Buildings suddenly sprouting extra floors. We see them everywhere, all over town. It's ridiculous looking. Now developers want to build on top of the Landmark Chelsea Market. The renderings are hideous. It's like someone putting on those tall stovepipe hats that Abe wore. Except that stovepipe hats are fun and in keeping with the historic significance of the Landmark Chelsea Market. What Jamestown wants to build on top of the market is not fun at all. For the community it will bring another hotel, more people to an already choking area, and more office space we don't need.

When I moved to Chelsea in the late 1970's, the west part of the neighborhood was boarded up and desolate of everything but rats and homeless. I know. I ran my dog down there.

Developers have since come west by the wagon load, carving up our neighborhood like it’s some sort of gold rush. Empty warehouses, buildings and stores have since been filled with thousands of jobs, the HighLine and our showcase park with thousands of tourists, and new highrises with thousands of new residents. Developers even wrestled from us our hospital, St. Vincent’s.

Developers have sapped our land dry and they’ve sapped our zoning changes dry. So what do they do? They  get zoning laws changed and start building upwards.

We fought the 'add-ups' at the 20th Street Seminary, we’re fighting and extra floor at the site of the landmarked Underground Railroad on 29th street, and now were fighting the Jamestown proposal to build a monstrosity upon the landmarked Chelsea Market at 15th street.

What’s next for developers. All that open sunshine and quietude of the Fulton Housing, Chelsea-Elliot Housing or Penn South? The rest of the neighborhood has become absolute chaos.

Our community has to got to come together as a whole and tell these developers that Enough is Enough! Say  Yes to stovepipe hats!  Say No To Jamestown!

By John Tepper Marlin, Ph.D.

                           Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Mike Johanns (R-NE) have agreed to organize a Secret Santa gift collection for senators, with a limit of $10 per gift. So what can we recommend to our Senators Schumer and Gillibrand that they buy for colleagues on the other side of the aisle? Let’s pretend the rules allow them to direct gifts to certain senators (Sen. Schumer heads up the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, so maybe he has some influence on these matters):

For Senator Schumer: A Bird Gift for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). Two Plastic Pink Flamingo Yard Ornaments. “A true classic, these flamingos will make every visitor to your home feel welcome! Use them as everyday lawn ornaments or display them to dress up a luau or beach party! Each 21" plastic flamingo stands on 23 3/4" wire legs. (2 pcs. per set). $9, shipping free.” From Oriental Trading Company. The flamingo is not Florida’s state bird (it is the mockingbird). However, for the money it conveys gulf between the 0.2 percent of Floridians who are millionaires and can have real flamingos in their back yards, and the 99.8 percent who earn less and have to make do with the plastic birds. Sen. Rubio voted against extending the payroll tax cut in favor of the 0.2 percent of Florida’s 9 million residents who would have had to pay more taxes to offset the payroll-tax revenue.

For Senator Gillibrand: A Bird Gift for Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) or Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) – a stuffed chickadee. The black-capped chickadee is the state bird of both Maine and Massachusetts. An important characteristic of the chickadee is that it is easily attracted to feeders. Sen. Snowe and Sen. Brown both voted against the payroll tax reduction extension on behalf of their residents who are millionaires, the 0.05 percent in Maine, as opposed to the 800,000 Maine residents - or the 0.5 percent in Massachusetts, as opposed to the 3.5 million Massachusetts residents who are not. To buy your little chickadee for less than $10 including shipping, look for Lil’ Kinz on the web. The Webkins are actually fun toys.
If you don’t like these suggestions, trying finding a bird to give to Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV, state bird Mountain Bluebird), who voted with the 0.2 percent of Nevadans who are millionaires. Or one for Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA, state bird Ruffed Grouse) who voted with the 0.1 percent of Pennsylvanians who are millionaires.

(Thanks to the Center for American Progress Action Fund for data on millionaires in each state.)

—It’s time to stop and frisk the other guys        

The poor have never had a big-time lobbyist to protect them, anywhere, and so, our society’s watchdogs have policed every system that helps them. As a by-product, today’s Social Security, Food Stamps, housing, welfare, and senior programs are the best systems working toward their intended use. It is time for the watchdogs to turn their attention to policing the systems that aren’t working. And the poor has finally got a big time lobbyist to back it up: ‘Occupy Wall Street’ represents a new and very angry, poor.

After millions of jobs went overseas and others were eliminated by the Internet, the reservoir of our country’s money dried up. Millions of us are now sliding down the reservoir’s shoreline into poverty. And while most Americans work for an honest buck, pay an honest tax, what many of us are now seeing, are the greedy ones all around us. When the money reservoir is dry, greed has nowhere to hide. It’s like that car that shoots past your car, and then cuts into your exit lane far down the road, only to be followed by another car, and then another. They’re so exposed, and yet they get away with it. It's easy to blame the wealthiest one percent of our country, but many of us see widespread greed that has become the norm.

Corporate System: Failing public company’s execs receiving fat bonuses and golden parachutes? Other companies, as big as GE and Bank America, somehow sidestepping taxes? Headquarters moved off-shore? The IRS letting the rich pay a less percentage than the poor? A minimum wage that keeps the poor, poor. Systems running amok!

Banking System: Bankers made a cruel joke of making tons of money on toxic mortgage loans to people with no money or assets. Just as the watchdogs got money back in Wall Street’s Madoff ponzi scheme, the money bet in derivatives against the poor, should be returned to the system. It worked for the rich, why not the poor?

Charity System: Revelations of crooked politicians with charities in which they wielded power and influence only to enrich themselves, their family and friends, is a charitable system flaw and opens our eyes to other phoney charities. Close to home, many 9-11 charities are now under investigation.  With over 1.2 million charities in our country and a new one opening it's doors every ten minutes, more oversight needs to be done to make sure charities are not used as family cash cows living in tax shelters.

Autonomous Public Agency’s like The Port Authority and MTA: When you hear about Port Authority toll collectors making over $100,000 a year and bridge and tunnel police making over $220,000 a year, you know the system is flawed all the way to the top. If you think a few ‘greeders’ don’t add up to too much money, think about the 800 MTA Long Island Rail Road Workers who paid corrupt doctors in awarding the workers disability claims of a potential billion dollars. That’s a lot of tokens to be sold for so few workers. And then there are agency executives giving themselves raises, while those actually doing the work, get laid off.

Municipal Unions: Unions are great. But there are many union members that are gaming the system. Double dipping is now popular, with workers collecting pensions and salary. Others are using and buying overtime so their last three year’s salaries, which is the basis of a pension, is astronomically larger than the system’s design. Municipalities across our country are headed for bankruptcy.

Health care, The Captive Customer: Just as stadiums charge fifty bucks to park a car in a swamp and charge ten bucks for a beer, the health care system also charge whatever they want. I even know people in debt for Veterinarian bills of deceased pets. It’s like our cable bill only offering bundles of channels we’ll never watch—or medical procedures that we don’t need. We have little choice. The Health care System will bury this country in debt unless something is done.

Whistle Blowers: There should be protection for whistle blowers. A recent NYPD Officer is fighting for his job after exposing the NYC’s ticket scandal, in which tens of thousands of dollars or more were denied in our city’s coffers. There’s a scam around every corner and rewards and recognition by our elected official’s should be offered. All whistle blowers need to be protected if all our systems are to be put back in line.

Voting: Instead of making it easier to vote, states are enacting stricter voter ID requirements, eliminating early voter periods and restricting registration drives, creating roadblocks for the poor to vote.

Good News: If each of the current 46 million recipients of Food Stamps invite a few others to dinner once a week, the entire country’s populous could break bread, talk the truth, and make a change. It only took 69.4 million to elect President Obama and he’s already started the process.

We have great systems with foundations built on the sweat and perseverance of those before us. We need to begin policing all our systems, not just those of the poor.

By Gloria Sukenick:                                           

“Welcome Bowery Residents Committee…but it seem not everyone feels that way!
I hit the hot streets today and headed down 8th Avenue to 23rd Street and what do I see on every lamppost, affixed with heavy duty, 3-inch tape, at least one, often two, three or four leaflets….protesting the opening of a facility that would serve a community in need of assistance. (looked like a job done by a professional leafleter, but money is no object).
What’s the message? A protest to a court decision that would allow the Bowery Residents Committee (BRC) to open its doors and begin to help those in need of their services.
But wait, there’s more! A sample of the language…’warehousing’, not assisting those need of help… bad for the homeless’’, haven’t heard from the homeless on this … ‘illegal’, and ‘breaks the law’ in spite of the court decision to the contrary… ‘justice delayed is justice denied’, ‘justice’, defined by who?
Despite evidence to the contrary (the BRC facility that resided on Lafayette Street for many years with barely any evidence of their existence, except for those who were helped) our East Chelsea neighbors have made some lawyers and leafleteers very happy, (again, money is no object).
So, to quote another distortion, “bad for the homeless, bad for the community” does NOT represent the view of many of my Chelsea neighbors who support the opening of the Bowery Residents Committee facility which will offer assistance to those who need another chance.

By Maarten de Kadt:                                           

“Gasland,” the movie nominated Academy Award, is a ‘must see,’ because it describes corporates race, that, if not stopped, will put NYC’s drinking water in jeopardy. The movie documents the dangers of hydrofranking for gas in the Marsalis Shale deposit. Companies have already drilled in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, with demonstrated damage to those drinking water supplies. One of its starkest images of the movie is of burning water coming out of a kitchen faucet. This burning water is a result of the injection of chemical laced water into the ground in order to release deposits of gas in rock formations 10,000 feet below the ground. The film makes clear that this chemical cocktail injected into the ground has caused damage to ground water. That damage affects the water we drink.
Hydrofracking is being pursued but has not been implemented in New York City’s drinking watershed. Governor Patterson authorized vertical drilling (the least dangerous form of hydrofracking) just before he left office and it is moving ahead in New York State. Fortunately, that governor continued the moratorium on the much more dangerous horizontal drilling version of hytrofracking. It is amazing to me that they can even consider allowing any hydrofracking near the water supply of approximately 10,000,000 people.
What do you think?

By Donathan Salkaln:                                    

What developers are doing to NYC today is much like what commercial fisherman have done to our oceans. Net, drag, and rake in every square inch of property and every nickel and dime, that it can. Regulations have been put in place to protect both industries from themselves, yet developers continually find ways around our zoning laws. With no land left, developers are now poaching the space above buildings, producing bizarre architectural results while taking away our neighborhood’s sunlight.

Jamestown’s hotel and office/condo development, proposed to be built above the Chelsea Market, is the latest plan to test the strength of Chelsea’s zoning laws. It's rendering is as bulky as if someone picked up the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier and just dumped it on our neighborhood.
We need to stand up and fight developers that continually attack our zoning laws!
Voice your opinion!