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Protest Against Eric Adams at Brooklyn Borough Hall

Eric Adams is a Liar, Liar Privatizer !

Wait until you see how we hit the piñata !

Borough President Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn) won’t rule out using using RAD/PACT or the Blueprint to sell-out NYCHA public housing. As a result, we had no choice but to protest Borough President Adams.

We caused a scene ! Borough President Adams was supposedly not in the office Monday morning, but he had his minions take photographs and video of us from open windows or open doors. Because we had an audience, we put on a show ! We brought a piñata with us with Borough President Adams’ face on it, and we beat the piñata.

Since politicians keep ignoring our needs during a pandemic that has yet to end, we are asking for everyone to join us in starting a General Strike. All you have to do is to pledge to stay home at least one day a week to stop community spread of the Coronavirus and to keep yourself and others safe. We also ask people to call 311 and ask for food/meals and personal protection equipment, or PPE.

Please help us spread the word about how easy it is to start a General Strike !

Watch the video of our protest :

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Scott Stringer is a Liar Liar Privatizer !

For letting Mayor de Blasio keep trying to sellout NYCHA with RAD/PACT and the Blueprint, Scott Stringer was called a “Liar Liar Privatizer !”

Members of the coälition NYCHA Is Not For Sale protested outside the luxury condo apartment building where Comptroller Scott Stringer (D-New York City) lives, drawing attention to his failures and public betrayals after having held various Government offices for decades. The protest took place on Tuesday at 25 Broad Street, at a luxury condo conversion of a former office building in the Financial District.

Chief amongst the accusations hurled by activists was Comptroller Stringer’s failure to conduct a forensic audit of the use of funding by the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA. Several NYCHA resident leaders have been calling or such an audit. Comptroller Stringer has had eight years of power and authority to conduct or order such an audit, but he has failed to do so. That failure has cost NYCHA credibility in the eyes of the public, and amongst its own residents, because the public and residents believe that NYCHA is used as a corrupt patronage mill for the mayor and the possible source of corrupt Government contracts for political insiders.

The activists confronted Comptroller Stringer outside his luxury condo apartment building, and he didn’t deign to address any of the concerns posed by the activists, and he never once vocalised why he believed he was qualified to serve as mayor after decades of a failed record and public betrayals.

NYCHA Is Not for Sale confronts Scott Stringer

A career of failures and public betrayals.

The activists made a second, major accusation against Comptroller Stringer, alleging that he approved of the RAD/PACT sell-out of Fulton Houses, Elliott Houses, and Chelsea Houses in Manhattan under the guidance of Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City). Comptroller Stringer’s office also participated in the mayor’s corrupt NYCHA Working Group that fabricated consent for the RAD/PACT conversion of all public housing in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. During the demonstration, the activists unfurled a street-wide banner that read, “Scott Stringer Liar Liar Privatizer.”

Prior to serving as New York City’s top financial watchdog, Comptroller Stringer served as Manhattan Borough President. At a 2011 town hall on the need for a full-service, Level I Trauma Hospital to replace St. Vincent’s Hospital, then Borough President Stringer said he believed that the finances of St. Vincent’s should have been investigated. But he never followed up on that, much less on the long, overdue, equivalent demand by public housing residents of NYCHA.

One day before the protest against Comptroller Stringer, the NYCHA Is Not For Sale coälition endorsed Joycelyn Taylor for New York City mayor in the 2021 Democratic Party Primary.

Video

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March to stop RAD/PACT/Blueprint conversions

NYCHA has admitted in Federal Court that they want to abandon their obligations to public housing residents after RAD/PACT/Blueprint conversions. This is unacceptable ! Please join our march to stop anymore privatisation of public housing.

We are planning a protest march to stop Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC) and NYCHA from abandoning their obligations to public housing residents after RAD/PACT/Blueprint conversion. It has been revealed in the Federal class-action Baez case that the de Blasio administration is using privatisation as an excuse to walk away from environmental protections and basic responsibilities they owe public housing residents. This is unacceptable ! Please join the social movement to save public housing and to fight for your civil rights ! We need your participation.

At our protest march, we will call-out politicians, who betrayed their campaign promises or continue the neglect.

Date : Sun., March 21, 2021

Time : 12 Noon (start-time)

Place : 344 E. 28th St., Manhattan

Accessibility : We meet outside of the front doors at 344 East 28th Street, Manhattan. Get ready to make noise and plan to march about 30 blocks. If you need transportation, we will try to arrange limited car pools by taxi. We can only pay for taxi service from what we can raise through our Go Fund Me for supplies expense. Please make a donation to support this march.

Rain Day : If it rains, we hold our march the following day — on Monday, Mar. 22 at 12 noon.

R.S.V.P.

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Protest on 34th Street, hoping for a miracle this Holiday Season to stop RAD conversions of NYCHA public housing

Banner protest in front of Macy’s Herald Square flagship store

Activists trying to save public housing from privatisation protested in front of Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square in Manhattan on Sunday afternoon. Using a bullhorn, the activists announced that Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) was planning on ending public housing as we know it. One of the activists speaking was a resident of a public housing apartment building, which faced privatisation on 30 November 2020, when her building would join 15 other complexes in a privatisation scheme known as Rental Assistance Demonstration, or RAD. The activists described some of the dangers and risks of eviction, rent hikes, and other forms of civil rights violations typical of privatisation schemes. One previously unknown risk includes the ability of a RAD Landlord to petition the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to deregulate public housing apartments, should apartment buildings not generate enough profits for greedy, private-sector landlords, as was revealed in a press release issued the Fight For NYCHA.

Protesting to save public housing

Protesters demonstrated in front of Macy's flagship store on 34th Street-Herald Square in Manhattan to stop the privatisation of NYCHA public housing by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
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Protest outside AOC Woodside town hall

Demand AOC support NYCHA funding this year !

Join us to demand that AOC issue a statement calling for the full-funding of the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, in the next budget cycle. Her green “New Deal” bill for public housing may take years to pass, if it ever comes up for a vote, leaving NYCHA residents vulnerable to heat outages and privatisation now under way.

Date : Saturday, 14 Dec. 2019
Time : 3:30 pm
Place : I.S. 125Q, 46-02 47th Ave, Woodside, Queens
RSVP : Demand AOC support NYCHA funding this year ! [Facebook]

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AOC angry by plans that take 30-40 years to save NYCHA, but her green “New Deal” plan takes 10 years to be fully-funded

Without $3 billion in immediate funding, up to 90% of NYCHA tenants are predicted to experience heating outages this winter.

Admittedly, it is noble for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14) to focus on climate change. But she, like French President Emmanuel Macron, bypassed industry and the military in order to extract climate justice outcomes by causing suffering amongst average people.

U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is blind to how her plan makes NYCHA residents wait for basic, but emergency, repairs, like upgrades to heating systems. In a secret video of a remarks she gave to an event, where her campaign bussed NYCHA residents up to the Bronx, U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez attacked plans that took 30-40 years to fully-fund capital repairs at NYCHA. But her own plan takes 10 years to fully-fund its plan.

In all those years, NYCHA tenants can expect to go without basic necessities. For example, without emergency upgrades in heating, NYCHA tenants face another winter where up to 90 per cent. of residents will experience heat outages, according to predictions separately made by Fight For NYCHA and the Legal Aid Society.

AOC’s Green New Deal for Public Housing makes NYCHA tenants wait years for heat

Reference Video

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Press Conference and Protest of NYCHA Working Group at PS 33

The NYCHA Working Group is corrupt !

Please join us for a press conference and protest outside the next NYCHA Working Group.

Mayor de Blasio has empaneled a rigged and stacked NYCHA working group to determine the future of Fulton, Chelsea, and Elliott Houses. But this working group has purposely excluded tenants from Holmes Towers, Cooper Park, Wyckoff Gardens, LGA Houses, and Harborview — even though infill has been planned at those developments.

Date : Tues., 29-Oct-2019
Time : 5:30 pm
Place : PS 33, 281 9th Ave., Manhattan
RSVP : Press Conference and Protest of NYCHA Working Group [Facebook]

What is more, Fight For NYCHA has discovered that Mayor de Blasio has instituted a gag rule, meaning that the discussions of the NYCHA working group will be kept secret. This is a violation of Government transparency. It also violates the First Amendment rights of tenants to be able to speak in informed discussions about their own future. The gag rule and the restrictions in attendance also violate the State’s open meetings law.

Fight For NYCHA raised the issue of legality to these proceedings at first working group, since any disposition of City real property must be subject to the ULURP process.

Please join Fight For NYCHA in demanding to attend and be heard at the second meeting of the NYCHA working group.

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First meeting of NYCHA Working Group reveals lies, betrayals, and Electeds and police conspire to keep secret proceedings that will determine the future of public housing in New York City

Bill de Blasio’s NYCHA Working Group is a sham !

AFTER THE SUCCESSFUL FIGHT FOR NYCHA TOWN HALL, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City) reportedly freaked out. Two news articles planted in POLITICO New York reported that U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY 10) opposed the demolition of public housing and was calling for a delay on the Request for Proposal for demolition and RAD conversion of Fulton Houses in Cheslea. One report, in particular, had noted that, in his desperation, U.S. Rep. Nadler had allegedly called on Comptroller Scott Stringer (D-New York City) and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (D-New York City) to show up to community meetings about the future of public housing. The move to include Stringer and Williams was seen as a political threat to New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea), in whose Council district the four public housing developments are located, which face some degree of privatisation.

But at the first meeting of the working group empaneled by Mayor de Blasio and other Electeds, tasked with determining the future of the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, Deputy Mayor Vicki Been revealed that demolition remained on the table, despite private assurances allegedly made by U.S. Rep. Nadler and others following the Fight For NYCHA town hall.

Vicki Been presentation for Demolition, Infill, RAD, MIH, and Air Rights Sale at NYCHA Working Group

In order to get video of Deputy Mayor Vicki Been’s presentation about NYCHA’s future, a member of Fight For NYCHA had to risk arrest.

A member of Fight For NYCHA had to risk arrest in order to crash the secret first meeting of the NYCHA Working Group. Please advance to 2:00 to hear audio (and video later) of NYPD Inspector Howard Redmond and, later, other NYPD officers, threaten the Fight For NYCHA member with arrest for demanding to bear witness to the NYCHA Working Group meeting.

NYPD threaten Fight For NYCHA member with arrest at Bill de Blasio’s NYCHA Working Group

Did Robert Atterbury violate New York’s open meetings law ?

Before police showed up to menace the Fight For NYCHA member, U.S. Rep. Nadler’s aide, Robert Atterbury, made deceptive statements by materially misrepresenting the proceedings of the NYCHA Working Group as a secret meeting that was closed to the public. In New York State, Government meetings are open meetings. Yet, Mr. Atterbury repeatedly indicated that a meeting that would discuss the disposition of NYCHA public assets and City real property was not a public meeting and that, improbably, the NYCHA Working Group was not a “civic group.” Under New York State penal code, obstructing Government administration is a class A misdemeanor in the second degree. See § 195.05.

Fight For NYCHA calls on U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler to fire his aide, Robert Atterbury, for violating democracy, transparency.

Please join us for a press conference and protest outside the next NYCHA Working Group.

Mayor de Blasio has empaneled a rigged and stacked NYCHA Working Group to determine the future of Fulton, Chelsea, and Elliott Houses. But this working group has purposely excluded tenants from Holmes Towers, Cooper Park, Wyckoff Gardens, LGA Houses, and Harborview — even though infill has been planned at those developments.

Date : Tues., 29-Oct-2019
Time : 5:30 pm
Place : PS 33, 281 9th Ave., Manhattan
RSVP : Press Conference and Protest of NYCHA Working Group [Facebook]

What is more, Fight For NYCHA has discovered that Mayor de Blasio has instituted a gag rule, meaning that the discussions of the NYCHA Working Group will be kept secret. This is a violation of Government transparency. It also violates the First Amendment rights of tenants to be able to speak in informed discussions about their own future. The gag rule and the restrictions in attendance also violate the State’s open meetings law.

Fight For NYCHA raised the issue of legality to these proceedings at first working group, since any disposition of City real property must be subject to the ULURP process.

Please join Fight For NYCHA in demanding to attend and be heard at the second meeting of the NYCHA Working Group.

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Union Square Rally to build public support for a People’s Budget approach to fully-fund NYCHA

This is a City-wide rally to demonstrate support for a grassroots approach to fully-funding the New York City Hosing Authority, or NYCHA. Fight For NYCHA consulted with tenants and passed the People’s Budget for Housing, Justice, and Dignity during a Town Hall meeting at P.S. 33 in Chelsea on Sept. 18. The People’s Budget demonstrates that funding for public housing is reasonable, within reach, and some of these ideas are legislation-ready.

DATE : Sunday, Oct 6, 2019
TIME : 1 pm
PLACE : Union Square Park, Manhattan
RSVP : Stop the War on the Poor [Facebook]

The immediate emergency is to take $10 billion that Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to use to build new jails and, instead, to redirect that money to public housing.

Recommended Reading

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Fulton Houses tenants elect independent officers, announce next meeting, plan next action

Fight For NYCHA co-hosts an important meeting to offer autonomy and structure to Fulton Houses residents.

At an action-planning meeting held on Saturday, 11 May, tenants of Fulton Houses made several agreements that would serve as a foundation for advocacy work to save public housing in Chelsea from being demolished and from being put into the hands of private landlords.

  • Since NYCHA is comprised of 90% Black and Latinx families, this means that the politicians, who are supporting each of the demolition of buildings at Fulton Houses and the putting of public housing into the hands of private developers, are making a political calculation that they can exploit the very visible minorities, who are public housing tenants.
  • Politicians supporting the plans announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City) 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.
  • We must stand united in saying that what Mayor de Blasio and his supporters are doing is wrong.
  • Unless elected officials join us in this fight, we must be prepared to challenge those elected officials.
  • The processes we undertake together must have integrity, and this means that Fulton Houses tenants must agree. This also means that we cannot allow anybody to disrupt or distract or bring outside politics into the fight to save Fulton Houses or NYCHA. Fulton Houses tenants agreed that if anybody tried to derail our agenda, they would support asking that person to leave.
  • It was important to make clear that for any new, independent tenants’ associations elections that may take place for the Fulton Houses, only Fulton Houses tenants may vote.
  • Any groups wishing to show up to our events must :
    • oppose each of the demolition of apartment buildings and the RAD conversion of Fulton Houses ;
    • call-out Mayor de Blasio and his supporters ; and
    • oppose the racism of RAD and the divestment of public housing.

Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel spoke to Fulton Houses tenants about the importance of “keeping public housing public.”

Mary, left, and Jackie were elected as president and vice-president of an independent tenants association.

Amelia was elected as secretary of an independent tenants association of Fulton Houses.

Next steps

Fight For NYCHA will hold a follow-up meeting on Saturday, 18 May, at 3 pm at the same location. Tenants and activists have agreed on the first action, the plans for which will be finalised on the date of our next meeting.