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October 17, 2010
Left for dead, local Acorn remnant revives activism
Crain's New York
ACORN, shill for developer Bruce Ratner has new new name, New York Communities for Change. This article looks at the state of NYCC.
Here we see that Bertha Lewis has departed:
Though NYCC's mission is the same as Acorn's was—housing, education, jobs—much has changed for an outfit better known for organizing than organization. Bertha Lewis, Acorn's longtime public face in New York, left to start up the Black Leadership Institute, which focuses on immigration. Accounting firm Condon O'Meara McGinty & Donnelly and law firm Hughes Hubbard led a restructuring that included forming two new nonprofits—one can accept tax-deductible donations, the other can engage in political efforts.
Help is brought in to try to clean up NYCC's image:
Mark Peters, the state's former chief public corruption prosecutor and a partner at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, came in to head one of the boards and make NYCC “bulletproof” to critics. “We've done a lot of work building fail-safe systems,” he says.
Someone still seems to think there will be 2,250 units of affordable housing for the Atlantic Yards project, even though only a small portion of those units are likely to ever be built.
An NYCC study expected soon will assert that major landlords discriminate against Section 8 tenants; lawsuits will follow. The post-Acorn group also remains a player at Atlantic Yards, working with the city and developer Forest City Ratner to ensure that 2,250 units of subsidized housing get built near the new Nets arena.
NoLandGrab: It should be interesting to see NYCC try to cash in on promises made by Bruce Ratner to Bertha Lewis regarding affordable units in residential towers that have evaporated from the Atlantic Yards project.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Missing from the Crain's article about ACORN's successor in New York: Ratner bailout, housing doubts
In a Crain's New York Business article headlined Left for dead, local Acorn remnant revives activism, here's the one reference to the connection between New York Communities for Change and Atlantic Yards:
The post-Acorn group also remains a player at Atlantic Yards, working with the city and developer Forest City Ratner to ensure that 2,250 units of subsidized housing get built near the new Nets arena.
Unmentioned:
- the ability of Forest City Ratner to claim Affordable Housing Subsidy Unavailability, thus delaying the pledge regarding housing
- the fact that a good chunk of the housing would be at or above market
- the fact that Forest City Ratner bailed out national ACORN with a $1.5 million loan/grant in late 2008.
Posted by steve at October 17, 2010 8:43 AM