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Protest against MAGA billionaire Stephen Ross to save NYCHA from RAD/PACT privatisation and demolition

Protest against The Related Companies to save NYCHA from RAD/PACT privatisation and demolition.

Stephen Ross wants to enlarge his Hudson Yards plantation from West 36th Street down to West 16th Street. We say no !

NYCHA public housing tenants and Fight For NYCHA activists protested outside of 30 Hudson Yards, the headquarters for The Related Companies, the real estate development company that built Hudson Yards. Related is the big money behind the RAD/PACT Landlord that is seeking to profit from the privatisation and demolition of Fulton Houses and Elliott-Chelsea. The protesters alleged that the RAD/PACT scheme was tantamount to a naked land-grab.

Fight For NYCHA protest at the Stephen Ross plantation at 30 Hudson Yards to save public housing

Democrats supporting the upward transfer of wealth from a cash-strapped NYCHA to a MAGA billionaire make them the foremen on Stephen Ross’s plantation

During our protest, we alleged that the employees of Hudson Yards were Stephen Ross’ plantation workers. That didn’t sit right with some of the security guards monitoring our protest.

Democrats are duplicitously conspiring with MAGA billionaire Stephen Ross to sell-out NYCHA. We noted that senior citizens were amongst those first at-risk of eviction in order for Related to begin the demolition of public housing. The mainly White residents, employees, and patrons of Hudson Yards were, of course, indifferent to the looming evictions of public housing residents, 90 per cent. of whom are minorities. The other 10 per cent. are Whites living on low- or fixed-incomes. Racism means that Whites don’t care about disparate impact discrimination faced by minorities, because the Whites enjoy White privilege.

The RAD/PACT privatisation and demolition of public housing in Chelsea is premised on every single resident being displaced. This displacement is taking place amongst a housing crisis and based on the belief that Stephen Ross will take the public housing residents back, once he has built new apartment buildings. You’d have to still believe in the tooth fairy to trust that the richest plantation owner in Manhattan is going to let minorities move into the new mansions he’s putting up on his property. To wit, there is no Federal right-of-return for tenants, whose public housing apartments are demolished.

During our protest, many workers exiting and entering 30 Hudson Yards appeared inconvenienced by our presence, but they appeared to have heard our message.

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When did Allen Roskoff become a MAGA foreman on Stephen Ross’ Hudson Yards plantation ?

Does the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club want to make Chelsea more White ?

When did Allen Roskoff become the MAGA foreman for Stephen Ross' Hudson Yards plantation ?
When did Allen Roskoff become the MAGA foreman for Stephen Ross' Hudson Yards plantation ?

RAD/PACT is racist. Is that why Allen Roskoff supports it ?

Allen Roskoff markets himself as the doyenne of LGBT progressive activism in New York City. He is the president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club in Manhattan. As a result, he bundles donations to establishment candidates, like Councilmember Erik Bottcher (D-District 3) and hosts fundraisers attended by the corporate wing of the Democratic Party, like Gov. Kathleen Hochul.

However, in a recent report published by the New York Post, Roskoff said that he supported the controversial RAD/PACT privatisation and demolition of NYCHA public housing in Chelsea. The report noted that rich White ladies living in million-dollar condos were ostensibly claiming to oppose the demolition due to inconveniences to the wealth residents of uppity Chelsea. But that’s not the whole story, obviously.

Like the late Ed Koch before him, Allen Roskoff lives in a luxury condo built by one of REBNY’s most powerful plantation owners.

Allen Roskoff has made is mark in New York political circles by claiming that he never forgave former Mayor Ed Koch (D-New York City) over the reported failure to respond to the outbreak of the AIDS crisis. Former Mayor Koch, now dead, reportedly lived his life as a closted gay man until his death.

During his final years, former Mayor Koch lived in a luxury condominium apartment at 2 Fifth Avenue, a luxury building overlooking Washington Square Park. The apartment was rented from the Rudin family, now lead by William Rudin, one of the oligarchs of New York. When it came time for the Rudin family to reportedly begin foreclosure proceedings against St. Vincent’s Hospital and the ensuing lobbying effort to close and demolish the strategic, public asset, the former mayor supported the Rudin family’s interests.

Fast-forward through all of the drama, we come to learn that Allen Roskoff has lived, since at least 2009, in a luxury condominium built by The Related Companies, which is owned by Stephen Ross, a MAGA billionaire and the plantation owner of Hudson Yards. Stephen Ross is also the owner of a range of corporations, including the Miami Dolphins football franchise, making him another of New York’s oligarchs.

For all of Allen Roskoff’s propaganda as a progressive activist, we can see clearly that he’s following in the footsteps of former Mayor Koch by his endorsement of the RAD/PACT privatisation and demolition of Fulton Houses and Elliott-Chelsea to benefit Stephen Ross. It harks back to how Ed Koch did the same for William Rudin vis-à-vis the demolition and luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent’s.

The oligarchs of New York have learned how easy it is to buy and boss the leaders, closeted or not, of New York’s LGBT community. The losers have turned out to be the people, who depended on St. Vincent’s as a charity hospital and on NYCHA for Government-owned, low-cost housing. The racial minorities and the disenfranchised suffered, even as Ed Koch and Allen Roskoff rose to eminent positions of proverbial foremen on the plantations of some of New York’s richest, White families.

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#OpHudsonYards

Updated Anonymous Message to NYCHA Residents

Greetings NYCHA Residents, we are Anonymous.

Since we sent our last message to you, we have been disappointed in your response.

Link to Video

What will it take for you to fight for your homes ?

The politicians you sided with are about to steal your homes and give them away to Stephen Ross, a billionaire supporter of Trump’s White nationalist agenda.

Already, we have heard that NYCHA residents are being denied pandemic rental assistance and are having trouble getting their lease renewals. With the eviction moratorium ending today, you have fewer protections.

There’s no way that Stephen Ross is going to fix your apartments without a price. He no doubt plans to bulldoze your homes the way lands get cleared elsewhere.

We’ve also learned that many lawyers are afraid to sue Eric Adams and NYCHA to stop RAD/PACT conversions, because they know that judges won’t hold the City of New York and NYCHA accountable. Behind your back, lawyers admit they protect corruption.

The only way you are going to keep your homes is for you to fight for them.

We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.

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Anonymous Message to NYCHA Residents

Greetings, NYCHA Residents. We are Anonymous.

This is a special message to public housing tenants in New York City.

For almost three years, we tried to organize public housing tenants to stop the RAD and PACT conversions of NYCHA public housing. We were undermined by politicians and political candidates, nonprofit groups, lawyers, and even residents themselves, who put self interest ahead of the well being of our communities.

The time for collective organizing was barely taking off before it came to an end.

As a result, Mayor Bill de Blasio has given away Fulton Houses, Elliott Houses, Chelsea Houses, and the Chelsea Annex to the Hudson Yards developer and Trump billionaire donor, Stephen Ross.

Hudson Yards apparently wants to expand and is planning to annex public housing in order to build more luxury housing in Chelsea. As you know, the High Line Park, Chelsea Market, and Hudson River Park are amenities that the élites want for themselves. They don’t want public housing residents in their neighborhood.

We predict the Hudson Yards take-over will lead to evictions, as have happened following other RAD and PACT conversions. If you are beginning to get worried, then maybe it’s time you really started working collectively with those, who have been rejected, slighted, and defamed by politicians and the political candidates. After all, the leaders you have been listening to have led you to this point. The people, who you were not listening to, are still fighting.

The time to correct your course is very limited. It’s up to you to work together to fight for a future that fully-funds NYCHA, because Eric Adams promises to be more of the same.

View Video on Twitter

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Mayor Bill de Blasio was exposed for having lied about defunding the NYPD by $1 billion, which could have been one source of possible funding for NYCHA

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would use $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD budget to advance social justice. He lied. Now, NBC News has caught him increasing the NYPD budget by $200 million.

Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) was busted by NBC News in an investigation one year after the “defund the police” movement led to his promise to cut $1 billion from the budget of the New York Police Department and to use that funding stream, instead, to make “some transformative changes at the department,” in the words of Mayor de Blasio’s chief enabler, Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea).

Not only did the $1 billion cut made in June 2020 never materialise, but an additional $200 million was added to the NYPD budget in June 2021, according to NBC News.

Last year, outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council moved to cut roughly $1 billion from the police’s $6 billion budget and invest it in youth and social services. De Blasio wrote in a tweet then that “Our young people need to be reached, not policed.” But just a year later, officials adopted the city’s largest budget ever, at $98.7 billion, for fiscal year 2022, which included a $200 million increase for police spending.

Mayor de Blasio has given lip service to the promise to promote racial and social justice.

In New York City, the #DefundTheNYPD movement, like respective movements across the nation, grew out of the George Floyd anti-racism protests in 2020. Mayor de Blasio promised to use the money to help youths and other social service programs. As Mayor de Blasio’s term in office comes to an end, nobody knows what happened to his broken promises for funding racial and social justice.

Mayor de Blasio has been accused of using his bi-racial family to co-opt the language of social movements and as a political cover to defend or expand race-based policing — even as he has rejected calls to hold the NYPD accountable for homicides and other acts of brutality committed by the police. As NBC News noted, Mayor de Blasio said, “Our young people need to be reached, not policed.” But that turned out to be another one of his lies. In a review of Mayor de Blasio’s two terms in office, the New York Daily News reported that Mayor de Blasio leaves behind a legacy of corruption and neglect on housing issues.

Fight For NYCHA have long argued that sources of Government funding could be found to fully-fund NYCHA. For decades, the racist divestment of public housing led to a gargantuan deficit in NYCHA’s capital repairs budget. Our funding ideas were workshopped and packaged as a People’s Budget that has been updated over time. One of the items in our People’s Budget was to defund the NYPD by $2 billion and to use that money to bond the capital repairs at NYCHA.

Duplicitous politicians and nonprofit groups continue to say they care about NYCHA, but then they corruptly take advantage of the lack of funding to benefit their donors. As Mayor de Blasio begins to reportedly wage a campaign for New York governor, he has awarded the RAD/PACT conversion at Fulton Houses and Elliott-Chelsea to the Trump billionaire backer and Hudson Yards developer, Stephen Ross.

Anonymous Message to NYCHA Residents

Recommended Reading

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VIDEO : NYCHA activists poured ‘blood’ on the Hudson Yards drone on the 4th of July

The U.S. Military budget and the filibuster currently prevent the U.S. Congress from passing progressive legislation, like H.R.235/S.598/S.679, which would provide emergency funding for the backlog capital repairs to the Nation’s public housing stock.

Before the Macy’s fireworks display took center-stage in New York City’s East River, public housing activists made their own display at a monument that they alleged glorified endless wars at Hudson Yards.

The activists poured “blood” on the pole that props up an installation of a drone on the High Line Park adjoining Hudson Yards in Manhattan. A banner drop took place concurrently with the “drone attack.”

NYCHA Is Not For Sale : 4th of July Protest and Banner Drop at the Hudson Yards Drone

On 18 April 2021, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) promised to support amending H.R.235 so that it would provide $80 billion to fund the backlog of capital repairs to public housing, of which approx. $40 billion would be earmarked for the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA.  Furthermore, NYCHA residents were promised that H.R.235 would be put into the Infrastructure Bill being shaped by President Joseph Biden (D) and would provide job opportunities to public housing residents. But H.R.235 was not included in the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that was negotiated with G.O.P. Senators.

  • President Biden must ask the U.S. Congress to fund the backlog of capital repairs in the Nation’s public housing stock by cutting the cost from the bloated U.S. Military budget.  We must create the long, overdue peace dividend that can be invested in domestic programs, beginning with ending the era of the racist divestment of public housing.
  • If President Biden cannot support cutting $80 billion from the U.S. Military budget, then President Biden must forgo elusive bipartisan support.  Bipartisanship was never going to be possible with Republic Party obstructionism that relies on using the filibuster to block passage of progressive legislation.  Once the filibuster has been eliminated, then the Democrats in the U.S. Senate can pass S.598/S.679 (the companion bills to H.R.235), so that the U.S. House can vote to pass H.R.235.

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