Issue Position: Working for our Community

Issue Position

Connecting kids to books

* In what's become an annual tradition, O'Donnell sponsors a Community Reading Challenge in local public schools and libraries and runs a children's book drive collecting used kid's books for local school libraries. He's also obtained funds to upgrade school libraries and to renovate the New York Public Libraries' Bloomingdale, George Bruce and Morningside Heights branches.

Enhancing our public schools

* Obtained funding for working artists to work with students, buy musical instruments, support school musicals, sponsor after school chess clubs, bring farm education to students--and partnered with Alvin Ailey Dance Co. to provide arts programming.

Advocating for Morningside Heights Historic Designation

* O'Donnell has fought for 20 years for a Morningside Heights Historic District to preserve the neighborhood's distinctiveness and protect it from out-of-character changes. He's also supported the newly-designated West End Avenue/Riverside Park District.

Improving Grant and Douglass Houses

* Channelled $2 million (from fines to banks for misconduct) to improve safety and communal spaces within Grant Houses & Douglass Houses.

Helping rebuild our parks

* Directed funds for new lighting in Morningside Park and renovation of tennis courts in Riverside Park.

Keeping Shakespeare free

* Helped keep free Shakespeare for all by contributing funding to the NY Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater's Delacourte Theatre and the New York Classical Theater.

Solving individual problems in the community

* Each year, O'Donnell's full-time, bilingual community office staff helps fix hundreds of New Yorkers' problems including identity theft, health care coverage, and tax issues. And every month, he hosts a housing clinic to assist tenants with leases, landlords, and evictions--with his full time tenant specialist and outside pro-bono attorneys.

Source