February 01, 2014
Dear Supporters,
The (NYC
CAN) is excited to announce the launch of the “High-rise Safety
Initiative,” a new ballot initiative that will amend the New York City
Charter to require the NYC Department of Buildings to investigate all
high-rise building collapses occurring in New York City on or after
September 11, 2001, except the collapse of WTC 1 and 2. The Initiative
will apply to the collapse of WTC 7 on September 11, 2001, as well as
any high-rise collapse that occurs in the future.
As many of you know, the City of New York blocked NYC
CAN’s 2009 ballot initiative from going before the voters and becoming
law. Five years later, we are sponsoring a new ballot initiative that
has been carefully crafted to withstand any legal challenge the City
might bring.
The Road to the Ballot
For the proposed charter amendment to appear on the November 4, 2014 ballot, we need to submit 30,000 signatures from registered New York City voters by July 3, 2014, and a second submission of 15,000 signatures by September 5, 2014.
To be sure we have enough valid signatures, the High-rise Safety
Initiative is aiming to gather 75,000 signatures for the first
submission, and 35,000 signatures for the second submission.
After that we may have to face off against the City over
the legality of the petition, a battle we are confident of winning. Once
the amendment is officially on the ballot, we will launch a full-scale
electoral campaign to educate New York City voters about the need for
the High-rise Safety Initiative.
Our Success Depends on You
Our ability to gather the signatures, overcome a legal challenge and win the vote on November 4 depends on your generous support.
The petition drive, which will run from May to July 2014,
will cost $250,000. The High-rise Safety Initiative is working with a
political consulting firm that specializes in field operations to manage
the petition drive – which all but ensures that we will successfully
gather enough signatures if we meet our fundraising goal. After that, up
to $50,000 may be needed for litigation.
Today we are asking you to make a generous donation to help us reach our $250,000 fundraising goal by May 1.
With your generous support we will take the first steps toward
mandating a new WTC 7 investigation and ensuring that the failure to
properly investigate a high-rise collapse is never repeated in New York
City.
We thank you for your commitment to NYC CAN’s efforts
over the past five years. Now, with your generous support and lots of
hard work, we can require the City of New York to investigate the
collapse of WTC 7 and any high-rise collapse that may occur in the
future.
Sincerely,
Ted Walter
NYC Coalition for Accountability Now
