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Letitia James for Public Advocate

Editor, Our Time Press
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Ms. James would be the Only Woman

to Hold a City-wide Office in NYC!

VOTE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1

Historic buildings are threatened with bulldozers, a parent’s group yearns for someone to listen to their concerns for their children’s safety, a voice is required to articulate the fears of homeowners and small business owners facing displacement, a force is needed to encourage development in a neighborhood, thousands of families in rental buildings are stymied by the repairs needed in their apartments, someone wants access to much-needed healthcare, another seeks equal pay for equal work.

Letitia James.

As everyone knows by now, Letitia James and Daniel Squadron will face each other in a runoff on Oct. 1 to determine who will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for public advocate in the general election in November.

For us, there’s only one.

Since she started office in 2003, Letitia James has been known as one of urban America’s most vociferous fighters.  An attorney, she’s earned a reputation for being an Equalizer , speaking up for the powerless because this is what she does, and this is what she loves to do.  Ask Mayor Bloomberg.

A Brooklyn native, Tish James has been a long-time public servant. Prior to being elected City Councilwoman in 2003, James was a top-level aide to members of the State Assembly, where she played a crucial role in bringing resources to some of New York’s most vulnerable communities. In the City Council, James has been an outspoken advocate for economic and social justice.

The Public Advocate position should be occupied by someone who advocates for neighborhoods and the people who live in them, not for someone who acts for the cameras, and turns up the volume of their sound bites.  What’s of special interest to Tish is the people, not special interests.

She is qualified, she’s a law-and-order lady, unbossed, unfettered, and brilliant.

None of us can blow the opportunity to make sure this woman is in a position to advocate for all of us, to speak up for women, children, families, strivers.

“Too many New Yorkers feel like they can’t be heard, even if they shout out from our city’s tallest buildings,” she has said.  “Well I hear them.”

Those historic buildings on the landmarked block did not come down; those parent found an ear and a proactive spirit; homeowners and small business owners found a champion; and those thousands of families were ensured prompt repairs for their dwellings, and the list goes on.

Yes, Letitia “Tish” James hears them because she is one with them.  So, let’s do New York right, and get our vote right!

In the Tuesday, October 1 Run-off Primary election, Vote for Letitia James for Public Advocate of New York.   Your voice is your vote.  Let it be heard on October 1.

Bernice Elizabeth Green

 

View From Here

Editor, Our Time Press
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By David Mark Greaves

The Common Core standards are a good idea that needs some more work.  They are designed so that grade-by-grade they build on what was previously learned, adding complexity so that the student graduates with a mastery of reading, writing and arithmetic at a world-rated level.   And because they build grade-by-grade, the standards, and there seem to be too many of them, particularly in the lower grades, would be best rolled out in the same way.  Implementing them fully formed in the higher grades, without a massive amount of in-and-out of school support, with students and teachers who do not have the foundation, is a path to disaster and ignores the Common Core process itself.

Separate from the standards themselves is the question of what the children will be taught, by whom and what materials they will use.   As the diagram on page 6 shows, corporations, consultants and financiers see these questions as invitations to line up at the trough of federal, state and city tax dollars and the children simply pave the way to that end.

It is the state that develops the instructional materials and curricula for implementation, and this is why all elections are important and must be followed with agendas and research to guide politicians in determining who the state listens to and who they hire to develop the “instructional materials and curricula” and in deciding the flexibility given to local school districts.   This is why the buses to Albany with information for legislators and speaking to them in their district offices is so important.  Frederick Douglass, whose narrative is used as a sample of a Common Core middle school curriculum, said it best, “Agitate, agitate, agitate”.

Children need more than skills in the globally competitive world we’re in.  To compete with the Chinese, Koreans and Scandinavians, African-American students need a sense of self that is empowering and authentic and that is why the devil is in the details of who controls the information used to achieve the standards and who brings the information to the student.    Lesson plans drawn from Cheikh Anta Diop’s Civilization or Barbarism, An Authentic Anthropology can be used to teach all of the disciplines, but the book would not be among a Texas school board’s recommendations to publishers or used as text at a teacher’s college.   Only an African-American-controlled school district, or one with enlightened mayoral control, would allow it, and probably instantly become a magnet for teachers with a passion for their profession.

An empowering education is too important a goal to be left to the state.  In addition to being active in the schools, parents can always implement their own “Common Core” curriculum in the home to supplement what’s done in class.   One of the “Shifts” the state standards require is for the student to learn more from reading.  Ideally this can be done in the home with a quiet environment, a comfortable chair and a light over the shoulder on a parent-approved book of educational value.   They might give them W. E. B. DuBois’ collection of essays: The Souls of Black Folk or his Black Reconstruction in America to help with the nonfiction standard and Zora Neale Hurston’s Your Arms are Too Short to Box With God for the fiction category.   Unfortunately, this ideal state of affairs is difficult to achieve in homes with a stressed single parent concerned with everyday survival, and who may herself be without a history of educational achievement and unable to take advantage of available resources.

There is a lot of work yet to do with the common core standards, and we haven’t even spoken about the testing.  You can see some of the dismal test results coming out of Brownsville on page 8.

 

Race for Public Advocate

Letitia James has a tough contest coming up October 1st.   Fourth-place finisher in the primary Cathy Guerriero has endorsed Daniel Squadron, and third-placer Reshma Saujani is backing James despite the competitiveness of their debates.  But even with that support, without a large black voter turnout, she’ll lose.  Tish James stood against Bloomberg’s 3rd term and stood with her community on the Atlantic Yards project.   All the projections are for a very low voter turnout and it’s hackneyed but true:  This will be an election where every vote will count.

The Public Advocate is next in line to become mayor, can make appointments to boards and commissions and introduce legislation in the City Council and is the city’s chief ombudsman

Note: Last day to register to vote for the general election is October 11.

 

STREET GANG OCCUPIES HISTORIC BROOKLYN CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND

Eric Deadwiley
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For over three months, a Latino street gang named the “Netas” has been occupying an area of benches and tables on the Hart Street side of the Heritage Row Playground located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. The Heritage Row Playground was named in recognition and on behalf of the Heritage Row Houses. The Heritage Row Houses is a 12-row-house complex of 1 family–3-story houses built by Habitat For Humanity’s year 2000 “Jimmy Carter Work Project.”  President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn Carter helped build the houses, which climaxed in the dedication of Habitat’s 100,000th house. This was the first time in the history of New York City that a children’s playground has been named in dedication of  houses. Historically, parks, playgrounds, streets and bridges were only named after “persons,” with almost (if not) all being dedicated “posthumously.”  This street gang has been unlawfully assembling in and around the playground. They have been vandalizing the area with graffiti; they erected a shrine (adorned with empty liquor bottles) for a deceased member who did not live or die on Hart Street. The members have been urinating in and around the playground in open site of the children, disturbing the peace, selling drugs and being an overall “menace” to the people that live on the block and in the surrounding neighborhood. The playground is located nearby to three family shelters. The children in the shelters frequently play in the playground, along with the neighborhood children.

Gang Memorial at Heritage Row Playground on Hart Street

Countless complaints have been made via 311 and 911 to the NYPD and to the New York Department of Parks & Recreation for assistance. The New York Department of Parks & Recreation has responded by removing the benches and tables from the occupied area. Yet, the Parks Department has not removed the shrine. Now the gang members are sitting on milk crates and personal folding chairs in clear defiance of the Parks Department’s desire to remove them. On three separate occasions, park employees attempted to remove the shrine from the fence in accordance with Parks Department regulations, but all three times the gang members (anticipating the Parks Department’s removal of the shrine) have threatened the park employees with bodily harm. The gang members even placed a “safety cone” next to the shrine as a warning to anyone trying to remove the shrine.

The local Police Department (79th Precinct), albeit responsive to the 911 calls, “have not” enforced §240.10 of the Penal Code: UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY. A person is guilty of unlawful assembly when he assembles with four or more other persons for the purpose of engaging or preparing to engage with them in tumultuous and violent conduct likely to cause public alarm, or when, being present at an assembly which either has or develops such purpose, he remains there with intent to advance that purpose.  Furthermore, the NYPD “has not” enforced Penal Law 220.44 (2) CRIMINAL SALE OF A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE IN OR NEAR SCHOOL GROUNDS. This law makes it a Class (B) Felony to sell a controlled substance in or near school grounds. SCHOOL GROUNDS means (a) in or on or within any building, structure, athletic playing field, playground or land contained within the real property boundary line of a public or private elementary, parochial, intermediate, junior high, vocational or high school, or (b) any area accessible to the public located within one thousand feet of the real property boundary line comprising any such school, [or any parked automobile or other parked vehicle located within one thousand feet of the real property boundary line comprising any such school]. An “area accessible to the public” means sidewalks, streets, parking lots, parks, playgrounds, stores and restaurants.

According to block residents who wish to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, “when the police show up, the gang members hide the drugs in the playground flower beds,” effectively eluding capture. The gang members assemble every afternoon, upwards of 20 or more members until early the next morning; selling marijuana, making noise, drinking, urinating and disturbing the peace of the community. The residents of Hart Street are under siege. Their quiet block has been changed into a haven for thugs, drug dealers and all manner of criminals. Will it take another innocent person to be shot dead, caught in the cross fire of drug dealers for the NYPD to enforce the law? Will the Heritage Row Playground be the site of the next child shooting victim? God forbid. Schools, playgrounds and family shelters should be “safe zones” for children. For all three to be within a one-block radius and for these activities to be allowed is nothing less than “scandalous.”

 

Eric M. Deadwiley is a Freelance Op-Ed Columnist and Investigative Reporter

 

Board of Elections calls for recount in race to succeed Vann

Stephen Witt
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Latest tally has Cornegy clinging to 68-vote lead over Foy

By Stephen Witt

The Board of Elections (BOE) announced Tuesday it will recount the 36th District City Council vote later this week after the latest official tally narrowed Robert Cornegy’s lead over Kirsten John Foy to 68 votes.

According to BOE official figures, there were 14,407 votes cast in the five-person race with Cornegy receiving 4,367 votes, or 30.31% of the electorate to Foy’s 4,299 votes, or 29.84% of the electorate with the difference being .47%.

“As a result of the margin of victory being less than a half of a percentage point, there will be an automatic recount as is the commissioner’s policy,” said BOE spokesperson Anthony Nasti.

Nasti did not say when the recount would take place and how long it will take, but both campaigns said they expect the recount Thursday (too late for this issue’s deadline).

“The machines have already been counted and certified so they are only counting paper again,” said Cornegy.  “I’ve always believed in and stood for the democratic process and something I want as a candidate is for every vote to count. The fact is the numbers remain in our favor and I have no reason to believe there will be any change once votes are recounted.”

While Cornegy thinks the next count will again go in his favor and that will end the election, the Foy campaign maintains there were several voting irregularities. Foy’s campaign also did not rule out a possible lawsuit if the recount doesn’t go their way.

“The administration of this process by the Board of Elections in such a close race – twice losing the ballots of the candidate and his wife and the discovery of new voting machines, among other irregularities – has given us substantial reasons to review all irregularities before making any decision,” said Tyquana Henderson-Parsons, campaign manager for Kirsten John Foy’s campaign. “What is clear is that the more paper ballots that were counted, the more votes Kirsten John Foy received towards further narrowing the margin. In aiming to protect the sanctity of the vote and ensure all voters’ voices are heard, we are examining the various irregularities that occurred on Primary Day and over the past several days at the Board of Elections, and why over 1,000 absentee and affidavit votes have been thrown out in this race.”

Among the irregularities the Foy campaign alleged is that the BOE indicated it had found more paper ballots in this race, a day after it had communicated to the campaign that all the paper ballots had been counted.

Additionally, the Foy campaign alleges the BOE lost the ballots of Foy and his wife twice and didn’t reappear until the campaign’s attorney began asking questions.

Other irregularities alleged by Foy’s campaign includes possible tampering with and finding a new voting machine, and that the BOE threw out over 1,000 votes, some of which were from Democratic-registered voters who wrote their name, address and votes correctly, but failed to write their Democratic enrollment out on the affidavit form separate from the actual ballot.

Downtown developer receives $89 million in financing for affordable housing

Stephen Witt
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Unions and developer continue to spar over wages and workers from the local community

By Stephen Witt

The New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) on Wednesday approved a $70 million bond issuance and two loans not to exceed $19 million from the agency’s own unrestricted reserves to finance the construction of the 19-story mixed-income residential building portion of the massive City Point project in Downtown Brooklyn.

Under the financing plan, HDC, which the state legislature created in 1971 as a supplementary and alternative means of supplying financing for affordable housing that was independent from the City’s capital budget, the bond issuance will be tax exempt to the lender, which in this case is Wells Fargo Bank, who in turn will allow for a lower interest rate to City Point developer, Acadia Realty Trust. The two loans will have a nominal interest rate.

The building will contain 250 rental units (76 studios, 105 one-bedrooms, 69 two-bedrooms), with 50% of the units being reserved as affordable to low- and moderate-income households.

“The City Point team is very pleased to help provide desperately needed low- and moderate-income housing in Downtown Brooklyn. We are grateful to HPD and HDC for all their work in advancing this critically important component of City Point,” said City Point spokesperson Tom Montvel-Cohen.

The financing came amid a pitched battle between Acadia and construction unions led by the Ironworkers Union. City Point is on the site of the former Albee Square Mall and is an open shop, meaning it allows for both union and non-union workers.

HDC board member Denise Scott noted before the unanimous vote that it is a shame that the unions and the developer were never able to reach a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) that included community-based hiring for the affordable housing units portion of the construction.

Terry Moore, the business manager for Local 46 Metallic Lathers Union and Reinforcing Ironworkers, said the PLA talks broke down because Acadia wanted the open shop, which would allow the developer to not pay prevailing wages.

The developer countered that unions hire based on seniority and that workers from the local community would be locked out of jobs on the project. Thus far, about $35 million in contracts have been let out to minority and women owned businesses (WMBE) in the community. About 80 percent of the people working on the job today are either people of color, women or Brooklyn residents with nobody making less than $20 an hour.

The HDC decision came a day after State Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Kern heard arguments concerning an Ironworker union-led lawsuit to stop construction on the project.

Under the Article 78 proceeding, the union argued that the project must be halted because it violates the 2004 Downtown Brooklyn Environmental Impact Statement which assumed all construction in Downtown Brooklyn would be built under prevailing union wages.

But Attorney David Paget, representing Acadia, the lead developer in the project, argued the case had no merit because a second EIS was completed in August 2013. The bond issuance could not move forward without a completed EIS.

Also signing onto the lawsuit is Assemblyman Walter Mosley and the non-profit organization Families United for Racial and Economic Equality. “The City Point project is just one more example in a pattern of unchecked developments being irresponsibly rushed through by the
Bloomberg administration before a new mayor takes office” said Mosley. “Brooklyn’s working families have a right to know the truth about what is happening in their communities, and I am proud to set a precedent of demanding transparency and honesty from any developer moving into our neighborhood,” he concluded.  Previously, City Councilwoman Letitia James signed onto the lawsuit, but she dropped out recently, saying she was satisfied that City Point was committed to WMBE contacting, hiring locally and including affordable housing.

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