[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 140 (Tuesday, September 20, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  IN HONOR OF THE NEW YORK CITY STREET RENAMING OF EAST 111TH STREET, 
 BEWEEEN 1ST AVENUE AND FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT DRIVE AS PHILIP REED WAY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 20, 2011

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the New York City 
street renaming of East 111th Street, between 1st Avenue and Franklin 
D. Roosevelt East River Drive after my beloved friend, political ally, 
and the late former New York City Council Member Philip Reed. Elected 
in 1997, Phil represented East Harlem and Manhattan Valley, and parts 
of the Upper West Side and the South Bronx. He left office in 2005, 
unable to seek re-election to a third term because of term limits. He 
was a Democrat, and the first openly gay black member of the City 
Council. Phil passed away on November 6, 2008, two days after 
fulfilling his last wish to vote for and witness the election of Barack 
H. Obama as President of the United States of America.
  Born on Feb. 21, 1949, Philip Reed, a New York native, was the son of 
a black father and a white mother. He and a twin sister, Elinor, were 
raised by their mother and stepfather, both white, in an upper-middle-
class Manhattan world of civil rights activism, prep schools, and 
Martha's Vineyard. Phil dropped out of Ohio Wesleyan University and 
received conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War.
  Philip Reed began his activism, participating in the Civil Rights 
Movement, the Free Speech Movement, and the Vietnam War protests, as a 
student and tennis athlete. He took part in civil disobedience at the 
University of California, Berkely Campus in Oakland and was arrested. 
He later became a leader in the Gay Rights Movement and was one of the 
legendary participants of the Stonewall Riots, which were a series of 
spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took 
place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall 
Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City.
  As a local community activist, Phil worked with Central Park West 
North Block Association, Community Board 7 and the NYPD to rid Central 
Park North and the surrounding Manhattan Valley neighborhood of drugs, 
crack cocaine, trafficking and prostitution. He challenged the 
Community Board and Borough Presidents to bring issues that are more 
diverse to the board, and increase the number of minority appointments 
to the Community Board. As a Democratic District Leader, Phil helped to 
make Three Parks Independent Democratic Club one of the largest and 
most diverse productive Independent Democratic clubs on the upper West 
Side Manhattan Valley and city of New York.
  As a New York City Councilman, Phil Reed is responsible for authoring 
and passing historic legislation to ban racial and religious profiling 
in New York City, the use of cell phones in places of public 
performances, and predatory lending. As Chair of Consumer Affairs, he 
created identity theft legislation to protect all New Yorkers and 
sought to reform and increase vendor licenses for all potential 
entrepreneurs living in the city. As a member of the Aging Committee, 
he directed funding to purchase vans, upgrade kitchens and food 
pantries for senior centers and programs. He renovated libraries to 
include air conditioning and fought for and secured funding to preserve 
and expand El Museo Del Barrio, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the 
Museum of the City of New York, which Mayor Giuliani tried to relocate 
to the Tweed Building in lower Manhattan.
  He created cultural pathways along the East 103rd Street Corridor, 
installed new historic street lamps and poles, planted trees and 
installed tree guards along the East 116th Street, West 106th Street, 
East 138th Street and East 106th Street corridors. He led, managed and 
funded the Frederick Douglass Memorial Circle and West 110th Street 
Gateway Project and directed funding that increased the number of 
police emergency call boxes throughout the northern end of Central 
Park. He funded new technology for computers and science labs for 
public schools throughout the entire district.
  As Member of the Health Committee he protected and preserved HIV/AIDS 
funding from cuts and made sure those funds were distributed to the 
areas and agencies in the field that did the work and outreach. He kept 
the Health Department from closing the 115th Street Community Health 
Office and dental clinic in East Harlem. He organized one of the 
largest coalitions to fight against the redevelopment of the 100th 
Street Bus Depot, and even though the community lost that fight, he 
made the MTA spend an additional 15 million dollars to add a roof and 
state of the art ventilation system to enclose and protect asthmatics 
from diesel fuel exposure. Because of that coalition's fight, the MTA 
purchased a record number of clean air and hybrid buses. He re-
established and nurtured the East Harlem Asthma Working Group and at 
the urging of Senator Hillary Clinton in 2003, the group held New York 
City's First Annual Asthma March. Phil's annual asthma symposiums were 
effective and known throughout the city.
  Phil will be greatly remembered for his work to improve, create and 
refurbish open space and directed most of his capital dollar allotments 
to the restoration and creation of parks and playgrounds throughout the 
Eight Council District and beyond, including Hudson River Park, 
Riverside Park Ball Fields and the Frederick Douglass Memorial Circle. 
Phil funded a nature pathway boardwalk and bridge on Randall's Island, 
and today thousands and thousands of public school children from East 
Harlem and beyond are learning hands-on about nature and their 
environment through programming through the Randall's Island Sports 
Foundation.
  Parks funded by Philip Reed: Peoples Park and Playground (Mon Haven), 
Brook Park (Mott Haven), Millbrook Playground (Mott Haven), Happy 
Warrior Park and Playground (Manhattan Valley), Frederick Douglass Ball 
Field, Playground and Pool (Manhattan Valley), Riverside Ball Fields 
(Manhattan Valley/Upper West Side), Broadway Malls & Water Truck 
(Manhattan Valley/Upper West Side), Booker T. Washington Playground 
(Manhattan Valley), Thomas Jefferson Ball Fields and Recreation Center 
(East Harlem), Robert McNair Park and Playground (East Harlem), Central 
Park Zoo & Tiger Bathrooms (Central Park), Wagner Houses Playground 
(East Harlem), East 103rd Street Community Garden (East Harlem), 97th 
Street Park Avenue Mall (East Harlem), Randall's Island's Nature 
Boardwalk and Pedestrian Bridge (Randall's Island/Ward Island).
  Mr. Speaker, please join me, the city of New York and a very grateful 
Nation as we celebrate the legacy of a true American hero by the street 
renaming of East 111th Street, between 1st Avenue and Franklin D. 
Roosevelt East River Drive as ``Philip Reed Way.''

                          ____________________