWSers don’t pay attention to what is happening and vote knee jerk. Or because of a lot of prejudice against her very well qualified opponent Mel Wymore. Travesty.
Do you understand that Mel Wymore lost, at least in part, because of his opposition to the Gilder Center? I met him, liked him, and was ready to vote for him until he took his stance against it.
What’s she planning to do about all the empty storefronts on the UWS? More and more businesses are disappearing every week and there’s just silence from her office.
There will always be empty storefronts on a street. It’s just a sign of change. If we see vast stretches of them I would begin to worry. The city and its regulations make it hard to transition quickly between businesses. You can’t just move in to an empty space without hearings and approvals from a number of regulatory agencies.
I find Helen’s attempt to pretend she wants to give the rest of us a voice to be offensive. I’ve seen her grab a megaphone and it was to shut someone up!
Sorry, Helen, talk is cheap!
Happy she supported the Gilder Center. But now she needs to turn her attention to removing the crazy people that have taken over our streets.
Rock the vote!
Sadly, people could have created change last Fall, but couldn’t be bothered to actually pay attention to the politics and issues of where they live. Showing up once a year to the Women’s March is not involvement. It begins at the community level. People involved at this level are a small group.
Rob G. said:
“… now she needs to turn her attention to removing the crazy people that have taken over our streets.”
the language you use — “removal” and “crazy people” — is both dehumanizing and inaccurate.
It’s true that we seem to have an increase in panhandlers, especially at night and around the area of 96th and Broadway.
the homeless population seems to have increased. For example, when i come home late at night (2 AM or later) during weekdays, a substantial percentage of passengers on the trains are homeless.
Most of the panhandlers on Bway are neither “crazy” nor in any way aggressive. Of course, some are. Similarly with those on the train.
i would be interested in what you think should be done about the homeless problem. Many New Yorkers are at risk of homelessness, due to the disappearance of low-end affordable housing. Many also have substance abuse and/or behavioral health problems.
More supportive housing is the best answer. Elitist dehumanization of the people undergoing this suffering is not an answer at all.
All due respect to your opinion, but I still stand by mine. “Crazy people” need to be removed from the streets. Supportive housing for substance abusers and those with behavioral issues can help if managed properly but the area you mentioned (96th/Bway) has giant badly-managed clusters of it already, IMO that’s contributed to the plethora of “crazy” people plaguing that area in the first place.