Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 12 ife, JULY 3-9, 2020
By Afiya Lahens, Niani
Taylor, and Albert Scott Jr.
In 2008, Barack Obama
was elected President of the
United States with hopes and
promises of a better tomorrow.
Many naively believed
Obama’s election single handedly
ended racism and the
American dream was truly
possible for all.
His election came at the
height of a financial crisis
where housing foreclosures
were at an all-time high in
neighborhoods across America.
East New York, a microcosm
of the effects of the
failed housing market, saw
one of the highest foreclosure
rates in New York City — it
impacted over 2,000 East New
York households. Black and
Brown residents who make
up a large share of East New
York’s population became vulnerable
to exacerbated predatory
housing practices, leading
to an ever widening of the
racial wealth gap.
Twelve years since Obama’s
inauguration, “I can’t
breathe”, the last words of
Eric Garner and now George
Floyd, have been utilized as
a slogan for the #BlackLives-
Matter movement signifying
the chokehold of oppression
and police brutality. For weeks
people of all colors have been
chanting these words in cities
across America demanding
the change Obama’s election
promised years ago.
Although protests have
mainly focused on police
reform, communities are now
more emboldened than ever
to fight systemic racism in all
aspects of life such as education,
healthcare, and housing.
In East New York, residents
have already decided that they
want change!
By 2017, Brooklyn’s Community
District 5 (which
includes the communities of
Cypress Hills, East New York,
and Starrett City), reported
having the third highest new
foreclosure rates out of New
York City’s 59 community districts.
According to the report
East New York: Homeownership
Trends in a Working
Neighborhood, published by
the Center for New York City
Neighborhoods, CD-5 also
has the highest rate of tax
and water debt sold through
the City’s annual tax lien sale.
Instead of home sales going
to new low-and-moderate
income homeowners, real
estate LLCs are buying up
homes and flipping them for a
profit. In fact, from January to
March of this year, 60 percent
of the 95 homes purchased in
CD-5 were by real estate LLCs.
Financially struggling households
find themselves increasingly
vulnerable to housing
scams hinting towards a pattern
of gentrification seen
in various neighborhoods
throughout the city. There is
a dire lack of affordable homeownership
opportunities in
East New York.
Tired of decades of discrimination
and predatory
housing practices, residents
are demanding change and
understand that they must
take matters into their own
hands. Community members
have mobilized around
a unique approach to tackling
economic and housing injustices
through the creation of
the East New York Community
Land Trust (ENY CLT)
Initiative.
Community Land Trusts
(CLTs) are non-profit organizations
governed by a board
of residents, community
members, and public representatives
that provide lasting
community assets such
as shared equity homeownership
opportunities, affordable
rental and cooperative housing
projects, as well as the
conservation of land or urban
green spaces. CLTs are a tool
for community wealth-building
by arming residents with
financial literacy, community
organizing experience and
stable and affordable housing.
The only fully established
CLT in NYC as of 2019 was
the Cooper Square CLT. However,
as of last year, and due to
the $855,000 in discretionary
funding that the city invested
in the Community Land Trust
Initiative, there are upwards of
a dozen CLT’s that have been
established or are en route to
being established.
The ENY CLT is one of
those. As proud members of
the ENY CLT, we have witnessed
how empowered volunteers
are working to make
the CLT a reality and give our
community a fighting chance
against gentrification and displacement.
We are asking that
the City Council renew funding
for the CLT initiative so
that we can continue to grow
our CLT.
The city has already
pledged to temporarily end
the pilot program that would
legalize basements as apartments,
another form of affordable
residential living. This
was a promise made through
the ENY Rezoning. The City
Council and the mayor should
not fail East New Yorkers by
ending funding for CLTs.
We cannot be a community
that gets the shortest end of
the stick during these times.
This is especially true when
a neighborhood like Starrett
City, located within Community
District 5, has seen the
most amount of deaths out of
any other NYC community.
Afiya Lahens, Niani Taylor,
and Albert Scott Jr. are members
of the East New York
Community Land Trust (ENY
CLT) Steering Committee
The Editor,
Guyana’s Interim President
David Granger’s APNU+AFC
boys are out in full force to
peddle fake news to the world
media.
On Monday morning
(29/6/20), Aubrey Norton was
on Trinidad and Tobago’s TV6
morning show saying that
Opposition PPP/C General
Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo had
bought over all those who were
against the APNU+AFC Government
for delaying and disrupting
the official declaration
of the election results.
Norton said that Jagdeo
had undue influence over the
international election observers
and commentators such
as CARICOM, the Commonwealth
Office, the Organisation
of American States, the
Carter Centre and the European
Union.
He added to his fraudulent
list the diplomatic missions
in Guyana which included the
United States, Canada, the
United Kingdom and the European
Union.
Norton continued spinning
his weird, supernatural tale
by adding that Jagdeo’s allies
included the American Chamber
of Commerce (AmCham),
Guyana Public Service Union
(GPSU), Private Sector Commission
(PSC) and the Georgetown
Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (GCCI).
That same morning too,
“Prime Minister” Moses Nagamootoo
appeared on the same
country’s CNC3 TV, charging
that dead people and emigrants
were allowed to vote in the
March 2nd regional and general
elections.
Nagamootoo did not disclose
that the propaganda of ghost
voters was debunked by independent
investigations conducted
by Kaieteur News, The
News Room, Stabroek News
and The Citizenship Initiative,
to name a few.
Nagamootoo was strident in
his condemnation of CARICOM
Chairman and Prime of Barbados
Mia Mottley as well as
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves.
He fired a warning to
all foreigners that “they should
keep their mouth out of Guyanese
business.”
From all indications, Granger’s
APNU+AFC ruling party
would not concede defeat in the
elections. In doing so, he would
be isolating Guyana from the
rest of the world and forging
an alliance with neighbouring
Venezuela.
As a former Commander
of the Guyana Defence Force
(GDF) and National Security
Adviser to President Desmond
Hoyte, Granger will be provoking
international sanctions and
war with the USA.
Dr. Kumar Mahabir
San Juan, Trinidad and
Tobago
OP-EDS
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Supporting the East New York
Community Land Trust: A tool to increase
and protect affordable homeownership
Guyana gov’t accuses
all international
observers of bias
/schnepsmedia.com