Another Sandy Victim That Could Use Your Help: The New York Civil Liberties Union
The New York offices of both the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union are located in the financial district. Their building on Broad Street was decimated by Sandy's storm surge and their offices likely won't be open for the foreseeable future. They could use your help.
The NYCLU (which is helping me sue the Nassau County Police Department for access to public records about Bill O'Reilly) has about 50 attorneys and other staff here in New York City; most of them have taken up temporary office space in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom's Times Square headquarters. The ACLU has 180 New York employees displaced by the storm. As of yesterday, they were all working from home.
"The entire three sublevels of our building flooded," says NYCLU spokesperson Jennifer Carnig. "There's saltwater, contaminated water—a lot of damage. We're told we probably won't be allowed back in until the end of the year. It's a challenge for us, particularly in this economy."
To give you a sense of how the NYCLU continued its important work through the storm: In order to challenge an election official in Duchess County last week who was illegally attempting to prevent college students from voting, the organization's legal director drove eight hours on storm-damaged roads to a courthouse in White Plains (normally an hour or so drive), getting home with just one gallon of increasingly scarce gas in his tank. The NYCLU won the case one day before the election.
So: If you want to add the NYCLU to your long list of people and outfits that deserve a little help in the wake of Sandy, go here.
[Image via Getty]