Lower East Side activists have not given up on their campaign to win Rivington House back for the Lower East Side community.
A local group, Neighbors to Save Rivington House, announced today that its will be hosting two visioning events to discuss the future of the former nursing home for AIDS patients. They are undeterred by repeated statements from Mayor de Blasio that the the sale of the building to luxury condo developers can likely not be reversed. His administration’s decision to lift deed restrictions on the longtime community facility touched off one of the biggest scandals of the mayor’s administration.
Here’s what Neighbors to Save Rivington House is planning:
What’s Next for Rivington House: Creating New Ideas for Community Care
The goals of the visioning sessions are:
1) look at an array of possible futures by offering concrete information and innovative ideas for addressing the care needs (health, respite, supportive housing, disability, etc.) of our community.
2) ask local residents to join with us to consider how best to meet those needs.
How do we create facilities for care that people can call home (or find temporary help) while keeping them in the center of our community?
Our position is and has been that Rivington House must be returned to public use for the benefit of our Lower East Side community. We will begin with a two-hour panel discussion, hosted by University Settlement House, where several experts (architecture, public health, care giving, disability rights) will give us a vocabulary of ideas to think about in preparation for a charrette later in the spring.”
Sunday March 12th from 2-4 p.m. at University Settlement’s Speyer Hall, 184 Eldridge St. (between Rivington and Delancey Streets)
Speakers will include Debra Jeffreys-Glass and Rosemary Shields, telling “real stories” from the community; architect Andrew Knox, who will, “illuminate the interior” of the Rivington House building; and Ruth Finklestein, Ashley Stevens and Susan Scheer discussing the “continuum of community care.”
