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Democrats in New York have had a race problem for some time, and it’s seemingly getting worse.

Are Blacks abandoning the Democratic Party in New York because their land use policies favour gentrification and displacement ?

In a rare and insightful probe into the state of Black power in New York, the New York Times revealed that Blacks are engaged in a migration out of New York due to the housing crisis and quality of life issues. The article postulated that, as a result, the Democratic Party faces a reckoning with the loss of, and the loss of confidence by, a key voting bloc, noting, in relevant part, that, “community leaders and residents alike say they have noticed real political and demographic shifts that stand to threaten the endurance of New York’s once-ironclad Democratic coalition . . . .” Indeed, the Rev. Dr. Adolphus Lacey, the senior pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, described the exodus as an erosion. The report highlighted that, even as Blacks are moving, it could be because they are being moved out : “the same trends that disproportionately harm Black Americans are also driving some of them out of New York.”

Setting aside quality of life issues, let’s focus on the housing crisis.

The Democrats’ answer to the housing crisis has been to approve non-stop luxury condominiums ; develop and implement an affordable housing lottery system, which has been called a scam ; and to seemingly collaborate with Republicans in the Project 2025 goal of ending public housing. Because the Democratic Party wants to make New York a playground for the rich, of course races, which have faced centuries of discrimination, are going to get squeezed out.

More luxury apartments have been built in New York City Council District 3 under Councilmembers Corey Johnson (D) and his successor, Erik Bottcher (D), than in any other City Council district. This was largely due to Hudson Yards, which was developed by MAGA billionaire and Trump White nationalism supporter-donor Stephen Ross and gentrification related to the construction of the High Line. The gentrification has ushered in a mega-new, wealthy White neighborhood : the Hudson Yards plantation.

The affordable housing lottery system is premised on providing tax benefits to wealthy real estate developers in exchange for a set-aside of apartments for at least some of the 99 per cent. However, it’s been shown that the affordable housing lottery doesn’t help the very New Yorkers, who can least afford private sector housing, no matter the tax abatements. In New York, up to 25 per cent. of Blacks live in poverty, at least eight per centage points higher than the National average in a City that serves as the power base of the Democratic Party and the financial capital of the World.

Since the Democratic Party enjoys super-majority control over New York Governments, it raises serious questions, when the private sector cannot construct low-cost housing for New Yorkers earning low-incomes, like, why are Democrats choosing to end Section 9 public housing through schemes known as Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT), and the Preservation Trust ? Approximately 90 per cent. of public housing residents living in New York are minorities. By shifting such a large bloc of vulnerable people, including senior citizens living on fixed-incomes, to the private sector, these New Yorkers will lose Civil Rights Act protections that treat housing as a human right. In place of those civil rights protections, these minorities will face private sector landlords known for violating anti-discrimination laws.

As a result, the leading candidate in the Democratic Party primary for New York City mayor cobbled his coälition . . . without Blacks !

When State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (DSA-Astoria) finished ahead in the first-round of ranked choice voting in the Democratic Party’s mayoral primary, he did so without Blacks coälescing behind his mayoral campaign. His presumptive win came without the support of the solidly-Black neighborhoods in New York, according to a report published by the New York Times. The lack of Black support flies in the face of the mayoral primary wins of Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams, the Times found, adding that, nationally, the Black voting bloc carried the recent presidential nominations of Barack Obama, Hillary  Rodham Clinton, and Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

What this shows is that the White coälition that is powering Assemblymember Mamdani’s mayoral campaign has been willing to ditch Black power after making the political calculation that Black support was expendable in a City-wide mayor’s race.

Nowhere else can that be seen than in Assemblymember Mamdani’s support for the RAD/PACT and Preservation Trust sell-out of NYCHA public housing in New York. Returning to the Times‘ trend story of Democrats’ failed policies forcing Blacks to move-out of New York, two key issues facing Blacks are the housing crisis and the crisis of public housing. To maintain support amongst Whites and the Big Business community that are the sources of large, campaign donations, the support by Democrats, including Assemblymember Mamdani, to the sell-out of NYCHA could be the leading driver of Blacks being moved-out of New York.

The gentrification that beset Harlem and shattered that historic neighborhood’s focal point of Black power in New York is one example of how Democrats, who enjoy super-majority control over New York City Government and public policy, are complicit in a racist drive to break Black power in New York. They’ve learned to take their racist fight to break DEI to the ballot-box, and win, just like President Donald Trump (R).

The Democrats’ new model of White power politics, which is indifferent to Black issues and Black support, can also be witnessed in the transactional politics of Democratic Party powerbroker Allen Roskoff and in the obfuscation of District Leader Layla Law-Gisiko, who supports the privatisation and demolition of public housing in Chelsea and who uses an almost deliberate misreading of the law to excuse the unlawful disposition of City real property outside of the ULURP Process, respectively. The pattern of racial indifference is more than accidental, and its fingerprints can be seen in more than just the mayor’s race. Ask Councilmember Erik Bottcher (D-Chelsea).

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

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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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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.”

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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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Protest Against NYCHA Blueprint Turns Savage, as DSA Members Manhandle a Green Party Candidate, Engage In Ad Hominem Online Attacks to Obfuscate Their Corrupt Support for the Blueprint Sell-Out of Public Housing

A protest to save public housing devolves into chaos, as DSA leaders are exposed for supporting the Blueprint sell-out of NYCHA, leading to a rift amongst the political left in New York.

A new coalition of public housing activists, NYCHA Is Not For Sale, held a protest against the corrupt, neoliberal plan by Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) to bring about the wholesale end to Section 9 public housing. The plan, known as the Blueprint, would create an unaccountable, nebulous State Authority that would rewrite the apartment leases of every public housing tenant, who isn’t already destined for another corrupt, neoliberal scheme — the RAD/PACT conversions that have been the subject of legal controversies.

The protest against the Blueprint turned chaotic when members of the New York City Democratic Socialists — loyalists to the mayor’s political supporters — interrupted the public housing rally with a competing demonstration.

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A mature, responsible call for political unity was disrupted by the NYC-DSA.

The public housing rally began with plain clothes NYPD officers wearing no badges, names, badge numbers, or body cameras, harassing the public housing activists about their protest signs. Shortly there after, public housing residents and various political candidates denounced Mayor de Blasio’s privatisation schemes for the New York City Housing Authority and called on political unity in support of Federal funding legislation that would pay for the backlog of capital repairs that have been the cause of pain and suffering for public housing residents.

NYCHA tenant association presidents Rev. Carmen Hernandez and Melanie Aucello and NYCHA tenant activist and City Council candidate Lilithe Lozano each repudiated the political betrayal that allowed NYCHA to become nearly uninhabitable. In turn, City Council candidates Lena Melendez and Edwin DeJesus spoke of the moral reasons to fully-fund NYCHA without having to resort to privatisation schemes. And Lindsey Boylan, a candidate for Manhattan borough president, made a compelling call for Democratic Party unity to support H.R. 235, draft legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives sponsored by U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY 07) that would fully-fund NYCHA. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) has expressed support for H.R. 235.

A foreshadowing of trouble was observed when Public Advocate Jumaane Williams cast aspersions on the Schumer-Velázquez Federal aid package for NYCHA. Chaos ensued after the NYC-DSA attempted to undermine the public housing protest.

“You can’t shoehorn a working class movement into a corporate party.”

The public housing protest took place outside the eastern security gate to New York City Hall, which is across the street from the office building at 250 Broadway, which, in turn, houses the executive headquarters for NYCHA. Several New York State Legislators also maintain offices in the same building.

Out of sight, members of the NYC-DSA had gathered in City Hall Park for a demonstration for public control of electricity companies. Once the NYC-DSA activists emerged from the park, they acted to block traffic on Broadway between the public housing protest location and the entrance to 250 Broadway, at which point the public housing protest moved into the street.

Not long after, Mr. DeJesus used a megaphone to denounce State Sens. Julia Salazar (DSA-Brooklyn) and Jabari Brisport (DSA-Brooklyn) over their duplicity. In response, NYC-DSA members placed their hands on Mr. DeJesus, pushed him back, and attempted to take his megaphone. Some members of NYCHA Is Not For Sale rushed to use their bodies to block NYC-DSA members from escalating their physical assault. Members of NYCHA Is Not For Sale have questioned the moral clarity of NYC-DSA to claim their espousal for public power when they have allowed Mayor de Blasio to move forward with the privatisation of public housing.

Online, Sen. Salazar downplayed the acts of assault and tore into the criticism by engaging in ad hominem attacks on members of NYCHA Is Not For Sale, at one point making a scurrilous and libelous attack against the entire NYCHA Is Not For Sale coalition by calling them “grifters,” thereby telegraphing to NYC-DSA members that she would destroy the reputations of socialists, who fractured the myth that the NYC-DSA was a political monolith that was expected to serve its leaders. In recent years, politicians, who have exploited the language of social movements for power or personal enrichment, have faced political losses, such as former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-03) and former U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY 14). The political repercussions have also ensnared 2021 political candidates, like Dianne Morales.

According to activists, Mayor de Blasio is urging a vote on the Blueprint on or before June 10, so he can bring about a wholesale end to Section 9 housing before a critical June 14 hearing in the Baez Federal class action case against NYCHA. New York has long exhibited signs of political boss systems from Albany to New York City Hall — and now, apparently, to the NYC-DSA.

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Mayor Bill de Blasio can’t work alone to sell-out NYCHA before his term is up without the help of other Democrats. Here are some of them.

A mayor left unindicted following a wide-ranging, Federal corruption investigation finds it easy to attract collaborators in the disposition of strategic public assets, like NYCHA public housing using the Blueprint scheme, for example.

As revealed by Fight For NYCHA, Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) has been pressuring fellow Democrats to vote to approve the Blueprint scheme that will convert all non-RAD/PACT public housing apartments into a new entity that will effectively bring about the end of all Section 9 public housing in New York City.

A group of New York State legislators, which appears to include State Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Bushwick), State Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Bed-Stuy), Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes (D-Red Hook), and notable DSA member Cea Weaver, negotiated over the minutiae of the legislation, giving the impression that they would vote to approve or support the Blueprint with minor conditions.

Under the Blueprint scheme, Mayor de Blasio would transfer all public housing apartments not meant for RAD/PACT to a new creature of Albany that would have no political accountability for bureaucratic failure.

U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley III has ruled that public housing residents, who get converted to Section 8 vouchers, as contemplated by the Blueprint scheme, could legally receive separate but unequal rights. Under the Blueprint, for example, Section 8 residents would not receive any protections offered by the Revised Consent Decree in the Baez class action lawsuit.

The Parties to the Baez litigation owe Judge Pauley a status report by June 14. Before NYCHA must return to Court, Mayor de Blasio has been strong-arming his Albany co-conspirators to vote to approve the Blueprint on or by June 10, so that, once the Parties report-back to Judge Pauley, they can inform His Honour that Albany has approved the eventual end to Section 9 housing.

An end to Section 9 housing would be the death knell to the New Deal promise to public housing.

An estimated 600,000 individuals live in apartments owned and operated by NYCHA. Ending Section 9 housing would be the next step in the Government’s wholesale abandonment of its obligations to public housing residents, something that Conservatives have long sought.

Mayor de Blasio couldn’t be able to bring about an end to NYCHA’s New Deal promise without the help of the DSA wing of Albany Legislators and other collaborators. Corruption of this scale takes a lot of work and coördination. Not even Mayor de Blasio’s reported issues over how he appears to use Government approvals for real estate contracts in order to fundraise for his various political committees have proved to be a concern for his allies. Mayor de Blasio was left unindicted following the completion of a wide-ranging, Federal corruption investigation into his campaign finance activities.

The sell-out of NYCHA public housing by Mayor de Blasio and his allies in the DSA wing of the Democratic Party comes as Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) has proposed to improve H.R. 235 to fully-fund the backlog of capital repairs to the entire Nation’s public housing stock.

Certain participants in the real estate development industry are allegedly demanding that Mayor de Blasio and other Electeds advance the approval of major real estate development projects, including the disposition of strategic public assets, before the election of the next class of Municipal Legislators poses problems for the large-scale real estate developers.

Source Document

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Daily News publishes editorial by Fight For NYCHA member

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RAD is a raw deal for NYCHA that we must refuse

The New York Daily News published a guest editorial by a Fight For NYCHA member, making a strong case why New Yorkers must reject plans by Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City) to expand on his use of HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration programme that will put public housing into a nightmarish “public-private partnership.”

The editorial was notable for exposing the dangers of RAD, for revealing that U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman put NYCHA residents at risk for losing Federal monitorship once their public housing apartment complexes undergo RAD conversion, and the need to stop RAD so that other leaders, such as U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY 07), can fight for the full-funding of NYCHA.

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