Some Clients Served…

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 726
Coalition for an Independent Brooklyn Judiciary
Communities United for Responsible Energy
Green Guerillas
New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods
Municipal Art Society
Pratt Area Community Council
Prospect Park Alliance
Public Health Association of NYC
Stop Patient Abuse Now! Coalition (SPAN, project of the Gray Panthers)
Sustainable South Bronx
United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE)
...among others

VICTORIES

We hate to brag.

But once in a while, we think it's OK, especially if it means that the rest of the people of the City win as well.

We're talking about the recent win our client, the Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods (OWN) had in the "garbage wars."

For almost five years, OWN, which is comprised of 26 community groups from all over New York City, had been fighting the City's proposed garbage plan.  The City's original plan called for a mega-waste transfer station to be built in the already waste-overburdened communities of either Red Hook, Brooklyn or Hunts Point in the Bronx.

OWN called many community meetings, gave tours of the various waste transfer stations, and offered their own, much more environmentally-sound garbage plan.

Beginning in 1999, we helped OWN bring its message to the public.  We created a carefully crafted public relations and communications strategy that included writing and disseminating the fax newsletter "Real Trash Talk;" setting up editorial board meetings with papers like the New York Times and the Staten Island Advance;  holding briefings for interested journalists from the Daily News and Crain's; placing OWN spokespeople on radio and on TV-WINS and WCBS Radio,  NY 1, WABC-TV, WNBC-TV and all the local TV stations; contacting elected officials; placing opinion pieces, and just generally keeping in regular communication with the media.

It worked!

The City came out with its new proposed garbage plan in the beginning of May, 2000,and the City withdrew its plan to build a huge garbage plant anywhere in New
York City.  Then, in 2002, after Mayor Bloomberg took office, he sat down with OWN members, reviewed the City's garbage plan, and adopted almost all of the original OWN plan. We're still working to insure that the plan is put into practice.

SOME ONGOING WORK

We've also worked with  community gardeners in the Bronx to publicize their fight to stop the City from bulldozing their gardens.  And we helped create and publicize a new transit coalition - Staten Island Transit Now! - which advocates for more express buses for the south shore of Staten Island and for an express bus lane from the Staten Island Expressway to Brooklyn's Gowanus Expressway on into Manhattan. We also continue to fight for better siting and pollution regulations for power plants within the City's neighborhoods.

Every day, we fight hard for our clients and we're pleased that our results have been so positive.