Keep public housing public
The NYCHA preservation group, Fight For NYCHA, is holding its next town hall gathering to provide important updates.
The preliminary agenda has been released :
1/. Update about our lawsuit ;
2/. Update about the People’s Budget ; and
3/. Legislation to provide funding to NYCHA.
A very special guest will address the town hall.
Date : Wed., Feb. 5, 2020
Time : 6:30 pm
Place : P.S. 33, Chelsea
R.S.V.P. : Fight For NYCHA Town Hall [Facebook]
NYCHA tenants and activists heckled Greg Russ, the new chair of the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA. The confrontation took place outside of PS 33 in Cheslea on Tuesday night after NYCHA tenants and activists from Fight For NYCHA, Holmes-Isaacs Coälition, and Justice For All Coälition had concluded their press conference, denouncing the Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s NYCHA Working Group.
NYCHA tenants also renewed calls for Robert Atterbury to be fired by U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY 10). Activists allege that Atterbury violated New York State’s open meetings’ law when he told a Fight For NYCHA member to leave the first meeting of Mayor de Blasio’s undemocratic NYCHA Working Group.
Tenants and activists also jeered Assemblymember Richard Gottfried (D-New York City), when he tried to sneak into the second meeting of Mayor de Blasio’s NYCHA Working Group.
NYCHA tenants and activists were denied entry to a public building (PS 33 in Cheslea), and, thus, they were not permitted to attend the proceedings of the second meeting of Mayor de Blasio’s rigged and stacked NYCHA Working Group.
The media and public statements made by NYCHA tenants and activists were broadcast on a Facebook Live stream. Some of the speakers included La Keesha Taylor and Saundrea Coleman from the Holmes-Isaacs Coälition ; Stanely Morse from the Justice For All Coälition ; and Lindsey Boylan, a 2020 Democratic Party primary candidate, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Nadler.
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.