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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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Fight For NYCHA’s protest march accuses LGBTQ electeds of pinkwashing racism and austerity

LGBTQ politicians came to power based on their experience of discrimination, but they have done nothing to end discrimination for all oppressed people.

Austerity leads to racism

There is a convergence in the betrayal of public housing with the Coronavirus pandemic. Hospital closings led to disparities in healthcare outcomes, as we have seen during the Coronavirus outbreak. The refrigerator trucks are a sign that austerity leads to racism. Now, NYCHA residents are being used as guinea pigs for testing and contact tracing in order for politicians to dangerously fast-track the reopening of the economy.

Fight For NYCHA targeting some politicians, who claim to experience oppression, but who have done nothing to end racism or austerity. We visited the apartment houses of : Christine Quinn, Corey Johnson, Deborah Glick, and Brad Hoylman — each of whom had a role in the closing and luxury condo conversion of the old St. Vincent’s Hospital. They thought nothing of taking away a safety net hospital from us, and they have done nothing to fight austerity or racism, as evidenced by how public housing has been neglected on their watch — and in their own district.

Contact Tracing poses risks to NYCHA tenants. Fight For NYCHA demands HRA Rent Vouchers for All.

The political and media fallout : “Willful ignorance,” silence, and distraction

Quinn, Johnson, and Glick chose to ignore our protest, with Quinn’s doorman videotaping our protest outside her million-dollar luxury condo. Quinn gets paid $500,000 a year as the ringleader of a poverty nonprofit that skims money off of homeless shelters. A kind of a new age, “transformational” Madame Thénardier.

For his part, Hoylman addressed Albany red tape on hospital closes but refused to address the pinkwashing by the LGBTQ White CIS power establishment of racism. But we made him nervous, and he took to Twitter that very same night and, for the first time in his career, tweeted the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.

Pinkwashing means that the LGBTQ politicians in Chelsea and the West Village have exploited their experience of discrimination for political power without uplifting POC.

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Join us on May 30 for a March Against Racism and Austerity from Chelsea to Greenwich Village

Poverty is barbarity !

Our march route has been finalised !

We are visiting the apartment houses of politicians, who had a role in the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital, a situation that has wrecked the healthcare outcomes of low-income communities and POC. We are demanding that politicians stop #PinkWashing racism and austerity ! Join us as we protest :

  • Christine Quinn, former City Council Speaker ;
  • Corey Johnson, current City Council Speaker ;
  • Deborah Glick, Assemblymember ; and
  • Brad Hoylman, State Senator.

They enabled gentrification of New York City and never championed the full-funding of NYCHA. These politicians claim to know oppression. But what have they done to end racism and austerity ?

None of these politicians said one word to stand up against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s dangerous scheme to sell-out NYCHA to RAD landlords. It’s time that politicians, who claim that they are allies of POC, start acting as allies.

Please join us :

When : Sat., May 30, at 1 pm
Where : Meet at 9th Ave. and West 27th Street
RSVP : March Against Racism and Austerity [Facebook]

Stop ”pinkwashing” racism and austerity !

An LGBTQ activist is taking the lead in the planning of this protest march, so this is not an attack on identity, but, rather, criticism on how politicians have used the experience of oppression for personal political gain — only to countenance the oppression of others.

Watch our Facebook Live

Please start watching at about 5 minutes in, due to technical issues.