ARTICLE: Bill de Blasio Knows: Affordable Housing is a Civil Right; CGNYC elections; future steps
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Scott Baker
May 13, 2014, 2:08:17 PM5/13/14
to Common Ground NYC, Ted Gwartney, Billy Fitzgerald, Andy Mazzone, alanna Hartzog, Alanna Hartzok, Quisia Gonzalez
Hello Common Groundlings (and Friends):
The CGNYC election results are in. Says Pat Aller, our balloteer:
The count is 14 for Baker & Rowan.
We had 20 members during the last election cycle. 2 of them had their membership expire during or since then, so I have notified them separately it's time to renew, with the same online-fillable application form I've attached to this email too. We had an obsolete address sticker for one member, Bill Batt, that prevented him from getting
his vote to Pat on time, but he separately said he still supports the Baker-Rowan team, so that would be 15 members. If our public office politicians had a similar 75% approval rating, we would be living in a Georgist world!
However, to those of you who did not vote this time, for whatever reason, please let me or Rita know how we might improve CGNYC to win back your support. This chapter, like land, belongs to
all of us!
The new de Blasio Administration, continues to make news (see below), though it remains up to us to show him and his appointees (some still being made) how collecting the Land Rent would enable him to meet his ambitious housing goals without having to spend $41 billion over the next 10 years, of money the city needs elsewhere. Just last night, I responded to one of his new commissioners, in a direct email response to my earlier email to her, in
housing, about how the NYC dept of planning says there is 5.8% land vacant, and much more under-utilized. I sent her the link to Lindy Davies excellent article in last issue's The Georgist Journal "Harnessing Economic Rent in New York City." Our members continue to produce some of the best land-based economic research around, under-appreciated though they be (much like land itself)!
The chapter is
leaning more towards select presentations, and towards direct meetings with public officials. I hope to schedule another one soon, maybe even before the next official term begins, June 1, 2014.
If you know of serious, committed, Georgists, living in the local area (which is actually rather large - Lindy Davies lives in Maine, Bill Batt upstate, NY, and Mike Curtis in Delaware) please let them know about Common Ground-NYC and suggest them for membership. We grow from your contributions. Although physical meetings are tough to arrange due to members being spread out, schedule conflicts, health and mobility concerns, that doesn't mean we have nothing to do together. We have
undertaken direct phone/mail campaigns, supported new bills, met with Electeds, taught students at the HGS, reached out to similar minded groups, and even garnered your contributions for when we need to "pounce" on an opportunity. We currently have ~$1,088 in our account. Suggestions for its relevant use welcome.
Those Georgists who are also Greenbackers (like me), might find this article in Business Week interesting, even inspiring:
Positive Money's Ben Dyson, who is mentioned favorably in the article, thanked me for sending it to him.
Till next time, Happy Landings...
Scott Baker - President: Common Ground - NYC; NY State Coordinator, Public Banking Institute; Opednews Blogger/Senior Editor; Huffington Post Blogger; Author
Petitions:
-- Commemorate President Lincoln's Assassination with 1 Billion Debt-Free Lincoln $5 Bills
-- Replace Property Tax with Ground Rent in New York State
-- Assess NYC buildings using comparative properties
-- California Dreaming: Set up a State Bank with abundant CAFR funds
-- Complete the East Side Manhattan Greenway from 38-61 Streets and save bikers, help the environment, and clear up traffic
-- Tax Vacant & Unused Land to Return its value to the Community
-- Untax Production and Wages while taxing the use/abuse of natural resources. Polluters pay while workers and entrepreneurs profit from true production
-- Close New York State's budget Gap with money from its own agencies by setting up a State Bank
-- Defend the Clean Air Act
-- Produce debt-free United States Notes
-- Reclassify the FED's account, from private to public
Petitions:
-- Commemorate President Lincoln's Assassination with 1 Billion Debt-Free Lincoln $5 Bills
-- Replace Property Tax with Ground Rent in New York State
-- Assess NYC buildings using comparative properties
-- California Dreaming: Set up a State Bank with abundant CAFR funds
-- Complete the East Side Manhattan Greenway from 38-61 Streets and save bikers, help the environment, and clear up traffic
-- Tax Vacant & Unused Land to Return its value to the Community
-- Untax Production and Wages while taxing the use/abuse of natural resources. Polluters pay while workers and entrepreneurs profit from true production
-- Close New York State's budget Gap with money from its own agencies by setting up a State Bank
-- Defend the Clean Air Act
-- Produce debt-free United States Notes
-- Reclassify the FED's account, from private to public
On Tuesday, May 13, 2014 12:45 AM, Succession And NYCHA <contact.succe...@gmail.com> wrote:
FYI!
Nation of Change
Bill de Blasio Knows: Affordable Housing is a Civil Right
By Richard (RJ) Eskow
http://www.nationofchange.org/utah-ending-homelessness-giving-people-homes-1390056183
======================
At first glance, it’s hard to understand why de Blasio’s plan got the back of Donovan’s hand. As the housing secretary noted, this issue was a “priority” for de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, whose administration created or preserved 175,000 affordable housing units. If a Republican mayor can achieve that goal, why is a Democratic cabinet member saying that a plan that involves only 25,000 more units is “close to impossible”?
Peace,
Nation of Change
Bill de Blasio Knows: Affordable Housing is a Civil Right
By Richard (RJ) Eskow
http://www.nationofchange.org/utah-ending-homelessness-giving-people-homes-1390056183
======================
Bill de Blasio Knows: Affordable Housing is a Civil Right
By Richard (RJ) Eskow
Sixty
years after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of school integration, a
review by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that “Schools remain
segregated today because neighborhoods in which they are located are
segregated.” EPI’s Richard Rothstein found that
“raising (the educational) achievement of low-income black children
requires residential integration, from which school integration can
follow.”
“Education policy is housing policy,” Rothstein concludes.
That’s
one of many reasons why New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
recently-announced housing plan is so important. Our nation has largely
abandoned the affordable-housing initiatives that marked the New
Frontier and Great Society years. And yet, in an era when The New York
Times un-ironically runs articles about the difficulty of finding
Manhattan apartments on a million-dollar budget, initiatives like de Blasio’s are met with skeptical questioning where they should be finding support.
Instead
of questioning the ambition of a program like de Blasio’s, we should be
asking ourselves how we can justify calling ourselves an egalitarian
society without many such programs.
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said, “I
have a lot of admiration for (de Blasio) for making this an area of
focus. I think it’s great that he’s focused on this issue.” But if that
sounds like Donovan is backing the New York Mayor’s efforts, think
again. In the two-step that has become all too familiar in Washington,
Donovan embraced the plan’s goals while resisting the initiative itself.
The housing secretary called de Blasio’s plan “close to impossible” to
achieve and “a very tall order.” That kind of “endorsement” is the
political equivalent of the mobster’s “kiss of death.”
At first glance, it’s hard to understand why de Blasio’s plan got the back of Donovan’s hand. As the housing secretary noted, this issue was a “priority” for de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, whose administration created or preserved 175,000 affordable housing units. If a Republican mayor can achieve that goal, why is a Democratic cabinet member saying that a plan that involves only 25,000 more units is “close to impossible”?
As John Cassidy noted
in The New Yorker, de Blasio’s housing plan is a moderate one that
doesn’t represent a sharp break from past practices. (Nor is the mayor
leading a radical insurgency: Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, who is
responsible for housing and economic development, is a former executive
at Goldman Sachs.)
The
idea that de Blasio’s plan is a “tall order” may stem from the overall
rightward shift in American politics – and, perhaps, from a loyalty to
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Wall Street-friendly Democrat
who openly undercut de Blasio’s plan for a modest educational tax on
very high earners.
Some
special interests may also reject de Blasio’s plan for “inclusionary
zoning.” This feature would require any developer receiving city funds
to set aside a number of housing units at below-market prices. In
return, de Blasio is offering $8 billion in city tax breaks as well as
other funding, and is proposing to speed up the zoning approval process.
The mandatory inclusion of mandatory low-income housing is something
many developers won’t like. That, and the $1.9 billion the plan expects
from federal and state sources, may leave some less than enthusiastic
about the plan.
That’s
unfortunate. Mayor de Blasio’s plan could help decelerate the seemingly
irreversible social segregation that is plaguing New York. In a city
that increasingly appears divided by age and wealth levels – rich young
hipsters here, poor minority seniors there – it would provide housing
for older citizens, lower-income families, “middle income” households –
which in New York City can include up to $138,000 in income – and other
diverse groups.
Is
it ambitious? Deputy Mayor Glen acknowledges that it is. The best parts
of the plan, including its systematic approach to the problem, conflict
with a number of other vested interests. But the housing problem runs
deep and requires a systematic solution.
What happens if this plan isn’t carried
out? Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn will increasingly become white,
wealthy enclaves. Gentrification will drive lower-income families out of
even the outermost boroughs. Service workers and other lower-earning
workers could soon face commute times that rival those of apartheid-era
South Africa. The rich cultural diversity that has been New York City’s
hallmark will disappear, and the school desegregation called for in
Brown v. Board of Education will become impossible to achieve.
The
record on segregation, whether in education or in housing, is clear:
“separate but equal” is a myth. It is impossible to achieve a fair,
equal-opportunity society when communities are separated by economically
or racially defined geographical barriers.
Instead
of condemning the de Blasio plan because it is ambitious, federal
officials should be working to replicate it in cities and towns all
across the country. Without fair and affordable housing in the heart of
our urban centers, we can never become the egalitarian and democratic
society that should be our destiny and our legacy.
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/bill-de-blasio-knows-affordable-housing-civil-right-1399903662. All rights are reserved.
Peace,
SAN
--
Succession And NYCHAIn a battle all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it's more dangerous to lose than to win.
Succession And NYCHA
--George Bernard Shaw
Telephone: 347-903-8428 (90evictNYCHA)
Fax: 415-873-1754
Twitter: @NYCHAsuccession
Facebook: SuccessionAtNYCHA
Mailing List: http://groups.google.com/group/evictnycha
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