Nmass Newsletter Spring 2015

National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS)

Lower East Side Workers Center345 Grand Street, 1E212. 358. 0295www.nmass.org

Community Newspaper

Extell’s Racist Development Would Make Lower East Side Home to the 1%Rents will skyrocket throughout the LES/Chinatown

On January 22, 2015, long-time NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested for engaging in corrupt schemes and eliciting bribes of over $5.3 million. The U.S. Attorney charged Silver with receiving huge kickbacks from developers like Extell in exchange for hefty tax abate-ments through the 421-a program—which was intended only for developers who build affordable housing. His record of public giveaways is long.

Since he took office in 1976, Silver has systematically delayed and quashed plans to build affordable housing on the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) where more than 1,800 low-income, ma-jority Puerto Rican, families were forcibly removed from their LES apartments.

Then in 2012 Silver backed a deal hatched by City Council Member Margaret Chin and the Bloomberg (continued on p. 3)

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Spring 2015

Sheldon Silver: Steals from Poor to Give to Rich

What’s being built at Pathmark (227 Cherry St.)?Extell Development Corp. plans to build a 72-story, ul-tra-luxury tower where Pathmark once stood. In response to public objections, Extell now says 56. Whatever the number, it is unacceptable This skyscraper will have hundreds of luxury units, and amenities such as a basketball court, bowling alley, golf simulator, Turkish bath, movie theater, and two swim-ming pools. It will be a gated community.

If Extell is Allowed to Build this Tower, What Will Happen to Us? This development will cause the real estate tax and rent to increase. Food and services will be very expensive; working families won’t be able to afford them.Extell’s tower very likely will be built with public resources meant for building low-income housing. Extell has applied for over $50 million in funds from the state and federal governments (see side box).

Extell’s development is racist. Separate from its luxury tower, Extell will build a ‘poor door’ building. This “affordable housing” building next door will have rents higher than many of us can afford. We will be made outsiders in our own community.

How our money (public financing) will very likely be used to fund Extell:

• NY State Housing Finance Agency Bonds: $36,765,425

• Low-Income Housing Credit Equity: $11,252,387• 421-A: To Be Determined

Is public housing in danger if Extell builds its luxury tower?

Even if we live in NYCHA now, we are not safe. If we allow luxury condos at the former Pathmark site it’s going to bring in rich people and also raise the property value and rents. It will result in the removal of public housing and low-income residents of our community.

City housing officials have already begun selling NYCHA buildings to put the responsibility of upkeep for the buildings to for-profit real estate developers in order to raise the rents

and to elim-inate tenants living in pub-lic housing! (e.g. Rutgers was sold to Citibank, and L+M bought off several in-cluding Cam-pos Plaza and E. 4th Rehab).

Great location, great profits!

The public housing that were sold are in neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, where there is a great potential for real estate prices to go up due to gentrification. Real estate devel-opers are allowed to cherry-pick some of the best NYCHA’s properties.

The biggest red flag in these private take-overs of NYCHA is that after the deal expires (usually around 30 years), develop-ers will be allowed to turn the units into luxury housing!

The only way to save our homes is to say no to Mayor DeBla-sio and Extell. The time has come for us to rise and fight for our community and our homes! THE TIME IS NOW!!!!

A Call to Action:The Lower East Side needs more low-income housing and affordable services, not luxury housing or hotels. We call on everyone to join and help to organize the community. This racist skyscraper on our waterfront should not be built. We also ask you to support the Chinatown Working Group rezoning plan to stop displacement and ensure the future devel-opment is affordable to low-income families. We need the participation of every single person in this community to make this happen. Get involved today: 1. Pass along the newspaper! 2. Come to NMASS (345 Grand St) and pick up more newspapers to distribute. 3. Call to find out more about the anti-displacement committee at NMASS at 212-358-0295.

Harlem is Next

Extell also plans to build on the former site of Pathmark on 125th Street. Extell wants to take our communities. Let’s join together from the LES to Harlem to say “Hell no, we won’t go!”

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Sheldon Silver: Steals from the Poor to Give to Rich(from page 1) Ad-ministration to allow L&M to develop a huge development mainly for the rich on the nine public lots of SPURA. This is one of the biggest ever public land free-bies in Manhattan. At the same time, Silver helped Extell obtain 421-a tax breaks to build luxury build-ings like One57, a 90 story skyscraper that looms over Central Park. He also gave the green light to Extell to destroy the Pathmark on Cherry Street—the

only major supermarket in LES that was affordable—to make way for another tax-payer-funded ultra-luxury tower.

Silver is not alone. Other lo-cal officials supported May-or Bloomberg’s racist East

Village rezoning plan, which drove luxury development into China-town and the Lower East Side. They sup-ported his SPURA development mainly for the wealthy. And they suppored the proposed Extell luxury development in Chinatown. They stand to benefit. They

should be investigated as well.

From the top to the bottom, our elected officials rob from us to enrich the few. They are forcing working people of New York to endure the most horrendous living and working condi-tions ever, and harassment by police in our own homes and neighbor-hoods. They treat people like Eric Garner, a father and husband who was making a couple of dollars by selling cigarettes on the street, like dangerous criminals. This year, it’s time for the real criminals to be prosecuted and locked up for their wrongdoings.

“Hello, NYCHA? It’s raining on my bed.”

When Louise and her growing fami-ly were transferred to a larger NYCHA apartment, little did they know that it needed urgent repairs. They found out soon after moving in. Louise’s son was rained on while he slept in bed. The ceil-ings and walls in his room were cracked. By the morning, the entire room was flooded. This happened even though they live on the second floor.

Louise’s son went to management that day. They told him nothing could be done till March 2015. Now they say June. Every time it rains, he still spends hours vacu-uming the water out of his room. They’ve also discovered crumbling plaster behind

their kitchen cabinets. The fine plaster dust falls right into her sink.

“My grand-daughter and I both have asthma, and it seems to be getting worse. What if the plaster ends up in our food?” said Louise. She called NYCHA to re-port this problem in Oct. 2014. They sent carpenters who refused to make the repairs. “They told me to caulk around the cabinet myself. I told them, ‘you gotta be kidding me, this is your job.’ They just shrugged their shoulders and left.”

“It seems like NYCHA wants people to get fed up and just leave NYCHA. They don’t care about us at all,” Louise added.

If you or someone you know is a NYCHA resident who feels that NYCHA has

neglected to do urgent repairs and wants to do something about it, please call us at NMASS -

212-358-02953

NMASS is a multi-racial communi-ty-based workers’ center, formed in 1996. Our members include Latino, African, African American, Asian American, and white workers who work in the service industries, factories, offices; and as full-time mothers and grandmothers and students. NMASS brings workers togeth-er to stand up for our rights in our work-places and the communities where we live, organizing for our health, economic needs and control of our time.

In addition to our work against displace-ment in the LES, NMASS has also been uniting all kinds of workers, and building a coalition with groups around New York State to demand a real minimum-wage increase for all workers-tipped and non-tipped. After we picketed and protested for more than a year, Governor Cuo-mo finally raised the minimum wage this past February of tipped workers to $7.50 an hour! This is a step in the right direction, but not enough. We are also

demanding stronger enforcement of the labor law to make any increase real. To-gether with our partners in the SWEAT Coalition, we have called for changes in the law. Assembly Member Linda Rosen-thal has responded by introducing leg-islation to close the loopholes that allow law-breaking bosses to escape responsi-bility for our stolen wages. Join us!

Call us at 212-358-0295 to get involved!

Who is the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS)?

What is the Chinatown Working Group? What is its rezoning plan about?

Because many people spoke out against the racist East Village Rezoning Plan, the City was forced to create the Chinatown Working Group. Its main goal was to cre-ate a rezoning plan for the LES and Chi-natown. Almost 50 diverse groups cur-rently participate. Some of these groups represent working families and small businesses, while others are developers and landlords. The group has recently finalized its “special district rezoning plan” that will

protect Lower East Side and Chinatown from displacement, if passed by the City. The plan will:

• Limit high-rise luxury development by restricting the size and height of new development• Prevent the City from selling public housing property by requiring com-munity review• Require that any new housing built on NYCHA land is 100% affordable to low-income families• Encourage the development of new

low-income housing by providing bo-nuses to developers who build at least 50% low-income housing.

While many groups that represent work-ing families and small businesses agree with this plan, developers within the CWG have repeatedly tried to under-mine any progress.

If you want to make sure our commu-nity’s needs are heard, call us and get involved- 212-358-0295.

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