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Prof. Eve Baron Quoted in City & State Article on Community Planning

With pledges and rhetoric from city officials circulating about better integrating communities into the planning process, some questions remain: what does a community planning process entail? And, given the current state of New York City politics, is it reasonable for communities to expect rhetoric to translate into a truly inclusive process?

Last week, City & State ran an article examining these questions and more. The article features perspectives from respected planners and academics in the city, including Eve Baron, Academic Program Manager for the Urban Studies Program here at Murphy. From the article:

Eve Baron, an expert in community development, advises taking a wait-and-see approach to the new administration. But she notes that a salient feature of a true community-based plan is that it’s “first and foremost one that originates in the community. Not government meeting the community, but the community reaching out,” she said.

For the full article, visit City & State.

Photo by Dan Reed via flickr (CC-BY-NC).

News Round-up

Heroes in our midst and historical commemoration. Some highlights from the week…

  • This past Wednesday marked the official commemoration of the Triangle Factory Fire by the Workmen’s Circle. The fire took place in March 1911 and was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of NYC, causing the deaths of 146 garment workers.
  • One of our alumni, Richard Singleton, saved a man from a stabbing in a subway station. Amazing.
  • Some questionable comments from a New York City Councilwoman regarding NYCHA. Meanwhile, the housing authority is apparently looking at a $400mill deficit by the year 2025. And, the Cuomo administration is proposing to keep control of $100mill in state funding for NYCHA, adding layers of bureaucracy to the authority’s ability to access the funds.
  • Wikileaks released a chapter from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. The Teamsters, like the rest of the labor movement, aren’t into it.
  • Missouri police will restrict the use of tear gas after a settlement that determined police need to warn protesters and give them time to disperse before using it (via Time).
  • Swarthmore students launched what’s being called the first indefinite occupation for fossil fuel divestment (via Waging Nonviolence)
  • As Seattle’s $15 minimum wage heads into effect, some question as to whether university and airport workers will be left behind. (via Next City)

Photo by Alexander Rabb via flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND).

Murphy Alum Saves Man From Stabbing

Joseph S. Murphy Institute alum and MTA worker Richard Singleton successfully intervened in an attempted assault at his subway station at 28th Street and Park Avenue South on Sunday, March 22nd.

Richard has served as an MTA worker for almost two decades. He has graduated from the Murphy Institute with Masters of Arts in Labor Studies and Urban Studies.

Read more from the Daily News on this act of heroism.

Let’s Change the System, Not the Climate: TUED in the Guardian

Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) got a plug in the Guardian on Tuesday with a letter from Bert Schouwenburg, International Officer of GMB, the energy union in the UK. The letter was in response to an article by Mark Lynas called We must reclaim the climate change debate from the political extremes.

From Schouwenberg:

Had Lynas attended the alternative people’s summit at the COP 20 climate change talks in Lima last year, he would have heard a succession of speakers from Latin America’s indigenous communities rejecting development models imposed on them by transnational capital. They are in the frontline of the fight against climate change and are struggling to stop the destruction of their environment by mining and mono-crop agriculture for export. They would not see themselves in terms of left or right, but fully understand that an economic model based on infinite growth, with the commensurate depletion of the planet’s natural resources, is incompatible with saving the Earth from the catastrophic effects of global warming.

This does not mean sufficient energy cannot be provided for the needs of future generations, but that it must be responsibly sourced and publicly owned instead of being left to market forces and monolithic corporations whose priorities lie in ripping off consumers and making money out of burning fossil fuels. As an energy trade union, we support the necessary, just transition to a low-carbon economy, and are members of the global network Trade Unions for Energy Democracy. As the slogan read in Lima: “Let’s change the system – not the climate.”

Photo by Mike Steinhoff via flickr (CC-BY).

News Round-Up

Another March week gone by and it’s looking more like Feburary out in snowy New York City. Here at Murphy, martial arts met the workplace in a striking feature from our Arts & Culture section. And around the world of labor…

  • Liz Robbins wrote a great profile of Make the Road Action Fund Senior Organizer Modesta Toribia at the NYTimes (Giving a Voice to Immigrant Workers in New York)
  • Some labor upset over at the Dubai-owned Emirates Airlines over shortened layovers and extended hours (via Wall Street Journal).
  • Speaking of the UAE, NYU Professor Andrew Ross found himself unexpectedly banned from the country as he went to board an Etihad Airline flight this week, following his criticism of the exploitation of migrant construction workers (via NYTimes).
  • NYCHA residents and advocates went to Albany to demand that Gov. Cuomo allocate $1.2bill/year toward public housing vs the currently-allocated $25mill (via CityLimits).
  • Two SEIU locals have thrown their support behind Chuy Garcia in his battle against Rahm Emmanuel to become Chicago Mayor (via Chicago Sun-Times).
  • Look how much the middle-class has shrunk! Wyoming and Alaska aren’t looking too bad right about now (via PEW).
  • The United Steelworkers and Royal Dutch Shell inch closer and closer to striking a deal, making a return to work by the end of March look increasingly possible. Meanwhile, locals continue to demonstrate.
  • Protests in Frankfurt, Germany against Eurozone’s “Laboratory for Austerity” (via Democracy Now).

Photo by Christian Junker via flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND).