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Health Care? Not if You Can’t Leave Work to Get It

October 2, 2009 Friday in September, sick as a dog, he had to leave the diner. He called his wife at 7 a.m. to pick him up. He ended Jim Dwyer up at Woodhull hospital for three days with a thyroid problem. Adela Valdez** made lamps in a factory at the back of a lighting store on Canal Street in Manhattan. The job paid “The boss yelled,” Mr. Barrera recalled. “She said, minimum wage and no benefits. Last month, she got sick ‘Don’t come back. You’re fired. You don’t take this but went to work. On her third day of coughing and feeling job seriously.’ ” generally crummy, she was feverish. In an interview, the owner of the diner, Athena Skermo, “I asked the boss for permission to go to the said Mr. Barrera’s account was a “total lie.” She said she hospital,” said Ms. Valdez, 39, a mother of four. “She paid her employees when they got sick. said, ‘It’s fine, go — but you don’t have a job anymore.’ ” “He left me flat,” she said. “He was gone three days; I never heard from him. Someone told me he said, ‘I’m not going to Now Ms. Valdez works three days a week taking care of work as a grill man anymore,’ because the doctor told him an elderly woman. he got sick from the grill. I had to take someone else.”

To questions of cost and coverage, add one more detail to THERE are plenty of employers who do give their the national debate about health care: time. In New York, employees time off when they are sick, because it’s good for time may be more important than cost. The city’s empire of business. “You get more committed people if you public hospitals finds ways to serve hundreds of thousands stick with them when they have their crisis,” said of people who don’t have enough money or lack private Freddy Castiblanco**, owner of the Terraza 7 Train insurance. But people who have no health insurance Cafe in Elmhurst, Queens, just down the block from the through their jobs are not likely to have paid sick days, 82nd Street stop of the No. 7 train. either. By some estimates, 765,000 workers in the city do not get paid when they stay home sick. Mr. Castiblanco, who has five full-time employees, said that he had given his people time off when they were sick That would change under a bill before the City Council, and that he supported the legislation to make it mandatory. known as Intro 1059, which is backed by unions and some health organizations. It would require all businesses in the “I’m at a disadvantage with other small-business city to provide paid sick time. Companies with fewer than owners who are not responsible,” Mr. Castiblanco 10 employees would have to give five days a year; larger said. “If we had a law, it would be equal.” businesses would be required to provide nine. Fines for not complying would be as much as $1,000. Business groups There are other reasons, he said, for such a law: the costs like the Chambers of Commerce in the five boroughs that society has to take on when sick people go to work. oppose the bill, arguing that the added costs might force Mr. Castiblanco, who was a doctor in Colombia before some businesses to cut back on hiring. moving to the United States and hopes to pass qualifying tests this year to return to practicing medicine, said sick Whatever its economic and social merits, the bill, if it people should not be in a workplace where others might becomes law, would bring the city into the workplace catch their ailments. “It’s a matter of public health equivalent of the domestic dispute: intimate, furious, with that you don’t have contagious people in the the truth tied up in tangles. workplace,” he said.

For nearly seven years, Guillermo Barrera** said, he And does he provide insurance to his employees? arrived daily at 3:30 a.m. to work at the grill of a little diner in Bushwick. He peeled the potatoes and chopped the “I tried,” he said. “It was $700 a month for each one. That onions for the home fries. He mixed batter for the would be more than my rent.” pancakes, loaded the coffee maker, brought in the bread, sliced tomatoes and diced lettuce. He worked 11 hours a Does he have insurance for himself and his family? day, seven days a week, and never took a vacation. “I can’t afford it now,” he said. A few months ago, Mr. Barrera began to lose weight from a frame that was already slim, dropping 14 pounds. One ** Make the Road New York member

Immigration Rally Draws Thousands

October 14, 2009

By IAN URBINA

WASHINGTON — Thousands of immigrants came to Capitol “I worked for eight months cleaning the dust and Hill on Tuesday for a day of lobbying and an afternoon rally debris surrounding the World Trade Center,” said calling for comprehensive immigration reform. Ms. Arias, who cleans offices in Manhattan and was dressed in a light-blue T-shirt with a sticker reading, The event was timed to the unveiling of an immigration bill “Reform Immigration for America.” “There was no by Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois and question about immigration status. We were all New chairman of the Immigration Task Force of the Yorkers; we were all Americans.” Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In June, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New With President Obama’s stated commitment to immigration York, announced what he called seven principles that would reform, advocates for immigrants said they hoped to revive a give form to his own reform proposal. Among them were the debate that has been overshadowed by other priorities, like need to “curtail future illegal immigration,” to have the economy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As “operational control of our borders” and a “biometric-based deportations continue to rise, immigration reform is needed employer verification system.” Mr. Schumer, who has been now, they said, to allow illegal immigrants to obtain legal working with Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South status and to stop families from being torn apart. Carolina, said he would introduce a bill by Labor Day but missed that deadline. “We need a bill that says if you come here to hurt our communities, we will not support you; but if you are here to Mr. Gutierrez’s bill, which is likely to propose less restrictive work hard and to make a better life for your family, you will terms than Mr. Schumer’s plan for allowing illegal have the opportunity to earn your citizenship,” Mr. Gutierrez immigrants to become citizens, is partly meant to pressure said in a prepared statement. “We need a law that says it is his Congressional colleagues. un-American for a mother to be torn from her child, and it is unacceptable to undermine our work force by driving the A main purpose of the rally was to highlight the way current most vulnerable among us further into the shadows.” immigration law splits families.

Immigration overhaul faces a difficult road. President “Families deserve better than this from our government,” George W. Bush twice failed to get Congress to pass similar said Peter Derezinski, a 17-year-old high school senior and a legislation. Mr. Obama recently said his administration United States citizen whose father was deported to Poland in would pursue reform this year but expected no action on April 2008 after 18 years as a truck driver and an air- legislation before 2010. conditioning repairman in Chicago. “We need to fix our broken immigration system so our parents who have Tuesday’s event was sponsored by various immigrant contributed to this nation’s economy in a positive way have a advocacy groups, including the Reform Immigration for chance of reuniting with their children.” America campaign, the National Capital Immigration Coalition and Families United/Familias Unidas. It attracted Robin Ferschke, who was traveling from Maryville, Tenn., convoys of buses, vans and cars carrying more than 3,000 said she planned to talk to lawmakers about changing the demonstrators from at least 17 states. law so that her daughter-in-law and grandson could live legally in the United States. Ms. Ferschke’s son, Sgt. Michael Immigrants, religious leaders, members of Congress and Ferschke, a 22-year-old Marine radio operator, was killed in immigrant advocates planned to gather on the West Lawn Iraq in 2008, leaving his Japanese widow and their infant for speeches and a prayer vigil at 3 p.m. Similar rallies were son in immigration limbo. being held in at least 20 cities around the nation, including Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Denver and Albany. While Sergeant Ferschke was deployed to Iraq, he learned that his girlfriend was pregnant. They decided to get married “I’m here representing the undocumented workers by proxy, a method that has a long history in the military who cleaned ground zero and its surrounding area when the bride and groom cannot be in the same place for a after the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” said Rubiela Arias, ceremony. The boy was born in Japan and holds dual 43, an illegal immigrant from Colombia who came to citizenship. Washington with an immigrant advocacy group called Make the Road New York. But under a 1950s legal standard meant to curb marriage fraud, the wedding is not recognized for immigration Ms. Arias described how she came from Medellín to New purposes even though the military recognizes the union. York in 1998 with her 5-year-old son, seeking a safer place for her family. “The laws we have now are inhumane and need to be changed,” Ms. Ferschke said. “So I came to beg lawmakers to change that and not force my daughter-in-law and my grandson to leave the country.”

Bloomberg Has Added Jobs, and Lost Some, Too

October 15, 2009 By August 2008, Mayor Bloomberg oversaw a city with 3.244 million jobs, its highest number since 1969, By Christine Haughney according to Mr. Parrott. With roughly 227,000 more jobs than when the mayor took office, the city had During much of his tenure, Mayor Michael R. surpassed national job growth rates, a point the mayor Bloomberg has taken credit for helping to create proudly noted in his 2009 State of the City address, hundreds of thousands of jobs in New York City, from when he said the city had added a quarter-million jobs high-paying construction work to sales jobs at dozens before the slowdown. But much as boom times can of new big-box stores. Even as the city plods through make elected officials look like Midases, recessions can the recession, the mayor has set a goal to “retain and tarnish them. From August 2008 to August 2009, the create” an additional 400,000 jobs over the next six city lost 96,739 private-sector jobs. These included years. 35,986 finance and insurance jobs, which paid $280,872 annually on average in 2008. They also The debate over how much influence a mayor, a included 10,712 construction jobs, which paid on governor or a president has over jobs is one that may average $68,119. never be settled. But if Mayor Bloomberg can be judged on the numbers he has used as evidence of his own Some trends predated the recession. The success, those numbers, while generally accurate, also manufacturing industry, in steady decline for decades, contain some warning signs about the future of lost 43 percent of its New York City jobs from January employment in the city. 2002 to August 2009. In 2008, these jobs paid on average $52,758 a year. Even in the downturn, the city has 130,000 more jobs than it had when Mr. Bloomberg became mayor, According to the Center for an Urban Future, according to state labor statistics. Working-class New manufacturing accounts for about 3.2 percent of the job Yorkers who kept their jobs or stayed in the same field market in New York City, compared with 8 percent in saw their pay rise faster than the rate of inflation. San Francisco and 12.7 percent in Los Angeles. At the same time, New York City has a higher proportion of But the overall job market constantly shifts, particularly lower-paying jobs in health care and social assistance — in a recession, when the economy sheds jobs and even 17.4 percent of the work force — than those cities. whole industries. And in New York, middle- and working-class jobs that have disappeared — in fields “New York used to be a place that really nurtured a like manufacturing, wholesale distribution and middle class,” Mr. Bowles said. “There’s compelling administrative services — have been replaced by jobs in evidence that we have done worse than other cities.” sectors like retail, food service and home health care that generally pay less. “There’s been much more Seth W. Pinsky, president of the New York City growth in lower-wage industries than in middle-wage Economic Development Corporation, the city’s industries,” said James Parrott, chief economist for the business-development arm, defended the city’s efforts Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal research group. “That’s to create more middle-income jobs and says these jobs a challenge for people struggling to maintain a decent have not yet been fully realized for the long term. livelihood in New York City, given the cost of housing and everything else.” “The New York City economy is in some ways like an aircraft carrier,” Mr. Pinsky said. “You can’t change 50- Several research groups have concluded that jobs year trends in five years.” created for working-class New Yorkers will continue to be in these low-wage fields. A study by a nonpartisan The mayor has used several programs to try to keep or group, the Center for an Urban Future, said that the add jobs, including development projects like two occupations that will have the most openings in modernizing the Hunts Point Terminal in the Bronx, New York City through 2014 are retail salesperson, with which supplies wholesale food for many of the city’s an average annual pay of $20,690, and cashier, with groceries and restaurants. He has created an emergency pay of $16,800. “Working-class people with limited loan program for small businesses and streamlined the educational backgrounds and limited skills are going to process of obtaining business permits. be fighting for scraps at the bottom,” said Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future. A construction boom — not only of private residential buildings, but also of public projects like schools, libraries and a new police academy — stimulated the been researching scholarships he learned about from building trades. the unemployment office.

The mayor has also invested tens of millions of city For New Yorkers who held onto their jobs, the last few dollars to encourage the creation of a thriving years brought larger paychecks, at least through 2008, biotechnology industry, seen by many as the growth according to the Census Bureau’s most recent income sector of the future. The city has invested in a large estimates. Adjusted for inflation, median income in research space at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in New York City rose 8 percent, to $51,116, between 2002 Sunset Park and is supporting the $700 million East and 2008, according to the bureau. River Science Park, a complex of office and lab space next to New York University Medical Center that is Frank Zucco, 46, a painter from Dyker Heights, scheduled to open next year. Brooklyn, watched his pay rise to about $65,000 in 2008, from about $45,000 in 2002. This year he is on To try to reserve new jobs for lower-income New track to earn $80,000, including about $20,000 in Yorkers, he says he will push community colleges to do overtime because of demand for workers on public a better job of turning out students with job skills. sector projects, like school construction. Mr. Zucco, who is also the financial secretary for his union local, Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and said that he has found his fellow painters have been planning at New York University who has been an doing just as well. informal adviser to Mr. Bloomberg, credited the mayor with creating jobs by taking on projects like the science “There’s no more money in the private sector. Most of park, the Hunts Point market, the Brooklyn Navy Yard the work moved over to city work and public work,” he and Homeport in Staten Island. “He took on some of said. “As far as New York is concerned, Mayor the messiest and most complicated projects,” he said. Bloomberg has been doing pretty good in terms of “Economic development takes longer than educating a creating jobs for us.” Many experts are hesitant to give child in school. It doesn’t take eight years. It takes 15 too much credit, or blame, to mayors for job creation or years. The great successes of Bloomberg are getting losses. Steve Malanga, a senior fellow at the Manhattan things done that previous mayors were afraid to deal Institute for Policy Research, a conservative group, said with.” that cities are their own economic engines and that politicians have little impact. “Most municipal But at the moment, opportunities are concentrated in economic development strategies matter only on the lower-wage fields. Dale Grant, whose firm, Grant margins,” he wrote in an e-mail message. Associates, runs one of the city’s work-force training centers in Queens, said that her company used to be Some advocates for low-wage workers would like Mr. able to place people in entry-level jobs like bank teller, Bloomberg to exert one power that he, along with the paying $10 to $12 an hour but eventually leading to City Council, does have: to create a city minimum wage bank careers paying $50,000 to $60,000 a year. that exceeds the federal minimum, currently $7.25 an hour. Cities that have done so, like San Francisco Those jobs have virtually disappeared, she said, ($9.79) and Santa Fe ($9.85), have not suffered, replaced by lower-paying jobs in high-end stores like according to Paul Sonn, legal co-director of the Gracious Home and Banana Republic, where entry- National Employment Law Project. level positions often pay $20,000 to $25,000 a year and assistant manager jobs pay $40,000 to $50,000 a Andrew Brent, a Bloomberg spokesman, said that the year. mayor favored a higher minimum wage everywhere, not just in New York; Mr. Pinsky, of the city’s economic Her firm also places people in education jobs that development corporation, said that the minimum wage include teaching assistant positions in charter schools was a matter for the State Legislature to address. that pay $30,000 to $35,000 a year and tutoring jobs that would pay $30,000 to $40,000 if they were full For now, minimum wage is the best that some workers time, but ordinarily they are not. can hope for. In her eight years in New York, Adela Valdez has watched her wages ebb from a $19,200-a- But even retail jobs can be hard to find in this economy. year job washing laundry in Manhattan and a $21,000- Carlos Peralta, 37, of Bushwick, Brooklyn, worked in a a-year factory job making lampshades to her current warehouse from 2004 to 2009, earning $22,000 a year job, working as a home care aide in Queens for $14,400 cutting phone company cable. Since he lost his job a year. Julissa Bisono, an organizer with three months ago, he has been applying for jobs at Make the Road New York, which gives legal retailers like BJ’s Wholesale Club. So far he has had no assistance to low-wage workers, said Ms. Valdez is interviews. stuck. “She hasn’t found any job that pays better than what she is making now,” said Ms. Bisono. “I’m on the computer all night” looking for a job, he said. He is also considering going to college, and has

Gay Advocates Encouraged by Hate Crimes Bill

October 27, 2009

By BAO ONG

As gay and immigrant rights advocates congregated in Jackson Heights, Queens, last week to educate citizens about their rights, Karina Claudio-Betancourt, a community organizer, peered at her BlackBerry and announced that the Senate had passed a measure to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability in the definition of hate crimes under federal law.

The news of the bill’s passage — President Obama plans to sign it on Wednesday — could not have come at a better time, the advocates said.

“We want people to know about their rights, but having the law on your side is powerful,” said Ms. Claudio-Betancourt, a project organizer for the Brooklyn-based nonprofit group Gays and Lesbians of Bushwick Empowered, which provides services to the gay community and runs programs in public schools to combat homophobia.

Community leaders say that even after more than a decade after the case of Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student who was killed in 1998, a recent surge in hate crimes committed locally against gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender victims, as well as immigrants, has underscored the need for updating the hate crime laws. At the federal level, the law already safeguards people who are victims of hate crimes because of their race, color, religion or national origin. Sexual orientation is included in New York state law, but gender identity is not.

Nationally, hate crimes against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have increased in recent years, advocates say. In June, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, which examines hate crimes against sexual minorities, reported that bias-related killings were at their highest level since 1999, with at least 29 committed in 2008.

The recent attack of Jack Price, 49, in College Point, Queens, illustrates the need for the law, the advocates said. Two men — Daniel Aleman, 26, and Daniel Rodriguez, 21 — have been accused of assaulting Mr. Price, an openly gay man, who remains in the hospital after all his ribs were broken, both of his lungs collapsed and his jaw was broken.

“Jack has always been discriminated against because of his orientation,” said Joanne Guarneri, Mr. Price’s sister-in-law. “Never in a million years would he think someone would kill him for it.”

Erica Braudy, a lead organizer with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which helped organize last week’s forum in Queens, said educating people about diverse communities is as important as passing laws.

“We don’t want to wait until the next tragedy occurs to address this,” Ms. Braudy said.

Protesters Converge on Queens Center Mall to Fight Lack of Living Wage Requirement

December 23, 2009

BY DAVE BUSCEMA

On the heels of a City Council decision to nix the Kingsbridge Armory mall project over the lack of a living wage requirement, advocates and elected officials are raising similar concerns about the Queens Center Mall.

Protesters converged on the Elmhurst shopping center on Sunday, calling it a "poverty wage center," even though it received $48 million in tax abatements.

"When a developer or mall owner seeks public money, they have to give back to the community and the workers," said Jeff Eichler of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

The 50 or so protesters - including elected officials and representatives of the advocacy group Make the Road New York - called on the mall's parent company, Macerich, to require increased wages and benefits from its tenants, to allow union organization and to provide more of its space to community functions.

The Council voted down the Kingsbridge Armory mall project when the developer, Related Companies, wouldn't agree to require a living wage minimum of $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 without. Other malls in New York do not yet have such requirements, Eichler said, but many municipalities will not offer tax breaks without them.

Many of the 3,100 retailers at the Queens Center Mall paid just above the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, according to a survey by advocates.

Queens Center Mall boasts the highest revenue per square foot of any mall in the U.S. That, and $48 million in tax abatements granted between 2004 and 2009, should require action, protesters said.

"If you go into the mall and you take something for nothing, you're likely to get into a lot of trouble," said Andrew Friedman, co-executive director of Make the Road. "But the Queens Center Mall itself is taking $48 million in public subsidies and they've given almost nothing in return."

A Macerich spokeswoman said company policy did not allow for comment on its requirements for tenants. "We do not discuss our leases and cannot comment on behalf of our retailers," Dawn Simon, a senior marketing manager, wrote in an e-mail.

Protesters also said the mall had not provided adequate community use, but Simon said a 1,400-square-foot space has been used by groups such as LaGuardia Community College and Community Board 4.

Councilman-elect Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), whose predecessor Helen Sears cast the lone vote for the Kingsbridge Armory project, said he would continue to push Macerich and other local developers on behalf of workers.

"This mall has been a Scrooge to our community," he said. "But if you know what happened in the story "The Christmas Carol," Scrooge was visited by three ghosts. And although we are not ghosts, we are going to visit this mall time and time again until we enforce on this mall the same type of transformation that Scrooge had."

Growing rage against low wage: Creating decent-paying jobs is the most pressing economic issue

December 19, 2009

By ERROL LOUIS

A key skirmish in the battle over living wage jobs takes place in Elmhurst at 11 a.m. today, when a cluster of community and labor organizations and local pols will gather at the main entrance of Queens Center Mall for a press conference condemning low wages at the shops there. The event is perfectly timed, coming hot on the heels of the City Council's recent vote, 45 to 1, to kill a plan backed by Mayor Bloomberg that would have poured tens of millions in subsidies into a new mall at the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx. Figuring out how to create and retain decent-paying jobs is the single most pressing economic issue facing New York City, and a fight that can't be put off any longer. On one side are developers, retailers and the Bloomberg administration, content to continue traditional schemes that throw millions of public dollars at commercial projects in exchange for jobs - often, with little or no concern about the quality or wage levels of the employment. On the other side are families trying desperately to make miserably small paychecks cover food, shelter, transportation, clothing, education and other necessities. In too many cases, it just can't be done. Most of the 3,100 jobs at the mall pay at or only slightly more than the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage, according to a report being released today by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and Make the Road New York, a community organization. The groups call Queens Center Mall a poverty wage center - a place where people work endless hours for years, but never earn enough to support a family. Juan Cucalon, a 28-year-old cashier at Victoria's Secret in Queens Center Mall, told researchers he got $8.25 an hour - $600 a month, after taxes. After paying $400 a month for his rented room, Cucalon had $200 a month for food and other necessities. Another ex-worker, Saa'datu Sani, worked at JCPenney from 1999 to 2007. Her pay after eight years was $8.47 an hour, with no benefits. "The mall has helped create an entire community that is struggling under the weight of poverty-wage jobs," the report concludes. The pay is so low, in fact, that many retail workers make ends meet by turning to public welfare like food stamps, Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Most galling of all is the fact that Macerich, the Queens Mall operator and a major national manager of malls, got more than $48 million in property tax breaks between 2004 and 2009, according to the report. That is where the rest of us come in.

Tis the Season: Protesters Hit A Queens Mall With Demands For a Living Wage

December 21, 2009 By Candice M. Giove

As shoppers scurried to snatch up last minute gifts inside the Queens Center Mall, local elected officials and community organizations painted the shopping destination's landlord, Macerich, as the latest Grinch in the ongoing fight for living wages -- just days after the city council rejected a Kingsbridge Armory plan that had no living wage requirement.

Most of the 3,100 retail workers in the sprawling urban mall earn $7.25 an hour.

Standing on a snowy corner of Queens Boulevard, Santa symbolically held gift-wrapped boxes marked "living wages." A menacing green Dr. Seuss character represented the mall owner. Activists from Make the Road New York, a citywide organization focusing on economic justice, demanded that the landlord place a living wage clause in its leases -- which would require stores to pay $10/hour with benefits, or $11.50 without.

Yesteday the group released its Dickensian report, "Queens Center Mall a Poverty Wage Center in Elmhurst," illustrating the travails of low-income New Yorkers and arguing that the millions of dollars in tax abatements received by Macerich should translate into benefits for its employees, including a living wage and the right to unionize. They also beseeched the owner to create community space.

These demands come on the heels of the city council's slaying of the Related Company's plans to convert the historic Kingsbridge Armory in The Bronx into a major shopping attraction. Local lawmakers shot the plans down last week in the absence of a living wage agreement, a concession that its developer said would render the project financially unfeasible. (Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg vetoed the 47-1 vote against the development, though the council is expected to override it.)

"This is the second front of the battle for living wage jobs and community benefits," said Jeff Eichler, a coordinator with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which helped staunch the Bronx development that would have created over 1,200 retail jobs and joined in the new Queens fight.

But in contrast to the situation at the long-dormant Kingsbridge Armory, no land use review procedure process could be used to leverage community benefits at Queens Center. The mall, which lures over 26 million consumers a year and is considered one of the most profitable malls in the country, has already completed a $275 million makeover, adding thousands of square feet of shopping space and parking to the already busy site.

Like many major commercial property owners in New York, Macerich saved $48 million in taxes through the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program between 2004 and 2009. Make the Road New York predicted that by 2018 those abatements will total $129 million.

Andrew Friedman, the group's co-executive director, said the city shouldn't dole out abatements without requiring a living wage as some municipalities across the nation do.

"In the absence of good public policy requiring this, the mall owner should impose these requirements," he said.

The Make the Road New York report also contends that the property owner receives further benefits, since it sits at a transportation crossroads, with ten bus routes and two trains stopping near its doorstep.

Activists insisted that, with all these publically funded perks, the workforce deserved a raise. A survey they conducted among mall tenants found that most of the employment opportunities there were part- time, and paid wages hovering slightly over the minimum wage at $7.72 an hour.

Assemblyman Jose Peralta, who joined the group outside of the mall, said that local workers earning so little had to supplement their incomes with a second job, or with the aid of public assistance. He discounted the argument that any job is a good job in this grueling economy.

"It's not really okay because you could have a symbolic job that pays you minimum wage, but how do you survive in New York City?" he asked. "How could you maintain not only yourself but your family when you can't pay your bills?"

Even after years on the job, most mall employees barely climb the earnings ladder, the report said. Their examples include Juan Cucalon, a 28-year-old, $8.25-an-hour cashier at Victoria's Secret who struggles to pay a $400 rent with monthly earnings of $600, and Saa'datu Sani, whose earnings rose to $8.47 an hour at J.C. Penney after eight years.

The group and the officials plan to continue their campaign against Macerich with street demonstrations and letters. "Just like the story of Scrooge, where the ghost visited him on many occasions," said Councilman-elect Daniel Dromm, "we're going to come back, and we're going to visit this mall on many occasions until we get what the community needs."

Dromm, whose predecessor, outgoing City Councilwoman Helen Sears, was the lone supportive vote for the Kingsbridge Armory plan, said that he would pay special attention to ensuring that developers kept their promises.

Activists were also angry over what they portrayed as unrealized guarantees for a community space at the mall. "They're unwilling at this point to open that space up to desperately needed community programs like English as a second language or an afterschool program," Friedman said.

Their report claims that local teens become mall rats, vacuously hanging out in the food court, while a tourism office stands as the only community-oriented space in the mall.

Queens Center Mall employees rally for better wages Workers demand retail jobs that pay $10 an hour since giant shopping complex gets tax subsidies

December 23, 2009

By Nathan Duke

More than 25 workers in varying jobs at Elmhurst’s Queens Center Mall joined advocacy group Make the Road New York and several borough elected officials Sunday to protest their low wages and lack of benefits.

The workers, many of whom are members of Make the Road New York, demanded that the mall, on Queens Boulevard near Woodhaven Boulevard in Elmhurst, provide decent jobs in exchange for the $48 million the shopping center received this year in tax subsidies.

“We want a living wage,” said Lili Salmeron, an organizer for Make the Road. “We feel the mall should give back to the community.”

Make the Road New York is a worker advocacy group that focuses on economic, workplace and environmental justice as well as empowering youth.

The protesters, who held up signs reading “Union Jobs” and “Jobs with Good Benefits,” called on the mall to provide retail jobs that pay $10 per hour and include benefits.

The workers, who hold retail jobs in the mall, are mostly all paid the city’s $7.25 per hour minimum wage and do not receive benefits, said Michael Yellin, of Make the Road. The mall’s individual retailers hire their own workers.

Yellin said Macy’s was one of the few stores at the mall that provided union wages and benefits.

The group said they wanted the mall to create a community space where local youths could have a safe place to gather as well as provide English as a Second Language classes and allow them to unionize.

Queens Center Mall is owned by Macerich, one of the country’s largest owners of malls. The Queens shopping center opened in 1973 and was purchased by Macerich in 1995.

The mall’s workers were joined by state Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights), City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) and Councilman-elect Danny Dromm.

“I believe that any recipient of tax subsidies must be held to the highest standard,” Dromm said of the mall. “They must pay livable wages and they must be responsive to the needs of the surrounding community. The Queens Center Mall needs to be stop being Scrooge at this time of year. Its jobs are poverty-level jobs. Elmhurst is a very needy community.”

Former Employees Jostlin' Jocelyne Wildenstein for Penny-ante Wages

November 9, 2009

By Lore Croghan

Me-ee-ow!

Millionaire socialite Jocelyne Wildenstein, nicknamed the cat woman because of her serial plastic surgery, stiffed four laborers who remodeled her Trump World Tower apartments, the workers claimed Sunday.

Wildenstein owes them a total of $13,300 in unpaid wages for renovation work on two apartments she owns in the glamorous skyscraper near the United Nations, the men claimed in legal papers.

"This woman is playing with us," Ezequiel Huerta, 27, said in Spanish to reporters outside her building. "I have a family to maintain, and I need her to pay me."

Wildenstein is believed to have won millions in a 1999 divorce settlement from her billionaire husband, art dealer Alec Wildenstein.

Huerta, who lives in Elmhurst, Queens, said she owes him $5,000. Besides doing construction work, he ran errands for her like picking up her morning cappuccino and doing her food shopping, he said.

Huerta and two other workers, Luis Romero and Felix Allaico, filed lawsuits against Wildenstein in Queens Small Claims Court in February.

A fourth man, Omar Noboa, hasn't filed a claim because Wildenstein's lawyer assured the men she'd pay up, said the workers' attorney, Elizabeth Wagoner.

"We are shocked Ms. Wildenstein has delayed paying for over a year such a relatively small sum of money to workers who have families who need to eat," said Wagoner, of Make the Road New York, an advocacy group for low-wage workers.

Neither Wildenstein nor her lawyer could be reached.

Wildenstein, whose drastic plastic surgeries also earned her the nickname Bride of Wildenstein, triumphed in one of the most sensational divorce battles of the 1990s.

Her 20-year marriage hit the skids when her husband was arrested in their upper East Side home on charges of pointing a pistol at her when she caught him in bed with his 19-year-old model girlfriend.

When the divorce deal was done, her lawyer, Bernard Clair, crowed, "Money is no longer a concern for Jocelyne."

In contrast, one worker who sued her said he's only able to find work two or three days a week. The $4,200 she owes him would be a lifeline.

"It never occurred to me that such a wealthy lady living in Trump Tower would refuse to pay me," said Romero, 40.

FDNY, Bldgs. Take Illegal Conversion Battle to the Street

December 1, 2009

By Joe Kemp

The City is making a new push to curb the number difficult in recent years, officials said. of illegally converted apartments after a series of deadly fires. In the first few days of the three- Building inspectors need a warrant to enter a week initiative launched Nov. 16, about 28,000 building, and judges require evidence, such as pamphlets were handed out at transit hubs and multiple mailboxes and doorbells, which many houses of worship in Queens and the Bronx to landlords have learned to hide, Sclafani said. warn people of why illegally subdivided homes can become deathtraps in a fire, officials said. Since 2002, the city has obtained 107 warrants - only about 13 a year. "Education is the key to preventing another tragedy from occurring," said Buildings Last year, the Buildings Department issued 1,086 Department spokesman Tony Sclafani. "By vacate orders for illegal apartments, up from 823 distributing these flyers, we're hoping people in 2007, Sclafani said. understand the dangers of an illegal conversion and how to stay safe." City officials said they hope the new effort will not only increase the number of illegal conversions The Fire and Buildings departments plan to hand found, but also reduce the number of deaths out more than 50,000 flyers in total. Agency caused by fires. officials said they're hoping to raise awareness among people who may not know they are living in "We're happy to embrace this effort," said Queens danger. Borough President Helen Marshall. "It is certainly timely in the wake of the recent fatal fires we have "And, if possible, to have people assist the FDNY seen." and the Buildings Department identify these illegal subdivides," said FDNY spokesman Jim Long. Soon before the initiative began, a blaze in an illegal conversion in Woodside took the lives of Advocates for immigrants applauded the effort, but three immigrant men. The two-story house had some said more should be done. been turned into a five-family residence with another seven single rooms, authorities said. "It's a good move in the sense that the city is alerting people of what's going on," said In February, tenants Caridad Coste and Rafael Javier Valdes, deputy director of Make the Castillo were acquitted of manslaughter and Road New York. "But the flyer does not provide negligent homicide in what became known as the any alternative." Black Sunday fire, which took the lives of two Bronx firefighters. Creating more affordable housing would make it easier for tenants to leave hazardous living Lt. Curtis Meyran, 46, and Firefighter John Bellew, conditions, Valdes added. 37, leaped to their deaths during the 2005 blaze after being trapped in the illegally converted Locating illegal conversions has become more apartment in Tremont.

Vigil for Mexican Immigrant Mario Vera Savaged by Thugs in Brooklyn Hate Crime

October 22, 2009

ALBOR RUIZ

Bushwick residents, elected officials and The unprovoked attack on Vera is cause for community leaders, deeply worried about the concern among many Bushwick residents. It is the dramatic increase of hate crimes in their second violent hate crime against Latino neighborhood, held a vigil on Wednesday immigrants in their neighborhood in less than a demanding the city develop a long-term response year. to the problem. On Dec. 7, 2008, José Sucuzhanay, an They gathered outside Beth Israel Hospital, where Ecuadoran immigrant, was attacked by two men Mario Vera, a Mexican immigrant, remains a who pulled up in a SUV at a Bushwick stoplight patient after he was viciously attacked on Sept. 23 and began beating him with an aluminum bat. He by three thugs who beat him on a Brooklyn street died five days later at Elmhurst Hospital, the day while yelling racial insults. The city posted a before his grieving mother arrived from Ecuador. $12,000 reward for their capture. He left behind two young daughters.

A good, hardworking, taxpaying family man, Vera, Sucuzhanay's brother, Diego, offered his support 38, is unable to speak or even to recognize his to Vera's wife, Ana María Gallardo. only child, a 16-year-old daughter. Doctors found blood clots in his brain as a result of a blow to the "The rise in the number of hate crimes against head. The construction worker was the sole immigrants, gays, and minorities in the city is supporter of his family, which has not been able to really alarming," said Ana María Archila, of pay the rent since the brutal attack. Make the Road New York. "We are asking the city to respond in a way that goes beyond "Donations can be deposited at Citibank under the punishment but instead helps promote respect name of Mario Vera Rivera, checking account No. and appreciation for different communities." 9957183078," said Walter Sinche, of Alianza Ecuatoriana Internacional, a vigil organizer. Vigil participants called for the creation of a city hotline and registry, stronger anti-harassment "There has been no change in his condition, policies in the city schools, and comprehensive and the doctors say they don't know if and immigration reform. when Vera is going to get better," said Irene Tung, of Make the Road New York, another Vera was returning home from a lower Manhattan of the organizers. According to Tung, doctors food pantry on his bike when the men jumped him. would like to transfer Vera to the Coler-Goldwater The thugs did not know Vera or care that he was a Specialty Hospital, on Roosevelt Island. The family man and an honest worker. They only knew institution offers medical, rehabilitative and sub- they hated him because he was Latino. acute long-term care to all New York City residents without regard to source of payment. "People need to know they have the right to report hate crimes regardless of their legal "They think it is his best hope," Tung said, "But it status," Archila said. is very difficult to find an empty bed at Coler- Goldwater."

New York Workers Deserve Paid Sick Leave

October 7, 2009

Albor Ruiz

For more than 1 million New York workers, even in the Road New York, who, along with several this day and age, getting sick is an unaffordable workers and small business owners, met on Thursday luxury. with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Not only because most of these workers lack health "She [Quinn] told us that the bill would probably be insurance - a fate shared with 47 million other voted on in October or November. We would like to people in the country - but because they don't see it approved before the end of the year," Archila receive a single paid sick day where they work. said.

Take the case of Guillermo Barrero,** a 36- The consequences of not passing this legislation are year-old Mexican immigrant and father of two. After potentially devastating. working as a cook - listen to this - seven days a week for seven years at the same Brooklyn coffee A great number of these employees work in food shop, he became sick at work on Sept. 18 and had service and 39% of them are public school parents, to be rushed to the hospital by his wife. His boss, studies show. With health officials fearing a second "la señora," as he calls her, became so angry that round of the H1N1 epidemic looming, these men and she summarily fired him. women could need time to stay at home if they or their children become ill. But without paid sick days that "You don't care about your job - if you leave would mean losing income or, like Barrero, losing their now, don't come back," Barrero says the woman jobs. It is a difficult decision, especially because the told him. Pale, feverish and trembling, Barrero left great majority of them are low-wage workers. work and spent three days in the hospital. The city's chambers of commerce oppose the "It is unfair, no one wants to get sick," Barrero legislation, arguing that it would place too much of a said. "This is the 21st century; people should financial burden on small businesses. Yet, many not be treated like this." business owners favor it from both a moral and a business point of view. No, they shouldn't, and if the City Council passes the Paid Sick Days bill introduced Aug. 20 by "We, as owners, have a moral responsibility to Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), they offer decent working conditions to our employees," won't be. said Freddy Castiblanco, the owner of Terraza 7 Train Café in Elmhurst, Queens, and part of the 600- The legislation is supported by the Working member New York Small Business United for Families Party and already has 38 sponsors. It Health Care. needs only 26 votes to pass and 34 to override a mayoral veto, although Mayor Bloomberg has not "Besides, when you support a worker in need, he yet taken a position on this issue. Despite its or she becomes more committed and contributes urgency, the chances of it being voted on before the more to the success of the business," he said. Nov. 3 election are slim. "This law is not a luxury; to protect our livelihoods The new law would mandate businesses with more is not a luxury; to protect our health is not a than 10 employees to give workers nine annual luxury," said Adela Valdés,** who says she was paid sick days. Smaller businesses would give their fired from her job making lampshades because she got workers five annual sick days. sick at work. "I think it is important not only for me but for the whole city." "This would probably be the most important city law for immigrant workers and their families in a **Make the Road New York member long time," said Ana María Archila, of Make

Former Tina's Worker to Join Rally for Paid Leave after Getting Boot from Job for Going to Hospital

October 1, 2009

Michael Saul

Guillermo Barrera** plans to tell hundreds at a downtown rally on Thursday how he lost his job at a Brooklyn restaurant when he told his boss he needed to go to the hospital.

"She told me I was fired and she never wanted to see me again and I should never return," Barrera, 36, told the Daily News. Guillermo Barrera in front of Tina's Restaurant, located in Bushwick. Barrera is a former employee of Tina's, and claims Barrera, 36, who worked as a cook at Tina's Place on he was fired after going to the hospital during his shift. Flushing Ave. in Bushwick, will be marching across the Brooklyn Bridge today to champion city legislation mandating employers provide workers with paid sick leave.

"It's terrible," said Barrera, a father of two who is now unemployed. "Employees should not be treated this way."

The legislation, filed by Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) and co-sponsored by 37 of her colleagues, does not yet have the key support of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn or Mayor Bloomberg.

Jamie McShane, a Quinn spokesman, said there will be hearings on the bill this fall. He said Quinn is undecided but "supports the goals of the legislation."

"The mayor supports paid sick leave," said Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser. "Like a lot of people, he has concerns about how the smallest of small businesses should be treated under the bill, which we're discussing with the Council."

Brewer said she's hopeful the bill, which is supported by the Working Families Party, will win approval this year.

She said concerns about the swine flu prompted her to submit the legislation.

"It's a family issue," she said. "It's a public health issue."

Barrera's former boss, Athina Skermo, disputed Barrera's account of how he lost his job.

"I didn't know that he was going to the hospital," she said. "He just left me flat."

Andrew Friedman, co-executive director of Make the Road New York, the advocacy group that is sponsoring the march and rally, said it plans to sue Barrera's former employer.

Barrera is one of roughly 850,000 workers citywide who does not have paid sick leave.

"There is a high cost of not having paid sick days, and that cost is borne by hundreds of thousands of workers like Guillermo who are forced to make a fundamentally unfair choice between their health and their ability to pay rent or feed their families," Friedman said.

**Make the Road New York member

Make the Road for Sick Leave

October 2, 2009

By Aaron Short

Barely two weeks after the Democratic primary, several hundred Latino immigrant workers and students pressed City Council members new and old to pass paid sick days legislation in a mass demonstration across the Brooklyn Bridge.

“It is very important for us to be able to take a day off without risking their job or risking our income. That’s why we’re all here today,” said Make the Road New York Co-Executive Director Ana Maria Archila. “This is not only a problem for those who earn minimum wage, this is a problem for everyone.”

The Paid Sick Time Act, one of nine bills Make the Road New York is advocating for this legislative session, would require businesses with fewer than 10 employees to provide five paid sick days a year while other employees at larger business would receive at least nine days per year.

So far, 38 council members have signed on to sponsor the bill, including Brooklyn Councilmembers Bill De Blasio (D- Cobble Hill), Matthieu Eugene (D-Flatbush), Letitia James (D-Fort Greene) and Diana Reyna (D-Williamsburg). The march even attracted several Democratic nominees to the Council, including Brad Lander and Jumaane Williams, who used the opportunity to meet Make the Road members and state their support for the bill, if they have the opportunity to vote on it next year, “There are a million people who can get sick, who might get sick and have a right to get better,” said Democratic Party and Working Families Party nominee Jumaane Williams (D-45th District). “We’re not asking, we’re demanding for sick leave.”

Working Families Party Director Dan Cantor, who has been celebrating the victories of two WFP-backed citywide candidates, Bill De Blasio (fot public advocate) and John Liu (for comptroller), said that the bill encapsulates his party’s message and is an example of the “good jobs” portion of the party’s founding slogan.

“Good jobs have paid sick days in them and this legislation will give a boost to the national effort to establish sick days for all employees,” said Cantor.

Several workers who lost their jobs because they were too sick to go to work shared their stories at the rally. Brooklyn resident Guillermo Barrera** said he was fired from his restaurant job on September 18 after telling his boss he felt too sick to work.

“When my wife arrived to pick me up, my boss began to yell and insult me and said that I shouldn’t come back because she was firing me because I didn’t take my job seriously enough,” said Barrera. “Suddenly I found myself out of a job and without a way to support my family all because I had gotten sick.”

Several small business owners, such as Marco Reinoso of North Brooklyn’s Superstar Deli (204 Irving Avenue), also testified in support of the bill. Reinoso said that passing sick day legislation is “good business sense” and will help his entire community.

“Healthy workers make productive workers and my business will be much stronger if my employees are able to take the time they need to recuperate from illness without worrying about the effect taking a day off will have on their income,” said Reinoso.

The bill is veto-proof, but councilmembers and union leaders such as Donna Dolan, Chair of New York City Paid Sick Days Coalition and the Communication Workers of America, have been negotiating with Mayor Michael Bloomberg over the number of paid sick leave days for small businesses. Dolan is optimistic the bill will be passed intact.

“It is an outrage that workers are getting fired because they’re sick for two days and they’re losing their jobs. This is a public health emergency because we’re going to get hit with swine flu,” said Dolan.

**Make the Road New York member

Immigration Reform Next for Congress

December 29, 2009 $500 fine plus necessary application fees. Individuals who have a serious criminal conviction By Claudia Cruz would be ineligible for a long permanent residency. Special rules would apply for persons brought to the Millions of immigrants, documented and U.S. before the age of 16, which would affect undocumented, have waited on the sidelines while children covered under the formerly introduced Congress and The White House battled over DREAM Act. healthcare reform this entire year. On Tuesday, December 15, however, their wait seemed to get a “My goal is to ensure that no New York City family is little shorter. forced to live in the shadows because of our nation’s unjust immigration policies. This Congressmembers Joseph Crowley, Nydia comprehensive bill takes the steps needed to repair Velazquez, and Anthony Weiner and members of our broken system, strengthen border security and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the put an end to the policies that tear families apart,” Congressional Asian and Pacific Americans said Congressmember Velázquez. Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus joined with Immigration groups across New York City praised Illinois Congressmember Luis Gutierrez as he the efforts of the congressional delegation but presented to the public Comprehensive Immigration reminded them that the legislative process has not Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act yet begun. (CIR ASAP) of 2009. Though the bill has not yet been introduced in Congress, it already counts on “This bill – CIR ASAP – marks a critical first step in the support of 90 members. that direction,” said Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition “I think we are off to a great start because this time (NYIC). “We look forward to reviewing the details of we were able to mobilize key advocates,” Gutierrez the bill and working with members of the House, told members of the Queens press during a with Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and with conference call. “It was introduced to the public President Obama to achieve real reform.” today and will be introduced to Congress soon.” Make the Road New York, an immigrant and A spokesperson for Weiner told The Queens civil rights advocacy organization located in Queens Courier that the bill could be introduced after the and Brooklyn, said in a statement, “We look Congress votes on healthcare. forward to working with the President and our allies in Congress to not only start a debate The CIR ASAP addresses effective and accountable about this very important issue but also to pass border security to combat human trafficking and immigration reform that will help our country criminal activity; improves detention procedures and grow economically. We hope that Senator enforcement, protects family unity and creates an Charles Schumer follows suit and introduces Immigration and Customs Enforcement legislation in the Senate in the upcoming Ombudsmen. months.”

One other key point includes an employer Meanwhile, like most things in Washington, politics verification system to verify each new hire’s is sure to play a part in any immigration proposal. authorization to work. “It’s important to act soon because if not we enter Eligibility requirements in the legislation include that the midterm elections and after that the presidential the undocumented demonstrate their contributions election cycle,” Congressmember Crowley had told to the United States through employment, education The Queens Courier soon after Gutierrez first military service and/or volunteer service; undergo introduced the key points that became the CIR criminal and security background checks; pay a ASAP back in October. “Time is of essence.”

COUNCIL MULLS REPORT CARD FOR SCHOOL SAFETY AGENTS

December 20, 2009 NYPD, in a November 10, 2009, statement before the City Council. By Sruthi Gottipati In the past six years, dwindling education budgets and It’s the fifth largest police force in the country. But it isn’t pressure to raise test scores has led to a 65 percent the Mafia or drug lords that that these police officials have increase in the school safety division along with a their eye on. They’re focused on the teenage students who tendency to refer disruptive students to the police and the attend public school in New York City. courts instead of working with them in a collaborative manner, say NYCLU members. Moreover, this quick-fix With 5,249 officers charged with security at more than solution has come with a price-tag of $221 million. 1,500 public schools, the New York Police Department’s school safety division is larger than the police forces of Shoshi Doza, a youth organizer for Jackson Heights-based Washington D.C., Dallas or Detroit – and their presence is South Asian non-profit Desis Rising Up and Moving palpable for some students. (DRUM) asserts that many parents and students complain to her about aggressive policing in schools. “There’s a lack “I see about 30 to 35 cops just on my side of the school of training of police officials on how to deal with youth,” building,” observes Chasity Soriano,** a 15-year-old she states. student of the Bushwick School for Social Justice. Three years ago she was handcuffed to a chair in the school’s The fallout has been that students, many under the age of main office for arguing with a friend, she says. 16, have been arrested for non-criminal violations such as disruptive conduct. However, it’s hard to pinpoint numbers “They (the school safety agents) told me to shut up and as no clear data has been made available by the police. relax and not to move,” claims the Queens resident, adding, “they portrayed me as an animal.” Strip searches The NYCLU claims that NYPD consistently ignores or in school, according to Soriano, occur two to four times a unreasonably delays Freedom of Information Law week. requests on police-student interactions. The Department of Education also delayed providing information on The City Council will soon vote on the Student Safety Act, a student suspensions and discharges for almost a year and bill that would require quarterly reporting by the even then furnished only a partial response, the NYCLU Department of Education and NYPD to the City Council on says. school safety and disciplinary issues, including incidents involving arrests and suspensions of students. The act, The Student Safety Act will require such information to be introduced by Council member Robert Jackson in August made available easily through periodic reports to the City 2008, could be the first step in keeping a tighter check on Council and DOE. policing in schools. Although Secreto acknowledges receiving 1,159 “Right now, there’s no formal mechanism to report complaints in 2008 of “misconduct or other type of misconduct by school safety agents, people have to go to incidents involving school safety agents”, he says only 15 great lengths to complain about them,” says Jen Carnig, percent of that number actually alleged unnecessary Director of Communications, New York Civil Liberties force, abuse of authority, discourtesy or offensive Union. The NYPD received 2,670 complaints against language. school safety agents between 2002 and 2007, according to a 2007 letter Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent The department also points to statistics that indicate the to the City Council’s education committee. need for school safety agents. Since the functions of the Board of Education’s Division of School Safety were NYPD officials say they would require the addition of more transferred to the Police Department in 1998, total crime than 100 police members to handle the anticipated in schools has reduced by 34 percent over nine years increase in complaint receipt and investigation and to ending in the 2008-2009 school year, testifies Secreto. fulfill the recordkeeping responsibilities if the Student Furthermore, since September, total crime has decreased Safety Act is passed. “At a time when the City’s resources by an additional 27 percent from the year prior, violent are under severe strain, we suggest the enactment of crime dropped by 22 percent, non-criminal incidents fell Intro 816-A (the Student Safety Act) as written would by 29 percent and the possession of weapons and compromise our ability to maintain safety and security in “dangerous instruments” declined by 32 percent. the City’s public schools,” says Assistant Chief James Secreto, Commanding Officer, School Safety Division, “These dramatic decreases are of course attributable to the hard work of many people,” says Secreto, “but it is based harassment and sensitivity trainings that could help clear that the school safety agents are the backbone of them handle students. school security.” He refutes claims that they are inadequately trained to deal with youth, saying they go The Student Safety Act originally contained a provision to through a comprehensive 14-week training course upon extend the jurisdiction of the Civilian Complaint Review being hired. Board to give the public the same right to complain against police behavior in the schools as on the streets. Challenging unauthorized visitors, removing unruly However, this was later removed from the bill for a better students and taking enforcement action when necessary shot at passing the Act in the City Council. are required to maintain order in schools, the NYPD says. It cites a 2009 Department of Education survey showing “It’s all part of the negotiation process,” explains Council that 76 percent of students and 92 percent of teachers member Melissa Mark-Viverito of Manhattan, who feel safe in their schools, while 93 percent of parents supports the Student Safety Act. believe their children are safe as well. Secreto opposes NYCLU’s efforts to educate the public on “Police officers and school safety agents are trained to how to make a complaint against a school safety agent. utilize aggressive street policing tactics that are “This type of campaign invites students who may be the inappropriate for schools,” says Udi Ofer, advocacy subjects of necessary action by student safety agents to director at the NYCLU, who believes their training is make retaliatory complaints, in a manner that could serve inadequate to meet the developmental needs of students to chill the very actions that are necessary to keeping the and those with disabilities. school safe and orderly,” says Secreto.

Every morning as Chanwatie Ramnauth, 15, walks on the NYPD officials also believe that a portion of the Student school grounds of Hillcrest High School in Queens, she’s Safety Act will authorize the City Council to go beyond its confronted by three or four metal detectors. That’s oversight role, because it will mandate that school safety followed by another minefield of eight or nine metal agents with more than one complaint against them will be detectors in the front room and five more in the hallway. reported to the council.

Secreto emphasizes that scanning is an invaluable tool in Gregory Floyd, President of Teamsters Local 237, the schools claiming it, “routinely results in the discovery and union representing the school safety agents, takes a seizure of hundreds of dangerous weapons each year.” much softer approach toward the bill than the NYPD. However, NYCLU members argue that a vast majority of items confiscated at metal detectors are not weapons or “This is valuable information for the public, and Local 237 “dangerous instruments”. Most of the time, the culprits supports this type of statistical reporting,” he testifies to are cellphones and IPods. the City Council. His primary concern is that the Act “unfairly singles out school safety agents as wrongdoers.” While walking down the school hall one day last He accuses the NYCLU of “urging” students to complain of September, Ramnauth saw a fight break out. “The police harassment by distributing leaflets at schools. pushed me into the wall and I banged my hand really hard but I didn’t know where to complain,” she says at a 75- However, the contents of the leaflet are just a matter-of- person strong rally supporting the Student Safety Act on fact explanation to students of their rights. For example, it the steps of City Hall in October. Wearing glasses, braces tells students in trouble to ‘not run away from a student and bright blue polish on her fingernails, she declares that safety agent’ and to ask for a lawyer if they are arrested. the school safety agents commit “both verbal and physical assaults”. This summer, the NYCLU along with the Annenberg Institute for Social Reform and Make the Road New The students harassed by school safety are York released a report on six schools in New York City that disproportionately students of color, students with special were exploring ways to solve student discipline problems needs and immigrants, according to community non-profit without schools safety agents and metal detectors. organizations. Those of undocumented workers might find it particularly difficult to approach the police. Students in these schools were allowed to help frame school rules in order to help them understand their “There’s definitely a form of bias. Muslim students function. The principals in these schools were also more especially may be laughed at during searches by school empowered to make decisions on discipline. NYCLU safety agents,” says Doza, DRUM’s youth organizer. members claim the experiment was successful. “We’re Secreto, however, counters that approximately 70 percent keen to see principals play a larger role than police of school safety agents are women while about 93 percent personnel in school safety,” says Oona Chatterjee of are black or Hispanic, adding that, “Virtually all of our Make the Road New York, one of the 19 organizations school safety agents are city residents, and many are that is a part of the Student Safety Coalition pushing for parents with children in the city’s public schools.” the Act.

But NYCLU points out that, unlike other school employees, **Make the Road New York member most school safety agents do not participate in anti-bias

Activists, Politicians Mark Anniversary of Ecuadorian Immigrant’s Death

December 12, 2009 By Michael K. Lavers

Dozens of activists, politicians and relatives of hate crimes victims were among those who turned out earlier today at Make the Road New York in Brooklyn to mark the anniversary of José Sucuzhañay’s death.

"I’m here today with much sadness," Diego Sucuzhañay said in Spanish. "This is the season we lost our beloved brother. He was the leader of our family."

Sucuzhañay further spoke about the impact his brother’s murder has had on his young niece and nephew.

"This year, José’s kids will not receive the merry Christmas their dad always gave them," he said.

Hakim Scott and Keith Phoenix allegedly used anti-gay and anti-Latino slurs as they beat José Sucuzhañay with a baseball bat and broken bottles on Dec. 7, 2008, as he and his brother Romel walked arm and arm near the corner of Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place. The Ecuadorian immigrant died in a Queens hospital two days later. And hundreds of people marched down Myrtle Avenue less than a week after José Sucuzhañay’s death to demand justice.

"Hate in my community is entirely unacceptable," City Councilmember Diana Reyna [D-Bushwick] said.

Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez agreed as she spoke of the need for the White House to pass what she described as comprehensive immigration reform.

"This is our moral obligation," she said. "I cannot look in the eye the mother José or [Marcelo] Lucero, who was killed on Long Island [in Nov. 2008]... and say I’m sorry this is not the right time. It is the right time."

This vigil came less than a week after news two bouncers at a Jackson Heights bar attacked a prominent gay activist broke. And it also comes roughly a month after Puerto Rican authorities found Jorge Steven López Mercado’s decapitated, dismembered and partially burned body along a remote roadside near Cayey.

Mario Vega suffered serious brain injuries after three men attacked him near his Bushwick apartment in late September. And police maintain Daniel Aleman and Daniel Rodriguez, Jr., nearly beat openly gay College Point to death outside a College Point deli on Oct. 9.

Diego Sucuzhañay told EDGE he feels immigrant and LGBT advocacy organizations have a responsibility to work together to end hate crimes

"We maybe have different priorities, but we are two groups being targeted by hate right now," he said. "We are suffering the same. We are fighting for human rights. We need stop being treated as second class citizens."

Advocates Release Report On Toxic Brooklyn Housing

December 18, 2009

NY1 Staff

Health and housing advocates urged city officials Friday to crack down on landlords who fail to make necessary repairs, after residents of Bushwick, Brooklyn complained that they were sick after being exposed to pests and pesticides.

A new report released by the "Make the Road New York" advocacy organization and City Councilwoman Diana Reyna says Bushwick residents are exposed in their homes to high levels of pesticides and pests like mice, rats and cockroaches.

The report says the exposure is leading to increased asthma rates in Bushwick and neighboring Williamsburg. Department of Health officials say asthma rates in Bushwick are nearly four times the city average.

"Make the Road New York" says 85 percent of residents in the community have at least one of the toxic conditions in their homes.

The group is calling for more stringent city regulations and community education programs on the proper uses of pesticides.

DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE RISE FOR HISPANIC TEENAGERS IN QUEENS

December 17, 2009

By Ruchika Tulshyan

She has a terrible secret.

But she keeps up a good front.

Outwardly the teen, whose name, like others interviewed for this article, is being withheld because of her age, seems like any bubbly 17-year-old. She seems cheerful and laughs easily. She won’t mention any problems, not even to the Elmhurst Hospital volunteer who has helped her weekly with homework for several months.

But the Colombian-born girl complains privately of alienation and hating her mother. And she tried to kill herself earlier this year.

There are many like her in Queens– severely depressed Hispanic adolescents who hide suicide attempts and other troubles behind a mask. In more traditional pockets of the community, talk about mental illness is considered shameful. Many patients take months before they will trust anyone, even a doctor.

“Over time we find that they express themselves in ways that indicate depression, from irritability to attempted suicide,” said Dr. Douglas Beer, the director of child psychiatry at Elmhurst Hospital.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 15 to 24 year-old Hispanic-Americans. Latinos comprised the largest proportion of American high school students who tried to take their lives, a 2007 Center for Disease Control survey found. It showed that 10.2 percent of Latino high school student had tried to kill themselves, compared to 5.6 percent of whites.

The pattern is seen in Queens, home to half a million Hispanics and where up to 50 percent of Elmhurst Hospital’s adolescent patients seeking mental help are Latino.

One such case involves a 15-year-old Mexican girl who attempted suicide earlier this year. A rape so traumatized her that she was fearful all the time. “I want to stay in the hospital because I am scared of going out on the streets,” she said. During interviews though, she declined to share details about happened, avoiding eye contact and fidgeting as she spoke.

Tensions between American-born children and immigrant parents cause much of the alienation, doctors say. “The dynamics between second- or third-generation teenagers and their parents play a part in the onset of suicidal tendencies and adolescent depression,” said Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, a professor of Internal Medicine at the University of California Davis. “Many Latino children feel conflicted between the traditions at home and the American way of life they learn at school.”

Local doctors cite clashes in which immigrant-born parents reject the behavior of their Americanized children. Dr. Beer said a typical conflict would involve teenage girl whose suicide attempt stems from her parents disapproval of her dating. “Suddenly it’s not a simple emergency room [suicide] case,” he said. “There are all these other elements we have to consider like the boyfriend, the girl and her parents as well as the cultural factors at play.”

Hispanic adolescents face challenges similar to other immigrant groups, such as having to translate for their parents and adapting to two different worlds. But Latino teenagers also face a stigma about mental health treatment, said Dr. Daniella Heller, assistant director of psychiatry at Elmhurst Hospital.

Although statistics show that 15 to 20 percent of Hispanic adolescent patients at the medical facility are admitted for trying to take their lives, there are still a significant number of afflicted teenagers who never seek help.

“They are scared to be seen as crazy if they seek help; it’s seen as a weakness in the Hispanic community that comes from the deep-rooted stigma associated with mental health problems,” said Theo Oshiro, director of health advocacy for Make the Road New York, a non-profit advocacy group that deals primarily with the Latino community in New York.

There is also a lack of awareness about mental illness and treatment options. Three doctors interviewed said that many hospitals, including Elmhurst, lack sufficient staff who speak Spanish and understand the culture.

Also, many undocumented immigrants are terrified of speaking to officials. “There is the fear of deportation that makes many Latino parents unwilling to bring their children in for depression treatment,” Dr. Heller said.

Among the Latinos who do seek treatment for mental health, an estimated 75 percent do not return for a second time said Dr. Aguilar-Gaxiola. “This is a hot potato policy,” said the Mexican-born psychiatrist. He explained that even in facilities where Spanish translation is available, the cultural stigma associated with seeking mental health among Latinos makes it difficult to address the afflicted.

Mental health staff are largely white non-Hispanics, unlike their patients, echoed Dr. Beer of Elmhurst Hospital. “We face the challenge of not only [not] having Spanish-speaking staff, but [not] having people who can even identify themselves as culturally Hispanic,” he said.

Dr. Heller, who is Colombian born, handles most of the Latino cases and the facility is in the process of hiring more such staff as well as developing Latino-specific adolescent mental health programs.

“We try our best,” said Dr. Beer. “But there are challenges and barriers all around.”

Immigration Reform: The Phone Call Heard Around the Country

December 3, 2009

By Marcelo Ballvé

NEW YORK — Organizers described them as immigration reform “house parties.”

Across the country recently, in churches, schools, immigrant support centers and private homes, backers of immigration reform gathered around telephones (the speaker phone turning the device into a de-facto radio) as Hispanic U.S. legislators laid out the strategy for pushing a reform of the immigration system in 2010.

On the call were Rep. Luis Gutier-rez, D-Ill.; Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y.; and Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz. Immigrant rights advocates from various parts of the country also spoke.

In effect, the event was a massive conference call, connecting thousands of immigration reform supporters to one another and to Washington, D.C. decision makers.

The “house parties” came less than a week after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the White House was preparing to push the U.S. Congress on immigration reform early in 2010.

On the call, the legislators urged listeners — 16,000 telephone lines were active during the event, and translation services were provided for tens of thousands of participants — to call their members of Congress and ask for action on immigration reform.

The immigrant organizers who spoke on the call urged listeners to call their legislators and use their cell phones to text the words “Justice” or “Justicia” to the number 69866. In the coming months, they would receive, via cell phone, updates about actions they might take to advance immigration reform.

The call, organized by the Washington, D.C.-based Reform Immigration for America campaign, a coalition of pro-reform organizations, was first conducted in English, and 15 minutes later, in Spanish.

Reps. Grijalva, Gutierrez and Velázquez spoke on both calls.

At Make the Road New York, an immigrant services center in the Jackson Heights section of Queens, the first call was heard during an evening English class, the phone on speaker mode placed on a chair in the middle of the room.

“We’re going to make sure that the families that were broken by our system have a pathway to reunification,” said Rep. Gutierrez, near the end of the call.

Pietro Idrovo, a 43-year-old Ecuador-born welder, was among those in the classroom. Although some of his classmates were undocumented immigrants, Idrovo said he was a U.S. citizen and had voted in U.S. elections since 2000.

He said the call had made him feel more engaged with the immigration issue. “Since I came to this country, I’ve been hearing about immigration, but I had never paid that much attention because I came in legally and I’m a citizen,” he said. “But that doesn’t change this fact — I’m an immigrant too.”

After the call, the English teacher scrawled a list of items on the writing board, while her immigrant students, young and old, looked on.

“Call Congress,” the teacher wrote. Below that, she wrote, “Text Justice.”

The students dutifully took notes and began pressing the keys on their cell phones.

Meanwhile, the twang of guitars and wheeze of accordions drifted in from a nearby room — a neighborhood music group was meeting at the same time.

Then the teacher read out the phone number to powerful New York Sen. Charles Schumer and urged her students to give him a call. Again, the students put their cell phones to work.

Fifteen minutes later it was time for the call in Spanish. Some 50 to 60 immigrants were gathered in a large, brightly painted room, and members of the center’s staff handed out plates of arroz con pollo and beverages.

During the call, participants from far-flung states like Arkansas and Iowa dialed in and asked questions of the legislators.

The call to action was repeated: Immigrants should prepare for a concerted grassroots push on immigration reform in the first half of January.

“We’re committed to having immigration reform be considered by Congress in the next few months,” said Rep. Velázquez.

Among those drifting out of the room after the call was Rosa Y., a 34-year-old Ecuadorean who did not want to give her last name because she does not have papers.

She said she had two children in Ecuador whom she had not seen in nine years, and was mainly interested in immigration reform to have a chance to be with them.

“They should give us a chance to get our papers, so that we can work and help our children get ahead,” she said.

FROM THE NEW WILLIAMSBURG TO THE OLD BUSHWICK: A REAL ESTATE CRISIS December 9, 2009 By Alessia Pirolo

On Willoughby Avenue in Bushwick a modern white building stands out from a line of look-alike old families houses. Number 979 is an eight-unit building of glass and cement. Large windows cover the façade that looks to the southwest. Inside, the apartments are new, furnished with modern kitchens and stairs made of steel.

They were ready to occupied in April 2007, but for the last two years, they have been empty. After construction, a long series of problems blocked the release of the certificate of occupancy. Last month, New York City Department of Buildings gave its final approval. The eight apartments are now officially on the market. The owner, Harold Tischler, who invested in Bushwick in 2005, remains confident that buyers will arrive quickly. But while the building awaited the certificates, the market drastically changed.

Only four years ago, Bushwick was at a turning point in its history. In December 2005, the Brooklyn Public Library held a forum entitled “Brooklyn’s Next Real Estate Hot Spot: Bushwick.” The area was rebranded as East Williamsburg, in an effort to hide a legacy of decades of crime, poverty, and decline that had begun in the 1960s. In the first years of the new millenium, the city and state began pouring resources into the neighborhood, to improve housing conditions. Between 1990 and 2006, crime dropped 72 percent. Rents were cheaper than in Manhattan and other areas of Brooklyn. The L-line brought subway riders into the city in 20 minutes and fashionable Williamsburg was nearby. Bushwick wasn’t yet a fashionable neighborhood – the poverty rate never dropped under one third, especially in the majority Hispanic population. But after decades of neglect, the transformation into the new Brooklyn hot spot had begun.

Young residents and artists moved in. And after the hipsters, the developers arrived. During the last quarter of 2006, there were 32 sales transactions of condos, co-ops and single-family houses. This was the highest number in four years, according to the data from PropertyShark.com, a website that provides real estate professionals, investors and homebuyers with real estate information. The median sale price per square foot was $409.

It was in this period that Harold Tischler, like many others, decided to invest here. His Vintage Builders, a real estate company with 16 years of experience, moved to Bushwick after the company’s first new development in Bensonhurst. He saw an opportunity: between Willoughby and Evergreen avenues a warehouse had been empty for a decade; it was pulled down by Vintage Builders to make space for the first modern building on the street.

“I liked this site and it was cheaper than other places,” Tischler says. He believed in the area in 2005, when the work started, and he says that he still believes in it now. “Twenty years ago here you could have been killed walking on the road. In the next ten years it will be the new Williamsburg.”

But data is not so reassuring. After a peak of 23 transactions in the second quarter of 2008, the number of sales dropped to ten in each of the following quarters. And in the first nine months of 2009 the number of transactions was 13 – five between January and March, just one between April and June, and seven from July until September. The last registered median sale price for square foot was $360, after having dropped to $229 in the second quarter, according to PropertyShark.com. But even if there is an increase, it is not consider particularly significant by Bill Staniford, chief executive officer of PropertyShark.com.

At the end of November, the Department of Buildings registered six building sites in Bushwick where construction activity has come to an abrupt halt. But according to organizations working in the neighborhood the number should be higher. In October, Right to the City, a national network of grassroots organizations fighting against gentrification, released a survey about Brooklyn’s vacant condos. “We identified 60 residential buildings that appeared to contain a significant amount of empty units and 48 that appeared to be stalled in construction,” says Jose Lopez, of Make the Road, a non-profit organization based in Bushwick, and a member of Right to the City alliance.

979 Willoughby Avenue was one of those buildings. But Tischler refuses to define it as a vacant building. “There are no vacant buildings in Bushwick,” he says. “People are always looking for new places and want to move here.” The real trouble, he adds, is the bureaucracy that slows down development. In April 2007, his building was almost complete. Each apartment had a private garage, utility room and roof-deck access. The eight apartments were on sale. An 834 square foot studio was on sale for $399,000, two 1,883 square foot four decks penthouses listed for $668,000. But new inspections found several faults in the chimney, the boiler, and the elevator.

Every new problem meant more money lost for Vintage Building which had already invested $1 million for the land and $1.2 million for the building. Tischler says that they were all minor faults, and he blames the inspectors for having stopped his job – “Next time I’m going to build in New Jersey,” he says. But now the building faces a harder market.

“I already have some offers,” Tischler says. In three months, he adds, he’s sure that all the apartments of the building will be sold. He’s dropped the prices for the two penthouses’ price to $ 600,000. But even if the other prices stay the same, Tischler’s cost will barely be repaid. The investment did not work as expected. Still, Tischler remains confident in Bushwick.

But Staniford is not. “I think that all new developers in Bushwick are in trouble,” he says. “Most in New York City are in trouble, I don’t really see a recovery anytime soon.” His general view is that the prices will drop again 10-15percent over the next six months. Bushwick has been characterized by a high number of foreclosures. In 2007 the neighborhood had the third highest rate of housing foreclosures in New York City: 57.8 per 1,000 of 1-4 family properties. The number has nearly tripled since 2000, according to New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, an academic research center devoted to the public policy aspects of land use, real estate development and housing. In 2008 they totaled 379, according to Right to the City alliance. In an average week of last November, ending on Thursday the 20th, PropertyShark.com registered 14 lis pendens, the formal notice that starts the foreclosure process. A sign of a high amount of future foreclosures, according to Staniford.

“Developers in distress won’t be able to pay their mortgage and they’re going to be no new developers in the future,” says Staniford. In his gloomier forecast, what once made Bushwick an interesting new neighborhood could play against it. Investing on an area “not as well established,” as he says, could seem too dangerous. “It could fall further,” he adds. “The decrease of services provided by City of New York due to budgets cuts will affect poor neighborhoods. It could cause a potential collapsing in prices in Bushwick.”

Still, some developers see a chance to get through the recession. Castle Braid, a former factory at 114 Troutman St., was opened last October and 75 of its rentals units are already occupied. Even if analysts like Staniford consider going into renting another sign of distress, the developer, Mayer Schwartz, is satisfied with his results and confident he can fill all the units in the next two or three months.

“I would not develop a big project now,” he says. Without loans from the banks to buy or to develop thinking big seems impossible. But Schwartz is confident in smaller family houses and rentals. And the area still seems to appeal to his customers, young artists and professionals. “I think that switching to rent in Bushwick is not as devastating as in Williamsburg,” he says. “Here the prices are cheaper.” That is what people are looking for in a recession. Moreover the area in the last five years is improved. “There are café, artists, people want to live here. Bushwick is picking up,” Schwartz says.

Still, he doesn’t hide the fact that times are hard. “Condos are dead,” he admits. But the rental market still covers the expenses, and perhaps provides hope for that once-imagined brighter future for Bushwick.

Puerto Ricans in New York Face Persistent Struggles

November 20, 2009

by Marianne McCune

Puerto Rican leaders have made lots of news this year – DIAZ: Many have left the Bronx, many of them have left from Sonia Sotomayor’s rise to the Supreme Court, to the the City of New York. When you look at areas like so-called ‘three amigos’ who took power in the New York Pennsylvania, when you look at areas like New Jersey legislature. and Florida, you see a lot of home ownership, you see a lot of professionals who are Puerto Rican who started out While New York’s most visible Latino leaders are Puerto here in New York City. Rican…some researchers are trying to call attention to a less visible reality: that almost a third of Puerto Ricans REPORTER: And many successful Puerto Ricans return to are living below the poverty line, compared to less than a the Island – Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the fifth of all New Yorkers. And in educational and United States, so it’s easy to go back and forth. professional achievement, New York’s Puerto Ricans are doing worse than Latinos as a whole. WNYC’s Marianne But Professor Philip Kasinitz of the CUNY Graduate McCune reports. Center says none of that erases the reality that Puerto Ricans in New York are struggling. In his comprehensive REPORTER: Puerto Ricans are among the poorest New study of second generation immigrants in New York, Yorkers. Their rate of unemployment is higher than for Kasinitz found that young Puerto Ricans are doing only a Latinos as a whole. They own fewer homes and fewer go tiny bit better than the children of Dominican immigrants. to college. KASINITZ: And that was surprising given they’ve been in LOPEZ: All the folks that I grew up hanging around didn’t the country so much longer. Most young Puerto Ricans make it. spoke English predominantly and in many cases exclusively, so a lot of cultural assimilation didn’t seem to REPORTER: 24-year old Jose Lopez works as a youth have led to a lot of upward mobility. And this stood in organizer at Make the Road New York in the Bushwick contrast to a lot of more recent immigrant groups. neighborhood of Brooklyn. This is where he grew up, with mostly Puerto Rican and African American friends. REPORTER: Kasinitz says it’s partly a result of decades of bad luck. LOPEZ: Going to the YMCA across the street, playing basketball to the wee hours of the night. KASINITZ: Puerto Ricans were more negatively affected by deindustrialization in the 1950s than any other group. REPORTER: But Lopez was the only one who went to college. REPORTER: They came to the U.S. by the thousands to work in factories just after World War II. So he says they LOPEZ: When I first left, I felt guilty. Maybe because there were the ones laid off when New York’s factories closed was just a sense of fear in me that folks would be like down. They were also concentrated in the neighborhoods ‘Oh, this brother thinks he made it and he left. He thinks hit hardest by the fiscal crisis of the 1970s and by the he’s better.’ It felt weird at first. And I was like damn, I crack epidemic of the 1980s. wish I could drag them along but I can’t. KASINITZ: Puerto Ricans are a remarkable case of the REPORTER: In New York, less than a third of Puerto wrong place at the wrong time. When the South Bronx Ricans have any college education. They are poorer and was burning, it was Puerto Rican neighborhoods that less educated than Latinos on the whole, despite the fact were in the forefront of that problem. that they’ve been here longer and have the advantage of U.S. citizenship. There are plenty of potential REPORTER: During those decades, the struggles of explanations. And one of them, says Bronx Borough Puerto Ricans got a lot of attention – from the Broadway President Ruben Diaz Jr., is that many of the most musical West Side Story to studies by social scientists of successful Puerto Ricans aren’t reflected in the statistics. the so-called culture of poverty.

The chorus of this tongue-in-cheek song recorded for an And now you have only this Hispanic aggregated data. audio documentary in the 1950s says, “I am a problem, They tell me I’m a minority, I’m a focus of sociology.” REPORTER: So it’s difficult to understand the underlying But while many of those social problems have endured, problems. That’s why Melendez has been looking into Angelo Falcon of the National Institute for Latino Policy how many Puerto Ricans are succeeding each year in the says today – nobody talks about them. City’s elementary, middle and high schools.

FALCON: Puerto Ricans went from the poster boys of the MELENDEZ: When you see the data, you know there’s culture of poverty research to now feeling very invisible in something wrong with the pipeline, with the advancement many ways. grade by grade. And we’re falling through the cracks. And I think we need to fill those cracks! REPORTER: With the arrival in New York of millions more immigrants from all over the world, especially other Latin GONZALES: Like, give me an example of a professional American countries, the struggle of Puerto Ricans is no email. longer a hot topic. Falcon says even some Puerto Rican leaders don’t want talk about Puerto Rican poverty. REPORTER: Back at Make the Road New York, Jose Lopez and his cousin Jesus Gonzalez are trying to fill FALCON: I remember getting one Congressman, a Puerto those cracks - by bringing what they learned in college Rican Congressman calling me up to tell me why did we and elsewhere back to the teenagers they work with in publish this? It’s making us look bad. You know, how can Bushwick, rather than leaving the neighborhood behind. we play role of leaders in Latino community if we have the highest poverty rate? GONZALES: You don’t want to contact a group of lawyers with ‘sexymama123.’ REPORTER: There’s pressure to look good, and to be inclusive. Puerto Rican elected officials now represent REPORTER: Gonzalez says just their presence here districts populated by Dominicans, Ecuadorians, makes a difference. Colombians, and Mexicans. Bronx Borough President Diaz says they walk a fine line between advocating for GONZALES: It’s had a huge impact on folks to be able to Puerto Ricans and serving everyone. see people who have been to college or had a stable successful career that they liked. As opposed to just DIAZ: Once upon a time we were a very lonely community. trying to make ends meet. And shame on us if we are not helpful to other emerging Latino constituencies. REPORTER: But Gonzalez and Lopez say they don’t focus their efforts on Puerto Ricans. While this area used to be REPORTER: With the changes in population, grassroots heavily Puerto Rican, it too has changed: over the past groups that used to focus on Puerto Ricans are also decade, Mexican groceries have popped up and Latinos under pressure to serve all Latinos. Many have dropped from Central and South America have moved in. Plus, the words Puerto Rican from their names - the Puerto Lopez says all of Bushwick’s poor residents are struggling Rican Legal and Education Defense Fund became Latino to pay rent as the neighborhood gentrifies. Justice. LOPEZ: I think the Puerto Rican community, especially in Now, Professor Kasinitz says, when those groups focus this neighborhood, has always been a very tight knit on the prominent Latino issues of immigration, or community. My mom's and all the Puerto Rican folks in Spanish language translation – they’re not necessarily the projects in the building that she grew up in, folks serving Puerto Ricans, whose struggles may mirror more always asking each other for sugar, or for coffee, or, like, closely those of African Americans. babysit my kids while I go for a job interview. I think with any ethnic group when you start to lose that knit in a KASINITZ: There’s still a large impoverished Puerto Rican community, that fabric, then it just becomes harder to community in New York that in many ways is not an exist and do well. immigrant community. Where is its future? Where is it going? Where are the opportunities for it? REPORTER: These two say there are some Puerto Ricans who look down on the immigrants who’ve only recently REPORTER: The answers to those questions are out arrived – because they’re not citizens or don’t speak there, says Edwin Melendez of Hunter College’s Center English. for Puerto Rican Studies. But numbers have to be crunched. And nowadays, he says those numbers are But none of the residents of Bushwick are going to hard to come by. While the government used to collect emerge out of poverty, Lopez and Gonzalez say, unless specific data on Puerto Ricans they stick together. For WNYC, I’m Marianne McCune.

MELENDEZ: In many states and cities that has been lost.

Undocumented Workers Seek Unpaid Wages

November 10, 2009 incorporated in 1991 by George York of Great Neck, told DOL that they would pay. By Claudia Cruz and Sara Goldblatt “But they haven’t and that’s why we are here,” she said. A promise of work in exchange for payment is one of the oldest types of contracts in the world that, regardless of The two workers, Espinoza and Bustillo, said they worked legal status, must be honored. without pay for two months before quitting and have also not received overtime pay. Each said they have proof Two Latino workers claim that York Restoration they worked for York though they got paid in cash. Corporation, a construction company based in Long Island City, owes them back wages since 2008 for work York’s attorney, Brian Goldberg, said he repeatedly performed on luxury high-rises in Manhattan. The asked for such proof, but has never obtained anything. undocumented workers, along with others seeking workers’ rights, have gathered twice – on May 22 and on “Show me something that indicates they worked for York, Friday, November 6 – in front of the company’s building show me a pay stub!” he said. He added that wearing a at 47-51 33rd Street to protest. “York Restoration Corporation” t-shirt is not sufficient evidence. “We give out hundreds of T-shirts all over the “At first I was paid on time, but after several weeks the city for advertisement.” employer started to pay me late,” said Carlos Espinoza of Corona. Espinoza said he worked 12 hours a day, six Goldberg called the protests aimed at York’s corporation days a week. “He always gave excuses and promised to “unfounded” because, as a general contractor, York has pay us, but he did not. Weeks without pay turned into no employees on an hourly basis. months without pay.” “If they worked for George York, they would have gotten It turned out that when Espinoza sought help from the paid. It’s simple,” said Goldberg. Corona office of Make the Road New York (MRNY), an organization that advocates for the rights of immigrants, York considers this protest a “personal insult” to him. another man, Luis Bustillo, also sought assistance at MRNY’s Brooklyn office. “I am an honest man, and I have never fled from anyone,” he said, noting that he does not know Bustillo “Each had their own local office and it turned out it was and Espinoza. He said he tried to call MRNY on several the same company,” said workers’ right organizer occasions, but never got through to anyone. Julissa Bisono. “I believe that there are more than 50 workers that York Restoration owed money to.” “It seems to me that this organization [MRNY] organizes these protests just for the press, photos, and publicity,” According to attorney Mercedes Cano, any work that has said York. been done has to be paid, “whether it is a small or large contract.” As for the DOL’s investigation into the company’s unfair labor practices, York and his attorney consider it closed. “Otherwise it would be unjust enrichment and a breach of contract,” said Cano. Marie-Elena Fazio, DOL’s liaison in the division of labor standards in charge of investigating the complaint filed Norman Eng, spokesperson for the New York in March, spoke to York’s attorney Goldberg a few times Immigration Coalition confirmed that “all New Yorkers, in May, and told him that she would call back if there including undocumented workers, are entitled to be paid was an issue. for the work they perform. Wage-and-hour standards also cover all workers, regardless of status.” “She never called back,” said Goldberg, “so I’m assuming there is no issue.” According to Bisono, the New York State Department of Labor (DOL) opened an investigation in March into the By press time, Fazio had not returned requests for company’s unfair labor practices and York Restoration, comments on the current status of the investigation.

STAR OF QUEENS Sagrario Mendez, Volunteer, Make the Road New York, Rego Park

November 16, 2009

By Grethel Samuel

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Sagrario Mendez volunteers with the organization Make the Road New York (MRNY) located in Corona, which gives immigrants the opportunity to get their GEDs (General Education Development certificate), learn English, improve their computer skills, learn safety and workers rights, prepare for the citizenship exam and play instruments. The program also teaches job skills like creating a résumé and getting certified for specific jobs. “I help out on Tuesday's with the immigration class,” said Mendez, who also helps prepare the meals they give to members after meetings.

PERSONAL: Mendez, 60, worked for 27 years before she retired due to health problems with her asthma and back. “I was depressed before I found the organization,” said Mendez, a native of Honduras who migrated to the United States 36 years ago. She has three sons ages 30, 41, and 45.

JOB: Mendez used to work in the garment industry for a towel embroidery factory. “We used to work in Manhattan, then Hoboken, New Jersey and then moved to Brooklyn,” she said. “The company no longer exists.”

PROUDEST MOMENT: Mendez found pride in always being a member of a union. “I worked for only one company, and I always had a job that was secure with the union,” said Mendez. “I was able to work hard and get my kids ahead.”

FAVORITE MEMORY: “One time I was having problems with the Social Security office and Congressmember Anthony Weiner was coming to MRNY, and I was able to meet him and tell him about my problem. He was able to help,” she said. “Later, on a visit to The White House with MRNY, the Congressmember recognized me and said ‘Hi.’”

BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Trying to keep up with technology is one of the biggest challenges that Mendez has. “I started taking computer classes. Before, I didn't even know how to turn it [the computer] on. I'm learning, and I hope that by next year I can learn more,” said Mendez.

INSPIRATION: Besides the many inspiring people that she meets in MRNY, her sister has had the strongest influence on her. “My sister, Sandra, who works in Bank of Ponce De Leon and all of my brothers are prepared except me,” she said. “I dropped out of school when I was in the third grade. I always admired my sister, she didn't really study for what she is doing, but she has managed to move up and do something with herself.”

First Stop, Rikers. Next Stop, Colombia?

November 9, 2009

By Rachel Stern

Following a wave of activism protesting aware that they are speaking to an enforcement interrogations of immigrant detainees at Rikers officer. Island, the city Department of Correction has implemented new practices to better respect the But some immigrant advocates say that their battle rights of people who are held because they have is far from over. been arrested and await trial. Like other pre-trial detainees, immigrants are presumed innocent of "The consent form is an improvement from blatantly their charges, but if they are found to be deceptive interviews," Nancy Morawetz, a clinical undocumented while being held, it's a law professor at New York University who teaches comparatively quick trip to deportation. the Immigrant Rights Clinic, wrote in an e-mail. "But the fact remains that a system that sweeps in For months, immigrant advocates have been immigrants based merely on an arrest or a minor turning up the heat on the Department of Correction conviction, and then allows them to be detained and for allegedly allowing federal Immigration and transferred to areas without meaningful access to Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use Rikers Island counsel is fundamentally flawed. The city should city jail as a convenient place to crack down on not facilitate such a system." illegal immigrants – even though detainees are not there because of their immigration status. The indignation of immigrant advocates comes largely from the mixed signals sent by the conduct Organizations such as the New Sanctuary of everyday life in America. Despite the official Coalition, an immigration policy reform group, status of illegal immigrants as unwanted – with argued that the practice often leads to their organizations such as the conservative Heritage deportation and inability to receive a fair trial. In Foundation arguing that amnesty for illegal response, DOC began last month to give detainees immigrants would significantly cost the government interview consent forms before they speak with – the fact that they make up an estimated 5 percent ICE. of the total U.S. workforce tells a different story. These workers also contribute an estimated $7 The form gives the option to check one of three billion to Social Security through payroll taxes, boxes before the interview, which is aimed at according to the Center for American Progress, a ascertaining if they are undocumented: wait to do it progressive think tank in Washington, which says until a lawyer is present, conduct it without a lawyer, "we have at the very least implicitly invited these or skip the interview all together. Prisoners sign individuals in." them in the presence of an intake officer. The DOC does not have data on how many have been Therefore, says Udi Ofer, advocacy director for the handed to prisoners. New York Civil Liberties Union: "Someone should not be punished for what could be an arrest "I expect that advocates have given us high marks mistake." for our approach, cooperation and making good on our commitments," said DOC spokesman Stephen Over the past five years, 13,000 New York City Morello. He notes that the DOC has also trained residents have been placed in deportation staff in how to inform prisoners of their rights, proceedings, two-thirds of whom were pre-trial posted multilingual signs about those rights in jails detainees, according to the NYCLU. An executive and recently began insisting that ICE officials order signed by Mayor Bloomberg in 2003 states conduct interviews in uniform, so that prisoners are that no immigrants seeking city services will be asked their status. But those suspected of any authorities leeway to check fingerprints at local jails. crime, even as small as hopping a Metro turnstile, can legally be interrogated about their background Recently the New Sanctuary Coalition has been – just as anyone stopped by police can be asked to meeting with someone both knowledgeable about present identification. Police and the DOC must and well-placed to impact the issues at hand: Dora furthermore "cooperate with federal authorities in Schriro, the new DOC commissioner, who came to investigating and apprehending aliens suspected of New York from an Obama administration post criminal activity," Executive Order 41 states. specifically aimed at reforming the nation's system of pre-deportation detention. Many Rikers detainees are arrested on minor charges or later found to be not guilty, according to Angad Bhalla, a New Sanctuary member, said the New Sanctuary Coalition, which received the Schriro seemed "very open and honest" in hearing information from a Freedom of Information Act from activists about recommendations such as request. Each year around 4,000 Rikers inmates, barring DOC's daily sharing of prisoner information 3,000 of whom are pre-trial detainees, are with ICE. The DOC does not solicit detainees' interrogated by the ICE. That's from a total of immigration status. However, information about a 105,000 jailed annually. Immigration authorities prisoner's country of birth is available online in then put a hold on about 3,200 prisoners, sending DOC's publicly accessible inmate database. Bhalla them to detention centers as far away as Texas said that providing this information to ICE makes it before they can finish their term, even when the easier for the organization to keep tabs on who's criminal charges they face are dropped. who.

One member of Make the Road New York – Now, an umbrella organization called East Harlem another group working for changes to DOC and ICE Against Deportation – and supporters like State policy – says her brother-in-law was just deported Sen. Jose M. Serrano – is urging DOC, through a back to Colombia two weeks ago. Florentina, who report, to further restrict ICE access to pre-trial did not want to give her last name, said in Spanish detainees and to bar the sharing of fingerprint data that he landed on Rikers Island on sexual abuse with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. charges, for which he was found not guilty after he was transferred from Rikers Island to a prison in Make the Road is calling for City Council legislation Texas. to do the same thing, completely restricting ICE, which reportedly has free office space at Rikers, But Make the Road had trouble tracking his from access to pre-trial detainees. whereabouts in order to provide a lawyer. "Both a lack of communication and being isolated made Speaking at the East Harlem Against Deportation it hard to get him legal help," said Daniel press conference in September, local Coates, the civil rights and immigration Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito said, "We also organizer at Make the Road. Coates claims that have to make a demand of our mayor to say that ICE often moves prisoners from jail to jail, often in we don't accept that kind of enforcement, or remote locations. meddling, in our correctional institutions."

ICE, for its part, had little to say about its current Working with the Children's Aid Society, East practices. Asked for comment, Public Affairs Officer Harlem Against Deportation gathered 1,000 letters Lou Martinez referred to the ICE Detention and over the past six months urging President Obama Removal Office website, which states that the to put a halt on the detention and deportation of organization "is committed to enforcing our nation’s illegal immigrants. Between 1998 and 2007, over immigration laws in a fair, effective, and 100,000 parents of U.S. citizens were deported professional manner." from the U.S., according to a 2009 report by the Department of Homeland Security. SECURE COMMUNITIES?

ICE's Rikers program is part of a larger federal effort aimed at identifying and deporting immigrants held in local jails. Known as "Secure Communities," the program was jumpstarted by the Bush Administration and expanded under Obama. It now operates in about 70 counties, and gives local

NY SENATOR GETS LATINO SUPPORT ON IMMIGRATION Rep. Crowley and Members of Congress to President: We Need Immigration Reform Now

October 29, 2009

Adrian Perez

Washington, DC – Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) stressed the urgency for action on a comprehensive solution to our dysfunctional immigration system during a telephonic briefing with New York and national immigrant advocates. Rep. Crowley recently led 111 Democrats from the House of Representatives in sending a letter to President Obama to express their support and willingness to work with the President to make comprehensive immigration reform a legislative reality. The call was organized by the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan pro-immigrant advocacy organization in Washington.

"We need to maintain the momentum for comprehensive immigration reform, and I'm glad that we have advocates for reform who are willing to fight for what is best for our nation," said Rep. Joe Crowley, U.S. Representative for New York's 7th District. "Through our letter, 110 of my fellow colleagues and I sent a clear message to President Obama: we need his leadership to move immigration reform forward and we stand ready to support comprehensive reform that balances our nation's security needs with a realistic and humane solution for the estimated 12 million undocumented people already living in the United States. A lot of good work is being done in Congress now, and I am looking forward to working with Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Make the Road New York, and the New York Immigration Coalition, as well as advocates from across the nation, to keep the issue at the center of our work in Congress. This is a moral imperative - the time is now."

"Every day that passes without immigration reform is one more day in which our friends, neighbors, and loved ones have to live in deep worry and fear. Our community members are paying the price for our collective failure to fix this dysfunctional immigration system," said Javier Valdes, Deputy Director of Make the Road New York, an immigrant-based group with over 7,000 members in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. "But we won't stop until we achieve real reform, and we applaud Representative Crowley for his vital effort to mobilize his House colleagues in support of immigration reform for all the decent, hardworking immigrant communities throughout our nation."

"Latino and immigrant voters made their voices loud and clear during the last election: they are demanding just and humane immigration reform for their communities. These voters are growing impatient; they have high expectations for change. Delaying reforms will only harm more families and hurt us as a nation. We're proud that Congressional leaders from New York are playing pivotal roles in moving immigration reform forward, and we join them in calling for strong and decisive action from President Obama and the House and Senate leadership," said Ms. Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, an advocacy group representing nearly 200 organizations in New York State.

"The demand for reform is growing and the political muscle behind it is getting stronger", said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum. "Across the country, communities are energized and increasingly engaged in immigration reform advocacy efforts. Diverse constituencies including labor, business, faith and civil rights and immigrant rights groups understand the fierce urgency of revamping our immigration system so it restores the rule of law, upholds our nation's values, treats immigrants with dignity, and responds to our nation's economic and labor needs."

2010 Census Is Just Around the Corner

October 29, 2009 The national average response rate was 67 percent. The by AnnMarie Costella New York City average was 55 percent and in Queens the average was 54 percent. Southeast Queens was the It’s nearly time to stand up and be counted. lowest rated portion of the borough with only 46 percent returning the Census questionnaire. The Census Bureau will begin mailing out questionnaires for the 2010 Census next March but just two weeks ago, Ellis said the undercount could have stemmed from the state Senate launched a new website, encouraging many factors. One possible reason is that the Census participation, answering common questions and giving relies on its own list of addresses to make sure tips on how to get people to participate. questionnaires are mailed to all residents and households, but the list may have been incomplete. And At a time when officials and advocacy groups are many people do not list everyone in their home. debating issues like counting illegal aliens, the Senate will attempt to dispel common myths about the Census Some people do not return the form because the and remind everyone that the information they provide is questionnaire is not written in their native language, confidential. It is not shared with immigration, law while others choose not to participate because they fear enforcement, the housing authority or any other government reprisal over their illegal immigration status. government agencies because to do so would be against the law. If a person does not return the form, a census taker visits the home to ask and record the answers to the “It’s important for people to understand that our schools, questions. If no one answers the door, the census taker hospitals and transportation depend on funding will make up to three return visits, each time leaving a determined by the information gathered in the Census,” door hanger with a phone number that they can call to state Sen. majority leader, Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans), schedule a visit. said in a statement. “That’s why we must make sure our state’s population is accurately counted. Our future Census takers are trained, go through a screening depends on it.” process and are sworn to protect the privacy of information gathered, under penalty of law. They must The Census counts every person living in the United also be a citizen of the United States, pass a written test States and is mandated by the constitution. It is used to and background check as well as employment determine each state’s representation in Congress as verification. Also, passing the written test does not well as how much federal aid is allotted to local and necessarily mean the person will be hired. state programs. “We are on target with our recruitment of Census “The federal government does not do enough to address takers,” said Veronica Lavarro, media specialist with the the problems of illegal immigrants of which there are half New York Regional Census Center in an email statement. a million to 750,000 living in New York City,” said Sen. “We may at some point do some very targeted Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose). “The costs associated with recruitment based on geography and specific needs (i.e. this number of people in the areas of healthcare, language requirement).” education and judicial justice runs into the billions. The only way to recoup this money is if these people are The Census Bureau has launched a campaign, which counted.” includes partnership programs, where they will work with more than 80,000 organizations — state, local, and tribal In 2000, the Census failed to count hundreds of governments, community-based organizations, faith- thousands of people living in New York State and in based organizations, schools, media, businesses and some neighborhoods only 35 percent of residents others to spread the word about the 2010 Census. returned the questionnaire that was mailed to them, according to Curtis Ellis, the regional press coordinator “The 2010 Census has a fully integrated for the state Senate. “We don’t want that to happen communications campaign designed to increase again,” he said. participation across all segments of the population, including the hard to count,” Lavarro said. an organization that promotes economic justice, equality and opportunity through community outreach are also In addition they will implement a language program doing their part. which will build on the one introduced for the 2000 Census, with some improvements. Guides to help people They will work to increase awareness about the fill out their census form will be available in 59 upcoming Census and demystify fears in immigrant languages, plus Braille and large type for the visually communities by holding events and workshops as well as impaired. by knocking on doors and visiting with residents personally. For the first time, 13 million bilingual English and Spanish Census forms will be sent to areas that need “Any interaction with the government can be frightening them. Residents will also be able to request a form in to people who don’t know what their rights are,” said Spanish, simplified Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Javier Valdes, deputy director of Make the Road New Russian. York.

The Census Bureau will also set up roughly 30,000 Be Beginning in January 2010, the group will also become Counted/Questionnaire Assistance Centers across the part of a broader coalition that will participate in a country, to aid those who need help filling out their form. campaign that the city is launching called “Yes We They can also go there if they think they have been Count.” overlooked in the count. “It’s in the best interest of everyone for the proper The state Senate is working with neighborhood leaders number of people to be counted,” Valdes said. “It to form Complete Count Committees in neighborhoods ensures proper representation in Washington as we take that have had low return percentages. on issues such as healthcare and immigration.”

These coalitions consist of businesses, religious While most would agree, Sen. John Vitter (R-Louisiana) organizations, community organizations, elected officials offers a dissenting opinion. He believes counting and others committed to increasing participation in the noncitizens is unfair because it gives more congressional Census. representation to states with high concentrations of illegal immigrants while those with relatively low One such organization called Seva, a group of business numbers like Louisiana would be penalized. Therefore, professionals from Richmond Hill, whose goal is to bring he is sponsoring an amendment that would require about greater change in Queens immigrant communities, illegal immigrants to list their status on next year’s have launched the South Asian 2010 Census Committee Census. and the Richmond Hill 2010 Census Committee, because historically, the South Asian community has had The legislation, which would be attached to a spending low levels of participation in the Census. bill for the Census Bureau and other agencies, caused a lot of controversy and has angered many civil rights “We are slowly building up our membership,” said Gurpal groups. As a result, attempts to get the Vitter Singh, executive director of Seva. “Our success will be amendment passed through the Senate have been based on how many people participate and dispense the delayed. information within their network.” “I think its fairly reasonable thinking but I absolutely So far, RH2010 has 40 members representing 20 disagree with it because it suppresses the count,” Singh different organizations and SA2010 has 30 members said. “The country should know truthfully how many representing 20 different organizations. During their people are living in these communities so we can make meetings, the groups have given presentations, going better policies.” over each of the 10 questions listed on the form and explaining why the information is necessary. “With only 160 days remaining until Census Day, changing the Census questionnaire now, as the Vitter As the Census draws closer, the two groups plan to hold Amendment proposes, would be counterproductive, rallies, town hall meetings and other events and threatens to undermine the results of the entire Census, workshops as well as to increase their presence at large and could even prevent the Census Bureau from meeting public events such as parades and concerts. “A lot of its statutory deadlines for completing the process,” communities don’t have good support networks. That’s Smith said in a statement. “We are committed to the the missing link,” Singh said. “Unless there are 2010 Census accurately counting everyone living in New grassroots organizations on the ground doing it York State so our communities receive the resources we internally, we are not going to have a large response.” deserve.”

Other advocacy groups like Make the Road New York,

Survey Finds 601 Troubled Condo Projects

October 27, 2009

By Amanda Fung the Housing Asset Renewal Program, designed to There are a total of 601 condominium buildings turn unsold condos and stalled residential buildings scattered across a half dozen neighborhoods in the into as many as 400 affordable housing units. city that have substantial numbers of vacant units or Community groups and local officials like Right to the where construction has stalled, according to City say the housing renewal is a good start, but it is preliminary data compiled by Right to the City-New not enough to resolve the proliferation of vacant York, an alliance of grassroots community buildings, the decline in low-income housing and the organizations.** That figure is well above the 454 city's increasing homelessness rate. recorded by the Department of Buildings for the city as a whole. Among the 126 buildings in downtown Brooklyn, Right to the City identified Be@Schermerhorn, a 246- More than 150 members of Right to the City unit luxury condo, with a vacancy rate of more than canvassed six neighborhoods in Manhattan and 93%, and Forté, a 108-unit luxury condo, with a Brooklyn to identify buildings that feature many vacancy rate of more than 60%. Both buildings have vacant units or stalled construction. The group, along been on the market for at least a year. Forté was with several members of the City Council, will recently taken over by its lender Eurohypo bank. The announce the results Tuesday afternoon at a rally in group has not identified specific buildings in the downtown Brooklyn as part of an effort to urge the Manhattan neighborhoods yet. city to convert vacant condos into affordable housing. “Clearly HARP is not sufficient to meet the needs for the entire city,” said Councilwoman Leticia James, “We want to show the city how big the problem is,” who will be attending the afternoon rally. said David Dodge, a member of Right to the City's New York chapter and a policy associate at Urban It's unclear how many developers want to participate Justice Center. “The problem is larger than people in the Housing Asset Renewal Program, but industry knew and the city took count of.” officials note that developers may shun such a program for a number of reasons. They note that In fact the city's figure is nearly 25% less than the such government programs will take at least two number cited by the group. The Right to the City data years to implement. And some developers may have tallies the number of qualifying buildings in the resources to wait for the economy to recover. downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn's Bushwick, and the Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem, the Lower East “By the time government takes action, apartments Side and the West Village, as well as the South will start to sell or rent,” said Boaz Gilad, president of Bronx. Ore International, a Brooklyn-based developer who has been scooping up troubled projects and finishing It found 126 of those buildings in downtown them at bargain prices. “It might not be a relevant Brooklyn, 108 in Bushwick, 116 in the LES, 99 in program anymore.” Harlem, 93 in South Bronx and 59 in the West Village. Downtown Brooklyn figures include Brooklyn Right to the City's Mr. Dodge said although the Heights and Fort Greene, and the West Village market may be improving, several of these buildings includes Chelsea. The figures will be a part of a have been vacant for more than two years, and comprehensive report the group plans to release something should be done with them to benefit the early next year on the state of condo buildings in local community. “We aren't bailing developers out,” these areas. he added.

In July, the city unveiled a $20 million pilot program, ** Including Make the Road New York

New York Congressman Urges President Obama to Go Forward with Immigration Reform

October 26, 2009

By Diego Graglia bicameral and bipartisan meeting on June 25th. Your Almost two months after the deadline Sen. Charles leadership on this issue is invaluable, but please know Schumer had set for himself to introduce a we stand ready to help you.” comprehensive immigration reform bill on behalf of the Obama Administration, a congressman from New The truth is the White House’s famously full plate has York called on the president to go forward with that meant nothing much has happened since that June initiative. meeting. The administration handed the responsibility for drafting the proposal to Schumer and he has yet to During a conference call Friday with immigration announce a date for introducing his bill. reform advocates, Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley, who represents parts of Queens and The Bronx, On Friday, Crowley said the letter was “a clear “stressed the urgency for action on a comprehensive message” to Obama that Democrats and the pro- solution to our dysfunctional immigration system,” immigration reform camp “need his leadership” to according to a press release from the New York advance this issue. “(We) stand ready to support Immigration Coalition. comprehensive reform that balances our nation’s security needs with a realistic and humane solution for “We need to maintain the momentum for the estimated 12 million undocumented people comprehensive immigration reform, and I’m glad that already living in the United States,” he said. we have advocates for reform who are willing to fight for what is best for our nation,” Crowley said, “A lot of good work is being done in Congress now, according to the statement. and I am looking forward to working with Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Congressman While Schumer missed his own deadline for Luis Gutierrez, Make the Road New York, and the introducing a reform bill in the Senate, Rep. Luis New York Immigration Coalition, as well as advocates Gutierrez (D-Illinois) has announced he will soon from across the nation, to keep the issue at the center introduce his own initiative in the House. The bills of our work in Congress. This is a moral imperative – differ greatly, since the senator’s focuses on a slew of the time is now.” enforcement measures and “a crackdown on illegal immigration,” while Gutierrez’s stresses legalization Immigration advocates joined Crowley in the for undocumented immigrants, family unity and conference call. “Every day that passes without humane enforcement. immigration reform is one more day in which our friends, neighbors, and loved ones have to live in Crowley led a group of 111 Democrats who in deep worry and fear,” said Javier Valdes of September sent a letter to Obama (click for pdf) to MTRNY, according to the press release. “Our express their willingness to work with him in pushing community members are paying the price for our reform through Congress, a task that appears collective failure to fix this dysfunctional daunting. immigration system.”

“The other options — maintaining the status quo or “Latino and immigrant voters made their voices loud trying to force 12 million undocumented immigrants to and clear during the last election: they are demanding leave the country — are neither viable nor desirable,” just and humane immigration reform for their the lawmakers wrote. “We know you agree that action communities,” said Chung-Wha Hong, executive must be taken and we applaud you for starting the director of NYIC. “These voters are growing impatient; discussion on immigration reform by hosting a they have high expectations for change.”

WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE, ANYWAY? A bill before City Council would reveal the people behind each LLC

October 19, 2009 That's because landlords for rent-stabilized buildings By Nekoro Gomes are allowed to raise the cost of rent for an apartment unit by 20 percent once it becomes vacant, and an Mike Grinthal, a staff attorney with South Brooklyn abnormally high number of vacant units “can be an Legal Services who often finds himself working for indication that there’s a plan to convert the building tenants and trying to locate the owners behind an to condos," said John Whitlow, a supervising apartment building’s limited liability corporation, attorney with Make The Road New York. describes the inspiration for a new bill before City Council as incredibly simple. Advocates for the bill point out that making information on a building’s owners and vacant units “I go out to tenant meetings a lot," says Grinthal. "The easier to locate could also benefit the city by aiding in first question I get is: ‘Who’s my landlord?’” the identification of scofflaw building owners, as well as reducing the number of lawsuits brought by Grinthal says the standard practice of incorporating tenants and adjudicated through the city’s housing the owners of a multi-unit apartment building as a courts. single limited liability corporation, while perfectly legal, also allows for abuse by landlords who don’t But Frank Ricci, government affairs director for the want to respond to tenants’ clamoring for repairs or Rent Stabilization Association, a lobbying group for other requests. landlords and property managers, says the bill is largely a redundant measure, as information on After meeting with the Bushwick, Brooklyn-based building managers and owners is available through community-organizing group Make The Road New the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and York about creating legislation to address the issue, Development and the Department of Finance. Grinthal helped to draft a bill that was introduced in Ricci points out that tenants in need of serious August by City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito repairs to their building can just as easily reach out to from East Harlem. the city in order to get them addressed: “Ultimately you want the person who’s responsible for making The bill would require anyone owning more than 25 repairs, and that’s what [tenants] get already, which percent of a corporately owned multi-unit apartment is why we have the system set up the way that we building to register their individual names, residences do.” and business addresses with the city’s Department of Finance. For the time being, both opponents and advocates for the bill are taking a wait-and-see approach as it sits "Apartments in my district are often found to contain in Council’s committee on housing and buildings. mold or insect and rodent infestations, which are Ricci says his group will give its opinion if the bill known to trigger asthma attacks,” Mark-Viverito wrote comes up for a public hearing. in an e-mail. “Issues like these become difficult to resolve for my constituents when the only way to And Make The Road New York deputy director Javier reach their landlords is at P.O. boxes and Valdes says the group will work to build coalitions unanswered telephone numbers.” with other housing and immigrant advocacy organizations as it waits until after next month’s In addition to disclosing their individual names and elections to push Council members for the bill’s contacts, owners would also be required to disclose passage. the number of unoccupied units in a building before filing a registration statement with the city.

Queens Response Split Over Immigration Plan

October 15, 2009 organized than in the past and a willingness and By Vladic Ravich leadership on his side."

Well aware that more than half of Queens residents When asked about the mayor's call for greater speak a foreign language at home, Mayor Mike enforcement against con artists who take advantage Bloomberg promoted his blueprint for the of immigrants, Archila acknowledged that issue may immigration policies he wants to pursue in his third not be fully addressed by City agencies, but still term. Calling immigrants the City's "economic lauded publicizing these concerns. "The more engine," Bloomberg stumped on his record and his attention that is given to this issue, the more plans for the future. difficult it becomes for people to continue exploitative processes. We both need an The document puts in writing the mayor's institution that provides enforcement and an commitment to a rather progressive stance on environment that doesn't tolerate abuse." immigration. It spells out 11 specific priorities for future programs and policies ranging from Archila said many of Make the Road's priorities expanding English as a Second Language programs were addressed by the plan, but some specific to creating a fellowship for more immigration lawyers demands have not been assuaged. "Our No. 1 to supporting undocumented students pursing a priority right now is passing the Sick Day Bill college education. which would make sure that all the workers in New York City have paid sick days," Archila said. The report also spells out Bloomberg's accomplishments in the last eight years, which Valeria Treves, executive director of New Immigrant include establishing a uniform policy for translation Community Empowerment, was more skeptical. and interpretation in six major languages among City "When judging an incumbent, it's not just about agencies that directly deal with New Yorkers. He has promises, but it's also about the record," she said, also signed an executive order that forbids City "and Bloomberg has a mixed record." workers from asking immigrants about their legal status unless they are suspected of a crime. Treves praised the mayor for laying out his platform, but wanted to hear more about specific executive The mayor's campaign also highlighted his orders he could implement right away. "A lot of these centralization of immigrant services and agencies, plans are very complicated and need support from the creation of an immigrant heritage week and the City Council." work being done to ensure immigrants are fully counted in the 2010 Census. For example, Treves wanted the mayor to reign in the rampant stop-and-frisk policy by the police. "He Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of needs to temper down police harassment, put an Make the Road By Walking, a large immigrant end to fear of raids, fight increased harassment of advocacy group that is comprised of roughly 60 [day laborer] workers by police, investigate hate percent undocumented immigrants, gave the mayor crimes and enforce safety measures for credit for providing "an opening" to listen to and undocumented workers." acknowledge the efforts of advocates such as herself. Both organizations say a lot remains to be done, but they also acknowledge the mayor has not ignored "I think his second term showed an attention to immigrant issues and has proposed some creative immigrants that we haven't seen before in many ideas. "Nonetheless, these are just promises," said mayors," said Archila. "I think that attention is Treves, "Whatever people think of his record, that's both a testament to the work of the immigrant where they should be placing their vote." The full communities becoming more vocal and plan is available online at mikebloomberg.com.

Irked by $$ Lost in Translation

October 09, 2009

By Peter N. Spencer

STATEN ISLALND -- The cost of translation is too high that the city has to hire more police officers or to in any language, according to two of Staten Island's keep firehouses operating," Oddo said. city councilmen. "Once again, we are faced with the reality that A recent analysis by the city's budget watchdog budgets are finite and to spend nearly $27 million on reports that it will cost nearly $29 million this year to translation services at a time when we are cutting provide language access services to hospital schools and emergency services boggles the mind. patients, parents of public school students and other Not to mention that these services only continue the city residents with limited English skills. crutch that some need to shed in order to reach their full potential by learning the English language and The Independent Budget Office study was prompted fully assimilating into the New York melting pot," by City Councilmen James Oddo (R-Mid- Ignizio contended. Island/Brooklyn) and Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore), in response to a growing movement to widen the But Javier Valdes, deputy director of the Port requirements for such services. Richmond-based immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York, said the translation Last June, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed requirements are essential "to operate a city as Executive Order 120, requiring every city agency to diverse as ours." Those services help facilitate critical provide language assistance in the top six languages understanding between people with limited English spoken by New Yorkers. Bloomberg trumpeted proficiency and hospital workers, police, teachers further plans to ease the transition for immigrants at and other school officials, for example, and help a campaign event at CUNY's campus in Midtown remove a fundamental barrier to citizenship, he Manhattan yesterday, including adding $3 million added. toward English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and lobbying the state Legislature to adopt a similar Studies also show that immigrants are learning language access plan. English faster than ever before because they have a financial incentive to do so, Valdes noted. The new language policies will add $1.7 million to the $26.9 million the agencies already spend on "They are motivated to learn English because at the translation services, according to the IBO. The Health end of the day, it's going to affect their bottom line," and Hospitals Corporation spent $10.9 million in he said. fiscal year 2009, the Department of Education was a distant second at $4 million; the Department of A spokesman for the mayor also defended the Information Technology & Telecommunications spent policies. $3.9 million, and the New York City Housing Authority spent $3.5 million. "Councilmen Oddo and Ignizio have been our crucial partners on a wide variety of initiatives to keep With the city expecting a deficit of $5 billion in the Staten Island and all of New York moving forward, next budget and even tougher fiscal times ahead, but we just don't agree with them on this one. We Oddo and Ignizio believe the money could be better think dedicating that money toward helping our spent. newest immigrants get the health care, education and other government services they need is a good "People have different priorities, I respect that. But investment for all of New York's future," said for Vinnie and I, it's about essential services. Every spokesman Stu Loeser. dollar spent on translation services is a dollar less

Inmigrantes: somos humanos

Diciembre 11, 2009

By ATALINA JARAMILLO

NUEVA YORK — Cerca de 150 inmigrantes eligieron el Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos para pedirle al presidente Barak Obama, —quien ayer reci- bió el Premio Nobel de la Paz en Noruega—, una reforma migratoria justa que les permita reunirse con sus familias, especialmente en estas fiestas.

“Mi sueño sería poder tener a mis hijos aquí y tener a mi esposa, que es mi compañera y con quien hice mi vida por 15 años. Ahora estamos separados y tanto a ella como a mi se nos hace demasiado difícil. Ella tiene que hacer de papá y Siendo el mismo día en que el Presidente recibía mamá y yo tengo que vivir aquí solo, sin saber el el Premio Nobel de la Paz, muchos manifestantes idioma y donde lo discriminan a uno”, explicó le recordaron su promesa durante las elecciones Martín Blancas, mexicano de 37 años de edad de darle prioridad a una reforma migratoria. que hace dos años y medio cruzó la frontera en busca de mejores oportunidades para su familia. “Confiamos en que Obama luche por una reforma migratoria justa que favorezca a la Blancas envía cerca de $100 a su familia a la familia. No podemos esperar más”, dijo semana, vive en Staten Island y trabaja de Soledad Villacis de Se hace camino Nueva carpintero, pintor o lo que se le presente, pero ya York. “Tenemos confianza en que va hacerlo, no está seguro de si esto vale la pena. el Nobel de la Paz tiene mucha responsabilidad”, agregó Catalina Martínez, “Es la segunda navidad que paso solo y es mexicana de 51 años que no ha podido volver a demasiado triste. Te reúnes con amigos y su país a pesar de que murió uno de sus compañeros en tu misma situación, pero nunca hermanos y su madre está muy enferma. “Me es lo mismo porque no hay nada como estar con sentí un poco incómoda viéndolo recibir el premio tu pareja, tus hijos y tu familia. Solo por estar con porque no ha cumplido su promesa con nosotros ellos ya estás feliz”, dijo Blancas. y porque acaba de mandar 30 mil soldados a la guerra”, dijo Rafaela Lozano, de la Coalición del Miembros y líderes de 25 organizaciones alto Manhattan para los derechos del inmigrante. comunitarias pro inmigrantes, se reunieron en una vigilia afuera del Centro de Detención de Varick Para David Juárez, mexicano de 37 años de Street. Se estima que 11 mil hombres, en su edad, el mejor regalo para estas fiestas sería mayoría latinos son detenidos al año por estar poder ver a sus padres. No los ve hace 15 años. indocumentados. “Me gustaría pasear con ellos, caminar, cocinar juntos, platicar con ellos, preguntarles dudas que La ceremonia partió con oraciones del rabino me vienen de cuando era niño… Los conozco por Michael Feinberg y el reverendo Bob Coleman teléfono, pero no sé nada de su vida diaria, no sé quien rezó “perdónanos, nuestra nación tiene cómo son ahorita”, confesó. miedo y nuestros líderes son débiles”.

El odio continúa en Bushwick Más hispanos denuncian salvajes ataques en vecindario de Brooklyn

October 21, 2009

By Annie Correal Christian Cabanillas, de 22 años, fue atacado en Nueva York — La presidente del Consejo Municipal se Bushwick por jóvenes afroamericanos. reunió con miembros de la comunidad de Bushwick, Brooklyn, ayer para denunciar el más reciente crimen En Bushwick, el vecindario directamente al este de de odio en ese barrio, que dejó a Mario Vera, un Williamsburg, el 70 por ciento de la población es inmigrante mexicano, hospitalizado con daño cerebral. hispana, según informó el representante del distrito de la Junta Comunitaria 4. Las estadísticas de la policía “Nueva York es una ciudad de inmigrantes y un ataque indican que este año ha habido un promedio de nueve a un inmigrante mexicano es un ataque contra todos asaltos cada semana en Bushwick, un nivel un poco nosotros”, apuntó la presidenta, Christine Quinn, quien más alto que en otros vecindarios a su alrededor. La pidió la ayuda del público en hallar a los responsables policía no podía confirmar cuántos asaltos en el último y enfatizó que informantes son protegidos bajo la ley. año fueron investigados como crímenes de odio, pero aseguró que en por lo menos un caso más la víctima El 23 de septiembre, Mario Vera, un jornalero de 38 fue hispana. años quien reside en Bushwick fue asaltado en camino a casa por tres jóvenes afroamericanos. Vera sufrió En diciembre del 2008, José Sucuzhañay fue asaltado daño cerebral y permanece en el Hospital Beth Israel por hombres desconocidos que lo atacaron con una en Manhattan. El ataque está siendo investigación por botella y gritaron insultos por ser hispano y gay al verlo la Unidad Contra Crímenes de Odio de la policía. salir de un bar cogido del brazo de su hermano. Sucuzhañay murió de heridas cerebrales. Ahora, una Tristemente, no es el único ataque sin motivo en este calle en Bushwick lleva su nombre. barrio, donde en diciembre del 2008 un ecuatoriano murió después de ser atacado por desconocidos que lo Irene TunTungggg, organizadora en Make the Road New golpearon con una botella de vino, y donde residentes York , una organización comunitaria con sede en y hasta visitantes admiten que han sido insultados y Bushwick, explicó: “El último incidente fue la muertemuerte de atacados por sujetos que no parecen querer robar sus Sucuzhañay, pero oímos de incidentes menores todo el pertenencias, sino intimidarlos. tiempo, la gente dice que es insultada por ser hispana o por sserer gay”. Preguntada sobre si la gente tenía Alvaro Hernández es uno. A las 12:30 de la madrugada temor de reportar los crímenes, Tung dijo: “Sí, el 4 de octubre, el dominicano de 24 años fue atacado absolutamente. La mayoría de crímenes de odio que por tres jóvenes mientras caminaba cerca de la parada se denuncian en Nueva York son antianti----semíticos.semíticos. Los del tren L en la Avenida Morgan. El propósito del ataques contra hispanos, asiáticos y gays casi nunca ataque pareció ser herirlo, no robarle, según son reportreportados”.ados”. Hernández, quien señaló que sus agresores lo golpearon en la cara durante varios minutos antes de Las concejales Diana Reyna y Melissa Mark-Viverito que uno dijera: “¡Cojan el bolso!”. están detrás de un esfuerzo para instalar una línea gratuita para denunciar crímenes de odio. Hernandez llegó ensangrentado a un hospital en Queens, donde recibió 12 puntos en la frente y fue Desde Washington D.C, la congresista del área, Nydia tratado por una fractura menor en la cara. Como Vera, Velázquez, dijo: “Crimenes motivados por el odio… son él no fue a la policía. “Tenía mucha rabia, pero sólo inaceptables y no serán tolerados. La diversidad en quería salir de allí, quería que todo se acabara”, dijo Bushwick es una virtud del vecindario y tiene que ser Hernández, quien vive en Flushing, Queens y trabaja protegido”. Velázquez, junto con otros congresistas, en un supermercado en Manhattan. El año pasado, introdujo un proyecto de ley para establecer una línea después de una fiesta de Halloween, su primo, gratuita a nivel nacional.

Proponen medidas contra crímenes de odio

December 13, 2009

By Catalina Jaramillo

NUEVA YORK — Las palabras de Diego Sucuzhañay** provocaron aplausos y algunas lágrimas de una audiencia compuesta por latinos, gays, oficiales electos, líderes comunitarios y miembros de la comunidad ayer en Bushwick, en una ceremonia que conmemoraba un año desde el ataque que provocó la muerte de su hermano, José Sucuzhañay, un ecuatoriano de 31 años que fue atacado por su raza y por ir abrazado de su hermano Romel.

“Este año no vamos a celebrar, vamos a llorar. José era el que organizaba las fiestas navideñas y su ausencia nunca se podrá llenar. Pero su memoria nos impulsa a buscar justicia. Latinos y gays son considerados como ciudadanos de segunda clase en este país”, dijo Sucuzhañay. “Debemos unirnos y detener esta violencia que continúa pasando —pasó recién otra vez con Mario Vera aquí mismo en Bushwick— y va a continuar pasando”, agregó.

Los miembros del Concejo, Melissa Mark Viverito, Diana Reyna, Daniel Dromm y la congresista Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) propusieron tres medidas para detener los crímenes de odio en las comunidades: una línea telefónica para denunciar, organizar audiencias públicas y campañas que promuevan la tolerancia e introducir currículos en las escuelas donde se enseñen estos valores a las nuevas generaciones.

Según Velázquez, de acuerdo con datos del FBI la mayoría de los crímenes de odio son contra latinos y eso ocurre por culpa de una política de inmigración que no funciona. “Este martes introduciremos en Washington una reforma migratoria exhaustiva”, anunció. “Haremos lo que sea posible por tener leyes en esta nación que permitan a cualquier persona caminar seguros por la calle. Estamos promoviendo la democracia en Afganistán y en Irak, cuando donde tenemos que promover la democracia es aquí en nuestro patio”.

La congresista añadió que están pidiendo crear una línea telefónica nacional para crímenes de odio donde no se pida ninguna información para que las personas denuncien sin miedo a ser deportados, perseguidos o acosados. Según Karina Claudio, de “Se hace camino Nueva York”, uno de los principales problemas de los crímenes de odio es que no se denuncian.

Jeff Vásquez,** puertorriqueño de 25 años, es gay y ha pasado más de un susto caminando por la calle. Hace poco estaba en Times Square y unos tipos lo empezaron a perseguir. Cuenta que fue a pedirle ayuda a un policía, pero éste no lo tomó en cuenta. “Me dolió mucho que el oficial no me tomara en serio. Creo que el gobierno tiene que trabajar más en este tema”, finalizó Vásquez.

** Miembros de Se Hace Camino Nueva York

Una luz al final del túnel

Diciembre 16, 2009

JAVIER H. VALDES Vice-director, Se Hace Camino Nueva York

¡Es la economía, tonto! Es algo que muchos hemos escuchado por lo políticos en nuestro país. Y sabemos que los trabajadores estadounidenses están afligidos por la actual coyuntura y arreglar la economía es la prioridad primordial. Pero lidiar con nuestro quebrantado sistema de inmigración si es una forma de abordar nuestros problemas económicos pues ayuda a regularizar y fortalecer a trabajadores que trabajan para empleadores inescrupulosos. Se necesita acción por parte del Congreso, para que los trabajadores dejen de ser abusados por empleadores inescrupulosos que pagan por debajo del salario mínimo, no pagan impuestos, e ignoran los derechos laborales. La reforma migratoria es necesaria para restaura la equidad laboral en nuestro país y fortalecer a nuestra fuerza laboral.

Ayer, el Rep. Luis Gutiérrez presentó el proyecto de ley Reforma Migratoria Integral De 2009 Para La Seguridad y La Prosperidad De Estados Unidos (CIR ASAP) en la Cámara de Representantes. Esta iniciativa es una señal de progreso para una acción real, de sentido común para impulsar la reforma migratoria en el Congreso. La legislación protegerá a trabajadores, mantendrá la unidad familiar y promoverá nuestra seguridad nacional mientras se asegura de que podamos mantenernos fieles a nuestros valores como nación de inmigrantes.

Sabemos que la propuesta de ley no hubiera sido posible, si no fuera por el gran trabajo de nuestros representantes de Nueva York, Nydia Velázquez, Joseph Crowley y Anthony Weiner. El próximo mes va ser el aniversario de la inauguración del Presidente Barack Obama. Todos reconocemos la importancia que tuvo el voto Latino en diferentes estados y distritos de nuestra nación y ahora es el momento para utilizar ese músculo político para asegurar que el Presidente y el Congreso hagan lo ellos prometieron. La buena noticia es que el Congreso esta actuando.

La Cámara de Representantes cumplió con su promesa de presentar legislación de reforma migratoria antes de las fiestas navideñas. Ahora le llegó la hora al Senado, especialmente a nuestro Senador Chuck Schumer, para que actúe. Cada día que pasa sin que haya acción sobre la reforma es un día más en el que la situación continua empeorando. El pueblo estadounidense eligió a sus representantes para que resolvieran los problemas difíciles mediante soluciones prácticas y por eso esperamos que ellos demuestren liderazgo.

Pero para que pase una reforma migratoria necesitamos el apoyo de todos ustedes. El proceso legislativo esta lleno de debate y de compromiso. Por eso es importante que para que se mantenga los principios fundamentales de este proyecto en los próximos proyectos legislativos, que actuemos juntos para que se escuchen nuestras voces en Washington.

Entonces necesitamos que todos ustedes llamen a la Casa Blanca, marcando el número 1- 866-974-8813 para decirles que deben de mantener su promesa y actuar para que se apruebe la reforma migratoria el próximo año. ¡Sí se puede!

¡Educación!... no encarcelación Decenas de estudiantes protestan en la Alcaldía excesos de Policía Escolar

October 23, 2009

By Annie Correal

Nueva York — Cuando Chastity Soriano** tenía 12 años, peleó con una compañera de curso en su escuela, Bushwick School for Social Justice, y terminó esposada a una silla.

“Me humillaron frente a mis compañeros. Me hicieron aparecer como un animal”, aseguró Chastity, que ahora tiene 15 años.

Ayer, Chastity se reunió con más de 100 estudiantes frente a la alcaldía para pedir que el Consejo Municipal apruebe un proyecto de ley, el Acta de Seguridad Estudiantil, que garantizaría que los agentes de la policía en las escuelas públicas de Nueva York no violen los derechos civiles de los estudiantes.

La ley requeriría que la Policía y el Departamento de Educación guarden datos sobre suspensiones, expulsiones y detenciones de estudiantes, los cuales serían reportados periódicamente al Consejo Municipal. El proyecto de ley también permitiría que el Civilian Complaint Review Board, la junta que revisa quejas civiles, cubriera quejas de padres y estudiantes sobre la conducta de agentes de seguridad en las escuelas.

La legislación será objeto de una audiencia el 10 de noviembre. Desde que el concejal Robert Jackson la introdujo en agosto del 2008, 32 miembros del Concejo han anunciado su apoyo a la misma, incluyendo la concejal de El Barrio, Melissa Mark Viverito.

“Hay que responsabilizar a los agentes de seguridad en nuestras escuelas para que nuestros niños se sientan seguros”, apuntó Viverito, quien asistió a la protesta ayer.

La brutalidad policial se ha vuelto común en las escuelas con el aumento de agentes de la Policía en las escuelas públicas, según activistas. Udi Ofer, representante del New York Civil Liberties Union, informó que hay 5,000 agentes de la Policía en las escuelas públicas de Nueva York. Según datos de la Policía, cada año hay 1,200 quejas sobre la conducta de estos agentes.

“Se están encargando de incidentes menores, casos que deberían ser resueltos en la oficina del director de la escuela, no en una comisaría”, aseguró Ofer.

Los estudiantes reunidos ayer, que forman parte del grupo Urban Youth Collective, denunciaron los detectores de metal, registros exhaustivos, y la brusquedad de los agentes de seguridad en sus escuelas. Alzaron afiches con las fotos de los miembros del Concejo Municipal que no han firmado la legislación y gritaron, “¿Qué queremos? ¡Justicia!”.

“Todos los días me molestan, me empujan, me gritan, me tratan con una falta de respeto y me registran ilegalmente”” se quejó Chastity, “Aprobar el Acta de Seguridad Estudiantil será el primer paso en crear un ambiente de respecto y aprendizaje. ¡Sí a la educación, no a la encarcelación!”

** Miembro de Se Hace Camino Nueva York

Comunidad en apoyo de víctima de odio

October 22, 2009

Carmen Alarcón

Nueva York — Ayer se realizó una vigilia en honor a Mario Vera, víctima de un ataque de odio en Bushwick el pasado 23 de septiembre.

La vigilia tuvo lugar frente al Hospital Beth Israel, en la Calle 16 y Primera Avenida, donde Vera permanece hospitalizado.

En la actividad, políticos y activistas de Make the Durante la conferencia aparece Ana María Vera, Road New York y la Alianza Ecuatoriana la esposa del mexicano atacado. Foto: Carmen Alarcón/EDLP condenaron los ataques a la comunidad inmigrantes y la comunidad gay, y la familia de la víctima y residentes de Bushwick anunciaron el Fondo de Apoyo a Mario Vera y pidieron la ayuda de la ciudad en prevenir crímenes de odio.

La esposa y su hija solicitan ayuda a la comunidad para hallar a los responsables, y donaciones a la cuenta de cheques de: Mario Vera Rivera en el # 9957183078 de Citibank.

“Le pido a la comunidad que me ayude con mi esposo en todo”, pidió su esposa, Ana MaríaVera.

El cónsul de México, Rubén Beltrán, anunció que le ha pedido al comisionado de Policía Raymond Kelly que haga todo lo posible por capturar a los responsables. La policía ofrece una recompensa de $12,000 por información que conduzca a la captura de los culpables.

“Pedimos que la Unidad Especial contra los Crímenes de Odio de la policía haga un mayor esfuerzo para que los hispanos denuncien estos crímenes”, aseguro Ana María Archila, de Make The Road New York.

En Bushwick, barrio de Queens donde el 70 % de su población es hispana, ya murió un hispano a manos del odio en diciembre del 2008, José Sucuzhañay. Su hermano Diego estuvo en el acto de ayer.

“No permitiremos que no se haga justicia para la familia Vera”, aseguró la concejal de Bushwick Diana Reyna.

A la vigilia asistieron también las concejales Melissa Mark-Viverito y Rosie Méndez, la presidente del Concejo Municipal Christine Quinn, el presidente del Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, la Alianza Ecuatoriana y el sacerdote católico James Kelly.

Optimismo por palabras de Schumer

October 15, 2009

By Annie Correal

Nueva York — Grupos pro inmigrante respondieron con optimismo a la declaración del senador Charles Schumer (D-NY) que los senadores en Washington D.C. están “cerca del final” de legislación sobre una reforma migratoria, creando la impresión de que después de la reforma de salud, la inmigración será el siguiente tema clave. Schumer afirmó que tiene apoyo de Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) y otros senadores republicanos.

Para muchos de ellos, las declaraciones del senador Schumer y el proyecto de reforma del congresista Luis Gutiérrez (D-Illinois), patrocinado por más de 70 Congresistas en la Cámara de Representantes, demuestran que existe la voluntad política en el Congreso para avanzar la reforma migratoria.

En Nueva York, el subdirector de la organización Make the Road New York, Javier Valdés, comentó: “Sentimos que es un primer paso. Junto con la legislación de Gutiérrez en el congreso, demuestra que hay momento para hacer algo a principios del 2010”.

En Washington, Alli Noorani, director ejecutivo del National Immigration Forum, dijo: ”En nuestras conversaciones con el senador Schumer hemos comprobado que él está trabajando arduamente para llegar a un punto en que él puedo tener los 60 votos. Schumer es un senador inteligente y una buena persona. No va a promover un proyecto de ley que va en contra de su estándar”.

George Tzamaras, un vocero para el American Immigration Lawyers Association, un grupo que aboga para la reforma migratoria en la capital, afirmó: “Nos sentimos entusiasmados cada vez que un senador —más cuando es uno tan respetado como Schumer— sugiere la inmigración como un punto clave… que el sistema está roto y necesita una reforma”.

“Si el senador piensa que tiene una coalición de demócratas y republicanos es algo bueno”, indicó Tzamaras. “Porque tiene que ser un esfuerzo bipartidista o no se va a lograr”, acotó.

Sin embargo, unos grupos que apoyan una reforma expresaron escepticismo ante las promesas de Schumer. Dan Griswold, un experto en comercio e inmigración en el Cato Institute, un instituto no partidista, dijo: “Yo apoyo fuertemente a la reforma migratoria pero se tiene que hacer correctamente. Lo que Schumer está llamando una reforma puede ser una repetición de los errores del pasado y puede ser peor que hacer nada”.

Piden pago de días de enfermedad

October 2, 2009

MANUEL E. AVENDAÑO

NUEVA YORK — Varios cientos de trabajadores inmigrantes marcharon ayer a través del puente Brooklyn hacia Manhattan para exigir la aprobación de una ley que considere días de enfermedad pagados, especialmente cuando la ciudad es amenazada por una nueva ola de gripe y contagio.

Con gritos de “queremos justicia”, “días pagados por enfermedad” y “sí se puede”, los manifestantes partieron de Cadman Plaza, en Brooklyn, para seguir hacia el puente y congregarse en Foley Square, frente a las cortes de Manhattan. Se estima que en la ciudad existen cerca de un millón de trabajadores que no gozan de “Cuando no tenemos el derecho a días días pagados por enfermedad. La pagos por enfermedad, nos vemos ecuatoriana Ruth Jara dijo que actualmente forzados a trabajar y poner en riesgo tiene una demanda contra un restaurante de de contagiar a todos los que nos Flushing donde no se le consideró este rodean”, manifestó Adela Valdez, descanso. quien ha laborado en restaurantes, limpieza y cuidado de niños. Según el proyecto, “todos los empleadores deben proveer un mínimo de una hora de La trabajadora, que pertenece a “Se tiempo pagado de enfermedad por cada 30 Hace Camino Nueva York”, indicó horas trabajadas” y que los empleadores no que ante la enfermedad de sus hijos u tendrán que proveer más de 72 horas de otro pariente, se tiene que escoger entre enfermedad (9 días) en un año calendario. cuidar de ellos o perder el día. “Esta ley Indica también que los pequeños negocios no no sólo protege la salud de nuestra tendrán que ofrecer más de 40 horas (5 días) comunidad sino también nuestros de tiempo pago por enfermedad al año. empleos”, agregó Valdez.

El proyecto Intro 1059 —que es auspiciado por la concejal Gale Brewer (D- Manhattan)— cuenta con el respaldo de al menos 38 de los 51 legisladores que tiene la ciudad.