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| From the Village of Brooklyn | OOURUR TTIMEIME PPRESSRESS THE LOCAL PAPER WITH THE GLOBAL VIEW | VOL. 21 NO. 43 Since 1996 October 20-26, 2016 | Brooklyn's DA is Laid to Rest The Funeral for Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson was held at the Christian Cultural Center in East New York. (Pool Photo) Page 3 INSIDE: AUTUMN in New York Housing Justice Leaders Stand with Tish James in Calling Out 100 Worst Landlords Page 2 Michael Eric Dyson at Bridge Street AWME Church “Waiting for the Real Trump” Page 9 Mixed Messages Abound on Proposed Bed-Stuy Drop-In Homeless Shelter Page 9 VOTE Photo Credit: Walter Dallas NOVEMBER 8! In Rehearsal: Jerome Preston Bates and Pauletta Pearson Washington Page 8 2 OUR TIME PRESS October 20-26, 2016 | VOL. 21 NO. 43 Housing Justice Leaders Stand with Tish James in Calling Out 100 Worst Landlords ■ By Akosua K. Albritton YC Public Advocate Letitia “Tish” James held a press conference in the company of Nlong-standing housing rights nonprofits at City Hall on Thursday, October 13, 2016. Tish James presented the “2016 100 Worst Landlords in New York City” list. The top 5 “Worsts” include Harry D. Silverstein (8 buildings), Allan Goldman (25 buildings), Efstlathios Valiotis (8 buildings), Martin Kirzner (11 buildings), and in fifth place, Ved Parkash (4 buildings). In between chants of “Tenants United Will Never Be Defeated” and “Fight! Fight! Fight! Housing is a Right”, various elected officials and housing justice leaders came to the podium to talk about the issues of basic livable conditions and demands, deferred maintenance, increasing rent and Public Advocate Letitia James calling out 100 worst landlords outside City Hall. gentrification. Some groups represented particular boroughs or neighborhoods, while others were citywide service providers. From Tom DiRienza, President of Banana Brooklyn came the Fifth Avenue Committee, Kelly, added his voice by stating: “Banana Crown Heights Tenant Union, CAMBA, Kelly has worked over these past 40 years to IMPACCT and representing the Bronx was preserve and create affordable housing in the Banana Kelly Community Improvement South Bronx. We work hard to maintain af- Association (Banana Kelly). Citywide hous- fordability – our average rent is about $900 a ing justice groups attending the rally includ- month, compared to $1,950 for the Bronx as ed Association of Neighborhood Housing a whole. But now that we have redeveloped Developer (ANHD, with a membership of areas like the South Bronx, we are seeing 95 nonprofits), HASA (HIV/AIDS Services speculators and owners looking to take Administration), CASA (Court-Appointed advantage of profit-making opportunities.” Special Advocates for Children), Asian- DiRienza explains the speculators use Americans for Equality and Make the Road “tactics to push out tenants”. These tactics New York. range from “owners, directly or through their Crown Heights Tenant Union, created in agents, making life so uncomfortable, creat- 2013, is a relatively new housing body; how- ing such a nuisance, and generally making ever, it counts 14 multiple dwelling buildings life so unbearable for tenants that they either in Brooklyn Community District 8 and 19 leave on their own or are willing to take buildings in Brooklyn Community District “buyouts” to leave voluntarily to doing other 9 as part of the union of tenants who take things to skirt the building code rules while their landlords to task to provide habitable using the excuse of “making improvements” units immediately. Donna Mossman, one that are never fully completed until tenants of the group’s founding members, came to move out”. the podium to applaud the groups who were James added the demand to alter the cal- present at the rally and to encourage the body culation of the Area Median Income (AMI) in their tenant advocacy. from using areas within the New York City In addition to the landlord list, the Public MSA to calculating it based on the zip codes Advocate demanded such essential housing that cover the five boroughs. www.citytech.cuny.edu/openhouse needs as “no vermin and no holes within a This rally was indeed rousing and a time building or an apartment; all housing units for groups across New York City to coalesce. being free of lead paint; no illegal evictions But what is the reality of dispensing housing and landlords ensuring the warranty of habit- services back in the neighborhoods? How ability is in place”. James also advised renters are neighborhood preservationists fairing to “know your rights about a cash buyout”. financially and tactically? On October 9 and 11, 2016 this reporter contacted (via e-mail) the DBG MEDIA Publishers of Our Time Press, Inc. Executive Directors for ANHD, Brooklyn 358 Classon Avenue Neighborhood Improvement Association, Brooklyn, NY 11238 Erasmus Neighborhood Federation, Make (718) 599-6828 Fax (718) 599-6825 300 Jay Street Web site: www.ourtimepress.com the Road New York, North East Brooklyn • Downtown Brooklyn e-mail: [email protected] Housing Development Corp., FUREE’s Sunday 10/30 11 am-1 pm Program Coordinator and Pamoja House’s Publisher NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY DBG MEDIA Program Director to inquire about the state of community/building organizing as well 718.260.5500 Editors-in-Chief as moving the homeless into permanent CITY TECH www.citytech.cuny.edu David Mark Greaves Bernice Elizabeth Green housing. Two leaders responded. www.facebook.com/citytech WHERE CAN TECHNOLOGY TAKE YOU? Sports Yves Vilus is the Executive Director of Eddie Castro Erasmus Neighborhood Federation (ENF). Office Manager For 30 years, ENF has served the Flatbush Joanna Williams and East Flatbush communities by organiz- Bedford-Union Armory Strategic Marketing ing buildings and tenant patrols, mediating Legacy Ventures landlord-tenant disputes, providing housing Meeting, Oct. 22 Nadia Fattah workshops, supporting commercial revital- © 2015, DBG MEDIA Publishers of ization and managing a child care network. Dear Friends & Neighbors: Armory, which is at the center of discus- Our Time Press, Inc., Mr. Vilus stated public funding from such I encourage all community residents sion for mixed-use. printed in New York City. agencies as NYC Department of Housing to come out to our special meeting I look forward to seeing you at this All rights reserved. Preservation and Development and NYS on October 22, 2016 at 400 Empire important community event to discuss No part of the publication may Division of Housing and Community be reproduced without prior permission Boulevard, Brooklyn, New York 11225. the armory, which could directly impact of the publishers. Publishers are Renewal “has totally decreased. Most groups This meeting will give residents the you. If you have any questions, ideas, not responsible for any ad claims. are forced to merge or go out of business opportunity to gain more insight, find comments or suggestions feel free to reach MBE Certified in NYC, NYS completely. The private pools are getting meaningful action and procure resolutions out to my office at the following number: and the Port Authority of NY & NJ smaller; only the well-connected get private Member: New York State Press Association, to address the future of the Bedford-Union 718 - 771-3105. [Diana C. Richardson] New York Black Publishers, Inc. ➔ Continued from page 10 VOL. 21 NO. 43 OUR TIME PRESS October 20-26, 2016 | 3 Funeral for District Attorney Kenneth Thompson Held at the Christian Cultural Center tie with a double Windsor knot and shined shoes. Noble said he was surprised when Thompson said he was a student of his, he asked why the suit and tie on a Saturday morning. Thompson replied, “It was to show you the respect”. Ken Thompson was serious then and re- mained so throughout a career that included cases as a federal prosecutor and in private practice that rocked the city on his way to becoming the first African-American District Attorney of Kings County. “Ken literally changed the face of justice in Brooklyn. He changed what justice looked like. He changed what justice meant for so many people,” said Lynch. That thought was reiterated many times. “He wanted the office to deliver equal justice for all,” said Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “We pledge to nurture the garden you have planted – the seeds of integrity, fairness and equal justice for all. These will continue to grow in Brooklyn and they will flourish. They are your legacy. God bless Mourners at Ken Thompson's casket, (Pool photo) you.” Thompson leaves behind his wife Lu- rooklyn came out to the Christian Attorney, not just interested in proving Louima police brutality case. “We in law Shawn, daughter Kennedy and son Kenny. Cultural Center in East New York guilt, as Governor Andrew Cuomo put it, enforcement have lost one of our brightest on a sunny Saturday to celebrate but in proving innocence as well. “In just lights, one of our stars who had such promise Bthe life and mourn the passing of Brooklyn 33 months, his office proved that 21 men in the future,” said Attorney General Lynch. District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, taken and women—mostly black, Hispanic and “Justice was real for Ken, it was not an too soon at age 50 of colorectal cancer. poor—were all falsely found guilty by our abstract principle. It was about making the Inspired to go into criminal justice by criminal justice system.” promise of this country real for everyone,” his mother Clara Thompson, one of the That he was a role model for justice, she said in her eulogy. A former professor, Thompson family leaving Cambridge Place for Kenneth Thompson's first female officers to serve in the NYPD, was attested to by Attorney General Loretta Ronald K. Noble, Secretary General of funeral. Photo: Bernice Green Thompson became an exemplary District Lynch who oversaw his work on the Abner Interpol, remembered that it was at 7:30am on a Saturday morning when there was a “firm” knock on the door.