By Donathan Salkaln:                                        

On the very afternoon that two sons of Russian immigrants detonated bombs of mass hate in Boston, I had the uncomfortable predicament of finding a wallet on the Long Island Railroad. I was heading back to NYC after helping my mother with endless Sandy repairs. I remember it was the same day, because across the aisle, the young Latino who left his wallet (I’ll call him Miguel, hence forth, although that is not his real name) was sharing with his friend across from him, explosion photos on their iPhones.

They shared some of the photos with me as I had heard little of the attack. We spoke some, about terrorism, and I returned to reading an in depth story about yesterday’s news and they went back to jawing in Spanish, of which I know little. They seemed excited about where they were headed. Both were nicely dressed, as nice as late teens these days dress. It was as if they had worked hard all day, washed up and were going out. Miguel, at some point, fanned his money. A double date?

They got off, maybe Bayshore, and then a couple stops later I noticed the wallet. It was left on Miguel’s seat, along with a deck of cards. I quickly grabbed both, feeling bad in not discovering it earlier. Miguel was probably showing up to a poker game without cards or money. Not a fun evening.

I asked a passing conductor if he should take the wallet or I should mail it back to the kid. The conductor told me to mail. I opened the wallet and found the following: a NYS Driver’s Learner’s Permit with Miguel’s photo. His listed age was twenty-one with a P.O. Box address out east. There was also $143, a Medicaid card, and a Benefits Card.

Later that evening, I stood on a very long line to mail the wallet back. It was mayhem at the 34th St Main Post Office, being late on April 15th, tax’s deadline. I had plenty of time to wonder of how a kid such as Miguel came to benefit from free food and medical, all paid for by those very people I was on line with. I wondered if Miguel even paid income taxes.

I also wondered, this time aloud, if the terrorist attack was some evil ‘Boston Tea Party’ tax revolt. I got some very stoic stares from line mates, and decided to shut up.

We have since learned that the two Boston terrorists were sons of an immigrant family who took advantage of social programs, stretching from food stamps and welfare to college scholarships, just as Miguel from Long Island has.

Washington reports that there are close to fifty million Americans benefiting from food stamps. That’s not true and Washington should disclose the true numbers. A chunk of that fifty million are obviously Non-Americans. And what gets my crow is that the program doesn’t require the purchase of only American made or grown products. If I didn’t know better, I’d think a foreign country is running this country.

We need to get a better handle on our porous immigration and benefits programs. Realistic incentives need to be put in place be set to get as many immigrants, as possible, to join the rank and file of those law abiding Americans standing on line to pay their taxes. More oversight is needed in the dispense of social benefits to make sure that America’s truly needy receive them.

With so much important news this year, it’s easy to have missed the report* of Justice Scalia, at a college, reiterating his stance that ‘voting is an ‘entitlement.’ Back in February, at a hearing of the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia presented an argument against Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The section requires states or localities, that have historically discriminated against minority voters, to get government approval in changing electoral procedures. The case that he’s drumming up support for the court to hear, comes from a county in Alabama with a population 85 percent white.

By Donathan Salkaln:                                    

Under the radar of empty air traffic control towers there is talk in Washington of cutting Social Security benefits. That giant vault of money that I, and other aging Americans have spent a working-lifetime sacrificing to pay into, is about to be raided.

Itʼs alarming that Washington is acting like a magician spouts jargon while pulling from its sleeve a budget plan resembling a long rope of twisted clashing colored handkerchiefs, all neatly tied together. And itʼs all happening as quickly as a magician's act. The magician gets his laugh and moves on to his next act, which might as well be the sawing in half of an unbelieving citizen from the audience.

Within Washington's propose budget is a plan to raid our Social Security vault and take out a giant chunk. We need to stand up and say, “No!”

Washingtonʼs planned raid reminds me of a workerʼs dispute several years ago, at a local Chinese restaurant. The dispute escalated to into a picket line along University Avenue in Greenwich Village. The restaurant owners had been withholding tip money from their workers. Workers that complained, got fired. A revolt ensued and the workers eventually won a court order for restitution of lost income.

Like the owner of Chinese restaurant grabbing money due to their workers, Washington is about to take a grab of our money. No matter how much money they take, the theft will chip away of everyone's paid right to their American Dream.

Older Americans have American dreams too!

BY STEVEN SKYLES-MULLIGAN                   

We have just been through a significant election in which our candidates performed well and our causes have advanced enough to nudge the core of our national discussion away from the right and back towards the middle. But that’s not what progressivism is about. In his recent book, “Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape America,” the Nation Institute’s Ari Berman points out that progressivism doesn’t work if it is merely about counting votes. It requires sustained grassroots activity — that’s all of us paying attention to what’s going on around us, at the national, state and local levels — and taking part in the discussion that shapes events and impacts our community.

Not all progress is progressive. We have certainly seen a great deal of “progress” in Chelsea over the past couple of decades. We are incrementally shedding that sleepy mixture of nineteenth century graciousness and rough-and-tumble funkiness that has defined the neighborhood for so long. Chelsea has become a destination as much as a neighborhood. The cranes sprouting from the far west side of our neighborhood point to still more expansion — and I recently heard a Republican candidate for mayor argue that the New York City Housing Authority should sell off some of its properties in prime locations (presumably including those in our neighborhood) to support those at the fringes of the city.

Progressive principles lead us to question each new development. Is it likely to reinforce or diminish the diversity of the community? Does it sustain permanently affordable housing side-by-side with new upscale dwellings? Will it provide new customers for reasonably-priced, local “mom and pop” businesses or will it accelerate their replacement with luxury stores and national brands? Finally, will the new development use its fair share of our resources — both natural (light, air and water) — and manmade (roadways, sidewalks and utilities)?

Posing those questions has led the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club and many other groups — including Save Chelsea, the Council of Chelsea Block Associations, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and, in a somewhat different way, Community Board 4 — to engage in struggles to support or defeat various projects.

The most notable success, of course, was the defeat of the proposed West Side Stadium. That boondoggle would have required taxpayer support for a very profitable business concern, while greatly increasing traffic and stressing the neighborhood’s resources. Another success was somewhat bittersweet: the rejection of The General Theological Seminary’s efforts to overbuild on its property facing Ninth Avenue. That battle reflects what can happen when an organization is in a community but not of it. The more recent struggle over the Chelsea Market expansion provides still more lessons. It appears that enforcement of many of the minimal concessions made by Jamestown Properties in exchange for substantial upzoning will rely on good will, not the law.

It is never easy to see where “progress” will take us or to judge whether the results are predominantly good or largely bad. A century ago, the far west side of Chelsea was full of manufacturing and services catering to the thriving ports of Chelsea Piers. Now art galleries and other “new economy” businesses flourish there. Blue collar jobs and pursuits have yielded to white collar ones. More dramatically, the High Line has been converted from an abandoned freight railroad to a stunning park. At the same time, it has arguably become the backbone of all the new development — and upward economic pressure — in our neighborhood.

Change will happen, of course. That is the nature of civilization — but members of communities have the power to channel that change, to alter its flow and shape it so that it is more likely to serve the common good. Several groups in the neighborhood provide forums where these issues are deliberated freely. True progress occurs when more of us participate in those forums — whatever our personal viewpoints. It also occurs when we pull together to make our elected officials more accountable. Over the long term, that will require campaign finance reform, so that the public discourse is shifted back to “one person, one voice” from its current “one dollar, one voice” basis.

There is always a public cost to “progress.” That cost should rarely, if ever, outweigh the public benefit.

By Donathan Salkaln:                                    

Remember physics class when we experimented with weights and mass and speed? For me it's way back, before the drinking age was raised to 21 from 18. I passed the physics even though I and everyone else had fake ID's.

Think of the Earth as a baseball. Global warming is melting our polar caps, redistributing the weight of all the ice toward the middle of our planet, comparable to a pitcher who spits a goober on a baseball ball and throws it toward the plate. The ball does strange things in flight.

The redistribution of weight might not only change the planet's axis, but also help cause the further shifting of our planets plates, resulting in earthquakes.

What do you think?

by Maarten de Kadt,                                       

Last week’s New York Times may have given us a clue. On Tuesday it published an essay entitled “Healthcare and Profits, a Poor Mix.” The final paragraph contained the following words: “Improving the delivery of social services… may be possible without increasing the burden on American families, simply by removing the profit motive from the equation.” We have not looked at health care and health care delivery recently. Our local hospitals have been closed (St. Vincent’s by bad management and the others by Superstorm Sandy). The single payer option and Obama Care’s implementation should be on our agenda.

With the nation’s current state of stagnation increased profits often means lower wages. Community Board 4 (our local board) recently passed a resolution focusing on good jobs and safe working conditions within new local projects. For a long time now my Comments on Economics have been focusing on spending money to improve the city’s and the nation’s infrastructure as a way of increasing jobs. Of course improved infrastructure is no small task. Bridges and roads need maintenance. Our electrical distribution network needs modernization. The city storm defenses need improvement. Sewers need attention. And spending on infrastructure provides jobs in an economy desperately needing them. Another of CRDC’s focus it should be on the jobs issue. With it most likely will be a focus on infrastructure reconstruction.

There’s a lot of work for us to do. What issues do you think should be included in CRDC’s focus?

by Maarten de Kadt,                                       

Danny Glover through MoveOn has started a petition campaign asking the president to nominate Paul Krugman for Treasury Secretary. As of Monday morning Glover claims to have 190,000 signatures. Now I doubt that Paul Krugman will actually be the next Treasury Secretary of the United States. But that doesn't matter as the petition campaign is a strong argument to the President that many people think austerity and budget balancing to be wrong and spending on things like infrastructure reconstruction is the right way to reduce the terrible unemployment situation in the United States of close to 15% of the labor force. CRDC should join in.

by Maarten de Kadt,                                       

Did we drop off the fiscal cliff? Did the president, just having just won an election, appease his opponents too much to arrive at a compromise with the still recalcitrant Republican Party? We come into the New Year full of opportunities and dangers. But it is also a hopeful time if the spirit of two conferences I recently attended is any indication.

What’s our vision for New York City? That was the focus of a December 1st conference entitled “Urban Uprising: Reimagining the City.” A week later another conference, “New York: Progressive Capital?”, asked almost the same question. Both conferences were full of grand ideas. Both conferences offered lists of areas in which to work. Both complained about the “silo” mentality held by activists and activist groups. Both conferences tried to see the commonalities each silo group faces.

That there is a plethora of silos is both good and bad news. The good news is that in New York City, as well as other places in the country, a lot is happening. Community-based organizations are working on an impressively large set of issues. The bad news is that funding for these important activities is declining and each group is so focused on its own issue that they are unable to take the time to step back to see how their specific issue is related to the others.

Both conferences agreed one of the primary issues facing our city and nation is jobs. The jobs report remains unsatisfactory. Too many people are still without work and therefore without income. The official November unemployment rate dropped to 7.7%, but a more relevant (also official) statistic is that covering the unemployed, underemployed and the workers who simply stopped applying for jobs: 14.4% – double the more widely cited statistic.

As Super Storm Sandy showed us the infrastructure is out dated and should be rebuilt. That is an expensive proposition that would put many people to work. Flood control needs to be improved in our cities. Electricity production needs to be decentralized and its distribution system needs upgrading and protection. Transportation systems need improvement and protection. And this is a short list.

The participants in the conferences I mentioned above agreed the quality of life in our city needs to be improved with more jobs and less income disparity. Eight years ago at his inauguration, one of our politicians announced that the ticket to living in New York City should not be a million dollar purchase of housing. Now that same politician is saying it should not be a two and one half million dollar sum of money. What happened to affordable housing and rent regulations?

The general direction for our city was well stated at each conference. Missing were the specific suggestions. If you argue for no cars in the city then you must also describe the desired transportation system. If you argue for decentralized power production then you must also design the regulations that will cause developers to install decentralized systems in new projects and retrofit them on existing structures. The same goes for storm water retention and its diversion from the sewage system (not to mention protection from storm surges).

As Bob Herbert, the former New York Times columnist, explained during his key note address to the second conference, there is a vacuum of progressive positive leadership. If the ‘fiscal cliff’ has been successfully overcome, then maybe the President is beginning to fill that vacuum on the national level. There is a local vacuum too. We must identify and elect progressive leadership during this year’s election cycle to help us fulfill the progressive vision for our city.

What is the new vision for the city? Many have such a vision even though its particularities need greater specification. Getting there would create many jobs. Those jobs should be paid for through the increased taxation and spending. And as money flows toward government spending, maybe it should be placed in a state bank so that the interest earned on that money can also be used for infrastructure reconstruction rather than going to the profits of the rapacious private banks.

A hopeful New Year will be one in which we learn to work together on the many issues that need attention to form a complex, diverse, more egalitarian, safe, livable city.

By Paul Groncki                                               

The tweaking of Jamestown's proposed Chelsea Market expansion does not make it any more palatable to the Chelsea community than their original proposal. The traffic and congestion in southwest Chelsea has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years. And development already baked in the cake – the hotel on W15th between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, the Whitney Museum, the buildings along Tenth Avenue and the entertainment development on Pier 57 – is going to make this neighborhood more like Union Square and Time Square than the Chelsea in which we all live.

Assurance against changes to the facade and the mix of business on the Chelsea Market concourse provide little benefit to the community. The review and opening up of the West Chelsea Zoning Plan will do nothing to stem future development. The contributions to the High Line Park for tourists does little for Chelsea. The promise of 150 units of affordable housing is a promise to appease the community with little likelihood of fulfillment. The only beneficiaries of these tweaks and the project as a whole are those members of the 1% who own and invest in Jamestown.

What do the other 99% get? The contributions to Wellness in the Schools (WITS) programs in Chelsea and the funding of a technology training center for the disadvantaged youth of Chelsea (to be run by Hudson Guild) are the only true community benefits (a basketball court would have been nice).

The 1% wins again. 

Comment on Economics                                     

By Maarten de Kadt

It seems very much like the calm before the storm. The debates are over. The New York Times CBS poll showed Pres. Obama had a slight lead in the October 16th debate. The CBS News poll of undecided voters who watched the October 22 debate favored Obama (Obama 53%, Romney 23%, the rest undecided). An October 23rd New York Times average of the CBS News, CNN and Google polls favors Obama by 16 percentage points. Many of us are wondering how so many people in this country could be making the wrong choice when the choice seems so obvious. Mendacity versus veracity issues abound.

I am reminded of one of my favorite primers on the use of math: the 1954 How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. It seems as though the candidates have read this book carefully. Here are 2 examples.

Between 2000 and 2003, gasoline prices were hovering around $2 and at one point below $1.50. By 2008 they had shot up to over $4. Then they took a dramatic drop to under $2 again. Currently they again hover in the $4 range. If you only look at the time Pres. Obama has been in office it seems as though gasoline prices have more than doubled. But when you look back and include the Bush years you see that they doubled over that period as well. Talking about gasoline price increases only in the Obama years is clearly a lie. The much more complicated picture requires a deeper examination over a longer time period.

When Pres. Obama took office at the beginning of 2009 the economy was in a free-fall. Nearly 8,000,000 jobs disappeared between the beginning of 2008 and the beginning of 2010, straddling the beginning of the Obama years. More than 4 million jobs were lost in the 1st year of Obama’s term. And then, after too small an economic stimulus, the very slow increase of jobs began. The Obama administration can claim the addition of almost 5,000,000 jobs. But too many people are still unemployed. What Obama’s opponent should be saying is that the president’s administration did not offer a large enough stimulus to bring jobs back online. They won’t do that, of course, because government stimuli are not part of their philosophy. Slow job growth under the Obama administration is a result of both the devastating economic policies of the Bush administration and the inadequate economic stimulus of the Obama administration. Job growth too requires an examination that goes beyond sound bites.

The need to delve under the misleading use of statistics by both candidates may explain why so many people are confused at this juncture of the presidential campaign. Clearly reducing taxes for the rich and hoping the extra money they have will be used to create jobs, capturing what Paul Krugman calls “the confidence fairy,” represents the emptiness of the Republican platform. But not finding a way to explain the complexity of the situation in simple language represents the Democrats’ own lack of clarity about their policy needing stronger economic stimulus. As labor activist Ed Ott commented, “The Democrats don’t have a policy.” The president has done a lot of good in his 4 years, but team Obama, dumbing down how to speak about their program hoping to capture the swing votes, has not figured out how to speak clearly to all of us.

The president only has days to change that before the election.

by Donathan Salkaln                                      

With the decission to change the zoning laws and allow Jamestown Properties to build a massive development atop of the Chelsea Market, now in the hands of the NYC Council, they and their speaker, our Council member, Christine Quinn need to know that the community of Chelsea is adimatly opposed to it. The building, formerly known as the Nabisco Factory (the birth place of the oreo cookie) is on the National Register of Historic Places, is rich in the history of Chelseaʼs workingclass, and should be celebrated as a landmark. And although, inside, itʼs market has lost its local novelty (my wife, a life long Chelseaite says, “It costs too many clams to buy a scallop”), outside, itʼs integrity and our sunlight should be protected.

Our community has worked hard in establishing the existing zoning laws. The local zoning laws are already too friendly to the swarm of developers circling every crevice of land and air and need not be changed. According to the 2010 census, developers shoe horned in over 19,000 more people here. And many lifelong Chelseaites who canʼt afford Chelsea are being replaced by those that can. Daily, thousands commute to work in Chelsea and thousands more come to enjoy our new parks and Highline. Our Hospital, St. Vincent's, will be soon be condos. We are being trampled by the existing laws and the changes are becoming borderline Charles Dickens: We now have ʻAvenues,ʼ a private school for affluent students, opposite the street from the ball fields of the Elliott Housing Projects, whose youth are routinely subjected to Stop and Frisk.

Communities across this city are facing similar challenges. Balancing the needs of big business and special interests with the needs of those that voted those into power is no easy task. A few years back, our Council Person, Christine Quinn worked hard in keeping Western Beef Supermarket, a lifeline to affordable food, in our neighborhood. It had been uprooted by a mega Apple Store, a block south of the Chelsea Market. Our city needs more problem solving like that, not catering to every whim of special interests.

We also need to keep New York City Democratic. The Bloomberg years are coming to an end and we need to take a stand and say the “4 Sale Sign” is coming down. Write to Christine Quinn to Vote No to the Chelsea Market Expansion.

Change in Chelsea needs to slow down, not speed up!

please write to:
Christine Quinn
New York City Council Speaker
250 Broadway Suite 1856
New York, NY 10007

by Donathan Salkaln                                     

Does the flow of special interest money wield power over integrity and common sense? Yes, as a nation, we just witnessed the power of special interests sweep through the Oval Office when President Obama remained soft on the expired federal guns laws that could have prevented many deaths at the recent Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting. The shooting was a super-sized crime by a super-sized lunatic, wielding super-sized guns and ammo.

Since we live in a nation where litigation is one of the last industries left, one would think there’s an ambulance chaser, out there, that will sue those politicians who abetted the 2004 expiration of The Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Think of all the jobs the law suit would create, as it makes it’s way through the system.

Written in big script letters, at the top of the United States Constitution, are the words “We the People.” In today’s world, it should read “We the Big Business”. The integrity of our nation’s electeds have been eroded by the pounding waves of money from special interest groups.

One could trace the demise of “We the People” to George Bush Sr.’s catering to big business in writing NAFTA in 1994. That agreement put our country’s presidential seal of approval to sending jobs out of the country. America’s unions, already dealing with industries moving South, had their remaining power swept from beneath them and have since been bouncing on their butts.

Manufacturing, office jobs and even business headquarters have left our country. Companies as big as GE don’t even pay corporate taxes. Our banking system is mired in so many layers of greed, its hard to even find or understand the truth.

On a local level, our community has come together, against the closing of our hospital (St. Vincent's) which is now condos, fought tooth and nail against NYU’s expansion plan (a university acting like a spoiled giant gorilla in a small cage, who, like a horror flick, is about to trample Greenwich Village), and our very own landmarked Chelsea Market about to be swallowed whole, and spit out twice the size, by the Jamestown Development. The voice of our local tax payers have fallen on deaf ears. Big business has won over common sense here, too.

USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll revealed that 90 million Americans will not vote because, as many said, “Nothing ever gets done, anyway.” I say, 'THERE"S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO VOTE!' We need to vote in candidates with integrity —from a local level up to a national level.

Please start by taking a look at our club’s CRDC Slate by clicking on our 'Clubs Picks.' There’s a lot of integrity on the list. See you at the polls, on September 13th.

by Maarten de Kadt,                                       
That dollar bill you have in your pocket, just a fancy piece of paper, plays an important role in the financial crisis that surrounds us today. We call it “money” because the government declares that it is. While cash is the basis of all other kinds of money, it is only a small part of the money supply. Cash in circulation and checking accounts comprise 18% of the money supply that includes savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and money market mutual funds.

Most of the money you have not otherwise spent or invested you’ve probably put into a checking account. This gives banks the power to create more money by lending it to someone else while you are not using it. The thing is banks as a group can lend it multiple times at the same time. They know a portion of the money you’ve entrusted to them will not be used. I don’t mean you as an individual. Rather the “you” is a collective you representing all of us who have entrusted our money to the banks.

We mostly use money to buy things. Money used to buy and sell is called a “medium of exchange.” The bank, however, uses your money to permit someone to buy or construct something and pay that expense back later. In that use money is called a “means of deferred payment.”

In times when the economy is growing banks can lend out money, even many times more than the initial amounts of money entrusted to them and not worry about the responsibility they have of paying checking account holders back their money any time a check is written. There is always enough money coming in to cover the money going out. It is not unlike a huge, legal, Ponzi scheme. If unlimited loans were made on checking accounts there would be a problem if the economy stopped growing as fast as it was up until 2008 or so.

To keep banks solvent, bank regulations restrict banks to lending out less than about 10 times the total value of their checking account holdings. The investment sides of large banking/financial institutions do not have the same restriction, however. They can and have invested many times more than their financial worth. During the early years of the 21st century, banks had a great deal of ‘spare’ money on hand. They needed to invest their assets in order to improve their profits. Housing was one area in which they could invest (for a time anyway). But that did not account for all the funds available to them for investment during the time the economy was growing. Since their perception was that investment in production of some commodity or another was not going to earn as much, they invested in financial securities, unwisely as the 2008 crisis has shown. Building new things, needed to stimulate the economy and create jobs, did not happen.

Investment in the large number of financial instruments that occurred in the first years of the 21st century would not have been legal under a law established in 1933: the Glass-Steagle Act. That law required the banking function to be separated from the investment functions of financial institutions. The protective effect of that law was effectively repealed under the Clinton administration in 1999 when the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act became law. And the credit run-up and crash is now history.

Money is needed to facilitate exchange, to enable people to build things and pay for them over time, and to enable safe storage of accumulated wealth. Banks are needed to facilitate each of these kinds of transaction. But regulation is also needed to prevent the extreme buildup of credit and extreme risk taking that occurred leading up to and continuing through the current financial crisis. Healthy economic activity creates new infrastructure and jobs. Reckless banking in paper that can become worthless such as credit default swaps or variable rate mortgages, won’t achieve that. So in their current configuration, by using their excess money to buy financial instruments, bank giants have become a benefactor of the 0.1% and the enemy of the rest of us by creating profit for the few and foreclosure for the many.

Father Luis Gomez of the Holy Apostles, a priest of Hispanic descent, was schlepping home from the market with several bags of groceries when he was stopped and frisked by the NYPD. He was dressed casual at the time. The NYPD claimed he had drank a nearby discarded can of beer and they arrested him.

This action brings up two legitimate questions. At what point did our city's neighborhood police department wander so far out of the loop as not to recognize the neighborhood priest. And at what point did the neighborhood priest get pulled into statistics of 'rounding up the usual suspects.”

When did walking the beat and befriending a community become so anti-social. Was it when quotas were allegedly demanded by NYPD superiors? Is it still about 'Serpico?'

Commissioner Kelly argues that stopping people of minority in problem areas is the only way to save lives. I beg to differ.

According to a recent New York Time's article touching upon architectural activism, the city of Medellin, second largest city in Columbia, spent millions, under protest, to build an outdoor escalator that ascended 1,300 feet, and which eased the highland's poor in their commute to and from the rest of the city. Over the last twenty years Medellin has invested in many public projects and these actions of aiding it's own have coincided with a drop in the murder rate by 635 percent.

Or, as Father Gomez might put it, 'Respect thy neighbor.'

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!