Protesting Bloomberg
Tuesday March 17, 2009 | New York City
The Daily Politics - NY Daily News
First an ornery groundhog, now angry demonstrators; Mayor Bloomberg is finding it tough to catch a break this week.
A grassroots coalition calling itself Right to the City-NY has claimed responsibility for disrupting the mayor's speech this afternoon at a lunch hosted at the Grand Hyatt by Crain's and business groups entitled "The Future of New York City."
The advocates chanted "this is what democracy looks like" as they burst into the hotel ballroom and tried to deliver a letter to the mayor that noted the absence of working-class, minority and immigrant New Yorkers at the conference and called for a meeting on the concerns of low-income city residents.
"The policy recommendations that come out of today’s “The Future of NY” conference could have a serious impact on the lives of low-income people - those that are most impacted by the current economic crisis. We are asking you to broaden your circle of advisors to include us, and to stop holding closed-door meetings with the political and business elite of New York. We have the right to be involved in the decision-making process that affects our lives and communities,” the letter to the Mayor states.
“We ask that you extend the same courtesy to us that you have shown the city’s elite by organizing a convention of low-income New Yorkers to produce policy recommendations that actually reflect community priorities for the city’s economic future."
Right to the City appears to be a national movement with chapters in Boston, MA; Washington, D.C.; LA; Miami; New Orleans; Oakland, CA; San Francisco, CA and Providence, RI.
The New York group includes:
CAAAV/Chinatown Tenants Union; Center for Social Inclusion; Community Development Project, Urban Justice Center; Community Voices Heard (CVH); FIERCE; Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE); Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ); Make the Road New York; Mothers on the Move (MOM); NYC Aids Housing Network/V.O.C.A.L. NY-Users Union (NYCAHN/VOCAL); Picture the Homeless; Red Hook Initiative; West Harlem Environmental Action (WEACT).
NOTE: The press release for this protest was forwarded out by the Urban Justice Center, which is a client of the communications/consulting firm BerlinRosen, but the firm isn't representing the entire group.