Thursday, August 8, 2019

Fight For NYCHA Aug. 10 Action-Planning Workshop and Looming Call For Primaries



Fight For NYCHA Aug. 10 Action-Planning Workshop and Looming Call For Primaries. #KeepPublicHousingPublic

Aug. 10 Fight For NYCHA Action-Planning Workshop


Counter each new powerholder strategy


Join us to plan a tenant-led series of actions to defeat the demolition, RAD conversion, and sale of air rights of public housing. Under Mayor Bill de Blasio's planned use of RAD, public housing will be put into the hands of private landlords, will bring overdevelopment to public housing, and will lead to tenant displacement.



DATE : Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019


TIME : 1 pm


PLACE : 419 West 17th Street, Manhattan


RSVP : Fight For NYCHA Action-Planning Workshop [Facebook]



Electeds call for an extension of time ; if NYCHA is not fully-funded, there looms a call for primaries.


Elected officials recently announced a proposal for tenants in Corey Johnson's City Council district to join an advisory board that is set to be empaneled in September, which is when NYCHA was set to ask for Requests for Proposals for the demolition/RAD conversion of Fulton Houses. Now, electeds are saying that they want to push back the start of the RFP timeline to December, to give the advisory board time to meet and to form an alternate funding plan. This kind of arrangement is fraught with risks. First and foremost, using the failed fight to save St. Vincent's Hospital as an example, the one month loan extension given to St. Vincent's was the last nail in its coffin, and it gave electeds an excuse to say that they did all that they could to save St. Vincent's -- which was a lie. Second, no process that electeds offer up to the community is going to be fair or democratic, because every elected with jurisdiction in Chelsea, Hudson Yards, and Hell's Kitchen has a track record of supporting non-stop, community-crushing gentrification. Third, the solution is already known. Fulton Houses needs $168 million. NYCHA, over all, needs an estimated $32 billion. The only acceptable solution is the full-funding of NYCHA.


If electeds don't find the money to fully-fund Fulton Houses without resorting to demolition, RAD conversion, and the sale of air rights, then activists are prepared to make a call that all complicit politicians should be primaried -- or voted out of office, entirely -- beginning with those with jurisdiction over the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.


Recent media reports



Fight For NYCHA is a collective of tenants, activists, artists, and advocates, who are supporting NYCHA to self-determine the future of public houisng in New York City. We oppose Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to put 1/3 of NYCHA into the hands of private landlords. We reject Mayor de Blasio's proposal, because the money exists to save NYCHA. We just have to change our priorities.


# # #




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Saturday, July 13, 2019

Protest Corey Johnson Monday Night ; Other Updates From Fight For NYCHA



Protest Corey Johnson to save Fulton Houses ; and other updates from @FightForNYCHA. #KeepPublicHousingPublic

Protest Corey Johnson to save Fulton Houses


No #RAD-ification of Fulton Houses !


Join us for a protest on Monday night at the apartment house of New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea). We demand that Council Speaker Johnson allocate $168 million to save Fulton Houses from demolition and to stop the handing over of Fulton Houses to a private landlord.



DATE : Monday, July 15, 2019


TIME : 6:30 pm


PLACE : 220 West 15th Street, Manhattan


RSVP : Protest Corey Johnson to save Fulton Houses [Facebook]



Update on Councilmember Ben Kallos' Forum on Overdevelopment


Councilmember Ban Kallos (D-Sutton Place) was generous to allow Fight For NYCHA to speak at his Forum on Overdevelopment at CUNY Graduate Center on June 27. Councilmmember Kallos noted how his office and the office of Borough President Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) had opposed any development of NYCHA that circumvented the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure ("ULURP"). Please watch the Occupy Radio video of the brief remarks made about the importance of putting the plan by Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York), calling for the demolition and RAD conversion of public housing, on the public agenda.



VIDEO : Fighting Every Step of the Way to Save NYCHA [Occupy Radio via YouTube]



Update on Twitter Suspension


When the @FightForNYCHA Twitter account was restored, we were notified that our account had been flagged as spam. We don't know how Twitter reached that conclusion, but it may be that our opposition were flagging our posts as spam. Whatever the true cause, we have set up a back-up Twitter account. Please take time to follow @FullyFundNYCHA.


Search for 501(c)(3) Sponsor


Fight For NYCHA is searching for a fiscal sponsor to support our commitment to public service. Our core mission is three-fold : to bring relief to public housing tenants, to preserve and expand public housing, and to treat housing as a human right. If your group can act as our 501(c)(3) sponsor, please contact us at : team (at) mg (dot) fightfornycha (dot) org.


Fight For NYCHA is a collective of tenants, activists, artists, and advocates, who are supporting NYCHA to self-determine the future of public houisng in New York City. We oppose Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to put 1/3 of NYCHA into the hands of private landlords. We reject Mayor de Blasio's proposal, because the money exists to save NYCHA. We just have to change our priorities.


# # #




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Thursday, June 13, 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : @FightForNYCHA's Twitter account was suspended



The @FightForNYCHA Twitter account has been suspended ; do your part to hold elected officials accountable by demanding $32 billion for NYCHA. #KeepPublicHousingPublic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact : Louis Flores, (347) 551-2299, team@mg.fightfornycha.org


The @FightForNYCHA Twitter account has been suspended ; do your part to hold elected officials accountable by demanding $32 billion for NYCHA. #KeepPublicHousingPublic


13 June 2019 (New York) - Fight For NYCHA's Twitter account, @FightForNYCHA, was suspended shortly after 5 pm on Wed., June 12, without specific indication for cause. An appeal has been filed to overturn the suspension. The account suspension followed the commencement of a protest campaign to secure $168 million to save the Fulton Houses public housing development in Chelsea from demolition and RAD conversion, which would turn public housing into a for-profit business by putting the Fulton Houses into the hands of private landlords. Fight For NYCHA is working to empower public housing tenants to determine the future of public housing in New York City. The Twitter account suspension also took place just one day after former New York City Councilmember Sal Albanese tweeted that his plan to take money out of politics, called Democracy Vouchers, would politically empower registered voters living in New York City Housing Authority apartments.


Fight For NYCHA respectfully requests that the media and the public hold Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City), New York Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea), and Councilmember Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) accountable for not fully-funding NYCHA on the municipal level. Other elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14), have similarly turned their backs on people with the least. As argued by Fight For NYCHA, the Rental Assistance Demonstration program ("RAD") of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is a pretext for the privatisation of NYCHA, because it is woefully inadequate to fund the preservation and expansion of public housing. In the case of Ocean Bay Apartments in Far Rockaway, for example, NYCHA needed $200 million in FEMA relief money to complete the renovations, money that will not be available at other NYCHA public housing apartment complexes, like at the Fulton Houses in Chelsea.


Fight For NYCHA is a collective of tenants, activists, artists, and advocates, who are protesting Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to put 1/3 of NYCHA into the hands of private landlords. We reject Mayor de Blasio's proposal because the money exists to save NYCHA. We just have to change our priorities.


# # #




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Saturday, May 25, 2019

For Immediate Release : Demand $32 billion for NYCHA : First protest set to #FindTheMoneyNow to #KeepPublicHousingPublic



Demand $32 billion for NYCHA : First protest set to #FindTheMoneyNow to #KeepPublicHousingPublic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact : Louis Flores, (347) 551-2299, team@mg.fightfornycha.org


Demand $32 billion for NYCHA : First protest set to #FindTheMoneyNow to #KeepPublicHousingPublic


25 May 2019 (New York) - Tenants of the Fulton Houses public housing development in Chelsea, members of Fight For NYCHA, and allies will be holding a protest at New York City Hall to demand that New York City Council reäppropriate the $10 billion from the capital budget for new jails and instead redirect those monies to the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA. Tenants are also calling for the New York City Council to hold hearings to establish a corporate income tax for corporations of a certain size that operate in New York City. These monies are being demanded to fully-fund NYCHA so as to avoid Mayor Bill de Blasio's plans to put NYCHA into the hands of private landlords.



DATE : Wednesday, 29 May 2019


TIME : 10 am


PLACE : Western Gate to New York City Hall


RSVP : Demand $32 billion for NYCHA [Facebook]



Since NYCHA is comprised of 90% Black and Latinx families, this means that the politicians are making a political calculation that they can exploit public housing tenants. Politicians, who support the plans announced by Mayor de Blasio to demolish public housing apartment buildings and to put public housing into the hands of private landlords, are keeping quiet about the racial implications of their actions or support. This is wrong.


Fight For NYCHA is a collective of tenants, activists, artists, and advocates, who are protesting Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to put 1/3 of NYCHA into the hands of private landlords. We reject Mayor de Blasio's proposal because the money exists to save NYCHA. We just have to change our priorities.


# # #




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Friday, May 10, 2019

For Immediate Release : Sat., 5/11 : Fight For NYCHA Action-Planning Mtg. @ Fulton Houses



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : #M11 Fight For NYCHA Action-Planning Meeting at Fulton Houses

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact : Louis Flores, (347) 551-2299, team@mg.fightfornycha.org


Fight For NYCHA Action-Planning Meeting


10 May 2019 (New York) — Fight For NYCHA is co-hosting an action-planning meeting to design actions to find the $32 billion needed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Fulton Houses tenants, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, and Fight For NYCHA members will be participating in the action-planning meeting.



DATE : Saturday, 11 May 2019


TIME : 1 pm


PLACE : Fulton Houses, 419 W 17th St., Manhattan


RSVP : Fulton Houses : Action Planning Meeting [Facebook]



Also on the proposed agenda is the task of electing an independent tenants' association. In the weeks since it was publicly revealed that Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City) will be demolishing buildings at the Fulton Houses in Chelsea and erecting in their place 70/30 market-rate rental apartment buildings, some Fulton residents have lost confidence in Tenant President Miguel Acevedo.


Recent media reports about the Fight For NYCHA movement :



Fight For NYCHA is a collective of tenants, activists, artists, and advocates, who are protesting Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to put 1/3 of NYCHA into the hands of private landlords. We reject Mayor de Blasio's proposal because the money exists to save NYCHA. We just have to change our priorities.


# # #




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Saturday, April 27, 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : Sunday, 4/28 : Fight For NYCHA Press Conference @ Fulton Houses



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : #A28 Fight For NYCHA Press Conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact : Louis Flores, (347) 551-2299, team@mg.fightfornycha.org


#A28 Fight For NYCHA Press Conference


27 April 2019 (New York) — Fight For NYCHA is co-hosting a press conference to speak out against private landlords taking-over public housing apartment buildings. Specifically, we oppose plans to demolish public housing buildings, the construction of buildings with market-rate apartments on public housing grounds, and the risks from private landlord ownership or management of buildings that house public housing tenants at the Fulton Houses in Chelsea.



DATE : Sunday, April 28, 2019


TIME : 1:30 pm


PLACE : Fulton Houses, 119 9th Ave, Manhattan


RSVP : Press Conference against RAD Conversion of NYCHA [Facebook]



Fulton Houses tenants, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, and anti-gentrification activists will be speaking at the press conference.


Fight For NYCHA is a collective of tenants, activists, artists, and advocates, who are protesting Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to put 1/3 of NYCHA into the hands of private landlords. We reject Mayor de Blasio's proposal because the money exists to save NYCHA. We just have to change our priorities.


# # #




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Wednesday, March 13, 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : Saturday's March Against Racism and Fascism does nothing to end racism in NYC



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : Saturday's March Against Racism and Fascism does nothing to end racism in NYC : Statement by Fight For NYCHA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact : Louis Flores, (347) 551-2299


STATEMENT BY FIGHT FOR NYCHA


13 March 2019 (New York) — Fight For NYCHA believes that the March Against Racism and Fascism, a parade put on by the coälition of United Against Racism and Fascism-NYC, is problematic over the misuse of « racism » in the title of their upcoming parade, scheduled for Sat., Mar. 16. Members of Fight For NYCHA learned that the coördinating committee for this parade lacked representation by Black and Brown people and that, although the parade was nominally opposing racism first, the parade had no political targets and was making no demands to end institutions of racism, particularly here in New York City. The parade is set to take place in Foley Square. Within blocks of the parade grounds are located the offices of Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City), New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea), and U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, each of whom are responsible for racist policies, such as supporting Broken Windows policing, approving rezonings that spread gentrification in low-income neighborhoods, and failing to propose a fully-funded settlement with the New York City Housing Authority to address its twin problems of poor physical condition standards and the lead poisoning crisis, respectively. Mayor de Blasio and Council Speaker Johnson also control the City Budget, and they refuse to provide NYCHA with enough money to improve the living standards of public housing tenants, who are a majority Black and Brown people. What is more, Mayor de Blasio supports building new jails to replace Rikers Island that will negatively impact Black and Brown people and people needing medical attention. Where do parade representatives stand on any of these policies that rest on racism ? Despite the stated first priority of this parade, there is no indication that any of these Government officials are targets of the parade against racism. Since racism is a major determinant of housing injustice, particularly in New York City, particularly in public housing, this parade misses a great opportunity to identify targets and to make demands to address racism in housing, for example.


Many groups representing the reform and resistance movements naturally oppose racism and facism, as does Fight For NYCHA. However, empty events, such as this parade, drain energy and resources from the efforts of others, who are engaged in struggles to challenge and end racism in society, particularly here in New York City, and particularly in public housing.


Fight For NYCHA is a collective of tenants, activists, artists, and advocates, who are protesting Mayor Bill de Blasio's announced proposal to sell 1/3 of NYCHA to private real estate interests in order to « save » NYCHA. We reject Mayor de Blasio's proposal because the money exists to save NYCHA. We just have to change our priorities


# # #




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Saturday, February 9, 2019

HAPPENING TOMORROW : Feb. 10 Rally at City Hall and March to U.S. Attorney's Office to save NYCHA



Reminder : Feb. 10 Rally at City Hall and March to U.S. Attorney's Office to save NYCHA


Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC) has proposed to sell up to 62,000 public housing apartments in a scheme that would allow private real estate developers and investors to buy into NYCHA. This plan, as corrupt as it is in many ways, won't be challenged by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who, has offered a new, shoddy settlement to quickly get rid of his investigation of the lead poisoning crisis at NYCHA that is silent on the sale of 1/3 of NYCHA. Before Berman became the top Manhattan Federal prosecutor, he was Rudy Giuliani's former law partner. Questions exist whether U.S. Attorney Berman respects the public opinion that informed the creation of NYCHA. NYCHA was formed in 1934 during the Great Depression after Fiorello La Guardia campaigned for mayor with the promise to create Government housing. In 1934, delegates representing 750,000 workers adopted a resolution to treat housing construction and maintenance as a social good, not unlike public transportation and public education.*



Powerful men, who support Big Business elites, are turning a blind eye to the suffering of average people, who live in public housing. On top of dealing with lead poisoning, exposure to toxic mold, and no head in the winter, now public housing residents must confront private landlords, who only want want to churn through tenants as a way to get to deregulation. We say, not on our watch ! These decisions -- to keep throwing pennies on the dollar to public housing as a pretext to sell public housing -- are being made without our consent. This is wrong. We need to have a say -- so we can block any sale of NYCHA.


Shirley Chisholm said, "If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair." Bring a folding chair with you, if you can, to our rally.



With your help, we can save public housing.


Join us.


Fight For NYCHA



Fight For NYCHA, a collective of tenants, activists, artists, and advocates, who are protesting Mayor Bill de Blasio's announced proposal to sell 1/3 of NYCHA (62,000 apartments) to private real estate interests in order to "save" NYCHA. We reject Mayor de Blasio's proposal because the money exists to save NYCHA. We just have to change our priorities. Follow Fight For NYCHA on Facebook and Twitter.


* See PUBLIC HOUSING ASKED BY WORKERS ; Social Control Just as in Education Is Endorsed at Meeting of 80 Delegates. MAYOR AND POST FAVOR IT LaGuardia Tells Labor Council Federal Money Will Only Begin to Meet City's Needs., The New York Times (29 June 1934), https://www.nytimes.com/1934/06/29/archives/public-housing-asked-by-workers-social-control-just-as-in-education.html.



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Sunday, January 27, 2019

Protest Change Notice : Feb. 10 Rally at City Hall and March to U.S. Attorney's Office to save NYCHA



Protest Change Notice : Feb.10 Rally at City Hall and March to U.S. Attorney's Office to save NYCHA

Protest Change Notice : Feb. 10 Rally at City Hall and March to U.S. Attorney's Office to save NYCHA


Our prior demonstration has been replaced by this event.


The goal of this direct action is to highlight an alternative solution to save NYCHA. Everybody please show up on Sunday, Feb. 10, at 1 p.m. for a rally at the steps of City Hall, after which we will march to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is only a few blocks away.




Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC) has proposed to sell up to 62,000 public housing apartments in a scheme that would allow private real estate developers and investors to buy into NYCHA. This plan, as corrupt as it is in many ways, must be approved by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who, is trying to settle a years-long Federal investigation into the lead poisoning crisis at NYCHA. Before Berman became the top Manhattan Federal prosecutor, he was Rudy Giuliani's former law partner. Questions exist whether U.S. Attorney Berman appreciates the public opinion that informed the creation of NYCHA.


NYCHA was formed in 1934 during the Great Depression after Fiorello La Guardia campaigned for mayor with the promise to create Govenrment housing. In 1934, delegates representing 750,000 workers adopted a resolution to treat housing construction and maintenance as a social good, not unlike public transportation and public education.*


By putting NYCHA into the hands of private real estate developers and investors, Mayor Bill de Blasio is saying we can trust the very same individuals, who spend millions to lobby to end rent regulations in New York State. Who thinks this can work ? Privatization of NYCHA will also dangerously legitimize the growing philosophy that most issues are best handled by the private sector, an approach that has been detrimental to numerous other agencies.


Mayor de Blasio claims his plan will raise $15 billion for NYCHA repairs. Our initial demand is that Mayor de Blasio cancel the corrupt $3 billion in taxpayer monies being given to Amazon and to stop the construction of four new jails to replace Rikers Island, thereby saving $10 billion, and to use these $13 billion for NYCHA. Alternatively, the City could impose a 1% income tax on all corporations of a certain size with an office in New York City. Either way, there should be no need to sell any public housing apartments to the real estate industry. Please keep in mind that, in order to make these demands, we are asking that Rikers be shut down, as we fully support the prison abolition movement.


All along, our greatest fear was that public housing was defunded, so it could reach such a state of neglect that it would be used as a pretext for its sale. Besides us, two men stand in the way of Mayor de Blasio's plan to sell NYCHA : U.S. Attorney Berman and U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley III. Recently, Judge Pauley has indicated that he does not support a judicial receivership. That puts more of an emphasis on U.S. Attorney Berman to oppose the sale of NYCHA. At a recent speech, U.S. Attorney Berman said, "There is no more important case in my Office than NYCHA." Our rally and march will ask him to consider how history will judge him if he permits Mayor de Blasio to violate the public sentiment that informed the creation of NYCHA.


And make sure to sign up here so we can keep you posted about future events as this is only the beginning. And make sure to spread the word about our event by promoting it on Facebook and Twitter ! We are strength in numbers !



With your help, we can save public housing.


Join us.


Fight For NYCHA



Follow Fight For NYCHA on Facebook and Twitter.


* See PUBLIC HOUSING ASKED BY WORKERS ; Social Control Just as in Education Is Endorsed at Meeting of 80 Delegates. MAYOR AND POST FAVOR IT LaGuardia Tells Labor Council Federal Money Will Only Begin to Meet City's Needs., The New York Times (29 June 1934), https://www.nytimes.com/1934/06/29/archives/public-housing-asked-by-workers-social-control-just-as-in-education.html.



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Sunday, January 13, 2019

Direct Action Alert : Bring your trash to the U.S. Attorney's Office to save NYCHA : 31 January 2019



Direct Action Alert : Bring trash to U.S. Attorney's Office to save NYCHA

Bring your trash to the U.S. Attorney's Office to save NYCHA


The goal of this direct action is to highlight an alternative solution to save NYCHA. Everybody is invited to bring trash to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Downtown Manhattan on Jan. 31, the date by which the Government must file its latest plan to save public housing in New York City.




Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC) has proposed to sell up to 62,000 public housing apartments in a scheme that would allow private real estate developers and investors to buy into NYCHA. This plan, as corrupt as it is in many ways, must be approved by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who, is trying to settle a years-long Federal investigation into the lead poisoning crisis at NYCHA. Before Berman became the top Manhattan Federal prosecutor, he was Rudy Giuliani's former law partner.


NYCHA was formed in 1934 during the Great Depression. Before its formation, delegates representing 750,000 workers adopted a resolution to treat housing construction and maintenance as a social good, not unlike public transportation and public education.*


By putting NYCHA into the hands of private real estate developers and investors, Mayor Bill de Blasio is saying we can trust the very same individuals, who spend millions to lobby to end rent regulations in New York State. Who thinks this can work ? Privatization of NYCHA will also dangerously legitimize the growing philosophy that most issues are best handled by the private sector, an approach that has been detrimental to numerous other agencies.


Mayor de Blasio claims his plan will raise $15 billion for NYCHA repairs. Our demand is that Mayor de Blasio cancel the corrupt $3 billion in taxpayer monies being given to Amazon and to stop the construction of four new jails to replace Rikers Island, thereby saving $10 billion, and to use these $13 billion for NYCHA. As a result, there should be no need to sell any public housing apartments to the real estate industry. Please keep in mind that we are asking that Rikers be shut down, as we fully support the prison abolition movement.


All along, our greatest fear was that public housing was defunded, so it could reach such a state of neglect that it would be used as a pretext for its sale. How would U.S. Attorney Berman like it if his building got sold, just because it was not properly maintained ? This is the same flawed logic that is driving Mayor de Blasio's corrupt plan to sell off NYCHA. Bring all the trash that you and your neighbors have to the U.S. Attorney's Office on Jan. 31.


And make sure to sign up here so we can keep you posted about future events as this is only the beginning. And make sure to spread the word about our event by promoting it on Facebook and Twitter ! We are strength in numbers !



With your help, we can save public housing.


Join us.



* See PUBLIC HOUSING ASKED BY WORKERS ; Social Control Just as in Education Is Endorsed at Meeting of 80 Delegates. MAYOR AND POST FAVOR IT LaGuardia Tells Labor Council Federal Money Will Only Begin to Meet City's Needs., The New York Times (29 June 1934), https://www.nytimes.com/1934/06/29/archives/public-housing-asked-by-workers-social-control-just-as-in-education.html.




If you have any of the following items, please bring them with you :


10 Common Household Items That Contain Lead



  1. Plastics

  2. Cosmetics

  3. Paint on Toys and Homes

  4. Toy Jewelry

  5. Ceramics

  6. Batteries in Products

  7. Glass

  8. New York City tap water

  9. Plumbing

  10. Household Dust




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Sunday, December 30, 2018

Happy New Year : Feds consulting with de Blasio, as he privatises NYCHA, despite past campaign finance controversies from real estate donors : 30 December 2018



Happy New Year from Progress New York ! Feds consulting with de Blasio, as he privatises NYCHA, despite past campaign finance controversies from real estate donors.

Feds consulting with de Blasio, as he privatises NYCHA, despite past campaign finance controversies from real estate donors


If the Government permits former U.S. Bharara to maintain exclusivity over some of his speech records, then it might be shown that the Nation's former top prosecutor has engaged in unjust enrichment from his time in office, charges, ironically, that he essentially brought against a number of officials he accused of public corruption.




By Progress New York Staff


The same U.S. Attorney's Office — which, in March 2017, accused Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City) and his administration of soliciting money from campaign donors, and then undertaking official actions on behalf of the donors and which had seized in April 2014 the records of the now-defunct Moreland Commission to investigate, amongst other purported crimes, the corrupting role of real estate donations in New York politics — is now inexplicably negotiating with the de Blasio administration over the future of public housing in New York City. The Local Government Agency that owns and administers public housing, the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, faces a capital improvement deficit exceeding $32 billion, and NYCHA must now confront the unaffordable dilemma of bringing to an end to each of a lead poisoning crisis, a toxic mold disaster, and a general uninhabitability catastrophe in public housing. After U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley III rejected a pennies on the dollar settlement proposed by the Government, the Nation's top Federal prosecutor for New York's southern district, Geoffrey Berman, is now reportedly trying to shore up a second proposed settlement that will please Judge Pauley.


Before U.S. Attorney Berman became the Nation's top prosecutor in New York's southern district, he was a partner in the Big Business law firm, Greenberg Traurig, the same law firm that employed former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R-New York City) and Borough President Melinda Katz (D-Queens). Because U.S. Attorney Berman lacks political experience and because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, ideologically now opposes the New Deal promise of treating housing as a social good, HUD's indifference and U.S. Attorney Berman's political naïveté have been reportedly permitting Mayor de Blasio to limit the City's financial responsibility during settlement discussions. Such an arrangement may explain, at least in part, why Judge Pauley deemed the first proposed settlement as insufficient.


Although Judge Pauley was able to stop the first proposed settlement due to its inadequacy, there is no legal mechanism in place to prevent U.S. Attorney Berman from making political and economical mistakes that would further disadvantage public housing tenants and potentially rob the City of strategic public assets. Mayor de Blasio's immediate response to Judge Pauley's rejection of the first proposed settlement was to ramp up the privatisation of public housing, with no democratic check on his decision. Inexplicably, U.S. Attorney Berman is negotiating with Mayor de Blasio about NYCHA's future, even after Federal prosecutors had, at one time, investigated real estate donors to Mayor de Blasio's various political committees. Furthermore, after the de Blasio administration had approved a prior sale of a portfolio of Section 8 buildings by NYCHA to a consortium that included politically-connected donors to Mayor de Blasio, the Internal Revenue Service had reportedly shown interest in that secret transaction, according to information obtained by Progress New York, but it is not know whatever became of that interest. Yet, Federal law enforcement officials have engaged in consultations with the de Blasio administration over a potential new settlement for NYCHA that may involve more such troubling sales. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-New York), about to begin his third term in office, has faced investigations of his real estate donors, and he has largely escaped scrutiny for the collapse of public housing on his watch. Meanwhilst, in recent years, the professional class of activists in New York City have responded to Government failure at NYCHA by calling for the resignations of former NYCHA CEO Shola Olatoye and outgoing Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, but, thus far, no direct challenges have been mounted against each respective top State and City Government executive. Even the newly self-entitled champion of public housing tenants, U.S. Attorney Berman, who said of NYCHA during a speech that "In my view, there is no case of greater size, scope, or impact on our docket," has become aloof on the subject. He, several of his Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and his press office each refused to answer several communications for this report.


NYCHA's collapse is every bit a result of neoliberalism's failure as it is of conservatism's betrayal of the public interest. Now, because of this political failure, Federal prosecutors are negotiating directly with the poor's oppressors.



In 2014, the de Blasio administration approved in secret that a cash-strapped NYCHA would sell a portfolio of Section 8 buildings, including 930 Halsey Street and 55 Saratoga Avenue in Brooklyn, into a consortium that included politically-connected real estate developers. According to Google Street View images, the buildings had undergone renovation prior to their sale. Source : Google Street View/Screen Shot/Sept. 2014/Fair Use


Public housing in New York City slid into a state of disrepair due to a combination of factors : the defunding by Washington élites of New Deal and Great Society programmes, the market failure of the unregulated real estate development industry, the consequence of neoliberalism in the Democratic Party, and because the State's and the City's budgets have been being influenced by Big Business interests. The Section 8 conversion programme, that is opened the door to the privatisation of NYCHA, was produced during the administration of President Barack Obama (D). The State, which regulates the City's housing laws, and the City, which is in charge of appointing the Board of Directors at NYCHA, have had their Budgets put under a microscope by an Orwellian-named board of Big Business directors, the Citizens Budget Commission. The CBC, for short, makes sure that the State and the City don't get carried away with answering the inequalities created by unregulated markets. That mainly looks like blocking any increases of taxes on the wealthy to fight economic inequalities and poverty.


NYCHA has also been mismanaged. NYCHA has become a place where elected officials and their operatives can groom political supporters in exchange for tokenism and patronage. Such an arrangement has largely curtailed the ability of NYCHA tenant leaders from truly advocating for public housing tenants. After public housing tenants were left with no apparatus to exert political pressure on a Government that left them essentially disenfranchised, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney launched in 2016 a two-year investigation into NYCHA's physical condition standards. Federal prosecutors sued NYCHA to bring about a settlement that would end conditions that created a lead poisoning crisis, toxic mold emergency, and general uninhabitability catastrophe in public housing. In the process, the U.S. Attorney's Office accused NYCHA of failures and of engaging in deception to hide the true extent of its lead poisoning crisis. But, thus far, Federal prosecutors have refrained from holding the de Blasio administration criminally responsible for permitting the lead poisoning crisis to worsen during his administration.


NYCHA was created in 1934 after 800 delegates representing 750,000 workers endorsed a resolution calling for housing construction and maintenance to be treated as a social good, not unlike public education and public transportation, according to a report published by the New York Times. Mayor de Blasio's plans to privatise NYCHA, in violation of the public sentiment that informed the creation of NYCHA in the wake of the Great Depression, has thus far been met by muted response amongst New York City's professional activist class. The campaign of U.S. Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and the press office of the New York City Democratic Socialists, which is the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, did not answer press inquiries for this report. According to information obtained by Progress New York, some political forces in New York City are organising for NYCHA to fall into Federal receivership, an outcome, were it come to pass, would also promise some form of privatisation, given the ideology of Washington élites. There may be a way for U.S. Attorney Berman to save NYCHA, according to political tacticians, but first he has to navigate a landscape that would superficially blame the Trump administration for NYCHA's dilemma instead of holding Mayor de Blasio accountable for how the role of Big Money in his political campaigns have corrupted his housing, public health, and economic policies. For, if NYCHA were to be indiscriminately privatised, then it wouldn't just be Mayor de Blasio, who would be responsible for the betrayal of the New Deal promise of treating housing as a social good, but it would also be U.S. Attorney Berman, HUD Secretary Benjamin Carson, and U.S. District Judge Pauley. Apart from permitting Mayor de Blasio to privatise NYCHA, Federal officials have already been countenancing sales and leases conducted in secret of NYCHA real property to some of the politically-connected real estate donors to Mayor de Blasio's various political committees. The élites created the problem at NYCHA, and, ironically, they will determine if public housing has a future in New York City.


New York City Government once treated housing as a social good ; now it espouses pro-business elitism and an indifference to the sufferings of ordinary citizens.


"The irony is that de Blasio ran on a slogan of A Tale of Two Cities," said Pauline Park, an anti-corruption and LGBT activist who led the campaign for transgender rights law enacted by the New York City Council in 2002, referring to the classic English novel about societal despair and revolution, adding that the Dickensian concepts of rewarding wealthy donors, meanwhilst allowing NYCHA to fall further into disrepair, had become a hallmark of Mayor de Blasio's administration. Ms. Park said that there was a clear need to raise taxes on the wealthy and on corporations in order to fully fund NYCHA's restoration, noting that a recent tax reform bill championed by President Donald Trump (R) did the opposite. "Many corporations pay no taxes," Ms. Park said, adding that corporations like Amazon.com and Wal-Mart were actually subsidised by taxpayers. When asked about Mayor de Blasio's apparent duplicity on fighting economic inequalities, Ms. Park stated that Mayor "de Blasio has been pushing a false image of himself as a progressive and as a national leader of progressives," and she noted that Mayor de Blasio's unfavourability ratings have not reach the lows of then MayorGiuliani in the time before the attacks of 9/11 or of then Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R-New York City) in his final year in office. As a result, Ms. Park said, "As for why there are no yellow vests [protests having an impact] in New York City ? I think de Blasio is heartily disliked by New Yorkers, but he does have a core of supporters."


Ms. Park declared that Mayor de Blasio enjoys no voter mandate, generally, due to the conditions that led to his 2013 Democratic Party primary win in that year's mayoral race (the chaos created after former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (NY-09) pulled out, controversial backing by then New York City Councilmember Christine Quinn (D-Chelsea) of a term limits extension and indication that she would reappoint Raymond Kelly as police commissioner, the campaign finance scandal that engulfed the campaign of then New York City Comptroller John Liu (D-New York City), and the refusal by former Comptroller Bill Thompson (D-New York City) to take on police misconduct as a campaign issue), and to the conditions that led to his 2017 reëlection (escaping indictment in the reported Federal corruption investigation into his campaign finance practises). What is more, Ms. Park questioned the existence of any mandate that specifically permitted Mayor de Blasio to sell-off NYCHA. Ms. Park stated that she had no faith in the U.S. Attorney's Office or in a Federal judge to save NYCHA, and she urged the public to closely follow all public officials "to the extent that they are actively or passively complicit in undermining public housing and public welfare, in general."


Public housing stock turns out to be critical to the function of society in New York City, particularly since there is a complete market failure to produce housing that is affordable to people earning very low incomes, much less to those living at or below the poverty level, especially since New York City has been experiencing a rapid depletion of rent regulated apartments, according to a 2015 report published by Gothamist. The interest in saving NYCHA is all he more compelling, particularly since three, successive mayoral administrations have spurred gentrification. "A Tale of Two Cities turns out to be a story of Bill de Blasio's betrayal of the campaign promises he made, instead rewarding the oligarchy of which he is a part ; like Giuliani and Bloomberg, he is a collaborator with the real estate industry in the immiseration and impoverishment of the City," Ms. Park said.


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