There’s a lot of heart in what goes on at the Quincy Senior Residence at 625 Quincy Street in Brooklyn. Just ask Tyrease Slaughter, age 7, who performed last Saturday before some 250 people at the Center’s annual Family and Friends Day fest.
The food delighted. The bright orange QSR tee-shirts and caps impressed. The presentations and gifts were generous. But there was something extra special about this year’s event, exquisitely organized and hosted by Phyllis Hurd, executive director of the of the five-year-old residence and Rhonda A. Lewis, CEO of QSR’s umbrella Bridge Street Development Corporation (BSDC).
“You can jump, you can say you’re in God’s Army, you can say, ‘Look at what I do,’ but it doesn’t mean a thing if your heart’s not in it,” sang out young Slaughter, a student of Excellence Charter School and grandson of Bedford Stuyvesant pioneer community advocate Ulysses Slaughter.
Each year, the Family and Friends event gets larger and includes something more than the year before. This year, Hurd presented star vocalist Linda Miller, performing a range of music. Hurd also showcased young emerging dancers and vocalists, drawing particular attention to the talents and gifts of young men in our community.
Ms. Miller, a former prodigy, now distinguished vocalst, who performed songs from her CD, “Rough Side of the Mountain,” was very generous in her salute to the young emerging stars. She told us, “It was something to witness disciplined young men performing, showing their work and praising the Lord.”
She praised the intergenerational aspect of the “reunion” event. Too often, if it’s a senior affair, the young people are left out, she told us. And if it is youth-focused, the seniors rarely get to witness their artistry.
As part of her mission to put heart into each event, director Hurd starts her event planning months in advance and builds on the successes of previous events. That effort is beyond her job description and day-to-day tasks. But it does not matter; Hurd sees her assignment as a kind of ministry; it’s something she wants to do. “What’s important is to see the seniors dancing, laughing, singing and knowing they are valued,” she told us.
“This year, I felt the best way to glorify and praise them was to reveal to them the results of their hard work; they needed to see young men being positive, giving and doing good,” she told us. “Too often, they are afraid and intimidated by what they see and hear. Today, they were allowed to see the other side, the success stories and that their work was not in vain.”
And there was a benefit to the young people. “They were cheered by their elders, and complimented,” observed Ms. Hurd. “So they felt valued. And because they feel valued, they will value others.”
Both Ms. Hurd and Ms. Lewis, who grew up with their families in Brooklyn, share the philosophy that seniors are the “jewels of the community” and they approach their respective positions, organically and holistically, with an informed and wizened spirit derived from the teachings and examples of the elders who guided them.
The ingredient of “heart” has a lot to do with the level of “compassionate energy,” noted Ms. Lewis, who hired Ms. Hurd, a former corporate finance analyst, as a temp a few short years ago and watched her grow to her current status as a professional community organizer (and somewhat of a celebrity in the community because of her reputation for proficiency).
Sometimes, their demands for efficiency and strategic planning may not be understood immediately, but nonetheless, Ms. Hurd and Ms. Lewis’ respective sets of eyes are always on the prize. And the results are always spectacular … as for the Quincy Street Residence’s Family & Friends Reunion Day.
Other talents showcased at the event were the lively QSR Choir and a vocal duet by Jason Slaughter, age 11, singing “Lately” and his brother Tyrease.
Just as entertaining was the presence of the indefatigable Ophelia Perry of Church Women United, and Alma Carroll and Vernell Albury, among so many other pioneers. In addition, State Sen.Velmanette Montgomery sent a special message through her omnipresent community affairs representative, Joan Eastmond.
“Residences should be more than places to be; they should be sanctuaries where people can live and age gracefully, and enjoy themselves,” said Ms. Hurd.
Ms. Lewis revealed to Our Time Press that BSDC is about to embark on another ground-breaking move for the community: the construction of the 23-unit Noel Pointer residence on now-vacant land on Lafayette Avenue. This effort– at which Ms. Hurd will undoubtedly play a major role in event planning — is on the heels of the success of the emergence of BSDC’s new Joshua Court residence at 300 Putnam Avenue – the first multifamily building in Bedford Stuyvesant to be outfitted with solar panels. We expect Ms. Lewis will see that young violinists and other musicians from the Noel Pointer School of Music will perform. (Details for this real estate initiative will be announced shortly.) To reach Quincy Street Senior Residence, call (718) 443-6329. To reach BSDC, call (718) 399-0146.
For Quincy Senior Residence, a Day of Family, Friends, Young People and Heart
NYCHA Tenants Displaced after Contractor Missteps
The summer of 2010 has been marked by a series of weeklong heat waves. After one recent heat waves when temperatures rose above 100 degrees for consecutive days, a rainstorm was welcome relief.
There was no relief for 6th—floor tenants living at 611 Blake Ave., also known as Unity Plaza, Building #26.
On Tuesday, July 13, the tenant residing in apartment 6K came home from work to find her apartment damaged by the rainstorm. Why? NYCHA had engaged the
services of a contractor who had been working to repair the roof since September 2009.
According to the tenant, the contractor started drilling on the roof in December. “I don’t know what they did, but yesterday it rained in my apartment. There is water damage everywhere,” she said.
A visitor to the building was greeted by an acrid, moldy smell. Once on the 6th floor, emergency lighting dimly lit the hallways. There was no electricity in apartments. Tenants, visitors and NYCHA personnel had to navigate an obstacle course of buckets and bowls of dark yellow water, which dripped on everyone, even though it was no longer raining. There were puddles on the floors in the hallways and in the apartments. A brief tour of the roof revealed buckled—roof membranes and workers pumping water.
The apartment 6K tenant gave a tour of her apartment the day after that rain. A large bowl in her sink was full of water waste. Her ceiling was still dripping. “It ruined everything,” she said. “All my food, stuff in my cabinets, my furniture, my TVs. Look. It’s still leaking.” Asked if she was at home when the leaking began, she said, “No, I was at work at the time. I came home to this disaster.”
Council member Charles Barron and his wife, Assembly member Inez Barron, were onsite the entire day after the rain to assist tenants. Council member Barron said, “NYCHA hired an incompetent contractor who was supposed to lay a layer to prepare for the roof. They have been working on that since September. The rains came. He did not lay it well enough to make sure it protected the apartments from rain. It was raining in every apartment. Indoor rain. Worse yet, NYCHA leaves them. The electricity was still on. There could have been an electrical fire because of the water. They didn’t call the fire department. I had to call the fire dept. to turn off the electricity. They didn’t relocate anybody. They left them in this crap, this dangerous, uninhabitable situation. They left them all night. Some people had to pay out of their own pockets to stay in a hotel. Others made calls and stayed with their people. NYCHA just came today to assess the situation. Assess what? The fire department recommended the electricity be shut off until they dry everything and make sure the wires are dry.”
Charles Barron said NYCHA should “Get the people out. Replace their property. Make sure they fire this contractor and get someone who can do this roof properly. You have flooded apartments. The electricity is turned off.
“Molding. A lot of children here have asthma. You abandon them, make them stay in this situation overnight. This is outrageous.”
In apartment 6B, water damage led to the ceiling peeling. Water came through the
ceiling fixtures. There were buckets to collect water in throughout apartment 6C. “Water came down on my bed,” said the tenant.
“I was sleeping, and it woke me up. I moved the bed, but the water was pouring out.” Her ceiling also had peeling. Water damaged her sofa and electronic equipment, including a 40—inch television.
Another tenant said, “You don’t know how it feels to be in a situation with no type of assistance.”
NYCHA eventually did evacuate tenants on the 6th floor, while the contractor is working on the roof and repairing apartments.
The issue now is damages. Council member Barron said tenants were instructed to meet directly with the contractor to negotiate losses. There are allegations the contractor is arbitrarily setting low estimates to replace damaged household items, including food, mattresses, electronic equipment and living room sofas. Barron feels NYCHA should have been present during meetings between the contractor and tenants. While some tenants settled, other tenants are upset because of what they are being offered, and complain that the contractor is not fairly assessing tenant claims.
Battle for the 10th Congressional District Heats Up
He did not do it in 2006 when Charles Barron and Roger Green bid for his seat. He did not do it in 2008 when Kevin Powell commenced his first run for Congress. This year, Congressman Ed Towns is challenging the petitions of his opposition – Kevin Powell.
Powell sees this tactic as a sign of desperation in Towns’ camp. “Mr. Towns is fighting behind a lawsuit,” said Powell. “It is obvious he and his campaign are afraid of waging a real campaign.”
A source close to Powell’s campaign said Towns’ challenge to his petitions is 15 pages of general objections. Towns’ lawsuit is against Powell and the Board of Elections, as if the allegations of signature fraud also extend within the board itself. Though Powell was served at his address within the district, the lawsuit alleges he does not live within the 10th congressional district.
On Monday, both sides met to do battle in Brooklyn’s Supreme Court. Bernard Alter, Towns’ attorney, admitted in court that he found 2600 signatures; Powell needs 1,250 signatures to gain ballot status. He asked for a line-by-line review, and said pending the results, they will be more prepared to allege specific fraud. Powell’s attorney asked the judge to dismiss the case due to “inaccuracy, falsehoods and lack of specificity.” The judge said it was “too early” for that, and directed both sides to conduct a line-by-line review of Powell’s petitions. Both sides will return to court on August 9. At that time, the judge will determine if a trial is warranted.
The entire presentation took less than 10 minutes. Outside the courtroom, Aaron Golembiewski, Policy Director and Co-counsel for the Powell campaign, had stacks of petitions in both hands. Holding up his left hand, he said, “These are 1,300 signatures that we have, by their own count. We only need 1,250.” Holding up his right hand, Golembiewski said, “These are extras.”
The battle is being waged in newspapers and online.
The Daily News online bog, Daily Politics, reported this from Towns’ spokesperson Hank Sheinkopf, “There were so many serious problems with his petitions that our campaign believed we needed to protect the voters from being victims of this possible fraud. If indeed Mr. Powell followed the law, then he has nothing to worry about and will be free to lose again.”
On Observer.com, Towns himself weighed in. “It’s a lot of fraud,” Towns said. “I tell you I’ve been in this business now 40 years. These are the worst petitions I’ve ever seen in my 40 years of being involved in electoral politics. It’s ridiculous. And I generally don’t challenge people. This is a fraud on the people of the district to allow him to just get on the ballot with this stuff.”
The HuffingtonPost.com has published several articles written by Powell asking why Towns is challenging him.
Powell “finds it very sad and contradictory that Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns, a 27-year Democratic incumbent here in Brooklyn, New York’s 10th Congressional District, is suing me. Like him, I am a lifelong Democrat. Like him, I was born in another state but came to Brooklyn at a relatively young age and served my community in a variety of capacities before seeking public office. And like Mr. Towns, now age 76, and someone who lived through the Civil Rights Movement, I am African—American.”
Referring to the history of African—American voter disenfranchisement, Powell said, “The entire spectacle of Mr. Towns suing a fellow Democrat to prevent me from being on the Democratic primary ballot on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 is sad and contradictory. Sad because it says that Mr. Towns and his team are now so nervous about my congressional campaign that they are resorting to the same kind of legal maneuvers that once prevented Blacks like him from voting in America.”
Some say having petitions challenged is the “cost of doing business” in Brooklyn electoral politics. Incumbents challenge selectively. And so has Towns. In 2006, Towns did not challenge Barron’s or Green’s petitions. Common knowledge is multiple challengers split the vote, canceling each other out. (In 2006, Charles Barron received 15,345 votes; Roger Green got 6,237 votes; and Ed Towns emerged the winner with 19,469 votes. Presumably, Towns did not challenge Powell in 2008 because it was his first campaign. (In 2008, Kevin Powell received 11,558 votes on his first try; Towns retained his seat with 24,405.)
During the intervening years, Powell has gained momentum, which might be why the Towns campaign has decided to challenge his petitions.
“They are attempting to have the legal system, instead of the people, decide who the next Congressperson is going to be,” Kevin Powell said. “That is not democracy.”
Work of Jeffries, Schneiderman Ends Prison-Based Gerrymandering
– Senate Majority Passes Historic Bill –
The New York legislative session that just concluded was historic for the African-American community, it was the culmination of a political infrastructure that began forming two decades ago and is at last bearing fruit. Issues of importance to the African-American community that have been routinely put aside and ignored over the years, were enthusiastically dealt with by legislators elected to address these same concerns a generation ago but who now had power in both houses in Albany and in David Paterson, a governor who shared their frustration and goals.
The latest accomplishment is the legislation ending the practice of inmate-based gerrymandering in New York State and ensuring that incarcerated persons will be counted as residents of their home communities when state and local legislative districts are redrawn in New York next year.
Sponsored by Eric Schneiderman in the Senate and Hakeem Jeffries in the Assembly, the new law is particularly meaningful for Kings County. In an interview with Our Time Press right after the Senate had passed its bill, Assemblyman Jeffries said that Kings County is the largest county in the state with respect to the percentage of individuals who are incarcerated in New York. “We send more individuals into the prison system than any county in New York,” resulting in having the political representation in Kings County being “far less than it otherwise should be.”
Jeffries says that as a result of ending the practice of inmate-based gerrymandering in New York State, there will be increased representation in Brooklyn that would translate into additional political power and resources for the community. He bases this on the combination of an expected increase in the population in Brooklyn, as well as the ability to now count incarcerated individuals as residents of their home communities in Kings County. With this in place, “There is a likelihood that we may secure additional representation in either the Assembly or the Senate.”
What has happened in the past is that because of inmate-based gerrymandering, representation has gone to the rural communities where the prisons are located, giving them a disproportionate share of political power, relative to their actual population.
It is widely known that there are seven upstate Senate districts that would not meet the population requirements, if not for the incarcerated population individuals counted as residents of the district. “The practice is unfair, undemocratic and undermines the fundamental principle of one person one vote.”
Making a Difference
This is just the latest in a series of bills that impact urban areas including reforming the Rocekfeller Drug Laws, ending the Stop-and-Frisk electronic database (but not the technique), reforming the juvenile justice system to provide alternatives to incarceration and holistic help for young people rather than prison care and rent-to-own legislation giving consumers protection from price gouging.
“We were sent to Albany to make a difference and given the change of power in the Senate with John Sampson at the helm and with other members like Velmanette Montgomery and Eric Adams in the majority, the Assembly now has a partner in dealing with issues that benefit communities of color.”
The assemblyman says it also points to the significance of having someone like David Paterson in office, “who is sensitive to the concerns of African-American and Latino communities” and is willing to sign legislation that used to be ignored.
“The other piece of legislation that Our Time Press has covered in a very comprehensive fashion is the MWBE strengthening that we were able to accomplish in the Assembly and the Senate and that Governor Paterson signed into law a few weeks ago. So it’s been an extremely productive legislative session. There is a lot of talk about what does not happen in Albany, and not enough of what does happen, particularly by African-American legislators trying to address issues of concern to the communities we represent.”
Looking forward to the next session, Assemblyman Jeffries is hopeful that the governor will take a look at the housing reform legislation that has passed in the Assembly and is working its way through the Senate to deal with the gentrification of communities of color, primarily in central Brooklyn and in Harlem. “The governor has indicated to us that he recognizes there is a need to reform the rent regulation laws and attempt to bring some balance between the relationship of landlords and tenants.”
Jeffries noted that the housing market over the last decade has spiraled out of control and as a result landlords and developers have engaged in systematic harassment and abuse of rent-stabilized tenants, many of whom are people of color, in order to force them out of their apartments as part of the gentrification process. He says there is a series of rent regulation bills that have already passed the Assembly and “if passed and signed into law by Governor Paterson, will go a long way to dealing with the intense gentrification our communities have been dealing with.”
The assemblyman said that many of his fellow lawmakers saw a parallel between counting incarcerated individuals in the counties where the prisons are located and what took place prior to the Civil War when African-American slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person for purposes of artificially increasing power the rural South. “The South then went to congress with increased representation based on American slaves not voting and participating in the political process and used that increased political representation to undermine the very interests of those same African-Americans.”
He says that this is what has been taking place in New York State “where rural upstate communities have artificially enhanced their political power largely on the backs of African-American and Latino incarcerated individuals only to then go to the state legislature and fight against the very criminal justice reforms that would benefit the African-American and Latino communities that are disproportionately represented in the correctional system.”
Speaking of the reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, Jeffries said there was no justification for maintaining the “antiquated and draconian” laws and sentencing non-violent drug abusers to lengthy prison sentences “other than maintaining a prison industrial complex that enhanced the power of certain communities” that were dependent on the maintenance of a “vibrant” prison system. Reforms such as the Rockefeller Drug Laws took so long to enact because “until we took control of the Senate, individuals in rural upstate communities were committed to a system of maintaining the prison industrial complex with its school-to-prison pipeline. We have set out to break the back of the prison industrial complex. Whatever the morality of the individuals who have fought to maintain the prison industrial complex over the last several decades, they have succumbed to the countervailing force, from people of all colors in New York State, concluding that the right thing to do was to create a fairer, more equitable and more just correctional system.”
Asked if there are other vestiges of slavery still in public policy, Jeffries responded: “I’ve often said that Jim Crow may be dead but his nieces and nephews are alive and well. Slavery may have died with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, but there are certainly vestiges of slavery that subjugate African-American communities by a loss of political power and the diminution of their ability to succeed economically.”
If electing Barack Obama president was a marker for the advances gained in the Civil Rights Movement, then the New York state legislative session that just concluded demonstrates what was envisioned by the Black Power Movement in the seventies, the wielding of political power to authoritively advance the issues of a previously subjugated people.
View From Here: Jim Webb is Right – Diversity Programs Are Too Diverse
Virginia Senator Jim Webb has come under fire for his Wall Street Journal article, “Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege”, where he argues that “America still owes a debt to its black citizens, but government programs to help all ‘people of color’ are unfair. They should end.”
We’re glad Jim Webb said it because he’s absolutely correct. In a former career in the moving industry, we would see government contracts go to large companies owned by white Cubans who qualified as “minority” contractors with economic resources far outdistancing their African-American competitors. Sometimes you would go into a bid conference and see a list of eligible minorities and wonder, “What the hell is going on here?”
This is not redress because someone doesn’t like your color or ethnicity, you have to apply to another door for that. These programs grew out of the theft of services from African-Americans forebears held in captivity and worked as slave labor. These programs are for their African-American heirs, and not every non-white person from across the planet.
As Webb says, “The injustices endured by black Americans at the hands of their own government have no parallel in our history, not only during the period of slavery but also in the Jim Crow era that followed. But the extrapolation of this logic to all “people of color”—especially since 1965, when new immigration laws dramatically altered the demographic makeup of the U.S.—moved affirmative action away from remediation and toward discrimination, this time against whites. It has also lessened the focus on assisting African-Americans, who despite a veneer of successful people at the very top, still experience high rates of poverty, drug abuse, incarceration and family breakup.”
In the commentary about Senator Webb’s article, there is an attempt to both raise ire of progressives and immigrants at the notion of ending diversity programs and at the same time use “Myth of White Privilege” as a way to get African-Americans to dismiss the argument before they hear it, because they know it ain’t no myth, but it does put all white folks in the same basket and they don’t all belong there, at least not all the time.
Webb says, “In an odd historical twist that all Americans see but few can understand, many programs allow recently arrived immigrants to move ahead of similarly situated whites whose families have been in the country for generations. These programs have damaged racial harmony. And the more they have grown, the less they have actually helped African-Americans, the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action as it was originally conceived. How so?
“Lyndon Johnson’s initial program for affirmative action was based on the 13th Amendment and on the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which authorized the federal government to take actions in order to eliminate “the badges of slavery.” Affirmative action was designed to recognize the uniquely difficult journey of African-Americans. This policy was justifiable and understandable, even to those who came from white cultural groups that had also suffered in socioeconomic terms from the Civil War and its aftermath.
And despite the headline, Webb does not deny white privilege, he just does not call it that. Instead, he acknowledges the existence of a ruling “white elite”, observing that “the Old South was a three-tiered society, with blacks and hard-put whites both dominated by white elites who manipulated racial tensions in order to retain power. At the height of slavery, in 1860, less than 5% of whites in the South owned slaves.”
He then goes on to note other markers of the stratification of white society such as a 1980-2000 survey of college degrees obtained by white Baptists, 18.4%; Irish Protestants, 21.8% and compared it to the “national average of 30.1%, a Jewish average of 73.3%, and an average among those of Chinese and Indian descent of 61.9%.”
We would add that the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances shows that “the wealthiest 1 percent of families owns roughly 34.3% of the nation’s net worth, the top 10% of families owns over 71%, and the bottom 40% of the population owns way less than 1%.”
Webb says, “Policymakers ignored such disparities within America’s white cultures when, in advancing minority diversity programs, they treated whites as a fungible monolith. Also lost on these policymakers were the differences in economic and educational attainment among nonwhite cultures. Thus, nonwhite groups received special consideration in a wide variety of areas including business start-ups, academic admissions, job promotions and lucrative government contracts.
“Where should we go from here? Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end.”
There is nothing in the senator’s article that suggests anything but the acknowledgement of the debt due African-Americans and the necessity of continuing programs that remediate it. Immigrants should not be able to come and make claim to remedies for a wrong — slavery, Jim Crow and all the rest — that they had not endured. Yes, other discrimination exists, but find other remedies. The government programs for “minority” contractors should be for African-Americans because their ancestors had their human capital taken and invested in building the roads and ports and growing and harvesting the crops that built this nation. That’s the work these programs were supposed to compensate for. The problem is that when they were devised, lawmakers could not bring themselves to enacting programs that were just for African-Americans. As a result, they increased the attraction of the United States, while at the same time perpetuated the weakening of a significant portion of its intellectual and human capital and now they complain about immigration.
Maybe the country will come to the point of looking at the world from a global perspective, knowing that we can only participate in this galloping race to the future, by paradoxically turning inward and strengthening our core human capacity so that we can engage other nations with a citizenry that has fully-realized its human potential. So let’s take another look at the diversity programs, of course being mindful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.