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December 7, 2009
Isn't It Time For ACORN to Stop Shilling for Ratner and Atlantic Yards?
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
In the wake of the ACORN scandals, ACORN commissioned and internal review of its practices. A report on the findings from that review was released today [pdf]. Executive Director Bertha Lewis said, "The report is part vindication, part constructive criticism and 100% road map to the future."
The report inluded nine recommendations for ACORN as a "roadmap to reform and renewal, if implemented in their entirety in concert with other measures to regain the public’s trust."
Here is recommendation number one from the report:
- ACORN should return its organizational focus to its core competency – community organizing and citizen engagement empowerment, with related services – and transition away from the provision of services that may be provided more effectively and efficiently by others.
Taking this to heart should mean that the organization—which has received a $500,000 gift and a $1 mllion low interest loan as a bailout from developer Forest City Enteprises and is contractually obliged to support and promote the Atlantic Yards project—should stop shilling for a developer and a project that is abusing eminent domain to displace low-income tenants, spending hundreds of millions of scarce public dollars on a money-losing arena, shutting down a long-term homeless shelter to make a parking lot, and yet, does not guarantee any "affordable" housing.
Posted by eric at December 7, 2009 9:49 PM