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Inequality in the Boston real estate market: The disparity from town to town is nothing new, but is the gulf widening?
A recent report unveiled in December at Harvard Law School suggests this is the case in the Northern suburbs. And the New York Times noted the national pattern of erstwhile middle-class neighborhoods shrinking, “as rising income inequality left a growing share of families in neighborhoods that are mostly low-income or mostly affluent.” Built up largely with modest homes in immediate post-war years, Lexington was generally not considered “affluent” until the 1980s. That has changed drastically since then, and many of those houses are disappearing. Occupy Storms All 3 Branches of Government (video) http://tinyurl.com/74o5omu The New Student Activism ASHLEY WARD, an aspiring idealist with waning faith in the world, was standing in the newsroom of her college paper at Humboldt State University in Northern California when a fellow student rushed in with startling news. Three thousand miles due east, on a tiny patch of Lower Manhattan, people were camping out to protest Wall Street, decrying its stranglehold on politics and continuing enrichment as the economy flatlined. It was the first that Ms. Ward, then a senior, had heard of Occupy Wall Street, and as she learned more about it, her heart glowed. “I’ve been waiting for something to happen for years,” she said. “I was personally starting to get afraid that something like this wouldn’t happen in my lifetime.” While students as recently as 2009 were taking over campus buildings – across California and in New York, at the New School – Occupy has drawn a wider swath. Previously apolitical students have been drawn by personal woes – their parents’ vanishing 401(k)’s, their fears of the job market. “This has been a catalyst for getting more students involved,” said Anne Wolfe, 20, a junior at Tufts who is working with protesters at Boston University and camped out at Occupy Boston. “We’re able to get out of our own college bubble,” she said. Occupy Boston takes on MBTA fare hikes, service cuts As public opposition mounts for service cuts and fare hikes proposed by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Occupy Boston activists have turned their attention to the issue. Working largely through social media, an Occupy MBTA group has begun an effort to organize opposition to the MBTA’s proposals. At 3 p.m. Wednesday, the group’s Twitter account had 176 followers. http://tinyurl.com/7xgyx8k
This nation’s fast-growing populist movement against unbridled corporate power scored an astonishing trifecta this week. In the span of just a few hours on Wednesday, three vastly different protest movements all achieved startling success the same way: by mobilizing the fury of tens of thousands of ordinary citizens. Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline under GOP Deadline, But Opponents Prepare for Long-Term Fight (video) JANE KLEEB: You know, I think Americans all across our country, whether it’s in Wisconsin with the recall, whether it’s in New York with Occupy Wall Street, whether it was in D.C., or whether it was in Nebraska, you had folks-moms, grandmoms, you know, farmers and ranchers-who have never been involved, who had never been to a protest before, who are standing up and saying, “Wait a second. This is our country. This is our community. This is our land. This is our water. And we’re going to do everything we can to defend those rights.” And so, I think there’s a lot of really strong ties with other movements that are happening in America, where the people are like, “You know what? We do have the power. And when we exert our power, when we really stand shoulder to shoulder beyond party lines, we can actually get things done and get our country moving in the direction that we all see it moving, which is a better country and a better future for our kids.” “Occupy Wall Street West” hopes to see massive protest tomorrow A coalition from across San Francisco is hoping to make tomorrow – Friday, Jan. 20 – a monumental day in the history of Bay Area activism, the Occupy movement, and the fight against home foreclosures and other manifestations of corporate greed. Organizers call the day of protests, marches, street theater, pickets, and more “Occupy Wall Street West.” Those that urged Occupy protesters to focus in on a list of demands should be pleased, as the day includes a list of demands on banks, including a moratorium on foreclosures and an end to predatory and speculative loans. http://tinyurl.com/6sd8erk Two-Thirds Of Small Business Owners Say Citizens United Ruling Hurts Them Two-thirds of American small business leaders believe the controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United v. FEC case handed down two years ago on January 21 hurts small companies. In fact, only nine percent of small business leaders thought the ruling positive, according to an independent national survey of 500 small business leaders released today by the American Sustainable Business Council, Main Street Alliance and Small Business Majority. The survey also found that 88 percent of small business owners hold a negative view of the role money plays in politics, with 68 percent viewing it very negatively. […] http://tinyurl.com/6r685fh Outlawing dissent: Rahm Emanuel’s new regime It’s almost as if Rahm Emanuel was lifting a page from Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine – as if he was reading her account of Milton Friedman’s “Chicago Boys” as a cookbook recipe, rather than as the ominous episode that it was. In record time, Emanuel successfully exploited the fact that Chicago will host the upcoming G8 and Nato summit meetings to increase his police powers and extend police surveillance, to outsource city services and privatize financial gains, and to make permanent new limitations on political dissent. It all happened – very rapidly and without time for dissent – with the passage of rushed security and anti-protest measures adopted by the city council on 18 January 2012. Sadly, we are all too familiar with the recipe by now: first, hype up and blow out of proportion a crisis (and if there isn’t a real crisis, as in Chicago, then create one), call in the heavy artillery and rapidly seize the opportunity to expand executive power, to redistribute wealth for private gain and to suppress political dissent. As Friedman wrote in Capitalism and Freedom in 1982 – and as Klein so eloquently describes in her book: “Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When the crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function … until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” Occupy Memphis and Black Farmers: Odd Couple [Author wrongly asserts sleeping in tents is the only thing OWS does or wants to do] The combination of the Occupy Memphis protesters and the Black farmers may initially seem like an odd match. However, the two groups are more alike than they are different. National Occupy leadership is making a concerted effort to integrate the Black community into the protests, particularly through the farmers’ link with Memphis. Critics have said since September that when the original New York protests started, the presence of African Americans was scarce despite the messaging being focused on issues that impact them the most. So now we know that some black farmers are empathetic to the Occupy movements. They have long been at odds with the federal government over decades of discrimination over capital and funding. The complaints were settled in a class action lawsuit under the Obama Administration in 2011. But, Black farmers still complain about not receiving their payments from the government. The Occupy protesters feel similarly slighted from the economic system they feel has allowed the upper one percent of income earning Americans to win against the rest of the nation. Former President of Pacific Stock Exchange – and Former Supporter of Glass-Steagal Repeal – Now Supports Occupy
By now, most of the stories told by the dozen or so protesters at the Occupy San Francisco press conference on Tuesday had a familiar ring. There was the sailor from Iraq War Veterans Against the War, the labor organizers and the woman who lost her home to foreclosure – all there to explain why they’re calling for a daylong protest on Friday.
And then, just as the stories appeared to lull reporters into a daydream, the facilitator introduced Warren Langley, the former president of the Pacific Stock Exchange. Langley was dressed in a suit and tie for the occasion, the only protester to do so. As he approached the podium, which was in the shadow of the skyscraper that was once Bank of America’s headquarters in San Francisco’s financial district, the reporters crowded in. The Occupy movement, he said, is “our last chance to level the playing field and let you and my kids and grandkids have the opportunities I started with when I graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1965.” http://tinyurl.com/865ukfw ‘Occupy Parenting’ aims to fight corporate greed at home After Lindsay and Erik Curren went to a few “Occupy Wall Street” events in different cities, they thought: How can we bring this home to our family? Not the protesters themselves, but the spirit of resistance. http://tinyurl.com/74v4hc9 Student loans may be issue in presidential race Outstanding student loan debt — which exceeds $1 trillion, more than what Americans owe on credit cards — is likely to be a major political issue this election year as students and their parents question the rising cost and value of a college education. In Occupy Wall Street encampments around the country, some are demanding that the law be changed so student debt could be discharged — erased — in bankruptcy proceedings. Others are lobbying for states to increase subsidies and lower tuition at state schools. http://tinyurl.com/7o48fce Romney campaign touts video it claims shows the candidate ‘getting tough’ with an Occupier (video) Top Senate Republican wants Web bill shelved The top Senate Republican urged Democrats on Thursday to set aside a bill aimed at stopping online piracy of movies and music, dealing yet another blow to controversial legislation that has pitted Hollywood against tech companies. “Rather than prematurely bringing the Protect IP Act to the Senate floor, we should first study and resolve the serious issues with this legislation,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican leader in the Senate. “I encourage the Senate majority to reconsider its decision to proceed to this bill.” Democrats have a majority in the Senate but bills need 60 votes to come up for debate so the legislation will need some Republican support to survive. Earlier on Friday, a senior Senate Democratic aide acknowledged that the bill’s backers did not have the votes to bring the measure to the floor to begin debate. “The momentum now is for killing the bill,” the aide said. http://tinyurl.com/73orfbt You Can’t Protest Outside Federal Court Because New Citizens Need To Be Sworn In A group organizing a nationwide protest to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has been prohibited from demonstrating outside the Federal Courthouse on Pearl Street [NY] tomorrow. The group, Move to Amend, is now suing the federal agency in charge of issuing the permit and demanding an injunction that would allow an estimated 200 protesters to peaceably assemble. And what reason were they given for the permit denial (below)? An official with the Government Services Administration explained it was because of “a morning citizenship swearing in, and a 4:00 p.m. installment of a federal judge.” Judge Rules Against NYC Court Protest Organizers Cornel West gives rousing speech to Occupy Tallahassee “There are two pillars the Occupy movement is about,” West told the Occupy supporters. “It’s about unarmed truth and deep unapologetic love. “I don’t care what color, what culture, what civilization what sexual orientation. We are concerned about the suffering. And when it’s unnecessary and tied to unjust institutions, when it’s tied to unjust structures of domination, then we straighten our backs up and say we’ve got to do something about this.” Protesters disrupt Regents meeting at University of California Riverside The closing day of the UC Regents meeting fell into disruption as students stepped up their disapproval of tuition hikes and education funding cuts. UCR campus police in riot gear tried to control the unruly crowd with paint ball guns. Some of the protesters were linked to ‘Occupy Riverside’ which camped out last fall on the downtown mall and set up tents this week on the campus. Occupy Chicago gets winter home The group is leasing two units on the fifth and seventh floors of Riverfront Work Lofts at 500 W. Cermak Road, the former location of the Thompson & Taylor Spice Co. The seven-story building in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood is also home to several other businesses, including recording and art studios and a self-defense academy. “It will be nice to consolidate everything into one location,” Occupy Chicago spokesman Joshua Kaunert said. “We will have the ability to meet together and organize better, instead of meeting separately and coming together later.” http://tinyurl.com/88y9hre Occupy New Brunswick [NJ] joins with other activists to demand charges against officers in Deloatch shooting More than two-dozen braved the cold to protest in front of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office on Kirkpatrick Street on Thursday afternoon. For more than an hour, they demanded that Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan charge the two officers involved in the fatal Sept. 22 police shooting of Barry Deloatch with murder. Led by city activist Tormel Pittman, most of the protestors represented Occupy New Brunswick, a growing offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But some simply were concerned residents of the city and county. http://tinyurl.com/6lpmgvr |