Right to the City

Originally posted in Union de Vecinos Newsletter This week AB 240 passed the California State Assembly with 76 votes and zero opposed and is now making its way to the Senate.  Since 2007, Union de Vecinos has been working on cleaning up the contaminated water in Maywood and working to democratize the water companies.  Currently Maywood residents receive their water from 3 private water companies and the Department of Public Health has asked the water companies, primarily Water Company #2, to develop water cleanup plans.  After years of organizing efforts, collecting sampling, collecting petitions, and testifying at city, county and state hearings,  we are beginning to see progress. With strong support from Assemblyman Anthony Rendon (who sponsored the bill) and Assembly Speaker John Perez, who has worked to set aside $6 million in funds specifically for Maywood water issues, we are seeing movement towards building an infrastructure that can begin to address the water contamination.  The bill will also give all Maywood water users, regardless of whether they own property or not, a say in the management of the water district.  As the bill moves forward we will keep you posted.  We would like to also thank all our supporters…

Article on Urban Congresses in Organizing Upgrade In Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, David Harvey explains that the right to the city is far more than access. Harvey writes, "It is a right to change and reinvent the city more after our hearts' desire. It is, moreover, a collective rather than an individual right, since reinventing the city inevitably depends on the exercise of a collective power over the process of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake ourselves and our cities is... one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights. How best then to exercise that right?" Right to the City Alliance's (RTC) Urban Congress Model is an attempt to answer that question. RTC developed this model as a means to create intersections amongst diverse sectors in the city, foster relationships within regions and mobilize organizations in our network. Our groups support each other in addressing their communities' respective city struggles through sharing strategies and effective tools for organizing. Some examples include: the organizing of street vendors into worker's cooperatives in Los Angeles, through the East LA Community Housing Corporation and Esperanza Community Housing and the "sword/shield model" for…

http://ariseforsocialjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/homes-for-all-march-13-2013-launch.html

by Max Rivlin Nadler /Originally posted in SALON.com April 28,2012 From Paris in 1871 to Prague in 1968 to Cairo in 2011 and eventually the streets of New York City, cities have long been a hotbed of radical movements. Over the decades, urban protests have been spurred by everything from unemployment and food shortages to privatization and corruption. But were they also caused by the geography of the cities themselves? The question has particular resonance this week, as Occupy prepares for a series of large May 1 protests in cities around the country. Geographer and social theorist David Harvey, the distinguished professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and one of the 20 most cited humanities scholars of all time, has spent his career exploring how cities organize themselves, and when they do, what their achievements are. His new book, “Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution,” dissects the effects of free-market financial policy on urban life, the crippling debt of middle- and low-income Americans and how runaway development has destroyed a common space for all city dwellers. Beginning with the question, How do we organize a whole…

Right to the City Alliance is supporting our local member groups in NYC in their efforts to provide support to communities that are not served by larger relief efforts throughout the city.  Below is some information  regarding our member groups. For the most updated info on how to volunteer or donate to grassroots organizations doing direct service work, please go to www.interoccupy.net/occupysandy/ (information BELOW provided by JFREJ, FUREE, GOLES, FIERCE,  CAAAV and CVH)  FUREE Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) is a Brooklyn-based multi-racial organization made up almost exclusively of women of color.  We organize low-income families to build power to change the system so that all people's work is valued and all of us have the right and economic means to decide and live out our own destinies. We use direct action, leadership development, community organizing, civic engagement and political education to win the changes our members seek. Our guiding principle is that those directly affected by the policies we are seeking to change should lead the organization. FOR THE LATEST ON UPDATES REGARDING RELIEF EFFORTS FOR THE GOWANUS HOUSES IN BROOKLYN, please call 347-806-6435. Contributions can be delivered to Gowanus Community Center, 420 Baltic Street in…