Archive for the ‘ Right to the City ’ Category

City Council Rejects Kingsbridge Armory Plan

Straight from WNYC: City Council Rejects Kingsbridge Armory Plan by Matthew Schuerman NEW YORK, NY December 14, 2009 —The City Council has rejected the Bloomberg administration’s proposal to convert a former national guard armory in the Bronx into a shopping mall. It was the first time, city council members said, that an economic development initiative spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg [ READ MORE ]

UN Special Rapporteur criticizes US on homelessness

The link. And a contextual comment from another contributor: Just wanted to pass this along to situate the article in the movement that brought the UN Rapporteur and the way the tour was used as a movement building tool. Here’s a link to the movement’s mission blog http://restorehousingrights.org, The civil society portion of the tour was [ READ MORE ]

Piven on Beck

So Glenn Beck’s conspiracy theories now position Frances Fox Piven as the conduit from Woodrow Wilson and the Progressives to Obama and the liberal left…uh…sorry, the “radical left fringe”. [ READ MORE ]

Saint versus communist

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The high cost of poverty

The Washington Post has an interesting article on the price poor people pay in time and dollars because of the disadvantages of their situation. [ READ MORE ]

Injustice in LA hit and runs

This won’t surprise anyone, but it’s a story worth spreading anyway. On March 29th, two individuals were killed in independent hit-and-run incidents within hours of each other. One was a hot, 18-year-old coed at UCLA. The other was a hard working, 55-year-old Guatemalan construction worker. Guess which one wound up with twelve detectives, a $235K [ READ MORE ]

My Right to the City utopian preamble

About a month  and a half ago, the Right to the City reading group gave me the responsibility/opportunity to develop a utopian statement of principles that could function as our group’s preamble to our recommendation to the Right to the City Alliance for the use of stimulus funds. My charge was to incorporate a tight [ READ MORE ]

Left Forum forward

I spent the weekend at the Left Forum. It was my first time, and it turned out to be a most curious developmental experience. After an exhausting Saturday, I felt lost and out of place. I’d been to panels on dialectical thinking (with Bertell Ollman, who was delightful), prison reform (with Robert Hillary King, one [ READ MORE ]

HOMELESS PEOPLE TAKE OVER VACANT BUILDING IN EAST HARLEM/EL BARRIO

Claim property for low-income neighbors, demand action from city government From Picture the Homeless: El Barrio/East Harlem, NYC. —Homeless people have taken over an empty building in East Harlem, as part of a coordinated push-back against city policies that let buildings stay empty. The building, which is owned by the city, has been completely vacant for decades. Deborah [ READ MORE ]

Occupy New York – Action today

I’ve got a 2pm interview, but I think I’m going to have to stop here on the way in. For those who haven’t heard, Picture the Homeless, an awesome non-profit run by homeless and previously homeless folks in NYC, is going to *occupy a building tomorrow.* They are starting off a “housing not warehousing” campaign, addressing [ READ MORE ]

Berlin is burning

[Straight from the magic that is Metafilter:] Conspicuous Combustion: since May 2007, 292 luxury cars have been burned in Berlin. A simple Google Map at brennende-autos.de (“Burning Cars”) charts the date, model, and location of each. [ READ MORE ]

David Harvey’s opening speech at the World Social Forum

David Harvey’s opening speech at the Urban Reform Tent, January 29, 2009, World Social Forum, Belem (Many thanks to Brian Mier for translation/transcription. And thanks to Patrick Bond for sharing this article via Massimo Allamandola.) I’m delighted to be here, but first of all I’d like to apologize for speaking English which is the language of international [ READ MORE ]

Right to the City Alliance disrupts Bloomberg business summit

Right to the City Alliance disrupts Bloomberg conference with businessmen. [Bloomberg] stood stone-faced as the protesters filed in and surrounded several of the tables packed with bankers, developers and other business leaders who had paid up to $249 a head to hear him and others speak. (The mayor might have perfected his nonchalance on Monday, when [ READ MORE ]