NYC Mayor Bloomberg has apparently ordered the immediate clearing of Staten Island Sandy aid hubs

[Fire Walk With Me]

Last edited Sat Dec 1, 2012, 07:22 PM - Edit history (2)

Zuccotti redux.

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Occupy Wall Street ?@OccupyWallStNYC

.@TheRoyalHer reporting that the Mayor has deemed our Staten Island pop-up relief sites "vendors", despite no $$ involved.

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Occupy Sandy SI ?@SIrecovers

IMMEDIATE NEED: Come stand with Aiman at 489 Midland Avenue - police/mayor's office threatens eviction of 24/7 hub http://goo.gl/SdWO9
Retweeted by TheRoyalHer


http://pastebin.com/qnZ62R8S

IMMEDIATE ACTION: Tell the Mayor's office to stop shutting down much-needed Sandy community hubs
Location: 489 Midland Ave Staten Island, NY 10306
CONTACT: 347-755-1025 Aiman Youssef, community hub coordinator

ACTION: Demand the Mayor's office end community hub eviction and instead support hubs with space and equipment
CALL: Public Advocate's office: [phone] 9am-5pm
EMAIL: [e-mail]

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 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.


LA Times article on Youssef's community-run hub "For Sandy survivors, a Thanksgiving they'd never expected"
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/22/nation/la-na-sandy-homeless-thanksgiving-20121123

Volunteer group running out of 489 Midland "the Yellow team"
http://www.facebook.com/SandyRebuildStatenIslandYellowTeam

WPIX "Staten Island's Storm Victim Town Hall Turns Into Yelling Match"
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-staten-islands-storm-victim-town-hall-turns-into-yelling-match-20121129,0,3094499.story?track=rss

Staten Island Advance "Answers in short supply as exasperated Staten Islanders throng Sandy forum"
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/answers_in_short_supply_as_sta.html

[sabrina 1]

1. Unbelievable! Anything that benefits the people, Bloomberg is sure to attack with his own

personal army. This will not go over well. So many are still without food and shelter and what has he done about that?

I guess volunteers get in the way of profits. No doubt he has been talking to some of his Wall Street buddies regarding contracts to handle this disaster and we all know what happens when Wall St gets involved in 'taking care of disaster victims'.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. And to think that there is at least one poster here who worships Bloomie

[sarisataka]

20. Do you mean the one

the worships the paper MMMB wipes with? According to said person, this order will not be enforced since NYPD is a separate entity that the mayor has no control over...

[patrice]

3. WHY??? I thought this was the preferred model: NOT the government, but the people helping people.nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Mutual aid IS the preferred model. That's why those threatened by it must destroy it.

[patrice]

6. That includes destroying it when the people decide to help people by means of THEIR government....

That's known as having your cake and eating it too, when the people are prevented from helping the people, either by non-governmental means, or by means of their own government.

[OneGrassRoot]

35. Indeed. :( n/t

[robinlynne]

23. It sounds very much like Occupy. people helping each toher for free, a center where people meet,

distribution of food and services....I'm guessing it may be the Occupy movement, and that may be why..

[Jackpine Radical]

26. Indeed it is the Occupy movement.

[robinlynne]

27. ahh. of course. That can not be tolerated.

[Jackpine Radical]

33. Precisely. They challenge the Established Authority

and that cannot be tolerated, lest the people start questioning their leaders.

[robinlynne]

34. and discover.. that together we can solve problems!

[Jackpine Radical]

36. Yes, that would be devastating.

Actually, I was born & raised in a part of the country where there is still an active co-op tradition, brought over by Scandinavian immigrants.

Look at a red/blue "color map" of WI & notice that there is a band of blue in the counties that border on Lake Superior: Douglas, Bayfield & Ashland. There is a strong co-op/socialist culture there still.

And in the opposite corner of the state, Milwaukee, settled largely by German socialists in the 1840's & '50's, was still electing socialist mayors until about 1970. Look up Frank Zeidler in Wikipedia for an interesting read.

[robinlynne]

38. nice! Thank-you. Actually the occupy movement really did start in wisocnsin, although that was a

different movement....

[Luminous Animal]

37. Actually, most these people would prefer a well run government organization.

They stepped in because the no tax small government mind set fell short of the goal.

[tama]

5. Bloomsday

Make Bloom poor and homeless...

Seems like he's afraid of Sandy helping people of NYC to rebuild sense of community, ground level networks of mutual aid - for good reason as people who can help themselves have little need for the political parasite class and become ungovernable.

[patrice]

7. Youssef's office hung up on me. Left a message at the PA's office. nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Thank you for calling!

[HiPointDem]

9. hung up on you? why?

[patrice]

11. Probably because I said I live in Kansas City & was calling because I'm concerned about

my nieces who live in NYC.

[hrmjustin]

10. I never voted for bloomberg. Wish he would just go away.

[ReRe]

12. Wait a minute, wait a minute.... I'm getting a vision... no. It's a slogan.....

K&R

OK, here it is, here it is....... "Someday, the rich will be poor and the poor will be rich!"
Some sort of beatitude? I don't know where that came from...

And of course Bloomberg has no services to help those people to take the place of the hub? Just "Poof", and the hubs and the victims of Sandy (the biggest hurricane known to man) in need just disappear? At Christmas time, no less? This is like one of those stories from around 1845 in NYC or London or in Moscow. Like Carol's "Scrooge," only in real life at the dawn of the 21st century.

Next time a winger says to my face, in person "this is the greatest country in the world!", I'm going to slap him.

This makes me sick.

[KittyWampus]

14. Um, no. A huge amount of help and resources is going into Staten Island right now. There is no magic

magic wand.

If you read any of those links you'd know the magnitude of money and resources already sent there.

[ReRe]

17. Well, I do beg your pardon....

I was reacting to the OP Title.

And it still makes me sick.

[robinlynne]

24. on the news otngihgt they said 28 mlillion on federal funds was distributed to people living on Stat

en Islad for temporary shelter already.

[KittyWampus]

13. #1. The thread title is totally misleading. All I could gather is Bloomberg supposedly THREATENED

eviction.

It would be good to know more. Why is he being threatened with eviction?

I read several of those links, especially the last two.

People on Staten Island are frustrated but that's no reason to do the "angry mob" thing at a meeting. It's UNDERSTANDABLE people got upset and started shouting. It's human. But it's not helpful in solving anything.


snip
While a FEMA representative was answering another question, the impatient crowd shouted him down.

snip
Numerous pockets of attendees began yelling in his direction, silencing the federal official.

Another panelist read and attempted to answer a question regarding dust and mold, prompting shouts and screams from the crowd.

Previously, Hernandez noted that more than $70 million in FEMA funds have gone to Staten Islanders.

[randome]

18. Yeah, I thought the same thing.

They asked questions at the meeting and then shouted down the people who wanted to answer.

1. How does "clear all outdoor sites" mean closing down all hubs?
2. Has anyone asked why outdoor sites need to be closed? Not that I can see.
3. I know if emergency management told me I needed to move my efforts off the street or out of a park, I would find a church or something and continue to do the job I intended. But it sounds like the 'Occupiers' on this thread are more interested in starting fights and being the center of attention than anything else.

[Fire Walk With Me]

21. The first two words I've placed in the text of the first post should be most illuminating.

"Zuccotti redux".

This is about Occupy. Bloomberg has had his thugs beating and arresting us since day one well over a year ago. When Bloomberg says anything about doing something to Occupy, there is vast history involved and plenty of evidence of his intent and motivation (he made his money on Wall Street; they're his friends and can call favors. Has wall street done one single damn thing for Sandy victims? No. Therein lies the rub."

"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"

Police representing the mayor's office threatened eviction. Unless they mean the mayor of Staten Island, that is.

[robinlynne]

25. my impression too, exactly.

hi Fire!

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. !Despicable him.

How to win friends and influence people eh bloomie?


What a heartless bastard!

[Rockyj]

16. I don't understand...

Why would Bloomburg close anything down that was helping hurrican victims?

[LisaLynne]

19. Is he turning into some sort of super villian?

But the kind without powers. Just with a bunch of underlings.

[agent46]

22. Looks like

Things are about to get real. All the best to the good people of Occupy Sandy. Don't back down. The world is watching.

[aquart]

28. The perfect rightwing model of private charity. What's their problem?

Isn't this what we're supposed to do while the government is drowning in the bathtub?

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Bloomberg... Occupy

Nothing more to say, self explanatory.

[Raksha]

30. Sounds like NYC needs to Occupy the mayor's office with someone else.

Maybe Aiman Youssef of Staten Island?

[pipewrench]

31. Bloomberg does not understand the word backlash

[socialist_n_TN]

32. Several points here......

This IS a bottom up effort, so the governmental authorities have very little control over it and the disbursement of any funds and/or goods. Governments and capitalists don't like that because it cuts them out of the loop and , for the corps, doesn't allow them to make profit even if it's profit they take from government and/or FEMA contracts. Also since government (especially the Bloomberg administration) supports private corps over the people, then they will naturally side with corporate profits over private relief efforts, ESPECIALLY people based, "socialistic" type efforts.

As to the money already disbursed to the NYC area through FEMA, what percentage is given to the people and what percentage is given to businesses? Also what percentage of the money disbursed to individuals is given THROUGH the middleman of a corporation WHO WILL MAKE PROFITS EVEN ON THE MONEY USED FOR PEOPLE. IOW, I think it's probable that businesses are profiting in both directions. They are probably receiving money DIRECTLY in relief dollars to businesses AND receiving profits even to money disbursed to the people.

Then there's the effect on people who are being directly assisted by these non-governmental, non-corporation efforts. In the future, they are going to naturally be inclined to support the people who directly help them. This fuels the (to Bloomberg) hated Occupy movement and gives them (Occupy) more credibility than government or corps. Finally in this jack-leg, off the top of my head, quick analysis , this also is a primer on how to organize WITHOUT GOVERNMENT OR BUSINESS ASSISTANCE. This type of bottom up organization is an anathema to the PTB because it can be used for OTHER things than disaster relief. Like revolution or labor struggles.

[limpyhobbler]

39. I was worried there would start to be some turf battles or stuff like this.

Bloomberg really should be focused on helping the recovery efforts, not shutting down occupy sites.

[friendly_iconoclast]

40. Bloomberg has his fans on DU-apparently being antigun makes him 'progressive'

http://election.democraticunderground.com/117289612

Surprise, surprise- they don't like OWS, either...