One last week of links to interesting and relevant news!
About the problem:
on the racist, predatory housing market in NYC
and some problematic links to immigration
on “ghettos” and the sanitized language of racism
And responses:
Recap of yesterday’s rally against DeBlasio’s rezoning plans
info about the East Harlem Neighborhood Study Education Forum (all about “community involvement” into the rezoning)
Info about Renters Assembly NYC on May 23rd for students and housing activists
Thank you to everyone who came out to the Interference Archive last week, for our special tour of the We Won’t Move: Tenants Organize in NYC Exhibit. For those of you who missed it, I highly recommend that you go if you can find time. The archive features material culture and ephemera from various tenant and other organizing efforts in NYC history, which as you well know by now, are still shaping the future of NYC. Their next exhibit, Organized Sounds of Resistance, looks pretty great too, and they are asking for public input on songs/albums that have been politically influential to incorporate into the exhibit! : (Please send us your thoughts (250 – 1000 words is perfect) in an email to music@interferencearchive.org by May 15, 2015.). For anyone interested, the archive has workshops and working groups that you can sign up for.
Finally, if anyone would like to review their visit to the archive or any of the other current exhibits I shared with you, Wednesday is the day! Just let me know so I can make sure there is time.
Hi Everyone! Great job today presenting your draft pop-ed products. It was such a treat to have the community contacts in attendance and participating in our discussion. I hope you’ll take their feedback into careful consideration, along with the themes listed above. It is unusual for students to have this kind of access to grassroots organizations, and for the organizations to come together as they did today- I am very pleased with how you have used this opportunity. Looking forward to seeing the final products!
Big congrats to Zumana, Annalise, Brett, Bethany, Omar, Corrin, Riley, and Anna on your excellent and provocative presentation today! For those who missed it, this group was part of a session with presentations on various aspects of what is known as the city’s welfare system. The other 2 groups talked about ways to better help homeless youth and ways to improve on De Blasio’s plan to incorporate college education into the workfare program. All the presentations were critical, informative, clear, and compelling. And no doubt I’m biased but I thought the group from our class was the best! (I think the respondents did too, given their comments and questions). What stood out (to me anyways) about this group was the degree to which its proposal addressed the root causes of the issue, so rather than suggesting minor reforms, the group suggested a set of radical- and do-able!- responses (and, importantly, preventative measures); additionally- the group’s analysis and proposals were deeply informed by those most affected by the issue. These are rare accomplishments! So rare in fact that one of the respondents and a writer on these issues for the NY Times, Joe Berger, impressed as he was, wrongly assumed that the proposal was for a new kind of homeless shelter- probably because that’s all that anyone ever proposes! Improvements to, rather than major changes in, the system; the team handled the questions and comments brilliantly- all of which goes to show how important it is, in preparing for any presentation, to anticipate your audience’s assumptions, reactions, and criticisms. Nice work!!!
Lots of interesting news this week!
Related to the upcoming vote on rent regulation in NYC:
New report called “Fees are Fraud” from CASA New Settlement on the problem of non-rent fees for rent stabilized tenants.
And a NYTimes feature article on CASA and other groups’ call for a rent freeze.
The role of falling fuel costs in the vote on rent control.
Info on a May 14th rally for rent reform/to save 1 million homes in NYC
The uprisings in Baltimore:
A great article on “Why Baltimore Rebelled”
An article on “Baltimore’s Inescapable Inequality” rooted in/linking uneven development and aggressive, discriminatory policing.
“Black Spring Has Begun” according to a website for organizing in Ferguson and the Black Lives Matter movement.
And for anyone who isn’t familiar, an article on the radical history of May Day.
Please review and take into account as you wrap up your projects!
Today we discussed our final set of readings! We talked about the different forms of “direct action” that people can take with regard to housing struggles, if/when working “within the system” is deemed inadequate. We also talked about why it can be challenging to think about direct action in re. to housing, when at first, the idea of building your own housing or sleeping in a vacant property may not seem like such a radical thing for a homeless person to do. However, our readings and discussions over the course of the semester have illustrated why these can be seen as direct confrontations to the “growth machine.”
In each of your groups you should be thinking about the range of “shaping strategies” that your community contact could embrace, and the pros, cons, and various implications involved in each of these. The recommendations that you make and organizing materials that you produce should reflect the careful thought that you and your contacts have given to the range of possibilities. As we wrap up the semester, please be thinking as well about how your group’s issue, your community contact, and you! are situated within the broader shapes and shaping forces in/of NYC.
All of your group projects are related to processes of uneven development and gentrification and all of your community contacts are working together to address these issues through the NYC Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI). As you begin working on your popular education products, try to think about how it will relate/contribute to NYCCLI’s work as an alliance. The following might be helpful to review:
Analyses of the Problem (including Banking on Vacancy) that NYCCLI is trying to address
Related/allied efforts around Community Gardens
Promising alternatives that NYCCLI has researched and is learning from
And some of the popular education materials we have produced to help us reach target audiences:
Video introduction to NYCCLI, the problem and our response (and the website more generally)
Flyer: Why Community Land Trusts
Coming soon: a board game and comic strip/poster!
We discussed the Morris Justice Project, but haven’t had time this semester to go deeply into how the criminal justice system is shaping (the future of) NYC, so for anyone who is not familiar with this issue, I strongly encourage you to take a little time to review the following:
How Jim Crow still exists in America (an NPR podcast with Michelle Alexander on the prison-industrial complex and how it plays out in cities)
1.5 Million Missing Black Men (a pretty powerful NY Times feature article from this week)
And then maybe take another look at the Morris Justice Project, to see how one group of residents and academic collaborators are addressing this issue through PAR. I particularly recommend looking at MJP’s creative methods for visualizing data, reporting back to the community, and grounding public discussion around a complex policy issue from the perspective of those most affected.
On Monday we discussed two PAR projects that relate to our work- both in terms of their substance (the role of real estate speculation in producing homelessness, and the impact discriminatory and aggressive policing on people/communities of color) and in terms of their methods for influencing social change through PAR. We took note (above) of some particular contributions that we see in each project, and drew out some lessons that could be applied to each of your group projects. Please keep these examples and lessons in mind as you proceed with your work, especially the popular education products!!
