Assemblymember Rosenthal was joined by Borough President Scott Stringer and NYSERDA Industrial Research Program Manager Dana Levy to celebrate the unveiling of 11 Riverside Drive’s new cogeneration system. Cogeneration will decrease the amount of electricity demand within the building by 30 percent.

Schwab House, in partnership with NYSERDA, has upgraded to a clean-burning natural gas combined heating and power (CHP) system, which will increase fuel efficiency and yield substantial energy savings for the building. The $1.6 million CHP system installation was made possible through a $402,000 award from NYSERDA as part of its shared savings program. CHP, also known as cogeneration, is the simultaneous production of heat and power through a single process. It uses heat that would be wasted in conventional power generation to provide hot water and heat for parts of the building.

I was proud to have worked closely with building manager Lance Kolb and Schwab House Board President Joel Mandel as the project navigated the approval process. I testified before the city’s Department of Buildings in 2007 urging that guidelines for utilization of such technology in residential buildings be updated and expedited. The project was initially jeopardized when the process of updating city regulations for cogeneration installation reached an impasse.

I am confident this project will set the standard for modernizing energy use across New York City. This is the start of a greener, more cost-efficient way of heating and cooling buildings across the Upper West Side and throughout the city. The newly installed unit is projected to save the building nearly $80,000 annually in utility costs and will decrease the amount of electricity demand by 30 percent.

Please contact my office at 212-873-6368 if you are interested in more information about partnering with NYSERDA on energy efficiency projects.

A strong supporter of fair labor practices and workers’ rights, Assemblymember Rosenthal, joined by State Senator Tom Duane, speaks at a rally in support of the workers at Saigon Grill. Workers reported labor law abuses when owners refused to pay a minimum wage or overtime.

For nearly three years, 36 delivery workers from the Saigon Grill restaurant, Upper West Side residents, and workers from around city have fought to deliver justice to the employees of Saigon Grill. By working with the Chinese Staff and Workers Association through organizing the community and by supporting legal efforts, I helped ensure a fair and just settlement for these mistreated workers.

The boycott began with the owners’ refusal to pay minimum wage and overtime. As a result of the boycott and subsequent court rulings, conditions for some in the industry have dramatically improved, workers are receiving legal levels of compensation and employees now work more reasonable hours. I was proud to stand with these workers to ensure labor standards and wages were being met. Saigon Grill was recently sold and the new owners will begin management of the restaurant early this year.

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Nail salon worker Susan Kim is still waiting to receive payment ordered by a U.S. District Court after the owners of 167 Nail Plaza violated labor laws by failing to pay overtime or allow for breaks. 167 Nail Salon has since been reopened by the same owners under the name Simply Nails. Susan Kim was employed at the salon for 17 years, often working more than 60 hours a week. When she asked for legally mandated break time, she was fired. I was outraged to hear this and have partnered with workplace safety advocacy organizations and community groups to prevent this type of abuse from routinely occurring.

For this reason I have introduced several bills in the Assembly to improve workplace conditions and safety for nail salon workers. Studies have demonstrated that nail salon workers frequently suffer from major health ailments because of their constant exposure to toxic nail products including polishes and glue. These bills will ban certain polishes containing chemicals such as formaldehyde, and will mandate that nail salon owners must provide employees with masks and gloves at their request.

Greening New Yorkand Creating Green Jobs

The Green Jobs/Green NY law, which I co-sponsored, will create a statewide energy efficiency and workforce development program in order to perform energy audits and energy efficiency retrofits for residential, small business, and not-for-profit owned buildings. This effort will reduce energy consumption and costs and promote the installation of clean energy technology. The program will lead to green job development, including opportunities for new entrants into the state’s workforce, the long-term unemployed and displaced workers and finance efficiency improvements through energy cost savings. For more information on green jobs and training in New York State, visit: http://www.GreenCareersNY.com.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will require applicants to include local community groups in collaboration with contractors, local utilities and labor training organizations. For more information, visit: http://www.nyserda.org/greenny/default.asp.

Fighting to Keep Our Family-Owned Pharmacies from Closing

Neighborhood pharmacies already coping with skyrocketing rents and aggressive competition from chain stores were dealt an additional hardship on September 26, 2009, when the formula by which pharmacies are reimbursed for Medicaid and government assistance programs, including the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage Program, was dramatically reduced as the result of a federal court settlement. This ruling only compounds the difficulties faced by pharmacies as they have experienced subsidy cuts 13 times in the past 15 years. As prescription drug reimbursement rates have plunged, large chains have maintained profits through the sale of general retail goods. Smaller pharmacies that once relied on prescription drug sales to stay afloat have not had this luxury. Last year alone, 77 independent pharmacies closed down in New York City as chain stores continued to expand.

This alteration of the reimbursement formula will shortchange our pharmacies, especially the remaining independent stores that contribute to our neighborhood’s character. It is for this reason that I have cosponsored bill A.9139, which would change the state’s payment system to a formula that is more responsive to the needs of small pharmacies. This more equitable method of compensation will ensure that pharmacy service cuts and closures do not disproportionately affect the elderly and disabled, who rely on neighborhood services to remain in their homes and out of hospitals.

New High Schoolon the Upper West Side

I have been working with other elected officials and interested parties on the development of a new Frank McCourt High School for Journalism, Writing & Literature at the Brandeis High School Campus. The school is slated to have an enrollment of 432 students, with 108 students in the freshman class.

This school will provide opportunities for students interested in writing and will incorporate Spanish and French into the curriculum. The McCourt School is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010 and will give parents another option for education on the Upper West Side. Selection usually takes place in the fall, however, some high schools are formed after the selection process is already under way. For these schools, a modified timeline is used for students interested in applying. See below for important dates and details:

Early February

• New High Schools Choice Forms will be available from counselors.

• New High Schools Fair: Students will be able to obtain more information regarding high schools that were created after the regular selection process at this event. They will then have the opportunity to re-order their preferences.

• New High Schools Choice Forms due back to counselors.

Rosenthal Fights Illegal Hotels

Illegal hotels are operated by owners of apartment buildings who rent regulated apartments to tourists on a daily or weekly basis because that is more profitable than renting to long-term lease-holding tenants. These operations have achieved pseudo-legitimacy through listings on travel sites like Orbitz and Expedia.

Angered by the number of complaints I was receiving regarding the proliferation of these sites, I posed as a tourist in 2007 and booked a room for two nights on 79th Street to confirm that the owners had been operating the building as an illegal hotel. While real estate interests thwarted an attempt to address this issue in the City Council, I continue to fight back against this practice, which reduces the number of available housing units and leads to unclean and unsafe conditions for the remaining permanent tenants.

At a recent hearing of the Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Committee, of which I am a member, I called on the State Department of Economic Development’s Chief Marketing Officer to work with me to ensure our neighbors do not suffer from this phenomenon and tourists do not leave New York upset and deceived about the lodging they received. I will also be introducing a bill during the 2010 Assembly legislative session to address this problem.

New residential development has exploded across the city, but there has been no corresponding increase in the building of public schools. In fact, the Department of Education’s (DOE) 5-year Capital Plan does not provide any additional capacity for District 3 schools. The State Legislature has given over $11 billion to help the city pay for school construction and it is imperative that the city meet our neighborhoods’ growing needs. Thirty-eight percent of students attend schools in overcrowded buildings and the single biggest obstacle to providing our kids with a quality education is the lack of available space. Art and music rooms, teachers’ lounges, and physical therapy rooms are not proper classrooms, and counting them as such disingenuously inflates the amount of available classroom space. It also denies children proper instruction in the full range of required curriculum.

I have repeatedly called on the Department of Education to stop improperly counting seats and engage in neighborhood analysis instead of looking at this problem as a district-wide issue. In 2007, I cautioned the DOE on the effects of the housing boom on the Upper West Side and the need for new schools. Since then, P.S. 87 has seen a 60 percent spike in zoned enrollment and kindergarten enrollment has swelled by 15 percent in District 3 schools, the highest increase in the city. According to Community Education Council (CEC) District 3, seven out of eight elementary schools are at or above capacity.

Assemblymember Rosenthal, pictured reading with children, is working with the Community Education Council for District 3, fellow elected officials and district parents to pressure the Department of Education to formulate a plan to alleviate the overcrowded conditions that will only worsen with the completion of several major residential buildings in the area.

I have had many conversations with neighborhood parents at CEC meetings, and at Borough President Stringer’s “War Room,” which has gathered DOE officials, parents, and elected representatives to map out potential solutions to this overcrowding crisis. Everywhere I go, people tell me that their children’s classrooms are simply packed.

This is not fair to kids, who I believe, learn better in smaller classes. It is also unfair to teachers, whose ability to reach individual students is compromised. In an environment where children are constantly being tested and teachers are judged on their students’ test scores, this situation is especially galling.

I will continue to work with parents and push the DOE to provide proper space for each child in District 3 to ensure students are getting the quality education to which they are entitled.

Addressing colleagues during the legislative session, Assemblymember Rosenthal spoke in favor of the marriage equality bill which passed the Assembly in December. A strong supporter of LGBT rights, Assemblymember Rosenthal was disappointed and saddened when the bill did not make it out of the Senate a few days later.

Had the bill passed the State Senate, New York would have become the sixth state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. Partners are currently unable to enter into civil marriage in New York State and as such they, and their children, do not have access to the 1,324 state and 1,138 federal rights and responsibilities that married couples in New York can access. These include the right to own property, inheritance, health care, hospital visitation, taxation, insurance coverage, child custody, pension benefits and testimonial privileges. Married couples receive important safeguards against the loss or injury of a spouse and crucial assurance against legal intrusion into their marital privacy. I am hopeful that when this issue is again considered in Albany there will be sufficient votes to pass this important legislation.