“Thanksgiving Honor Roll” Recognizes Legal Services NYC Executive Director Andrew Scherer

The Village Voice's Tom Robbins writes:

By every measure, we are in for a long, hard winter, one that has
already turned punishingly cold on the streets, in City Hall, and in
Albany. It is colder yet for thousands suddenly out of work, sucked
under by Wall Street's grasping greed. Others, who never knew the
security of a decent, steady job even before this savage downturn, face
the severing of government lifelines as politicians scramble to slice
their budgets, starting from the bottom up.

All of which is good reason to take a moment to give thanks to those
in the city's trenches who have quietly gone about the tough, everyday
work of remedying inequality, as well as those who have stood tall
against abuses of power.

Their deeds ennoble this city more than a trainload of the fatuous
celebrities who soak up so much of the media's attentions. Late Voice
writer Jack Newfield began this Thanksgiving tradition in 1976, in the
depths of the city's last fiscal crisis, a time when the powerbrokers
were again working overtime to remake New York in their own image.
Newfield called his honor roll an ode to "heroes and heroines, the
sung, and the unsung." Here are just a few of the many New Yorkers who
deserve a round of such applause.

 […]

Andy Scherer is another lawyer making a daily difference.
Scherer has spent 30 years at Legal Services of New York. He started in
the late '70s representing tenants in the Bronx Housing Court, a true
trial by fire because arson was a frequent eviction tool. He's served
as the program's executive director since 2001, battling to ensure that
New Yorkers faced with loss of homes, income, and their families don't
go without adequate legal representation.

Click here to read the full "Thanksgiving Honor Roll" in the Nov. 25th issue of the Village Voice.