Urgent Call To Action And Bloomberg’s Stealth Visit To An Occupy Sandy Relief Distribution Hub In The Rockaways
New York City’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, stepped out of a helicopter midday Thursday in St. Camillus’ parking lot, ironically an Occupy Sandy relief distribution hub in the Rockaways, Queens. The visit had been kept under wraps and not listed on his official schedule. Watch this video, read the statement, and stay informed and pledge your support for the communities most affected by Sandy that are still in dire need! We are planning a day of action on December 15th. Join us!
Bloomberg and a small party accompanying him were whisked off in black cars. He missed a greeting from community members in an area still reeling from Hurricane Sandy, with quickly-lettered signs: “Rockaways in Health Crisis,” “We Need Safer Housing.” Bloomberg made his way to the still-shuttered offices of The Wave, the Rockaways weekly newspaper. As word spread about the stealth visit, a crowd gathered outside hoping to explain those signs to the mayor: a month after Sandy hit, swamping homes with seawater, many residents—homeowners and tenants—are still living without electricity, without heat, without working appliances, with black mold taking hold of walls and other surfaces. Temporary housing is desperately needed, absentee landlords must fix their properties.
The mayor emerged behind a row of police, thanked the group, and was quickly driven away—avoiding a repeat of his November 4 visit when residents lambasted him for ignoring them.
THE CRISIS AND STATEMENT
Hurricane Sandy is an ongoing tragedy that for many people is only getting worse.
Residents, community organizations and city, state, and federal agencies must come together to address the IMMEDIATE crisis that is worsening as the weather gets colder.
A month after Hurricane Sandy, thousands remain without electricity, heat, water, healthy food, basic healthcare, adequate housing, or even temporary shelter.
Here is a statement from a group of individuals and residents who have been working in the affected communities with Occupy Sandy:
1) HOUSING
Long before Sandy hit, New York City already ranked high for homelessness. Now, tens of thousands of New Yorkers have been displaced, while many more are living in unsafe, moldy houses. Many NYCHA residents have been forced to pay full rent while having no heat and, in some cases, no water or electricity for weeks.
There should be an immediate housing plan that addresses their needs; it would include: extending the NYCHA rent credit to cover November and December to account for lost wages and the storm’s true impact; providing sufficient federal disaster relief funding to NYCHA, and employing NYCHA residents for building repairs instead of outsourcing jobs.
A recent census found 2,489 vacancies in 20 City Council districts that could house 200,000 people. In Far Rockaway, there are 384 lots that could be used to set up housing for 31,696 people immediately, keeping families close to their community networks. The City of New York should seize this opportunity to set a global precedent that would address both the immediate crisis as well as create housing for the tens of thousands who were homeless before the storm.
2) HEALTH
The storm has compounded an already existing health crisis in NYC. Now, families are living in unsafe homes, there is not enough access to primary care physicians, mental health practitioners and health care facilities in affected communities, and it has become even more difficult for those in impacted areas to access healthy food.
FEMA and Red Cross should work with volunteer healthcare infrastructures to set up more clinics to dispense necessary prescriptions and trauma counseling, and should direct money toward supplying healthy food to those in need — instead of canned goods, military rations, and other food high in sodium.
3) SAFETY NET SERVICES
Workers are being or have been deducted pay from jobs they cannot physically get to, many are unaware of FEMA benefits and deadlines, and private insurers are denying many claims. The Red Cross should dedicate some of its Sandy recovery funds to public information campaigns that inform employers and employees of their rights and what services are available. FEMA should be out canvassing neighborhoods with interpreters in order to ensure that all individuals impacted by the storm know their rights. FEMA should also organize weekly or twice weekly mass mailings for a minimum of four weeks, distributing leaflets in multiple languages, notifying people of available assistance and pertinent deadlines.
Already many residents are being denied FEMA assistance because they have insurance while their insurance companies are denying claims. The Attorney General should immediately intervene on behalf of residents who are unable to make repairs and in danger of losing everything because of these discrepancies.
4) TRANSPARENCY AND COMMUNITY INCLUSION
The influx of relief money coming into the region provides an opportunity for healthy, environmentally sustainable rebuilding with the inclusion of communities and community-based organizations.
We call for a public task force to monitor the use of funds and create structures that encourage community participation to help sustainably rebuild NYC in a way that prepares for today’s environmental challenges.
STAY INFORMED AND TAKE ACTION
From the start, Occupy Wall Street has always been a disaster recovery effort propelled by the power of the people to rebuild a better future. We, along with our many allies, have been dedicated to more than just addressing economic inequality. We believed, and continue to believe, that New York City can reverse its role as the capitol of economic inequality, homelessness and corporate control over our democracy, and become a model for addressing the needs of its residents while promoting their dignity and ability to help shape our future.
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, yet again we see both an opportunity and a threat. As Hurricane Katrina showed, moments of devastation and rebuilding can lead to the return of the status quo, or worse — gentrification, displacement and continued privatization of basic services and jobs.
We are dedicated to seeing that that does not happen here in New York City.
And we are dedicated to ensuring participation and transparency in this process.
We know another world is possible and we are committed to working with our neighbors to build it.
STAND WITH US!
We are planning a day of action on December 15th. To stay informed about this issue or to join us on the 15th, please fill out this form.
ACTION ALERT: Support the community hub at 489 Midland Ave
ONSITE ACTIONS
—Come to 489 Midland Ave Staten Island, NY 10306 to stand in support
—Volunteers requested to help move the hub to 100% private property
OFFSITE ACTON
—Demand the Mayor’s office end community hub eviction and instead support hubs with space and equipment
—Public Advocate’s office: (212) 669-7250 9am-5pm EMAIL: GetHelp@pubadvocate.nyc.gov
The community-run network of support for food, volunteering, supplies, clothing, and human services is an essential part of the New York City recovery efforts, and the mayor’s office wants to shut it down immediately. The mayor’s office is calling upon local police forces to “clear all outdoor sites” effective immediately. We are calling on all New Yorkers to advocate on behalf of these community run hubs that provide essential services to those whom the city and federal government, and support agencies, have under-served, neglected, or abandoned.
We call on the city, service organizations and police to support these crucial hubs by maintain location and services to community, offering tents, generators, and storage pods for supplies or finding free, nearby, and feasible medium to long term spaces where hubs can operate.
This Friday morning Staten Island police representing the mayor’s office have threatened eviction action against the crucial Staten Island hub at 489 Midland Avenue, in the heavily hit Midland Beach area. Aiman Youssef, a 42-year-old Syrian-American Staten Islander whose house was destroyed in the hurricane, has been running a 24/7 community pop up hub outside his property at 489 Midland Avenue since the day after the storm. He and a coalition of neighbors, friends and community members are serving hot food and offering cleaning supplies, non-perishables, medical supplies, and clothing to the thousands of residents who are still without heat, power, or safe housing. This popular hub is well-run, well-staffed, and has a constant hum of discussion, support, and advice as well as donations and pick ups and volunteer dispatch through another pop-up group, volunteers who call themselves “The Yellow Team.”
At the standing-room only Town Hall meeting at Staten Island’s New Dorp High School last night, Youssef was the first to raise his voice in the question and answer period. The community’s expression of extreme need and frustration with the lack of official support made for a contentious environment where city government officials offered few solutions. At one point borough president James Molinaro asked the audience “You wanna shut your mouth?” due to their increasingly loud demands for community support and housing solutions.
We ask all New Yorkers and Sandy supporters worldwide to not heed Molinaro’s demand, but to speak out as Youssef did. Ask the mayor’s office to support, not evict, the well-run community support hubs giving crucial services to New Yorkers in need.
If you missed last night's guerilla premiere of academy-award nominated director Josh Fox's new film "Occupy Sandy: A Human Response to the New Realities of Climate Change," you can watch it in its entirety above.
What Action can you take RIGHT NOW?
Join the Occupy Sandy efforts by visiting the website to plug in! OccupySandy.org
Together we can recover from Hurricane Exxon Mobil
Call Cuomo and tell him to BAN Drilling and Fracking for Natural Gas in NY State! NO MORE FOSSIL FUEL DEVELOPMENT!
(518) 474-8390 or mail:
The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
Today across NYC, fast food workers walked off the job and joined festive picket lines, calling for a living wage, fair working conditions, and a union. You can find out more, including how to support their efforts, at Fastfoodforward.org. For live updates on Twitter, use #fastfoodfwd. Also, today at 4pm, join us for a rally in Times Square to show support in person!
From Walmart to fast food, low wage workers are standing up and demanding more!
Today, NYC fast food workers from dozens of stores, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Domino’s, KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Papa John’s are walking out, in a historic one day strike for a fair unionization process, decent wages, reasonable scheduling, paid sick days and an end to retaliation.
Put these multi-billion dollar corportations on notice: these workers do not stand alone.
Thursday, Nov. 29th 4:00 pm Rally at the Times Square McDonald's
220 West 42nd Street (between 7th & 8th Ave.)
Friday, Nov. 30th Show solidarity with striking workers as they go back to for work. Collective action is protected under U.S. labor law, and the workers are asking the community to be on-site at fast food locations around the city to support them as they return to the job.
Sign up for a shift on Friday by RSVPing to gfries@unitedny.org. Two shifts are available: 5:30am-8:30am and 9:30am-12:30pm. Meet-up locations are all over the city, including Manhattan (310 W. 43rd St.) and Brooklyn (2-4 Nevins).
For the past month we have come together to support and rebuild communities broken by Hurricane Sandy. As Sharon Lerner wrote in the American Prospect, “the storm handed inequality activists an almost eerily perfect illustration of exactly what they see as wrong with our world.”
In this vein, over Thanksgiving Occupy Sandy joined with communities to share over 10,000 meals. Now we begin to come together to connect the dots from the storm, to climate change, to the reckless greed of the 1%-ers at the forefront of the fossil fuel industry.
The work is far from over, so join us. You can check out the Occupy Sandy Relief NYC Facebook page to get started, or follow @OccupySandy on Twitter.
-- from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team
TONIGHT, Wednesday, November 28, 6:30pm Occupy Sandy Guerilla Movie Premier with Josh Fox
Mystery Location - Text @ClimateCrime to 23559 or follow #climatecrime
Join academy-award nominated director Josh Fox (Gasland), Occupy Sandy Relief organizers, 350.org, The Other 98%, and The Illuminator for a Guerilla Premiere of Josh Fox’s new short film “Occupy Sandy: A Human Response to the New Realities of Climate Change,” which viscerally shows the damage left behind by the storm, highlights the heroic grassroots efforts of Occupy activists, and the upcoming fight with the fossil fuel industry. Dress warm, bring hot beverages, be prepared to move and to be moved.
TONIGHT, Wednesday, November 28, 9pm Occupy Sandy Volunteer Appreciation Night
The Bell House, 149 7th Street, Brooklyn(b/w 2nd-3rd Ave)
Take the F/G/R to 4th Ave - 9th St Station
You are cordially invited to kick back and relax for a few hours this week in appreciation of all of your hard work and dedication to Occupy Sandy relief! There will be LIVE dance beats from DJ RiMix as well as surprise musical performances & more! Drink specials and, of course, no cover charge!
DAILY, Volunteer to Clean-out homes in the Rockaways Sign Up at respondandrebuild.org/volunteer
Help residents clean and remove debris from their houses. You do not need specific skills for this type of work, just a willingness to get dirty and help. Experienced team leaders will guide your work efforts and keep you safe on the job. If you do have experience or skills in construction, demolition, engineering, or environmental assessment, please contact oscleanout@gmail.com.
