Left Side of the Aisle #85 - Part 3

Outrage of the Week #3: NYC wants to shut Sandy recovery site

You know about Hurricane Sandy - although technically it was a tropical storm when it hit the mid-Atlantic coast. A few weeks ago I talked about some of the devastation - a proper word in this case - in the area where I grew up on the Jersey shore.

One of the places hard hit was the Midland Beach section of Staten Island. A man there named Aiman Youssef, a 42-year-old Syrian-American, saw his house destroyed in the storm. Remarkably, his response was to use the site to establish a 24/7 community pop up center. (That's him in the picture, at the site.)

Over the next month he was aided by hundreds of volunteers from the community and groups such as Occupy Sandy - whose skill at on-the-fly organizing proved quite valuable - and that stretch of pavement, which grew to be a half-block long, became a hub to gather and provide food, cleaning supplies, medical supplies, clothing, and blankets to the thousands of residents who were still without heat, power, or safe housing. Volunteers even formed teams to tear moldy drywall from flooded homes to begin the process of rebuilding.

This at a time when initially FEMA, the Red Cross, and New York City officials were nowhere to be found on the island. It was pure citizen-to-citizen aid and it earned widespread praise.

The city wants it shut down.

On November 30, a representative of the mayor's office showed up at Youssef's place and declared "we’re moving you out" because the relief center was "blocking the sidewalk." In a creepy echo of the excuses used across the country - including in New York - to shut down Occupy sites, the official insisted the site is "usafe." (As a sidebar, reported injuries at the site are zero.) The official then ordered a Red Cross truck that was delivering supplies to the area to leave.

As of Monday, December 3, the hub was still there despite official threats. Police told the volunteers they could stay if they didn't take up the whole sidewalk, so the volunteers moved the kitchen to a driveway and moved everything else three feet back from the curb.

But that hasn't stopped the pressure. The sidewalk is no longer "blocked" but the trailers that are used to deliver and store the goods are being ticketed and the sanitation canisters were removed, leading me to wonder how long it will be before "unsanitary" - the other near-universal excuse used against Occupy sites - is added to "unsafe." Volunteers at the site say that city agencies tell them that the mayor's office is twisting their arms.

The mayor's office says it is recommending - I love that, they are merely suggesting - the site be moved to an indoor location for "safety" reasons. Fine, say the volunteers. There are other hubs around the city and in other areas which are indoors. So fine. Bearing in mind that such a place must be adequate to the task, available for the medium to long term, close enough to still be useful for the neighborhood, and free, tell us where we can go.

The city, to what should be no one's surprise, has no answer. It doesn't have one because it doesn't want one. It just wants the site to go away. And that is outrageous.

Sources:
http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/nyc-threatens-imminent-eviction-247-sa
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/staten-island-volunteers-fear-city-will-hamper-their-hurricane-relief-efforts/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.htm
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/22/nation/la-na-sandy-homeless-thanksgiving-20121123
http://gothamist.com/2012/12/02/mayors_office_allegedly_calls_state.php
http://statenisland.ny1.com/content/top_stories/173277/midland-beach-volunteers-feel-pressured-to-move-their-storm-relief-center