NYC Mayor Bloomberg has apparently ordered the immediate clearing of Staten Island Sandy aid hubs [View all]

[Fire Walk With Me]

Last edited Sat Dec 1, 2012, 07:22 PM - Edit history (2)

Zuccotti redux.

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Occupy Wall Street ?@OccupyWallStNYC

.@TheRoyalHer reporting that the Mayor has deemed our Staten Island pop-up relief sites "vendors", despite no $$ involved.

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Occupy Sandy SI ?@SIrecovers

IMMEDIATE NEED: Come stand with Aiman at 489 Midland Avenue - police/mayor's office threatens eviction of 24/7 hub http://goo.gl/SdWO9
Retweeted by TheRoyalHer


http://pastebin.com/qnZ62R8S

IMMEDIATE ACTION: Tell the Mayor's office to stop shutting down much-needed Sandy community hubs
Location: 489 Midland Ave Staten Island, NY 10306
CONTACT: 347-755-1025 Aiman Youssef, community hub coordinator

ACTION: Demand the Mayor's office end community hub eviction and instead support hubs with space and equipment
CALL: Public Advocate's office: [phone] 9am-5pm
EMAIL: [email protected]

The community-run network of support for food, volunteering, supplies, clothing, and human services is an essential part of the New York City recovery efforts, and the mayor's office wants to shut it down immediately. The mayor's office is calling upon local police forces to "clear all outdoor sites" effective immediately. We are calling on all New Yorkers to advocate on behalf of these community run hubs that provide essential services to those whom the city and federal government, and support agencies, have under-served, neglected, or abandoned.

We call on the city, service organizations and police to support these crucial hubs by maintain location and services to community, offering tents, generators, and storage pods for supplies or finding free, nearby, and feasible medium to long term spaces where hubs can operate.

This Friday morning Staten Island police representing the mayor's office have threatened eviction action against the crucial Staten Island hub at 489 Midland Avenue, in the heavily hit Midland Beach area. Aiman Youssef, a 42-year-old Syrian-American Staten Islander whose house was destroyed in the hurricane, has been running a 24/7 community pop up hub outside his property at 489 Midland Avenue since the day after the storm. He and a coalition of neighbors, friends and community members are serving hot food and offering cleaning supplies, non-perishables, medical supplies, and clothing to the thousands of residents who are still without heat, power, or safe housing. This popular hub is well-run, well-staffed, and has a constant hum of discussion, support, and advice as well as donations and pick ups and volunteer dispatch through another pop-up group, volunteers who call themselves "The Yellow Team."

At the standing-room only Town Hall meeting at Staten Island's New Dorp High School last night, Youssef was the first to raise his voice in the question and answer period. The community's expression of extreme need and frustration with the lack of official support made for a contentious environment where city government officials offered few solutions. At one point borough president James Molinaro asked the audience "You wanna shut your mouth?" due to their increasingly loud demands for community support and housing solutions.

We ask all New Yorkers to not heed Molinaro's demand, but to speak out as Youssef did. Ask the mayor's office to support, not evict, the well-run community support hubs giving crucial services to New Yorkers in need.


LA Times article on Youssef's community-run hub "For Sandy survivors, a Thanksgiving they'd never expected"
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/22/nation/la-na-sandy-homeless-thanksgiving-20121123

Volunteer group running out of 489 Midland "the Yellow team"
http://www.facebook.com/SandyRebuildStatenIslandYellowTeam

WPIX "Staten Island's Storm Victim Town Hall Turns Into Yelling Match"
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-staten-islands-storm-victim-town-hall-turns-into-yelling-match-20121129,0,3094499.story?track=rss

Staten Island Advance "Answers in short supply as exasperated Staten Islanders throng Sandy forum"
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/answers_in_short_supply_as_sta.html