ACORN Protesters Storm The Beacon Tower
The anti-gentrification movement stepped it up a notch yesterday with ACORN protesters storming the open house at the Beacon Tower, Shaya Boymelgreen’s 23-story condo development at 85 Adams in Dumbo. What a shame! What a pity! We can’t live in New York City, the 50-odd protesters chanted while blanketing the sales office with flyers that…
The anti-gentrification movement stepped it up a notch yesterday with ACORN protesters storming the open house at the Beacon Tower, Shaya Boymelgreen’s 23-story condo development at 85 Adams in Dumbo. What a shame! What a pity! We can’t live in New York City, the 50-odd protesters chanted while blanketing the sales office with flyers that read, Beacon Tower developers get rich off the backs of working families.” The protesters main gripe? That luxury projects like the Beacon still receive tax breaks in a holdover from a program started in the 1970s to stimulated development. The ambushed Corcoran agents manning the open house called in the cops who removed the protesters. Prospective buyers didn’t appear to be too sympathetic to the cause. “Tell them to get jobs and go live in the projects,” said Jenny Malone, who was there checking out apartments. “People just want something for nothing.”
Activists Protest Dumbo Condos [Metro]
More coverage in the print edition.
Josh, while B2B is certainly able to defend herself, and I’m sure she will, I do think the comments about interpretive dance and the like make you look rather petty and petulant. We all are entitled to our outlooks on life, and obviously you two are world’s apart, but can we keep it civil? Maybe she shouldn’t have called your remarks idiotic, but that doesn’t mean you have to insult her intelligence either. B2B has shown herself to be a passionate, caring person, a native New Yorker who has a great love for this city and Brooklyn in particular. You obviously are a well informed, intelligent person. You don’t have to agree, but snide snarkiness doesn’t become you.
Ummmm…. anon12:55, while Bx2Bklyn and I often agree here, we are not the same person. She said that, not me.
But while we are at it, you are correct in most of what you say, however it is not accurate to compare the situation faced by generations of disinfranchised black people in this country to the experiences of immigrants of every nationality. The legacies of slavery, segregation and Jim Crow laws, as well as the creation of the welfare state in this country has helped to create a unique situation that has given rise to a totally different experience for most poor African American people. Now I know that gets me in deep trouble with many people, who say well that was 100 years ago, get over it. And many do, and become the success stories that we all love to raise up. But the fact remains that there will always be a sizable population that will never be able to rise above it all, some don’t want to, more just can’t. (There are also plenty of white, Latin and other people in the same boat too, it’s not just a black thing.)All of these people are human beings, who need housing, food, an education and job training leading to jobs. All of these people need hope and an assurance that they matter.
I will be the first to say that I honestly don’t know how to fix this. I don’t even know where to begin, except to say that to ignore, further marginalize and dehumanize these people is to pay, and pay again in terms of jails and prisons, unwanted and abused children and adults, increased crime, murders and shocking disregard for life, guns, drug trafficing, junkies and dealers, quality of life issues and an increase of scary teenagers and young people roaming the streets looking for revenge for being born into a life with no promise or hope, and anger towards anyone who seems to have something they think they deserve to have. God, I wish I had the answers to these questions, and I admire those who can rise above it all and succeed, as well as those who work in it every day and don’t give up. They are true heroes. I’m just a bleeding heart liberal who’s eternally grateful for my parents, and my life in general. I just hope I can do my part, even if I make life better for only a couple of people in my own small ways. I hope that part of that is in always remembering that even the worst of us has value in God’s eyes.
Thus endeth my sermon for today. Let’s all get out there and make a difference!
“blaming Bill Gates … is pretty weird. .. it’s ridiculous to say that their wealth is to blame for widening the income gap.”
What else could be to blame for a widening income gap besides widening incomes? This is my last try. Here’s a set of income stats:
40k,50k,20k,15k,60k
The median income is 40k, stdev is 19.2k
now, a very rich person walks into the room:
40k,50k,20k,15k,60k, 1mm
Median is 45k (this effect would be much smaller w/a larger set). But not the stdev goes to 393k.
I give up. My appolgies for indulging in the Western, Euro-Centric, patriarchal, iperialistic use of numbers and reason. Perhaps someone could explain this to you via interpretive dance.
VDH,
Yes, mentoring would certainly be a step in the right direction, and is a good program. I did it in college, and worked with a similar type of program here in NYC, but I have to admit, not lately, and it is time I put my money where my mouth is. Thank you for suggesting it, and I’m going to check it out again.
I do own a 3 family, and would pay more taxes if they were specifially earmarked for public education. If only there were a way to make sure the money was used correctly, not just pissed away by pork and corruption.
I don’t have children, but I am the child of a public school teacher, and the product of public schools. I know the value of education, and have seen the results of caring teachers and a love of learning in my own life and the lives of the children my mother taught for over 30 years.
“I have a question for anon at 8:37- many immigrants came to this country poor, uneducated and as young parents. Yet many of them were successful. Many people born in this country have become successful in those same circumstances. Saying that being poor is something you can easily control by following these simple rules really doesn’t address the whole problem. There are many other factors that come into play- especially the fact that the economy is structured in levels, kinda like the food pyramid with money. The work that people perform in low paying jobs are the base of support for the higher levels. Combine that with the fact that resources are finite (jobs, housing, land, money), there is no way that everyone who is poor can become richer simply by your rules. Now factor in racism, outsourcing, loss of manufacture, inflation, etc.- well, you get my point.”
Thanks, CrownHeightsProud, you stated my case for me. Yes, many immigrants come to this country having faced hardships well beyond the endurance of America’s domestic poor, yet they manage to succeed in education, employment, and home ownership. In short, they practice middle-class values. If a person can migrate to America, work several low-wage jobs, send for his family, raise his children, make sure that they learn their lessons (yes, in those bad public schools you mention), and send them to college, then, to me, there is no excuse for anyone else. Most of today’s immigrants are people of color, yet they manage to better their lives and those of their children. It seems that you have very low expectations of what some poor people can accomplish and think that social forces are too powerful to overcome, even as you point out that many people in those very conditions (i.e. recent immigrants) manage to improve their lives.
Yes, the economy is structured, but there is plenty of room for movement – that’s where education comes into play. And those who choose to drop out of school, become single parents, and have children in their teens will continue to live in poverty. Period.
VDH- I’m a renter in a brownstone – 3 fam. And yes to your questions. Mentoring is wonderful and there are already networks in place. The organization I work for had a summer program last year and we worked with 100 kids- teens mostly. We got them internships and quite a few were offered permanent jobs or asked to come back this summer.
Joshk- blaming Bill Gates (after you accused me of being petty about him having money) is pretty weird. Do you know what side you are actually on? And it’s ridiculous to say that their wealth is to blame for widening the income gap. It’s systemic and I do understand statistics. Very well. I also know how easy it is to crunch the numbers and play around with them to get the results you want. Our present administration does it all the time.
It’s fine to say everyone is wealthier than when Reagan first instituted tax rebates for the wealthy- it really works on paper. In reality it doesn’t and there are plenty of other places that have those statistics. Or just look around you. The city is rapidly dividing into have and have-not.
JoshK, it’s typical hegemonic overclass elitism to privilege so-called facts over Bx2Bklyn’s gut reactions and anecdotal observations. Information is a tool the man uses to keep us down.
CHP, do you think individuals such as you or me mentoring children that are in the circumstances that you describe will go a long way to improving what they have to work with now? In other words, if better schools, more money for said schools, etc. is not forthcoming, do you think that individual mentoring could close the gap sunbtantially?
I believe it could and this is something that we can do now without waiting for the gov to so something.
Kinda related, but I assume you own a brownstone or a townhouse and if it is 3 fam or less your property taxes are orders of magnitude lower than for coops and condos. Would you, if this could be proven to work, accept higher prop tax, more in line with how assessments are made on coops and condos, if this meant more money was diverted to providing affordable housing and improved schooling?
“What a totally idiotic response.”
I’m flattered.
” I don’t care how much Bill Gates has. As far as I’m concerned, he earned it.”
Again, you don’t understand how basic statstics work. The new wealth of people like him, the Packards, Waltons, etc, is what widens the income gap.
“..crucial importance.. of the middle class. Which is fast disappearing.”
Again, there is little data to actually support this.
Why don’t you spend some time browsing the census or bls web sites? The numbers are all there. By all measures, the middle and lower classes are wealthier than ever before.