Save the Alewife Silver Maples,
STAND UP FOR TREES, 6/28
Fannie Mae Evicts Activists, see below.
Like lemmings off a cliff, those that believe in endless growth are building on the corpses of trees, evicting homeless families from empty homes and herding us all closer to a man made apocalypse.
Please be present either in person or by forwarding this notice wildly.
For the Earth,
A.
Silver Maples
Friends of Alewife Reservation has been alarmed by the news that the 7 acre silver maple floodplain forest located off Acorn Drive in the Alewife Reservation may be clear cut by the end of the summer by Brian O’Neill Properties from Pennsylvania and that a curb cut had been granted. We are asking once again for you to sponsor and/or join another activity related to the preservation of this forest. Please consider signing onto a demonstration at the Alewife T stop on
Saturday June 28th at 10am for a visibility showing and a march with giant Earth Mother and Alewife puppets to the silver maple forest to stand for 30 minutes in silence.
Families are welcome.
We will be handing out and getting post cards signed as well.
There will be many signs to hold from Green Cambridge and Friends of Alewife Reservation. In the past the following have been supportive of conservation of this magnificent “small river floodplain forest”, deemed so by the state’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Department. http://friendsofalewifereservation.org/2006_03_riverrestlessspirit_audubon.htm
We will be inviting other groups who are interested to sign on as well. We would like your recommendations as to additional endorsers.
Please consider endorsing this event.
Fannie Mae Evicts Protestors
193 NORWELL STREET DORCHESTER
June 10, 2014
Community reclaimed home under banner of affordable housing, held rally and cookout for community, and set up a pirate radio station before being evicted
This this past Saturday, City Life/Vida Urbana and a local coalition of Right to the City Boston groups held a block party and cookout at 193 Norwell St. in Dorchester to celebrate the move-in of a family in need of stable, affordable, accessible housing after post-foreclosure eviction by an “investor.” We also celebrated the launch of a new community radio station broadcasting under the historic 106.1 FM frequency. The community came together to support the Adamson family’s taking up residence in a bank-owned home that had been vacant for months. We had over 150 guests throughout the day, two local ministers came to bless the family in their new home, and the district City Councilor paid a visit. The event showed what the face of homelessness in our city really looks like; how the neglect that makes empty houses dangerous can be completely reversed with community effort; and the practical solutions to the housing crisis that we have at our fingertips.
It saddens us to report that around 2:00 PM on Monday June 9, 2014, the Boston Police came to193 Norwell St. At the behest of the realtor managing the property for the bank owner, Fannie Mae, the police emptied out the home, arresting one volunteer in the process. We urged law enforcement to tell Fannie Mae to negotiate with the occupants, who were quoted in the Boston Globe publicly offering to pay any reasonable rent. Instead, hours of police time were spent overseeing a move-out. City Life/Vida Urbana condemns this waste of public safety resources. At a time when family homelessness is a growing epidemic, our tax dollars shouldn’t go to enforcement of banks’ policies of keeping properties vacant to speculate on the price going up in the future. An offer was put in months ago by a nonprofit organization to buy the house in order to rehab it and run it as affordable rental housing. Given its status as a publicly-funded, government-run bank, Fannie Mae should do its part to stabilize our communities.
As Mayor Walsh prepares his municipal housing plan and the state considers an increase in the minimum wage, Boston tenants and community activists will hold a press conference on the Right to the City “Rise of the Renter Nation” national report. The conference will be held in front of 193 Norwell St. on June 10, 2014 at noon, with a coalition of housing justice and low-wage worker groups. In this report, grassroots organizations detail solutions to the ongoing housing crisis in America. To read a digital copy online or purchase a printed copy of the national report, go to: homesforall.org