Posts tagged as:

lower east side

I Am A Community Organizer: The Genesis

by Jose on September 8, 2008 · 3 comments

in life

This morning, on my doorknob, I got a flyer from some group detailing the negative aspects of Daniel Squadron, a young man who’s running for New York State Senate, representing Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The whole Lower East Side has been abuzz with community activism and political stationing, not so much about the presidential candidate (almost all of the hood reps for Barack), but this rather intriguing and upcoming election for State Senate. As far as community organization, the LES is loyal (sometimes to a fault) to certain candidates who use proletariat politics to get us in the voting booths on behalf of them.

Now, without getting into too much of those politics, because frankly, I’m not as informed as I should be, I find it interesting that the battle of whose serving for whom is heavily dependent on people’s utter prejudices rather than looking at the issues and actually going with what their actions. For example, Nydia Velasquez, the US Congresswoman who represents Lower Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, is probably one of my favorite politicians because her record speaks for itself. She’s been doing it for what feels like forever (15 years to be exact), and has done it well. You never hear about any scandals from her, and she’s the head official of the US House Committee on Small Business, so her interest obviously lie in her community even if she’s in Washington. She usually makes her presence felt in our hoods and while other people’s name may flounder in popularity, hers stay steady.

And that’s really all I need from a politician. I’m not asking them to change the world, but I do ask them to keep their community’s interest at heart. It’s easy to walk into those Romanesque edifices and kowtow to the special interests and political games in those hollow chambers, but it really takes someone who understands what a “public servant” does and do that to the best of their abilities. I’m not saying Ms. Velasquez is Queen of perfection, but her recent vote as the most progressive politician in New York, a progressive bastion, should let you know why our hood likes her so much.

Now, when I look at Squadron, I see the face of the new Lower East Side / Brooklyn: young, bearded, White, and unfamiliar. He looks like the guys who peruse the night scene on 1st Street or Ludlow, and that makes me itch. From what I understand, he barely lived and worked here in NYC, mainly as an aide for Senator Chuck Schumer. While the photo ops are nice, I’m not sure he’s actually in tune with the community as he should be. Then, I look at Martin Connor, and I see … an older White gentleman. He’s been around a while, but I ask myself if he helped or hurt our neighborhood, so different from he first took office. Furthermore, I feel like I only hear of Marty Connor’s name during elections.

And it’s with that thinking that the role of community organizer becomes ever more important. Activist groups such as PHROLES address issues pertaining to public house in my hood. Social workers, parents, and teachers in this city are going to the important meetings and rallies to keep our interests (which is specifically our children’s interests) in the ears of politicians who only want to read off a sheet rather than come from the gut. Even subgroups such as 100 Black Men in Law Enforcement often takes stances that contradict their employer’s positions for their community’s benefit. That’s powerful.

With the understanding of the complex politics of New York City with its varying degrees of liberal and progressive ideas, it’s hard to jump into community organization when there are so many options. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I just hope that whatever path I choose will

a) be in line with most of my ideals
b) will serve the people and not the “masters”
c) keep the people who I represent informed and active

Because if I can’t meet either of those requirements, I can’t honestly say I serve those people. Maybe that’s something our public servants should take heed of.

jose, who has 2 dangerous posts coming up this week …

p.s. – Please support the blogs around the web contributing to the Blogging Day of Justice today, starting with Electronic Village.

{ 3 comments }

Gentrifuckation (part 1)

by Jose on February 20, 2008 · 17 comments

in Uncategorized

Every morning, this is what my walk to the train station looks like:

Skyline

That thing I circled is The Ludlow. At first, it doesn’t look too obstructive …

The Ludlow Blocks Sunlight

Then, as I start to walk down Houston St., I realize how much it blocks my damn sunlight, the energy I feed off of every morning. It casts this huge and ominous shadow over the street; if the sun even came out that day, people might not know. Whenever I inquire about a price from my fellow LESers, they give me the big eyeroll and a deep breathe. And it’s only getting worse.

As if you didn’t know my stance on the deterioration of the Lower East Side, my neighborhood for more than a quarter-century now, I’m absolutely infuriated with the amount of gentrification that’s swept our neighborhood. When Emperor Guiliani presided over NYC and rid the city of much of NYC’s charm and character in favor of condominiums and Walt Disney, many of us wondered what the hell would happen to us. I first noticed the change when this building came up.

Red Square

I was too young to understand that, as modest as this structure and its accompanying stores were, it would be the precursor for the raising of the rent and the razing of too many structures I’m familiar with. The clocks on top of the Red Square tell the right time if you strictly look at the hands, but the numbers are all switched around, meaning that the LES was now on their time and not ours.

A decade later, 1/2 of the shops, buildings, and people I used to know in this area have either evaporated or gone elsewhere, replaced with boutiques, wine shops, art and architecture showcases, and bars. An overabundance really. There’s nothing wrong with a little renovation. I’m all for getting a little more money into a neighborhood and a little less crime, but let’s look at a case study:

Two Buildings

Building A is a brand new building. Building B’s probably been around since this was a primary Jewish neighborhood. Now, because of Building A, building B can raise its rent. And because of building B, residents of building A can say they live in better conditions, even though they live right next to each other, have to shop at the same groceries, and have the same inglorious view of the changes happening in this neighborhood.

Now, some of these shops changed completely, but others found it cute to basically keep the name of the old establishment just to look semi-authentic. (Click for larger image)

Arlene’s GroceryAlias Restaurant

And whenever gentrification wants to leave its signature, it turns to the boys from Seattle:

Starbucks

Some of my critics who believe that life shouldn’t be fair and blame the victim whenever they get the chance, would probably now say, “But Jose, can’t a community grow? Why does everything have to be negative? Gentrification brings jobs, it cleans up neighborhoods, brings in people, and strengthens the community.” In some ways, they might be right. I don’t have to go very far to have fun. There’s a nice diner here that I can take my friends to, and people look at me in awe whenever I tell them I was born and raised here, a confidence booster for sure.

Yet my response stays the same: what happens to the people who’ve been working here for decades now? Why is it always appropriate for the more affluent to invade a poor person’s space and push out the inhabitants for their own gain while the poor are always ostracized when we make inroads in their communities? Why does redlining and HUD exist if this is a free society and all men are created equal? Will they have us live like on the East River when it’s all said and done?

Chinese Junk

I’m not sure, but the following structure is a hint. Look at it. It’s ugly. Really.

Blue Condo of Death NYC

Need another angle?

Blue Condo of Death NYC 2

Wait, if I look at it clearly, I think I see something …

Blue Condo of Death NYC Fist

A FIST! And there you have it. Symbolic of the struggles of the people, the fist now represents the urban developers’ forceful raping of the delicate culture Loisaida has cultivated over the last few decades. Before Time Out New York had the nerve to advertise “The Lower East Side Is Back” on their covers, people lived here. Before the NYPost and other newspapers had the nerve to mistake where Chico painted the Nixzmary Brown and 2Pac murals, the Lower East Side was here. Before the Nuyorican Poets Cafe had lines full of people trying to act like they understand the art of Pedro Pietri and mimicking each other just to look deep / cute, Pedro Pietri himself gave the people anthems to get by on those open mic nights. Before these yuppies, hipsters, posers, and wannabes giggled and vomited their way through all our neighborhoods, the Lower East Side was cool.

Nixzmary Brown Mural by Chico

2Pac Mural by Chico

Odyssey, the disco band, once sang of native New Yorkers, but those come sparse like the American bald eagle and Babe Ruth rookie cards, and just as valuable. Because we still preserve the secrets, the ups and downs, the grit, and the soul that once made the Lower East Side, and hence NYC, what it was, and what people come here for. I’m not sure, but my LES is officially on its death bed, and we are the eulogizers and pallbearers of that tradition.

jose, l.e.s. for life …

p.s. – I know I linked this a couple of posts ago, but I’ll get into it a little bit later on.

{ 17 comments }

A Tale of Two Lower East Siders

by Jose on October 30, 2007 · 6 comments

in Uncategorized

Jayson TiradoI’m a resident Lower East Sider. I don’t teach around here, but my heart, soul, and body still resides here. So when news from this area comes out, my ears perk up. We’ve had some of the more peculiar and iconic events happen around these parts, yet they hardly get recognized because 1) people didn’t care too much about our hood or 2) it’s become the mecca of immense gentrification, which is happening around here and the neighboring East Village.

The latest tragedy here is that of Jayson Tirado, who was shot by an off-duty police offer on Sunday, October 28th, 2007. Tirado, and the off-duty police officer, had an argument while in a traffic jam in Upper Manhattan. Officer Sean Sawyer, the cop, turned himself after shooting up Tirado’s car, which also had 2 of Tirado’s friends. As of now, the local papers have called it a serious case of road rage, but most people around my way call it another case of police brutality, as Tirado had no weapon on him and there was no real reason to do anything to him. He pointed his finger at the officer, but that was really it.

Of course, the officer, who is Black, claimed self-defense, so he’s not in jail right now, but it got me to thinking about the various stereotypes we hold against young men and women in our neighborhoods, and how we can transform those if we saw beyond the surface just a little bit. This was a husband and father of two, and someone who his family loved very much. They came out in packs for the man at his funeral at the Ortiz Funeral Home on 1st and 1st, and yet, because he listens to a certain type of music, hangs with a certain type of people, and wears braids in his hair, he’s already pegged as a drug-dealing young dropout low-life.

It’s easy for Black and Latino conservatives or semi-conservatives will look at the man and say, “Well he shouldn’t have been wearing those braids, and rocking those clothes, or being who he is.” Imagine if someone told you you couldn’t be who you were, even if you weren’t hurting anyone. But his image alone seems to disturb the self-righteous into that type of thinking.

As someone who chose a more academic and hence alternative route, I, too, was brainwashed into believing guys like him were holding our community back. Then again, I also grew up in a time when people compared this side of the neighborhood to Beirut, with people shooting people from behind an edifice, and blue caps lined the cracks on the concrete. And people who looked like Jayson were conduits for that type of behavior. Then again, people who were in Sean’s profession often instigated that violence, leaving some of these materials under park benches readily.

What changed my mind after looking at all these images weren’t the cases of Amadou Diallo (who used to work at a deli I frequented),  Anthony Baez, Abner Louima, or Timothy Stansbury. It was when my brother told me that a family friend, 17 year old kid at the time, had gotten slashed in the face. I said, “Wow, that’s what you get for being up in the street like that.” And my brother goes, “Yeah, well it’s ’cause he beat some dude in basketball and he slashed him. That’s how much you know.”

Shit. Here I was thinking I was lifting my people, but I was really leaving them behind, and that’s disheartening. Since then, I’ve made real concerted efforts to become more knowledgeable about what happens in the community. While I can’t discuss some of the things I do, I’ll say that a simple conversation with neighbors, waving to people I never used to talk to, and things of that nature have really made me proud of being from this still poor neighborhood. I’m not proud of the negative things that come out of the ‘hood, but I don’t disown it for the sake of appeasing some authority.

In many ways, that’s why the hood hates Bill Cosby, but appreciates Malcolm X. We stick by our local leaders, but hate people like Oprah who come out against hip-hop like they’re saviors, and appeasing their masters by selling us out. If I could borrow a comment from one of my favorite sites to visit:

“… Bill doesn’t talk, he preaches. He doesn’t agitate, he sermonizes. A lot of us are sick of it and here’s why. First, if you want to motivate someone, you don’t scold or make them feel bad. You nurture them, you take take positive behavior, build on it. How does Bill attempt to motivate? By finding the worst examples and bashing black folks over the head with it– in front of white audiences on Meet the Press. Second, Bill is educated and already knows that we’re talking structural vs cultural arguments, with what comes down to one feeding on the other. People are poor and feel hopeless, and they do what all poor people do– blame and take it out on the closest people to them– ” – mac

I don’t know much about Jayson’s life other than what the local media’s distributed, but I can tell you I feel for his family and I send my condolences. It’s not everyday when someone’s death helps refocus another person’s life. Thanks.

jose, who’ll always be from the hood …

{ 6 comments }