East New York Housing Series
By James Lewis Jr.
After yesterday’s informative OpEd: ‘City Officials Sell NYCHA Housing in East New York to Private Developers’, Charles and Inez Barron, and Community Board 5 were forced to announce a sham “Emergency Town Hall” to cover up for not informing their constituents earlier about the fact that NYCHA was being sold out to private developers.
I located an article from 2018 that speaks about the privatization of NYCHA, which means the Barrons and Community Board 5 Executives knew that this deal was coming down the pike two years ago. They had more than enough time to talk to the community and have Town Halls as a proactive way to stop the privatization. Their unusual silence can be looked at as a sign of support for the sale of NYCHA to be privatized, and in turn East New York to be completely gentrified.
Only after yesterday’s OpEd, did Charles and Inez Barron, along with the Executive Members of Community Board 5 start talking about having an “Emergency Town Hall” that they are now calling “Defending NYCHA against privatization”. Really? An Emergency Town Hall after I wrote the OpEd yesterday informing the East New York residents that the NYCHA developments are being sold. Obviously the Barrons and Community Board 5 have no shame. They DID NOT inform their own constituents and the people who voted for them, about the privatization, and now they want you to believe they want to do something about it.
Do not be fooled by allowing the Barrons to put on a sham Town Hall to tout their “fight”, when the fact is there was no fight at all. East New York’s NYCHA Housing has been sold on their watch! They might have complained about the mismanagement of NYCHA but they obviously got duped into giving it all up to private developers. In either case, they failed the community miserably. Selling out to private developers means the “low income” apartments will eventually become market rate, with some “affordable” apartments. We all know market rate in New York City is sky high and “affordable” is very high. There are “affordable” apartments listed at this very moment on the official New York City Affordable Housing website for $2,116 per month for a studio apartment.
A Town Hall at this stage of the game Is useless coming from this group of people who were trying to hide the NYCHA sale from the people. Secondly, they are only scrambling to put together an Emergency Town Hall because they were exposed yesterday as selling out their community by not even informing the residents of what they are facing. If they wanted to have a Town Hall they could have had a series of Town Halls starting 2 years ago when they knew about it or 15 days ago when the news was widely spread on various media outlets. See the date of this Real Deal article.
East New York elected officials and Community Board leadership are always marching and conducting Town Halls after our community has been shafted and hoodwinked, which is why East New York continues to suffer and get crapped on by the city time and time again. This is about our housing. They cannot play with our housing in a time when housing is so hard to come by in New York City. They’re playing games with our lives to sustain their own power, and it has to stop.
If you do go to their “Emergency Town Hall” ask them these questions:
- When did you first know NYCHA was on the block to be sold?
- A vote had to come through the City Council. How did Inez Barron vote?
- Did Community Board 5 provide any information to the community about the vote or about the sale of NYCHA?
- Did Charles Barron, Inez Barron or Community Board 5 know that The Hudson Companies developed a property in East New York that is hampered with sewage backups? (Hudson is one of the private developers slated to takeover NYCHA)
- Can they guarantee that you will be able to keep your current apartment without being displaced?
- Will the apartments eventually go to market rate at some time in the future?
The bottom line East New York; get your credit right, get your finances in order and pay your rent so you won’t get evicted because private developers will evict you fast and they are eager to do so. Do NOT depend on the elected officials or Community Board 5 for information or answers because they already showed you who they are. Just remember, they did not say one word about the sale of NYCHA until they were exposed as being silent yesterday.
Stay tuned to EastNewYork.com for follow up OpEds on East New York Housing.
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I guess our development is next!?.I live in a newly gentrified neighborhood!
In all the years in the various elected offices they’ve held,, what have the Barrons done for their constituents? Achievement and skills gap have worsened. Unemployment have stayed higher than whites and other groups. Still trapped in poverty and high crime. People are still trapped in multi-generational rental servitude to rat infested, lead paint poisoning, waterless and heatless NYCHA. Now the only people building wealth out of NYCHA are private developers with the Barrons taking a cut of 30 pieces of silver.,
The Barrons need to be run out of town and replaced with representatives who will lift up the community to be better educated, more skilled to get great jobs and careers, build wealth and home ownership. Who will stand up to the challenge?!
Regentification in east ny is a joke those ppl dont want to move out there no transportation no good schools hospitals dont let them fool us, it’s about making money off the poor and non held accountable property owners #slumlords
The elected official are all full of shit and a bunch of sell outside they aren’t doing anything to help the black and brown people we vote them in but they dnt have no.power. this is all a game they play. They knew long time that nycha was going to be privatize, they pay them under the table to sell is out then they act like the didnt know and want to call a town hall meeting like that’s really gonna stop something that has already been set in stone. Black and brown people get your shit together cause a change is coming.
Gentrification has destroyed a once beautiful city. Sad
I’m sorry to hear about this, but how many people that live in NYCHA buildings actually show up for meetings? How many times of you work and reinvest in your community? But so quick to tear down your our own! Articles like this are a part of the problem. Please keep in mind that we are each others keeper and if we stuck together, pooled resources, taught our own children we wouldn’t need NYCHA.
#buyblack #knowYOURhistory
#seekGUIDANCE #operateWITHlove
IJS….Check your own values before you spew hatred.
MellyMel Whether people show up for meetings or not is irrelevant because the Barrons who knew NYCHA was being sold never told any of the people who actually did come to the meetings. Are you saying that no matter how underhanded our elected officials are that we shouldn’t say anything about the fact that they were going to leave us out to dry without telling us? That’s worse than anything. You must be one of those hard core supporters. No matter how much they sell their people out you still support them. Good luck with that.
Besides I did not read anything that was hatred in the article. It just told us what our elected officials didn’t tell us. You should be thanking the writer and asking the Barrons what the hell is their problem. Did you ask them that?
Jason Riley calls out rightfully the failure of black politicians to help their constituents and thus made their lives worse since the Civil Right Act, Voting Rights Act and Affirmative Action: https://t.co/Y5AVxXnXwS
Folks since the 1950 NYCHA buildings were looked upon of those who lived on the cheap: low rents & not paying for electricity nor heat; more so, those built near waterways as being more desirable locations was in the plan to change!
To date, in White Plains, NY their projects have already change on Lexington Av across the street from the Federal Court House.
NYCHA in the past years had in plan to build private Coop buildings on existing project land in the parking lot space.. Wake Up folks who have been residing 30, 40 and 50 years in NYCHA…
All of the residents living in NYCHA devopments throughout the five boroughs were blindsided by the privatization scheme, not just in East New York. From Brooklyn to Manhattan to the Bronx, and everywhere else, nobody was pre-informed about this. All of a sudden, out of the blue, NYCHA released a statement to the press. It csught everyone off guard, and is shocking — this is like lettng the fox into the hen house. — it is the exact opposite of how public housing is suppised to be funded. Glenn in Flatbush.
We were hopeful and excited when strikes in 1968 led to NYC Community controlled school boards and Common councils. Unfortunately changing who is in control has not always reaped the benefits for the community. Just for the new ‘voices of the community’. I attended PS 262, and 21 in Bedford Stuyvesant and 161 and Lefferts JHS 1961-68
The Barrons can’t do anything by themselves, the community still has to do there part as well. How many ppl from housing come out to meetings etc. If the Barrons did start their town hall meetings 2 years ago, what do you think would be different? In order for change to happen everyone must work together, and having property and a business in ENY most ppl do not come together. NYC housing complexes are being sold throughout the entire city for over 20 yrs now. I feel the Barrons are doing what they can, because who can really stop the failing NYC housing system from being sold, this is big $ that the City is being paid. In order for change “EVERYONE” must come together!
My Uncle is Charles Barron. My mother, sister and I moved in with him when my house burned down in Bedstuy when I was about 13 years old. This was in 1989. I remember public assistance showing my mother and I an apartment in Brownsville and then in Linden Houses. We ultimately decided on Linden since it was close to my Uncle. I remember thinking “this is some scary shit!”. From my perspective, the projects have always been a love / hate relationship. We are solely responsible for our community and what I’ve learned is that it takes an army of liked minded people to commit to real change. We should never solely rely on others to make the changes we want to see in our community. It all starts with the residents. Now I’m not giving an out to ANY elected officials, as it is their sole purpose to serve the community in which they were elected to do. If indeed NYCHA is selling or have already sold, the community is half to blame. Urinated soaked elevators, garbage everywhere, youth out of control and the list goes on. Change has to start from the bottom up or someone else will change it for you. Most often, you won’t agree with the kind of change you had no hand in changing.