Advocacy Made Easy On Our New Website

Advocacy through preservation leadership is one of Village Preservation’s most important functions. You can be a part of that by attending hearings in person or virtually, and sending emails through our website to elected officials, the Mayor, and city agencies.

Our new website, VillagePreservation.org, has all the information and resources you expect from our old website, and more, but in a simpler, clearer, easier to use format, allowing you to get the latest news, do in-depth research, find out about events and programs, and easily support our work or get more involved. Whether you want a quick bit of information or want to spend hours exploring neighborhood history and preservation efforts, VillagePreservation.org is the place to be!

Let’s look at the Advocacy section in particular and see how easy it is for you to participate in public policy and make your voice heard!

Village Preservation advocates for expanded landmark and zoning protections to help preserve the historic buildings, scale, and balance of uses in our neighborhood, while fighting against development which is inappropriate in terms of design or character. We support local small businesses and cultural institutions, and promote policies that help them succeed. We inform the public of important decisions being made regarding development and preservation in our neighborhoods and how they can affect the outcome, and of the positions and actions of elected and government officials in relation to them.

To Advocate go here: https://www.villagepreservation.org/advocacy/

Then click the “Campaigns” section and you will see a variety of current campaigns, around everything from particular buildings to entire neighborhoods, or for small businesses in general.

If you want a quick and simple way to see all the current campaigns that you can take action on, just click on the Take Action box on the right per the image below.

This will take you to the screen shown below. Here you will find a list of current and active campaigns across the neighborhoods in which Village Preservation works.

If you prefer to search by map, we have that feature too. Just click the section that indicates “Map,” and a map will pop up with links to all the various campaigns, past and present.

If you know what neighborhood you want to search for, you can use the drop-down menu in the image below. When you click on it, a list will appears, from east Village to far West Village and everything in between.

Some issues transcend just one area, and so we have also created a category “Multiple Neighborhoods” that you can scan through as well.

The “Multiple Neighborhoods” category includes issues like our Small Business campaigns, since they affect more than one section of our neighborhood.

There are many ways to search for and identify an issue area that you want to take action on — it’s up to you!

Let’s say you are interested in learning about and taking action on one of Village Preservation’s Small Business campaigns. We have another way to find an issue. Just Browse through the campaigns, like in the image above, which are also listed in alphabetical order, until you get to the “S” section and see the “Small Business” image. Just click the image, and it takes you to that campaign page.

Village Preservation works to support, promote, and protect small independent businesses in our neighborhoods. We do this through our Business of the Month Program and our Annual Village Awards. We have advocated for businesses facing unfair evictions or rent hikes. And we advocate for legislative measures that would help to maintain small businesses.

One current work includes supporting State legislation which would help small businesses and non-profits affected by COVID-19 and the related shutdown, by providing rent relief from state and federal funds and requiring the small businesses/non-profits and landlords to share the burden of the shortfall during this time. This is the fairest and most rational way of addressing this crisis which, if left unchecked, will result in countless small businesses and non-profits shutting their doors permanently.

To take action on this important piece of legislation introduced by local elected officials State Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, you would move your cursor over the black square with the Take Action heading for this particular campaign as shown in the image below.

When you click on the Take Action button for any campaign, you are taken to a related webpage for sending an email to the listed officials. The form letter is easy to fill in and will go to one or more officials, depending on the campaign, with one click of the button. First, you must fill in your personal contact information, like name and address. The Village Preservation email action also allows you to edit the Subject Line and also add a personalized message to the general letter we create and provide for your convenience. All these sections are indicated by the three red arrows in the image below.

And that’s it! You will get a confirmation email that verifies that your letter was sent. In that confirmation letter you will have the opportunity to share the email action on social media like Facebook. The email action will have a subject line with something like “Thank You for Taking Action”. And at the bottom of that email is an easy way to donate and support the advocacy of Village Preservation! Let us know if you have any questions or want to get involved more.