| From the Village of Brooklyn | OOURUR TTIMEIME PPRESSRESS THE LOCAL PAPER WITH THE GLOBAL VIEW | VOL. 21 NO. 3 Since 1996 January 19 – 25, 2017 | Thank You, Mr. President for a Job Well Done in the White House and at Home President Barack Hussein Obama with First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha. Into the Breach View From Here This is Our Challenge This is a battle for hearts, minds and the country. At the celebration of Martin climate change and when they knew it, and votes. As their seventeenth year begins, ■ By David Mark Greaves Luther King, Jr. at the Brooklyn Academy of regular folks can’t refuse to answer anything young people across the country should Music, the choir was preached to with words the lowest government clerk asks without be getting their paper in order to ensure s the more and more popular and song, the same as in Black churches paying a price? And because Republicans the ability to vote on their eighteenth President Barack Obama leaves generations ago. If you missed the Civil in Congress care more about power than the birthday. office, we are left facing a future Rights era, then this is your turn at the front nation, this is the kind of thing that will be In her keynote address at BAM, Opal fullA of unknowns and the world misses him lines. To stand up for the future and seize going on at least for the next two years. Mid- Tometi, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, already. the opportunity to be in the arena. This is a term elections have never seemed so far away. repeatedly insisted, “We cannot be silent Illegitimate, not normal, erratic, strange, privileged time for us, we have the opportu- in the face of assaults against basic health frightening, these are the words defining the nity to be present when new voices of change World at Risk care services, when so-called leaders Inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 45th rise up as they must, because this cannot be When you have an illegitimate president, threaten to rip apart families, when threat- President of the United States tomorrow. And happening but it is. you get an abnormal time and that is the time ened with the normalization of intolerance, based on what has come out of his mouth so we’re in. His penchant to pick fights at home when women’s rights are being stripped far, we are at the beginning of a trauma that No More Rules and around the world with China, NATO, away from us, when men no better than will reverberate in homes across the nation The fox is not just in the hen house, he’s German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the in- Klansmen dressed in suits are in the White facing repeal of the Affordable Care Act running it with family and friends and the only telligence community, the European Union, House, we cannot be silent”. extend to capitals around the world watching thing that is right is what they say. No ethics all targets of his meanness, he’s causing the In celebration of Martin Luther King, a belligerent leader come into power. investigations for these billionaires. How is world to become an even more unstable place. Jr., his compatriot and Civil Rights icon Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon/Mobil CEO The notable exception to the new pres- Congressman John Lewis gave this mes- Resistance and the nominee for Secretary of State, able ident’s ire is Russia’s Vladimir Putin, with sage: “Never give up. Never give in. You “Be a part of the Resistance and to refuse to answer repeated questions from whom he exchanges words of kindness and have a moral obligation to say something, Organize!” is the call that has gone out across U.S. senators about what Exxon knew about mutual support. to do something and not be quiet.” 2 OUR TIME PRESS January 19 – 25, 2017 VOL. 21 NO. 3 Six Firms Designated as WHERE CAN TECHNOLOGY TAKE YOU? Minority- and Women-owned Business Enterprises to Build 460 Units of Affordable Housing # IN THE NATION3 IN PRODUCING THE HIGHEST PAID ASSOCIATE-DEGREE EARNING GRADUATES Photo: Margo Mckenzie —PAYSCALE.COM Mayor DeBlasio with Ben Upshaw, Project Manager and Principal of C-B Emmanuel Realty. 76% GRADUATED DEBT-FREE (2015) ■ By Margo McKenzie Prior to the roundtable, Mayor Bill de Blasio chatted individually with the MWBE ast week Richard Buery, Deputy winners who stood proudly beside renderings Mayor for Strategic Policy Ini- of the façades for their proposed buildings. tiatives, conducted a roundtable According to city records, certification as Lwith the six newly announced Minority- an MWBE was an essential requirement for and Women-owned Business Enterprise this construction award. Housing Preservation (MWBE) firms selected to build affordable and Development (HPD) issued a Request housing on six sites owned by the city. For- for Qualifications from firms which was due ty-one firms applied. March 25, 2015. Among many items, appli- APPLY NOW 2017 DIRECT ADMISSIONS NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY cants detailed their backgrounds, residential development and property management ex- CITY TECH perience, and company assets. HPD assessed 718.260.5500 Downtown Brooklyn responses and prequalifications to compete www.citytech.cuny.edu/directadmissions facebook.com/citytech • @citytechnews www.citytech.cuny.edu once the official request for proposals (RFP) was released. Records show that with the exception of two developers, prequalifiers participated in the HPD workshop series on Building Capacity which provided network- ing opportunities with top-notch real estate professionals and insight into how to run a successful real estate development enterprise. The six winning developers have “estab- lished a relationship with the communities where they will build . and they reflect its diversity,” said Commissioner Vicki Been of HPD. She added that this project will provide 440 of the 62,000 units Mayor de Blasio Andrea Kretchmer and Annie hopes to construct. Tirschwell of Type A Projects. Richard Flateau, Chair of Community Board 3 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, “lauds the DBG MEDIA Publishers of de Blasio Administration for achieving the Our Time Press, Inc. dual goal of building 100 percent affordable 358 Classon Avenue housing and using M/WBE firms as the lead Brooklyn, NY 11238 developers”. In the rotunda and during the (718) 599-6828 Photo: Margo McKenzie roundtable discussions, developers shared Web site: www.ourtimepress.com Dabar Development Partners, LLC, Dawanna Williams and Thorobird Real e-mail: [email protected] Estate, Thomas Campbell. ➔ Continued on page 9 Publisher DBG MEDIA Editor-in-Chief Grassroots to Global, David Mark Greaves Consultant Global to Grassroots: Bernice Elizabeth Green Legacy Ventures Black Words Matter, Too Manager www.ourtimepress.com erhaps the most misunderstood words of 2016 were: Black Liani Greaves Lives Matter. But one leading cultural institution and one major Sports corporation got it right in their timely salutes to the Rev. Martin Eddie Castro P Luther King, Jr. on the observance of his birthday, Monday, January Office Manager 16, 2017. Joanna Williams The Brooklyn Academy of Music tribute came in the form of © 2015, DBG MEDIA Publishers of presenting Opal Tometi, the Brooklyn-based co-founder of the Our Time Press, Inc., nationally controversial Black Lives Matter Movement, as keynote printed in New York City. speaker at their annual event -- New York City’s largest tribute to All rights reserved. King. No part of the publication may In response to grassroots community urging -- led by commu- be reproduced without prior permission Reflecting History: On MLK, Jr. Day, the Rev.Taharka of the publishers. Publishers are nity leaders Taharka Robinson, a pastor, and Bruce P. Green of the Robinson snapped this shot of TD Bank’s “Closed” sign. not responsible for any ad claims. Brooklyn Anti-Violence Coalition-TD Bank closed its branches on The popular bank previously had announced it would MBE Certified in NYC, NYS the Federal holiday. The popular financial institution previously had be open, but shut its doors in response to community and the Port Authority of NY & NJ announced its branches would be open. demands. The reflection of Robinson with his school- Member: New York State Press Association “Truth, uncorrupted and on its own terms, empowers all,” Rev. age daughter is visible in this photo taken at the Fulton Robinson told Our Time Press. (BG) and Marcy TD Bank location. VOL. 21 NO. 3 OUR TIME PRESS January 19 – 25, 2017 3 Local Leaders Call for Obama to Continue Service ■ By Akosua K. Albritton Richard Flateau, Brooklyn Community Board No. 3 President proposes: t his last press conference, yes- His next order of work is involvement terday, President Barack Obama with the “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative. was reminded that he had said he He can serve as an inspirational force and wouldA come back and fight for the Dream- a role model. Barack Obama could do sym- ers. His answer went viral to s follow-up bolic and substantive things to uplift Black question posed by a reporter, "And what did boys and young men. He can continue his you mean when you said you would come efforts in gun control in the United States back?" or actualize his interest in developing PRESIDENT OBAMA: I did not mean future leaders—girls and boys—as exem- that I was going to be running for anything plified by PECASE awardees and other anytime soon. So, what I meant is that endeavors [who are new professionals in it’s important for me to take some time to their respective fields]. process this amazing experience that we’ve From NYS Senator Jesse Hamilton (SD gone through; to make sure that my wife, 20): with whom I will be celebrating a 25th an- Former presidents have done great niversary this year, is willing to re-up and things both at home and abroad in terms put up with me for a little bit longer.