Updates and New Thoughts on Disturbed Places

Updates

In case you missed it, there was an update on the African migrant situation in Israel in Monday's NY Times. Jean Riesman will be back with her own analysis, either from Israel, or when she returns after July 19.


The Peekskill Public Housing Petition is almost to 100 signers.  Read Margaret Rubick's post and sign on!

Disturbed Places

Me, Installing Straw Bales

In early spring I picked up my Uncle John to bring him to our construction sites.  He wanted to see the houses even though it was hard for him to get around very easily, straw bales and earth plaster was everywhere.  After that we had a little tour of the neighborhood.  

One way to think of a vacant lot is as a disturbed place.  Our land had been, a long, long time ago, pristine forest, or even farther back, buried under a glacier.  While the word glaciation is one of my favorites to say and think about, I'm not sure it's a helpful way to think about the vast resource of unoccupied urban land that has become available since the Great Recession. 

What is now vacant, like much of Hickory St. where we are building, had been occupied by structures at one time.  When I took my uncle for the tour I asked him to point out some landmarks. He could see homes where I saw vast reaches of mowed grass.  We started at our end, the corner of North Maple and Hickory. 

"I think Aunt Marie lived here, Mama's sister." 

"And then they moved up the hill.  Go that way,"  he pointed toward the railroad track.  As we climbed we came to the corner of Silver St. and Hickory.  

"Yeah" (imagine a very gruff voice, and soft) "See, Aunt Myrtle and Uncle Joe lived here," (one of her cherry trees still stands).  And Mama lived here.  I was born here".  He points to a lot near the western corner.  Grandma and her two sisters lived close for years. 

As I contemplate the meaning of being back in Akron, "coming home", I'm very aware how deep my family roots go here.  The Chapmans moved here from Columbus, Ohio at the turn of the 20th century.  The three sisters married and had many children.  There has been a Chapman descendant on or near Hickory St. for over 100 years.  The large trees along the Towpath Trail that borders our neighborhood grew up with my uncle.  The neighborhood he knew, one that was an affordable and welcoming point of arrival for Great Migration settlers is now being marketed as an "arts district".  The lively memory of Black migration -- jazz clubs, juke joints, full churches and overflowing schools  -- being used to create a neighborhood that won't be affordable or necessarily welcoming.  We will resist such efforts, since that is the ultimate disturbance, a gentrification that means a future group of people like my great aunts, uncles and grandparents would have no place live and claim as their own.

Problems in Peekskill, NY

Margaret Rubick

 There have been several egregious events in the small towns and cities of Westchester county, some notorious such as the murder of Kenneth Chamberlain last November.  None has been more persistent than the ongoing disregard for the health, safety and rights of Peekskill public housing tenants.  Joining Urban Ecology this week is my friend and colleague, Margaret Rubick to describe the current campaign to bring attention to these problems.  Margaret is a writer, anti-racist activist and health advocate living and working in Westchester County, NY.

Problems in Peekskill, NY

“Gentrification: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of  middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.” – Merriam-Webster

I wonder if Habitat for Humanity does renovations. I have this fantasy that the organization might partner with the residents of public housing in Peekskill, NY, to clean, paint, fix broken water pipes, and rid the premises of mice and bugs. Although Bohlman Towers purportedly exists for the benefit of the poor and disabled, it does more to keep them down than lift them up. Some tenants are paying $1200 a month for a one-room apartment, have to ride in dirty elevators and put up with stains and odors of unknown origin.

And that is just one small part of the mess—the disrepair and the rodents are just symptoms of the systemic problems of human rights violations, illegal dealings and malfeasance in Peekskill public housing. The acting Housing Director is working without a contract, which is against HUD regulations. Harold Phipps, whose contract expired mid-2011, now stands accused of sexual harassment, of entering women’s apartments without notice, of locking young children out of dance rehearsals in the building, and of trying to bully the board into signing a new contract. Rents are being raised in an effort to evict tenants. The harassment is blatantly obvious.

No one can get copies of the by-laws for the local Housing Authority. The mayor, Mary Foster, disavows all knowledge of all activities, repeating at Common Council meetings for a long time that she has no authority over the board, although until just a few months ago, she appointed five of the members. Two are supposed to be tenant-elected representatives but I witnessed firsthand how one eligible candidate was tricked into having her application declared invalid.  At the Common Council meetings, no one seems to know anything.

Enter Darrell Davis, a Peekskill-raised activist who lives in Westchester and is leading the fight against the betrayal by the Democrats in power. Davis helped get the mayor elected the first time she ran, hoping the change in leadership would make a difference. It didn’t. Davis, leading the Committee for Justice, along with residents of public housing, were polite and deferential in asking for change, believing for many, many months that change was coming.  Now, after more than two years of voicing concerns, the meetings are not as peaceful. The mayor sits stony-faced (you can see her on YouTube) when African-Americans are at the podium. The racism IS that blatant.

This past Monday, I attended the Common Council meeting. As speakers lined up for their five minutes of “Citizens wishing to be heard,” I wondered what the evening would bring. I heard some of the familiar items: repairs are not being done, no one on the council knows anything…then I heard Davis speak about the Freedom of Information documents that he has obtained, proving that there have been exchanges of funds in return for lucrative contracts. Davis will be issuing a report on the corruption. Just before Davis approached the microphone,  the city’s Corporation Counsel started to speak. The mayor “shushed” her, and Bernis Nelson left the room. I found out later that she resigned. Davis refers to the mayor’s entourage as the City “Clowncil.” It’s not difficult to see why.

Karen Watson, who was a mayoral-appointed Commissioner on the Housing Board, recently resigned in protest. I have heard her speak twice in the Common Council meetings. She looked Mayor Foster in the eye while she told her of the abuses, and called her on lies. Yes, lies. Because again, the injustice IS that blatant

Curious about this? Sherry Hinkson, AKA MsEqualRights, records these sessions and posts them on YouTube, aided by her daughter, Zakiya. To view them, click on:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MsEqualrights

Would you like to do a little more? Sign this petition, calling for a HUD investigation into the operation of the Peekskill Housing Authority and asking Governor Cuomo to look at human rights violations under Mayor Foster’s management. To sign, click on the link below or cut-and-paste it into your browser:

http://signon.org/sign/save-public-housing-in?source=c.em.mt&r_by=1684564

Removing two bad leaders will not eliminate the problems but it may open up space to attract better leaders. Then the work will begin its next phase, to improve conditions for the poor and marginalized and the people of color who are dismissed or abused. I am grateful that the individuals and groups fighting for change are in it for the long term.