what do you do with a mayor who repeatedly refuses to sit down with you and talk about the homeless?
you spend $249 apiece for a couple dozen seats to a fundraising lunch where this billionaire expects to see only kindred spirits: fellow CEOs, bankers, kowtowing cogs from deep inside the political machine, lobbyists. you know, the scum of the well-to-do earth.
he did NOT expect to see these brave young citizens (action starts about :50 into the video):
if you watch to the end, you can see that the kids are cooperative; after they’ve had their say, they peacefully allow themselves to be herded toward the door and out of the meeting.
and straight into jail. since when is it a crime to speak at a meeting you’ve paid $249 to attend? if someone had yelled out from their white-covered table, “You go, Bloomie! You tell them!” would they also have been hustled off to central booking?
right. i didn’t think so either. feministe has a great writeup of the whole confrontation, including names and links to the organizations that put this protest together.
if you can’t make it to the protest at 100 centre street (criminal court, downtown manhattan) scheduled for 8am today, PLEASE call city council speaker christine quinn at 212-564-7757. this happened in her district and there’s reason to believe she’d be open to helping get these cases dismissed.
ironically, bloomberg was patting himself on the back for creating low-income housing when the ruckus began. you know what you have to do to actually GET any of this low-income housing in NYC? well, there are lotteries and waiting lists and income caps. for example, a family of five is eligible for an apartment in one of the housing projects if their total income is no more than $66,350. in NYC. a housing project, where piss gushes down stairwells where the air is thick with the smoke from crack pipes. where homicides happen on a regular. it’s like meeting an eligibility requirement in order to be sent to jail.
they look and feel like prisons, yet people go crazy happy when their number comes up and they can get three rooms next door to a crack dealer. it’s better than making your kids sleep in cardboard boxes under the bridge, after all.
this is the environment in which fucking mayor bloomberg refuses to speak to homeless advocates. luckily, not all of the local government shares bloomberg’s elitist, twisted views — yesterday the state assembly voted not only to uphold the present rent stabilization laws, but to substantially broaden and strengthen them. no doubt bloomie isn’t very pleased about this, and what he’s likely to say will probably sound a lot like the conservative blogger who asks “why is government in the apartment business in new york?”
you asshole. as of this writing, there are more than 35,000 homeless people — including over 8,000 families with children — in new york city. THAT’S why.
watch, when the economy tanks enough so that half those $5,000+/month luxury rentals are standing empty, the landlords will come around looking for their bailout. well, it’s roll-your-own time, dudes. you need to rent your apartment, just rent it for a fair amount. ain’t nobody’s fault but your own if you paid more for that building than it will ever be worth again.
that’s why they call it real estate speculation.
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you’ve done the homework here….I hope this blog will be seen by loads of people. This is an issue that I find unacceptable–that a Mayor finds it beneath his duties to help his own citizens in such dire straits.
You are right- we haven’t even hit the numbers we can expect with more layoffs and foreclosures predicted. Jackie, what you do so well is you bring to our attention those who may otherwise go unnoticed. You truly are a voice for a city where individuals are so easily lost in the fast pace shuffle of everyday living. You speak for the ones who might have a cardboard box for a house, but their hearts beat the same as anyone elses and their blood runs as red as the next guy. Bravo to you.
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