From the Lo-Down

From BoweryBoogie

From NYPost

Reminding us of the murder in the same area two weeks ago.

NOW could we have serious movement on returning the Stanton Building to community use to help anchor this area with an active positive use?

We need them.

Word on the street is that we have 50+ homeless people sleeping in the park.

No bathrooms from Grand Street to Houston Street.

Need open, supervised, monitored, with maintenance nearby.

Human dignity, health issues, sanitation issues.

A short term solution?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From Gothamist:

A Decade After Their Debut, 15 Public Toilets Are Still Sitting In A Warehouse In Queens

“In 2008, New York City unveiled the first of 20 self-cleaning public toilets to great fanfare and bathroom humor. “What a relief!” deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff said in a statement, while DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan initiated the first official flush at the inaugural public toilet in Madison Square Park. But if you’ve never seen or used one of the toilets, which cost 25 cents for 15 minutes of uninterrupted bathroom time, that may be because 15 of them are still sitting in a warehouse in Queens.”

Read more here.

From the NYTimes:

“The first suggestion to Rafe Pomerance that humankind was destroying the conditions necessary for its own survival came on Page 66 of the government publication EPA-600/7-78-019. It was a technical report about coal, bound in a coal-black cover with beige lettering — one of many such reports that lay in uneven piles around Pomerance’s windowless office on the first floor of the Capitol Hill townhouse that, in the late 1970s, served as the Washington headquarters of Friends of the Earth. In the final paragraph of a chapter on environmental regulation, the coal report’s authors noted that the continued use of fossil fuels might, within two or three decades, bring about “significant and damaging” changes to the global atmosphere.”

Pomerance had one big question about the coal report. If the burning of coal, oil and natural gas could invite global catastrophe, why had nobody told him about it? If anyone in Washington — if anyone in the United States — should have been aware of such a danger, it was Pomerance.”

Modern Farmer:

By Brian Barth on August 27, 2018

“…In 1920, before the Great Migration drew some six million African Americans to cities such as Chicago and New York, 14 percent of the farm owners in this country were black, at a time when only 10 percent of the population was. Collectively, those one million individuals owned 15 million acres of land. Over the ensuing decades, however, these farmers left agriculture at a rate three times faster than their Caucasian counterparts, and by 1992, the percentage of U.S. farms owned by African Americans had dwindled to less than one percent…”

“Soul Fire Farm has operated on a sliding-scale CSA model that encourages affluent customers to subsidize boxes of organically grown produce and pastured chickens for less fortunate capital-region residents. The initial goal, as Penniman defines it: “We wanted, straight up, to deliver fresh, high-quality food to our people at prices they could afford.”

“…Turner considers the proliferation of black-run urban farms a positive trend, he notes that these growers rarely hold the deed to the land they work. “I support the efforts to turn vacant lots into community gardens,” he explains, “but that’s not going to create an inheritance for generations to come. The way to achieve parity in this country is by owning a piece of the rock.”

“…Fannie Lou Hamer. A sharecropper evicted for registering to vote in 1962, Hamer raised enough capital to gradually establish the 680-acre Freedom Farm Cooperative in Sunflower County, Mississippi, a refuge of sorts for evicted tenant farmers. By owning the land, and being her own boss, Hamer became impervious to the scare tactics of white employers: “She and others like her were able to take a role in the front lines of voter registration drives, were the first to sign petitions, and didn’t hesitate to speak up at NAACP meetings.”

“Penniman launched “Uprooting Racism in the Food System,” a four-day workshop she describes as “training to de-program white people in positions of power or influence—someone who might hold public office or direct a nonprofit.”…The workshop gets them to stop thinking of racism simply as interpersonal meanness, like using the N-word, and to recognize the ways it’s been baked into our structures.”

From SingTao’s Keenan Chen:

Working on a better translation!! But for now:

“Worrying Hua’s further “aristocraticization”

August 08, 2018, 22:24 New York

Worrying Hua’s further “aristocraticization”

Many residents used chalk to write a variety of demonstration slogans on the pavement.

Our reporter Chen Yutai reports from New York

Worried about the further “aristocratization” of Manhattan’s Hua Tuo, nearly 100 community members came to the Rivington House in Roosevelt Park on the afternoon of the 8th to hold a “Vigil” demonstration, asking the city government and real estate developers to ” Recovering the life, let this building that has been providing education or medical services to the community for more than 100 years, and continue to exercise it as the “mission” of public facilities.

On the evening of Wednesday, residents of various districts hanged a full ribbon at the “Levinton House” and nearby railings, or wrote various slogans in chalk on the pavement, demanding the administration of Bai Sihao and real estate development. The business retains this building.

Has provided treatment services for AIDS patients

Among them, Kathleen Webster is the initiator of this “vigil” demonstration and the head of the community organization Neighbors to Save Rivington House. She said that she had had a dialogue with developers earlier this year and is expected to continue the dialogue in the next few months. Therefore, she hopes to exert pressure on the city government and developers as much as possible. She said: “The Vanke company is the world’s largest real estate developer. They don’t need this land at all. But there are so many elderly and low-income people in our community. I need the “Levinton House” transformation. Become an old man’s building.”
The 6-storey, 145,000-square-foot “Levinton House” was completed in the late 19th century. It was originally the site of the PS 20 public school, but it was converted into an AIDS treatment center around 1990. AIDS patients provide treatment and services.
Developers acquire and renovate the luxury building
Zheng Zheng, who participated in the demonstration on the same day, said that he grew up near the “Levinton House” and recalled that many patients in wheelchairs were seen passing by every day and were pushed down to the front of the door to enjoy the cold. He said: “Those patients have always been well taken care of here.”
However, as the number of hospital admissions dropped significantly, many beds were vacant, causing the health centre to be closed in 2014. The community originally hoped that the building could be converted into a home for the elderly, but it was later discovered that the city government had “sneakly” removed the contractual terms that restricted the use of the building only as a non-profit-making health service facility, enabling Vanke Enterprises. Vanke (USA) Holdings, together with New York local developers Slate Property Group and Adam America Real Estate, acquired the building and plans to transform the property into a luxury building with 100 apartments.
Zheng Zheng hopes that the historic “Levinton House” will continue to maintain its role in providing public services. He said: “This building has always provided extremely important care services to the community, and we continue to it.”

Translation for Singtao Daily News

Concerned about the further “aristocracy” of Chinatown in Manhattan

Nearly 100 community members came to the Rivington House in Roosevelt Park in the afternoon of the 8th to hold a “vigil” demonstration, demanding that the city government and real estate developers “rescind the order” and let this 100 years building continue to provide education or medical care service for the community.

Late Wednesday evening, residents of many districts hung ribbons on the Rivington House and nearby railings, or chalked up various demonstration slogans on the pavement, demanding that Bill De Blasio government and property developers keep the building to help with treatment services for AIDS patients.

Among them, K Webster one of the initiator of the vigil and part of the community organization Neighbors to Save Rivington House. She said she had held talks with developers earlier this year and expected to continue. Therefore, she hopes to exert pressure on the city government and developers as far as possible. “Vanke is the world’s largest real estate developer and they don’t need it at all,” she said. But there are so many elderly people and low-income people in our community. There is an urgent need for Rivington House to be transformed into an elderly building (for those in need of care as seniors).

The 6-storey, 145,000-square-foot Rivington  House, originally the site of the public school PS 20, was completed in the late 19th century, but was converted into an AIDS sanatorium around 1990 to provide treatment and services to thousands of AIDS patients.

Developers buy and transform luxury buildings

Zheng Hao-wei, who participated in the demonstration, said he grew up near the Rivington House and recalled seeing many patients in wheelchairs and being pushed to the door for a cool ride every day when he passed class. “Those patients have been well taken care of here,” he said.

But with the number of hospitalized sanatoriums declining dramatically, many beds were vacant, leading to the closure of the sanatoriums in 2014. Community members had hoped the building would be converted into a nursing home, but it was later discovered that the city government had quietly lifted the terms of the contract, which had limited the building to non-profit-making health services, and that Vanke (USA) Holdings had contracted with Slate Property Group, a local developer in New York, and Adam America Real Estate bought the building together and planned to transform it into a luxury building with 100 apartments.

Zheng hoped that the historic Rivington House would continue its role in providing public services. “The building has been providing vital care to the community and we continue to provide it,” he said.

Andrew Gombert for The New York Times

NYTimes:

Their Kingdom for a Bike: It’s Polo on Two Wheels

“They call it “the pit.” On a shady asphalt lot between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets on the Lower East Side, a young man in glasses and a faded tank top walked around with a leaf blower, sending twigs, grit and debris into its far corners.”

Best quote:

“The players at the pit remain devoted to each other and to the sport, but also to just having a good time. “At the end of the day,” Ms. Flores said, “you rode your bike in circles all day with your friends and had fun. How many adults our age wouldn’t want to do that?”

Andrew Gombert for The New York Times

M’Finda Garden

When  Sunday, September 23, 11:30am     FREE!         

Where    Meet at Merchant’s House Museum 29 East 4^th (btwn Bowery & Lafayette)

RSVP Required:  merchantshouse.org/calendar/reservations       Space limited!

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

We cordially invite you to join us for a unique experience.    

RSVP Required  (See below)

Gardens & Graveyards Walk

A reflective guided stroll through idyllic, often hidden green spaces

of Little Italy, Noho, Bowery & the Lower East Side 

Tour will visit graveyards and gardens, many not often open to the public, as well

as the sites of the long-vanished Vauxhall Gardens and the Second African Burial Ground.

M’Finda Garden    

Participants/Sponsors

Bowery Alliance of Neighbors

Elizabeth Street Garden

Liz Christy Garden

Merchant’s House Museum

M’Finda Kalunga Garden

New York City Marble Cemetery

New York Marble Cemetery

St Patrick’s Old Cathedral

M’Finda Garden