Only in Brooklyn – Week of December 23rd – December 29th

“I can’t believe I’ve been Borough President for an entire year! It took me most of my adult life to get into this office, but these twelve months went by in the blink of an eye. As with any new job, it takes a little while to get adjusted to your new surroundings, but I am very proud of what our office has been able to accomplish since moving into Borough Hall in January, and we’ve only just begun!”

BOROUGH HALL IS ALWAYS ON CALL!

One of Marty’s immediate goals was to make the Borough President’s office relevant in the lives of all Brooklynites, and he did that by ensuring that Borough Hall is the most responsive city office in New York City. Our Action Center, 718-802-3777, is always available to help you with a wide variety of problems and issues. Never hesitate to call on Borough Hall!

HOUSING BROOKLYN AFFORDABLY

Brooklyn’s first housing summit was held in June to call attention and to seek solutions to one of the borough’s most pressing problems – the lack of affordable housing. Marty also started the Brooklyn Housing Fund that will create more than 500 affordable housing units all across the borough. He strongly believes that everyone living in Brooklyn deserves opportunities to remain in quality housing in Brooklyn. Over the past decade, Brooklyn’s housing costs have risen dramatically. Despite a national residential housing boom, the borough has produced only a small fraction of the moderate and middle-income housing that it so desperately needs. This has forced many people, especially younger families, to leave Brooklyn or to live in crowded and unsuitable apartments. Marty will do everything to make housing more affordable in Brooklyn.

HELPING OUR CHILDREN

Marty has been making sure the Panel for Educational Policy is responsive to both parents and all of Brooklyn. His appointee on the panel has been holding monthly meetings of the President’s Councils of Brooklyn’s community school districts to help stay in touch with parents’ concerns and formulate plans for what will replace local school boards once they are eliminated in 2003. Summer H.E.A.T (Helping Employ Ambitious Teens), a program created to encourage businesses to hire Brooklyn young people this past summer helped more than 130 young people get jobs with more than 40 companies. Camp Brooklyn sent almost 60 Brooklyn kids to overnight camp for two weeks. Both of these pilot programs will be back and even bigger next year.

ENCOURAGING A HEALTHIER BROOKLYN

Lighten Up Brooklyn, which received national and international acclaim, highlighted our borough’s worsening obesity problem and helped Brooklyn drop 41 tons; Butt Out Brooklyn is an anti-smoking campaign aimed at keeping middle school students from starting to smoke – a five minute video was produced and is being shown in schools across Brooklyn; Brooklyn HealthLink is an outreach campaign coordinated with local hospitals to let Brooklynites know the finest healthcare in New York City is right here in Brooklyn.

SERVING AS A CATALYST AND ORGANIZER

Marty has continued to press for Brooklyn's fair and deserved share of City, State and federal resources through the unprecedented meetings convened by the BP of the borough's Assembly, State Senate and congressional delegations - these meetings are leading to follow-up efforts to identify and collectively focus on specific funding requests; bringing the borough's higher education institutions together to form the Brooklyn Higher Education Council this summer; establishing the Brooklyn Auto Insurance Task Force with State Insurance Department officials and Brooklyn lawmakers to take on the issue of the borough's skyrocketing auto insurance premiums; creating a Brooklyn Federation of Block Associations, which could, among other things, address important quality of life issues and be a powerful purchasing body.

PROMOTING & MARKETING BROOKLYN

Marty has been working tirelessly to get the word out that there is no better place to do business, now or in the future, than Brooklyn. He co-sponsored a Future of Brooklyn conference with Brooklyn College and the 2002 NYC Economic Development Summit – Best Practices from Brooklyn & Beyond with Mayor Bloomberg that highlighted the many Brooklyn economic success stories - - and there certainly are many to talk about! Downtown Brooklyn is the region’s fastest growing business district; Gateway Mall, the most exciting new retail center in the New York metropolitan area, is bustling in Spring Creek; national retailers such as Best Buy, Ikea, Lowe’s, Home Depot and many others are finally recognizing that Brooklyn is a fantastic market; and some of the finest food in New York City is found in innovative restaurants throughout Brooklyn. To help realize the borough's enormous tourism potential, Marty is also developing a comprehensive tourism strategy and marketing campaign.

MAKING BROOKLYN SMILE

From Brooklyn’s first Egg Cream Extravaganza to hosting a singles party for Brooklynites over 40, Marty strongly believes that another important part of his job is to remind Brooklynites why this is such an incredibly unique and fun place to live. He promises more of these great events in 2003.

MARTY’S MESSAGE FOR THE NEW YEAR

“Now is a time to remember what is most sacred and whom we hold most dear. I know that we will continue to work together to make this great borough a welcome place for every one of our residents. Some of us have been here for generations and others have just arrived for all over the world, some even from Manhattan, but we are all a part of the Brooklyn family. Imagine as I do, if the rest of the world followed our example - Brooklyn today could be the world tomorrow. Have a healthy and happy New Year. Let's pray that peace will rein throughout the world!”