The connecting thread that weaves together the opposition to Hispanic Justice Sonia Sotomayor, describing her as a “reverse racist” and the shooting of African-American officer Omar Edwards by white officer Andrew Dunton, described as “a tragedy” with no racial overtones by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is the unbridled slaughter of the indigenous people of the western hemisphere and the three-hundred-year importation of Africans as the energy source, this was before electricity and oil, to allow whites to clear, plant and reap from the stolen land as they moved into the industrial age. Allowing the accumulation of capital and creation of physical and social-control infrastructure that would last for hundreds of years. Being ignorant of those facts and what they mean to current conditions is what is meant by being colorblind.
The truthful chord Justice Sotomayor struck when she said “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” was such that it has driven men like Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, Newt and others into near apoplectic fits, which is good, because then the masks fall and you can see them more clearly.
The shooting in Harlem was yet another incident of white officers shooting black officers, versus none of white or black officers shooting white officers and still Mayor Bloomberg says there is no racial pattern. This response by the mayor is so profoundly disrespectful of the African-American community, that it would not be surprising if the Mayor’s negatives rise, despite his billions of dollars, photo ops and the media he can buy.
On a crowded B25 bus in route to the wake on Wednesday, I overheard a man say to another passenger that the white officer had “reacted from his racial memory,” and that sounds like a succinct statement of the case. When that is owned up to and deeply addressed, then things will change.
Justice Sotomayor-Officer Edwards Making Connections
City Mourns Loss of Police Officer Omar Edwards
In the wake of the recent tragic shooting of police officer Omar Edwards, 25, by a fellow cop, the NYPD is engaged in self-reflection: surveying undercover officers, releasing a guide for officers who confront other officers, reviewing rules and regulations and showing police training methods.
Today, as Edwards’ life is celebrated and his virtues extolled during funeral services at Our Lady of Victory Church on Throop Avenue, loss and sorrow overwhelm hearts: a wife loses a husband; children lose a father; a father and mother lose a son; siblings lose a brother; friends lose a friend; a team loses a player and on and on down the line – even the blue line.
Edwards, a Brooklyn resident, was shot and killed at 10:44 p.m. on East 125th Street in East Harlem by Officer Andrew Dunton one week ago today while chasing a man who broke into his car. Edwards was in street clothes and not wearing a bulletproof vest.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday that the current training video teaching officers how best to avoid problems in “confrontational situations,” will be replaced by another video that includes interviews and will be shown in every police facility in the city.
If only there were second chances, or life could rewind like videos. It would make it a lot easier for black officers who fear they might be mistaken for perpetrators or criminals and shot by their own; and officers who fear they might shoot an officer of color accidentally during a police action thinking that he might be a suspect.
So the shooting raises questions about race as well as procedure. Edwards joined the NYPD in July 2007. He was shot three times. The circumstances are under investigation.
At the urging of Black and Hispanic officers, Edwards will get a posthumous promotion to detective so that his widow, Danielle, and the couple’s two young boys can collect benefits based on the higher salary. What a price to pay.
Governor Paterson Comes to Brooklyn to Support Vann
(Photo Caption) Power Display: Governor David Paterson with Councilman Al Vann as Vann opens wha he reports will be his last campaign. The Governor was joined in his endorsement by State Senate Leader Malcolm Smith, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Stae Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Assemblymember Annette Robinson, Councilwoman Letitia James and a host of others.
Councilman Al Vann held what is said to be his last major campaign kickoff rally at the Lab community and entertainment complex on Harriet Tubman Boulevard/Tompkins Avenue in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant and it highlighted the strengths of his campaign.
The Councilman said he had been taught not to be a showoff but “I showed off a little this afternoon.” And he did, bringing thirty years of relationships, and a lifetime of mutual histories. Both Governor David Paterson and State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith were present at the event and both spoke of “standing” on Councilman Vann’s shoulders and how his stature (with them in the world of politics) is not something that comes easily. It was evident from their steadfast show of support in their remarks that their trust in his counsel gives the Councilman an uncommonly strong voice in Albany and New York City.
State Senator Smith joked, “I was a puppy when Vann was demonstrating in the streets,” adding that without Vann taking the lead, many of the big name politicians, in and out of the room, wouldn’t be where they are. “Vann knows where we’ve been and he knows where we’re going,” said Smith.
Noting Vann’s leadership on Black empowerment, Councilwoman Letitia James, who formerly worked for Vann, said “My DNA was crafted by Al Vann.”
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, now Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Children and Families, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Assemblywoman Annette Robinson, Comptroller William Thompson, Council members John Liu and Bill DeBlasio, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and others spoke of Councilman Vann’s leadership on and behind the scenes on many challenges faced by the community.
Assembly member Hakeem Jeffries said that “two generations of leadership” were lifted up by Councilman Vann, and the audience of supporters, veterans of many of the community’s primary movements for the past 40 years, suggested an apparent — and perhaps this warrior’s only — challenge will be to bring the digital generation into the campaign.
Challengers For the 36th CD Take Aim at Al Vann’s Seat
There is an entire stable in the horse race this year to replace two-term New York City Councilman Al Vann in the 36th District, which comprises a majority of Bedford-Stuyvesant and northern Crown Heights.
“I don’t remember people talking this much about a local election in quite some time,” says Frantz Cayo, president of the Stuyvesant Heights Parents Association, which is sponsoring the first candidates’ debate on Saturday, June 6 at Brownstone Books. “The field of candidates is fearless. They truly believe that they have the opportunity to unseat Vann.”
Considered a neighborhood institution by many, Vann has represented central Brooklyn, first as Assemblyman, for 34 years—just as long, or, longer than a couple of the other eight contenders have been alive.
History favors him. Incumbent council members have been re-elected 97 per cent of the time over the past 20 years, a recent City Limits article reports. Plus, with a candidate list longer than the line for roti at Trinidad Ali’s, November’s victor would only need a slim plurality.
But changing demographics and the ‘Barack Obama effect,’ the belief that youth and change is preferable to the establishment, could throw the race to a nimble horse. For those who did not grow up in the district and homegrown residents taking stock of what has been done for them lately, Vann is just as new as the new guy.
It’s a development that lead challenger Mark Winston Griffith, 46, recently endorsed by the Working Families Party, is counting on.
“In the case of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, you have so much political leadership that’s been entrenched for generations, it should be a part of your platform to identify new folks and bring them in,” says Griffith, who opposed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s extension of term limits that also allowed 35 of 51 City Council members, including Vann, to run again. Back in the 1990s, voters twice supported referenda to impose term limits.
Griffith, executive director of the Drum Major Institute, a think tank that advocates for the working and middle class, has so far, out-fundraised everyone. He has $35,000 in his war chest, according to public campaign finance records, much of it drawing from citywide and national progressive political circles. But he also has establishment approval.
Griffith is one of two candidates to receive highest marks from a panel of community leaders convened at Vann’s suggestion in early fall of 2008, according to coordinator Esmeralda Simmons, to identify his possible successor.
Since Vann’s idea for the panel occurred around the same time that talk publicly surfaced of Bloomberg’s interest in extending term limits and Vann subsequently deciding to run, charges have been leveled that the panel was convened to identify his competitors—which Simmons, director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, refutes.
The other candidate with highest marks, attorney Mark Pollard, is now Vann’s campaign manager.
Despite his lengthy tenure in office however, some new small business owners, like Serena and Patrick Icart-Pierre and Nikima Frenche, are hard-pressed to say how Vann has helped them.
The Icart-Pierre’s three-year-old Exotic Homes & Gardens is the only lifestyle and design store to brave the gritty, noisy Atlantic Avenue thoroughfare. Foot traffic is spotty, unlike around the corner on Nostrand Avenue, and largely drawn from pleasantly surprised passers-by trudging to the post office. Developing and beautifying this border area is a prime concern for the Icart-Pierre’s.
“If this was Park Slope, it would be beautiful,” Serena says, pointing to where blackened bricks from the mouth of the Long Island Rail Road tunnel fall off into the street. Serena says that she doubles as the street’s cleaner and beautifier. She and her husband wonder why there are no trees for as far as the eye can see in either direction, unlike a friend’s store, also on Atlantic Avenue, but further west in Boerum Hill.
“If I haven’t met you, I don’t know how I’m supposed to vote for you,” says Frenche who owns the eponymous day spa and private tea room on the tree-lined Tompkins Avenue corridor, a haven for small businesses which have sprung up in the last five years to cater to residents with discretionary income.
Frenche wants her councilmember to be a strong voice for “the right sort” of small businesses in the area. Read: no more bodegas.
For that reason, she plans to vote in the council elections for the first time. Her choice is Tremaine Wright, 36, owner of nearby Common Grounds coffee house. Wright, an attorney and small business advocate, has raised about $5,000, which places her near the bottom of the field.
The Icart-Pierre’s store bears evidence of a recent visit from David Grinage, a former police officer, whose $33,000 haul puts him a close second behind Griffith.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen these guys going around,” says Patrick, who seems impressed. He has also met the youngest candidate, Saquan Jones, 33, whose $10,000 puts him just behind Al Vann—a closeness that Jones is not expected to maintain.
The appeal of Vann’s experience and seniority cannot be dismissed, particularly when viewed against a city dominated by a strong mayor and speaker of the city council.
“If you walk around the Albany chambers with him you’ll see the respect he’s amassed in his career,” says Colvin Grannum, president of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation on Fulton Avenue, who believes that term limits weaken the council. He says that Vann’s longstanding personal relationships give him access to power.
“Vann can bring home the bacon to central Brooklyn,” says campaign manager, Pollard.
Indeed, with joblessness on the rise and Bedford-Stuyvesant having the highest foreclosure rate in the city, with north Crown Heights not far behind, an ability to coax federal stimulus dollars out of Albany’s hands is one of the major themes coming out of the Vann camp.
It has gotten the attention of Cayo who attended State Senator Velmanette Montgomery’s Small Business Empowerment Forum on President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.
“No other candidate was there but everyone knew Vann and wanted to speak with him afterwards about how to take part in it,” says Cayo, who plans to vote for Vann.
“Other candidates look like they’re trying to run uphill while he’s not having those same issues,” he says.
Frenche holds a slightly different take on the incumbent. “It’s time to bring in new blood.”
State Senator Perkins Hosts First Hearing on Atlantic Yards
Photo caption: State Senators Bill Perkins, Velmanette Montgomery and Karl Kruger.
The first State Senate hearing since the 2005 announcement of the Atlantic Yards project was a spectacle to behold. State Senator Bill Perkins hosted the hearing, entitled “Atlantic Yards: Where are We Now, How Did We Get Here, and Where is this Project Going?” State Senators Velmanette Montgomery and Carl Kruger and Assembly member Hakeem Jeffries were on hand to ask questions.
Sen. Perkins is the newly-appointed chair of the State Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, which has a mandate to oversee state entities that engage in state-supported economic and infrastructure development, such as the ESDC and all of its subsidiaries. The committee also shares oversight of the Port Authority and the Thruway Authority.
Perkins opening statement sought to explain why he called the hearing. “We are here to lend the will of the people to this process, to provide the check and balance that helps the Executive Branch do the right thing.” Perkins stressed this point: “Development, as I see it, is generally a good thing. I do not count myself among those who think ‘development’ is a dirty word that denotes the trampling of the powerless for the benefit of the powerful. But the truth is that development does have a checkered history in New York, particularly here in this city. Yet all too often,” he said, “in our strive to ‘go big or go home’ we have not taken into account the needs of all the legitimate stake holders. This is where development goes off track. Our goal here is to do all we can to make sure this project does not go off track.”
Of all the stake holders interested in Atlantic Yards who attended – MTA, Empire State Development Corp. (ESDC), various NYC agencies, Independent Budget Office (IBO), Council member Tish James, signatories to the Community Benefits Agreement, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), various union members, and community residents – the most notable entity missing-in-action was Bruce Ratner, who also failed to send a representative of Forest City Ratner.
Attendees had to walk a gauntlet of about 100 union members to gain entrance to the hearing. Once inside the capacity hearing, attendees were treated to union members heckling and loudly blowing whistles, disrupting those giving testimony. The union message, led by Anthony Pugliese from the Carpenters’ Local 152 and Dennis Milton from the Ironworkers Local 580, was loud and clear: they want jobs, and they want ‘em now! Perkins respectfully asked several times for decorum.
State Senator Marty Golden’s dramatic, disruptive entrance half way through the proceedings irritated Montgomery, who reminded Golden that “This is my district.” (After the hearing, Montgomery noted Golden’s hypocrisy for whipping union members into a frenzy, since Golden is one of the state senators vehemently opposed to a new provision of the Rockefeller drug law that provides “conditional sealing” of criminal records, which would allow the formerly incarcerated to gain employment in the one field they may qualify for: construction trades).
Helena Williams, president of the Long Island Railroad and the interim executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, touted Atlantic Yards’ benefits to public transportation system: new rail yards, a new subway entrance for the arena, and new tax revenues (based upon the assumption that fans from NJ would come to Brooklyn to see the Nets). After intense questioning, Williams admitted the original 2006 deal for Ratner to pay MTA $100 million for the Vanderbilt rail yard would have to be modified due to the current economic climate. When pressed if it would be closer to $50 million, Williams said there may be an upfront payment of $20 million with incremental payments as MTA parcels are consumed by the project. In addition, the new rail yard would be downscaled from nine to seven rails to reduce costs. A final determination is expected when the MTA holds its next board meeting on June 24.
George Sweeting from the Independent Budget Office (IBO), said his office “has not undertaken a full updating of our previous (2005) analysis of the project.” He suggested that costs, increased city contributions and changes in the city’s economic climate, might make the arena a net money loser. Sweeting noted that under a special Internal Revenue code, tax exempt bonds for development of the arena must be issued before the end of the year or lose tax exempt status.
Rev. Herbert Daughtry was the most vocal individual to continuously disrupt the hearing with accusations that elected officials stalled the building of Atlantic Yards, and stated that the hearing was just one more stall tactic. When he testified, Rev. Daughtry described himself as the President and founder of the Brooklyn Downtown Neighborhood Alliance. While touting the Community Benefits Agreement, Daughtry referred to his “highly regarded” daycare centers that would be located in Atlantic Yards; he told of “the opportunity of participation in the architectural design” of an intergenerational complex to be located with the project.
Mollie Rouzie, representing the Community-Based Planning Task Force, was one of the few to note how planning of Atlantic Yards bypassed normal local land use provisions. She resurrected the Unity Plan, which calls for housing to be built only on the footprint of the Vanderbilt Yards.
Michelle de la Uz from the Fifth Avenue Committee pointed out that per unit housing costs at Atlantic Yards are more than twice what the Fifth Avenue Committee or the Pratt Area Community Council pays. De la Uz compared Atlantic Yards to the project on Gowanus Green where 70% of the housing is permanent and affordable.
Daniel Goldstein, co-founder of DDDB, called upon ESDC to “see the healthy development of the Vanderbilt Rail Yards, with competitive bidding, truly affordable housing, open space the public can use, with a scope and scale that respects the surrounding community while still meeting a desirable and reasonable density.” Goldstein said, “It is time to officially scrap the Atlantic Yards plan and start over.”
Ron Shiffman, professor at the Pratt Center for Planning and the Environment, board member of DDDB, and urban planner for the Unity Plan, said Atlantic Yards “takes housing dollars from other neighborhoods.” Shiffman called “eminent domain dangerous to poor and low income communities,” and said a concrete definition of eminent domain should be a part of public policy, along the lines of the original Urban Development Corp. Use of “eminent domain on a case-by-case basis erodes principles,” said Shiffman. During his testimony, hecklers reminded Shiffman that Pratt Institute was built by non-union labor and was currently using non-union labor in its expansion.
Gloria Woodland, former president of ACORN, said the organization has a “commitment to affordability and housing for low and middle income people.”
Henry P. Weinstein, president of the Pacific Carlton Development Corp., blasted ESDC, saying it “stood silent and allowed the ultimate misuse of the threat of eminent domain to be used by a private developer, caring little for the truth and the rights of those affected.” He accused ESDC of abusing its power and the public trust “by allowing the private developer, who has the most to gain to self-certify almost all documents and facts submitted for public review.” Weinstein said “Bruce Ratner was allowed to self-certify that he controlled my property to ESDC.” (Weinstein recently won an appellate court decision against Ratner, concerning the illegal assignments of the leases of some of Weinstein’s properties in the footprint of Atlantic Yards.)
Assemblymember Jeffries asked strong questions regarding whether or not public benefits will be preserved, including the affordable housing component. Concerned about “gentrification and displacement, with working class folks being forced out,” Jeffries asked “What if housing is not affordable by the people who would build it?” Jeffries said the goal of 200 affordable on-site condos out of 4,500 units is “not significant enough.” Jeffries called for “proportional affordability.”
Sen. Kruger said he was “an early supporter of Atlantic Yards”; is concerned about the “lacking facts and substance from MTA,” and wants to see construction begin.”
Council member Letitia James summed up changes in her district since she took office and described what Atlantic Yards would do. James reminded everyone that “Normally, a project like this would begin the long City planning and approval process known as the Land Use Review Procedure or ULURP. A process with public hearings at each level of city government, ending in a vote by the 51 members of the City Council.” James lamented, “But, this project would be different. ULURP would be bypassed, in favor of a state override and a state process consisting solely of environmental impact disclosures. There would be no vote by the City Council, or by the three community boards that meet inside the boundaries of the proposed project-area.”
It would be a state takeover of the largest project in Brooklyn history,” said James. “Instead of public hearings and strict review, there would be zoning overrides and violations of existing zoning regulations.” For instance, James pointed to a NYC zoning regulation that prohibits arenas within 200 feet of residential areas. “This project would not respect that rule,” she said.
James told the hearing, “It has been five and a half years since the project was unveiled and we still have no idea how much the developer stands to make from this project. There has never been a public cost/ benefit analysis undertaken. We are unsure of the total of direct City and State subsidies. We are even less sure of the indirect benefits the developer would receive, in tax breaks and exemptions, land values, PILOTS, and other incentives. It has been conservatively estimated at upwards of one billion dollars.”
Council member James closed her testimony by saying she wants to see development built at Atlantic/ Vanderbilt Yards, including affordable housing. James told the hearing that a source from ESDC said what will be built is an arena alone. “What we need,” said James, “is housing and housing loans.”