Attend Car-Free Central Park Rally

Organized by T.A. and Mobilized Moms
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
4:30 pm
72nd Street and Central Park West

• Sign the Petition
• Write A Letter
• Join the Email List
• Send a Fax
• Health Professional Sign On
• Volunteer to help with the Campaign
• Financial Support

Anyone can sign--any age, residency or nationality. All that's required is a love of Central Park.

In October 2005, the Car-Free Central Park Campaign passed the 100,000-signature mark in its petition drive. We know of no other grassroots campaign in New York City's history that has achieved this level of support. We formally announced the signature total at a City Hall rally in March 2006 calling for a Car-Free Central Park Summer 2006. Although the bill gained broad support among council members, it was set aside in favor of the Mayor's fractional closing (described on the home page). I support the elimination of all regular automotive traffic from the loop drive and the return of the drive to recreational use only.

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Write a Letter

One snail-mail letter is worth a thousand postcards. Politicians will weigh a neatly typewritten, mailed letter more heavily than either e-mail or a pre-printed post card. We strongly urge you to send an old-fashioned letter to any or all of the officials below. If you would like help composing a letter, see our sample.

Adrian Benepe Parks Commissioner Arsenal Building 830 5th Ave. New York, N.Y. 10021 Phone: 212-360-1305 Fax: 212-360-1345 Janette Sadik-Khan Commissioner Department of Transportation 40 Worth Street New York, N.Y. 10013 212-CALL-DOT Scott Stringer Manhattan Borough President 1 Centre St., 19th Fl. South Municipal Building New York, N.Y. 10007 Phone: 212-669-8300 Fax: 212-669-4900

Michael Bloomberg pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov Mayor of New York City City Hall, NY NY 10007 Phone: 212-788-7585 The Central Park Conservancy The Arsenal, Central Park New York, NY 10021 Phone: 212-315-0385

Click here for a Sample Letter, which you can copy, modify, and/or print out.

Don't Forget Your Community Board!

The support of the Community Boards surrounding the park would be a major step towards achieving a car-free Central Park. Fearful that traffic would spill over onto their streets, community board officials have generally opposed a car-free park up to this time. Nevertheless, we believe that the community board officials are out of touch with their constituents' views on this issue.

Each community board has a transportation committee. We urge you to find out when this committee meets, attend meetings, and let your voice be heard.

The web site for the The Community Affairs Unit can help you contact your community board.

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Join the Central Park E-mail List

E-mail Mailing List
The best way to keep tabs on what's happening with the Car-Free Central Park Campaign is to join the Campaign's e-mail announcement list.

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Send a Fax

Subject:

Dear Mayor Bloomberg:
I am writing to express my support for closing Central Park's loop drive to cars. Support from health experts like the American Lung Association and Harlem Hospital has made it clear that we're making New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds sick by filling Central Park, "the lungs of New York," with dangerous car emissions. I am proud to be one of over 100,000 people who have already signed a petition for a car-free Central Park loop drive, and I am now collecting more signatures. I look forward to presenting the full petition for a car-free Central Park loop drive for your consideration. Thank you,

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Please include your full contact information so that your message will be treated as official correspondence! Your message will be faxed to Mayor Bloomberg and e-mailed to Transportation Alternatives.

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Health Professional Sign On

If you are health professional who would like add your name to the signers of this letter, please e-mail your name, title and affiliation to info@transalt.org. Please specify whether or not you would like us to include your affiliation on the letter.

Michael Bloomberg
Mayor of New York City
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
November 21, 2004

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

We are writing today to urge you to close the Central Park loop drive to driving in order to protect and improve the health of the hundreds of thousands of people who live, work and play near or in the park. (We are not asking you to close the four transverse drives.)

As you are probably already aware, obesity has become an epidemic around the country and here in New York City. Allowing driving on the park’s loop drive discourages untold thousands of children and adults from using the park for much needed exercise. Congratulations to you for investing $25 million in building new school playgrounds to help increase opportunities to play and exercise. Closing Central Park’s loop drive to driving would be a free and immediate way to provide acres of safe play space for thousands of children.

Currently, the park is open to driving at the same time children leave school. A car-free park loop drive would give children a safe place to play and exercise after school as well as a healthy and safe place for the city’s many aspiring Olympians to train.

We would also like to draw your attention to the American Lung Association’s recent endorsement of a car-free Central Park loop drive. The well-respected ALA observed that, when the park is open to driving, park users are forced to exercise within dangerous proximity to cars emitting harmful pollutants that include ozone, carbon monoxide, fine particles, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Inhaling these pollutants can trigger asthma and other serious health problems. During the period that Atlanta made parts of the city off-limits to private cars during the 1996 Summer Olympics, hospitalizations for asthma fell by almost 20%.

For these reasons, we urge you to continue to champion improving the health of millions of New Yorkers by permanently closing the Central Park loop to driving. The health of our city is far more important than the minimal benefit to an increasingly tiny number of drivers.

We look forward to the day when New York City doctors, runners, bicyclists, and park lovers of every stripe can stand with you to cut the ribbon on a car-free Central Park loop drive.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Delphine Taylor, M.D. Columbia University Medical Center Aaron Spital, M.D. Medical Director New York Organ Donor Network Dianne Pulte, M.D. VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, New York Campus and the Weill Cornell Medical Center Aaron Spital, M.D. NYODN Phil Noyes, MPH, MA Research Scientist Brooklyn District Public Health Office NYC DOHMH

Carol Jellett, M.D. St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center Joseph Asbury, M.D. Internist David Alfandre M.D. Andrea Truncali, MD Chief Resident, Section of Primary Care Department of Internal Medicine NYU School of Medicine Deborah Dowell, M.D. Abigail Wolfson, BSN, RN Pediatric Nurse Practitioner

If you are health professional who would like add your name to the signers of this letter, please e-mail your name, title and affiliation to info@transalt.org. Please specify whether or not you would like us to include your affiliation on the letter.

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Volunteer to help with the Campaign

Click here to register to volunteer for the car-free Central Park campaign

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Financial Support

If you can't give your time, perhaps you can support us financially. Send a check to Transportation Alternatives, specifying that the (tax deductible) contribution is for the Car-Free Central Park Campaign:

Transportation Alternatives
127 West 26th Street, Suite 1002
New York, N.Y. 10001-6808

Or visit our online donation page to donate now.

Remember, a ban on cars in Central Park won't happen by itself. We achieved the current car-free hours only because many dedicated people generously gave of their time and talents.