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Back in January, there was news about how the Occupy Wall Street-related takeover of a vacant house in foreclosure in East New York was just a publicity gimmick, and that the homeowner, Wise Ahadzi, who abandoned the house a couple years ago after foreclosure proceedings began, wanted his property back. The OWS group living in the house said they didn’t know that Ahadzi wanted his property back, and said that they were working with him. The latest news, then, is that the Post says the police came to the house and arrested the Occupy-related folks living in it: “Police arrested six Occupy Wall Street members squatting inside a Brooklyn home five months after the movement seized the property amid grand promises to ‘renovate’ it and move in ‘a homeless family.’ Instead, the group moved itself in, wrecked the place, and made a hard situation even worse for a single father who actually owned the East New York home and was trying to save it from foreclosure. Cops cuffed the occupiers after they allegedly smashed a window to get into 702 Vermont St. on April 1.” Ahadzi said he is extremely pleases that the occupiers have been removed from the premises. According to the article, the “bill to fix the damage is at least $12,000, a source said.”
Occupy Squatters Finally Flushed From B’klyn Home [NY Post]
Organizers Defend Occupation of ENY Foreclosure [Brownstoner]
Photo by Brennan Cavanaugh

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It was a busy weekend for Occupy Wall Street folks in Brooklyn: On Saturday night, an “occuparty” was held at a vacant condo on North 8th and Driggs in Williamsburg. According to the Daily News, a few dozen people “hung Christmas lights, spray painted slogans like ‘F–k the police’ and ‘Life is Protest’ on the building walls, but were civilized enough to pack some beer on ice in the empty building.” Eventually the cops broke it up, some protestors who were blocking traffic a couple blocks away were arrested, and six officers were injured in the melee. Brokelyn published an announcement in advance of the event on Friday that gives a bit of a sense of what it was about: “We’ll be converging at 207 North 8th Street at 10pm before heading to the space, which has lain vacant for years now, and is owned by a bank known to invest in bio-, chemical, and nuclear weapons, as well as cluster bombs used specifically by Qaddafi against the 2011 insurgency.” Meanwhile, in East New York, the Post reports that the occupiers who had taken over a house that is under foreclosure pressure are in the process of moving out and returning it to its owner.
Booze, Arrests At “Occuparty” In Williamsburg Last Night [Gothamist]
Arrests at Occupy Party in Williamsburg [NY Daily News]
Exiting Occupy Home [NY Post]
Flier photo by rosiegray/buzzfeed

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Over the weekend the Post reported that the attention-grabbing Occupy Wall Street takeover of a vacant house in foreclosure in East New York was little more that a publicity stunt that hadn’t actually succeeded in providing housing to people in need of it, and yesterday the people behind the occupation issued a series of statements responding to the story’s claims in an effort to debunk some of them. OWS organizers say that Wise Ahadzi, the homeowner who abandoned the house a couple years ago after foreclosure proceedings began, hadn’t told them that he was intent on reclaiming his property, as the Post reported: “According to statements Mr. Ahadzi made to the New York Post yesterday, he is apparently now interested in reclaiming his home. Given that, Alfredo Carrasquillo and members of Occupy Wall Street will support Mr. Ahadzi’s efforts, so that neither his family or Alfredo’s is homeless, and so that the house at 702 Vermont does not sit vacant.” Meanwhile, Alfredo Carrasquillo, the community organizer who is supposed to be moving into the East New York house with his family, responded to the story’s allegations that it didn’t appear like he’d moved into the property and it was only being lived in by Occupy Wall Street protesters: “On December 6, I moved into a vacant, Bank of America-foreclosed property with the support of neighbors on Vermont St. because my family — victims of Michael Bloomberg’s housing policies and the big banks’ callous disregard for people — had been homeless for years. The support I received from the community was overwhelming, in part because they have also been victims of those same policies. …I invited members of Occupy Wall Street to inhabit the house with me, until it was safe for my family to move in, as a defense against the mayor’s policy of using the police department to defend property over people.”
Owner of OWS Foreclosure in ENY Wants His House Back [Brownstoner]
Photo by Brennan Cavanaugh

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Last month members of Occupy Wall Street took over a home in East New York, saying they were going to renovate the property, which was empty following a foreclosure, so a homeless family could live in it. According to the Post, though, the family that was supposed to move in has yet to fully do so—it’s unclear from the story if this is because the house has yet to be completely renovated or if there’s simply not enough space for the family—and the person who owns the house but moved out after foreclosure proceedings began in 2009 wants his property back from the occupiers. Wise Ahadzi, the homeowner, says he bought the property for $424,500 in 2007 and stopped being able to make mortgage payments a couple years later, after he’d lost his job and the house’s value had plummeted. Ahadzi claims the Occupy Wall Street organizers aren’t willing to entertain the notion of reinstating Ahadzi and his children in the house: “I’m trying to get my house back, and they’re trying to take it from me.” The article is hardly a nuanced portrait of whatever is actually going on at 702 Vermont Street, so it remains to be seen whether what it suggests is accurate: That occupying the East New York foreclosure was a PR stunt and it hasn’t resulted in anyone who actually needed housing getting a roof over their heads.
Single Dad Trying to Reclaim Home OWS Took Over [NY Post]
Occupiers Fixing Up a Foreclosure in East New York [Brownstoner]
Photo by Brennan Cavanaugh

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A couple photographs landed in our inbox indicating that the 99 percent was busy in Williamsburg this weekend. A tipster sent in the photo above, which was hung on the side of the hotel Two Trees is developing on Wythe and North 11th and protests the $15 million in tax-exempt bond financing the developer received for the project. Meanwhile, another reader sent in a photo of a banner hung on a stalled development at Bedford and South 4th (click through to see it) that says “This Means War.” The person who sent in the snapshot wrote: “Occupy Williamsburg is alive & well. Stories of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.” There’s going to be a meeting of an Occupy Williamsburg General Assembly tomorrow focusing, in part, on gentrification, according to a notice about the gathering: “The Williamsburg/Greenpoint re-zoning laws passed by the City Council in 2005 paved the way for a rapid, and continually jaw-dropping wave of gentrification. Yet even as luxury condos grow like weeds on the waterfront, artists’ spaces and small businesses get priced out and Starbucks’ presence on Bedord Ave. looms, there remains a dense interweaving of strong communities with intricate histories and both conflicting and common concerns.”
Occupy Williamsburg General Assembly [Facebook]