[Livingwage] Fwd: ACORN News November 19, 2002

Tue Nov 19 12:00:46 CST 2002

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>From: "David Swanson" <acornnews at acorn.org>
>To: <acornupdates at acorn.org>
>Subject: ACORN News November 19, 2002
>Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 10:25:07 -0600
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>ACORN News
>November 19, 2002
>
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>1. Chicago Raises Living Wage
>2. Baltimore Reshapes City Council
>3. Oakland Passes Just-Cause
>4. Household Is Bought By HSBC
>5. New York Passes Living Wage
>6. Florida Requires Smaller Classes
>7. ACORN Turns Out Hundreds of Thousands to Vote
>8. PG ACORN Sues Predatory Lender
>9. Boston Janitors Win Demands
>10. Bronx Demands Qualified Teachers
>11. DC Demands Affordable Housing
>12. ACORN Dominican Council Formed
>13. Slow Down for Kids Day a Success
>TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Ban Predatory Lending
>
>1. CHICAGO RAISES LIVING WAGE - Chicago ACORN and SEIU Local 880 have
>successfully urged the City to increase the level of its living wage to
>$9.05 per hour (a $1.45 per hour increase) and indexed it to automatically
>increase with the cost of living.  Day laborers, parking attendants,
>cashiers, custodians, health care workers, security guards, and home care
>workers will benefit from a $3,000 per year raise.  The increase goes into
>effect in January, with the first increase in July.  Chicago ACORN released
>three reports, available online, documenting the success of the previous
>living wage law, showing that it had produced none of the negative effects
>predicted by the opposition, and showing that it needed to be increased.
>The campaign will shift now to DuPage County, where ACORN will support the
>suburban janitors contract fight next summer, and to the state, where the
>new Governor has pledged to raise the state minimum wage.  For more
>information, link to
>http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/livingwage/reports.htm or contact Madeline
>Talbott at ilacorn at acorn.org or 312-939-7488.
>
>2. BALTIMORE RESHAPES CITY COUNCIL - Baltimore ACORN members and allies in
>CLUB (Community and Labor United for Baltimore) placed an initiative on the
>ballot and passed it with 65 percent of the vote, replacing six large
>three-member city council districts with fourteen small single-member
>districts, making Baltimore the last major city in the country to abandon
>multi-member districts.  ACORN members worked to make it happen because the
>City Council had been unresponsive to their needs.  The population of each
>City Council district will now be reduced from 108,000 to 46,500.  Under the
>old system, all three people representing a given district tended to live in
>the wealthiest part of it and would each refer matters to the other two.
>Under the new system, a City Council member will have to live in an area of
>46,500 people and be uniquely accountable to those people.  Campaigning for
>election in these new smaller districts will cost less money, opening up the
>possibility of candidates who are not wealthy or beholden to the wealthy.
>Baltimore ACORN members registered 10,603 new voters in low-income
>neighborhoods in October, held a rally on October 30 with 250 people, mailed
>and phoned thousands of voters, put up over 5,000 signs, and held a 24-hour
>vigil at City Hall.  In the last week the opposition spent approximately
>$100,000 on radio ads, mail, signs, and poll coverage.  CLUB includes ACORN,
>AFSCME, the League of Women Voters, the City Union of Baltimore, the
>Baltimore Teachers Union, Baltimore Fire Officers, and the Baltimore Green
>Party.  For more information, link to
>http://www.acorn.org/campaigns/pc.php?p=1651 or contact Mitch Klein at
>mdacorn at acorn.org or 410-752-2228.
>
>PHOTO: ACORN member Jocelyn Baker prepared signs to promote Question P, the
>initiative that reshaped Baltimore's City Council.
>http://www.acorn.org/photos/gallery.php?p=256
>
>3. OAKLAND PASSES JUST-CAUSE - Oakland voters passed an initiative creating
>a just-cause requirement for evictions.  The margin at last count was 1,300
>votes, with 50.7 percent in favor.  In June, Oakland ACORN members and over
>20 allied organizations in the Just Cause Oakland coalition delivered over
>36,000 signatures to the City Clerk to put this ordinance on the ballot.
>ACORN members and allies worked to turn out the vote in Oakland.
>
>In other California election news, voters passed a $2.1 billion housing
>bond, the largest in California history.  ACORN members worked statewide
>right up until November 5 to turn out voters in support of this bond, which
>passed with 57 percent of the vote.  ACORN and allies also promoted a
>statewide vote for same-day voter registration, which failed - for now.  In
>the City of Sacramento, ACORN members succeeded in defeating Measure T, a
>proposed utility tax cut that would have slashed city services.  In LA,
>ACORN members helped defeat secession of the Valley, and passed Measure B.
>This ballot proposal, which creates a new tax to support trauma centers,
>required a two-thirds vote and was widely expected to fail.  ACORN members
>and SEIU Local 660 held rallies and turned out voters in a successful
>campaign to pass it.  For more information, link to
>http://www.acorn.org/carenters or contact Doug Bloch at
>caacornoaro at acorn.org or 510-436-5690.
>
>4. HOUSEHOLD IS BOUGHT BY HSBC - Household International, parent company of
>Household Finance Corporation and Beneficial Corporation, has announced that
>it will be purchased by British banking giant HSBC.  ACORN has campaigned
>against Household's predatory lending for two-and-a-half years, forcing
>numerous reforms and a settlement with state attorneys general for $484
>million.  ACORN's campaign contributed to the deterioration of Household's
>financial position, which led to its decision to put the company on the
>block.  ACORN is hopeful that HSBC will take steps to make additional
>reforms at Household, along with providing the resources to make whole the
>many Household victims who are still in desperate financial straits.  For
>more information, link to
>http://acorn.org/campaigns/pc.php?p=1711 or contact Chris Saffert at
>csaffert at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.
>
>PHOTO: On June 30, 2002, ACORN members protested predatory lending at the
>home of S. Jay Stewart, Board Member of Household International.
>http://www.acorn.org/photos/gallery.php?p=179
>
>5. NEW YORK PASSES LIVING WAGE - On October 30, New York City Council passed
>a living wage law promoted by ACORN that - if signed by the Mayor -- will
>establish a living wage for more workers than any other such law in the
>country, giving about 50,000 health care workers a much needed raise.
>However, the Speaker shortly before passage of the bill removed a provision
>that would have created a living wage for several thousand non-unionized
>cafeteria, mailroom, security, and janitorial staff -- many of them making
>less than $8 per hour without health benefits.  In other news, the City
>Council is expected to vote today to override a mayoral veto of an
>ACORN-backed law banning the city from doing business with predatory
>lenders.  For more information, link to
>http://acorn.org/acorn10/livingwage/releases/adc.htm or contact Bertha Lewis
>at nyacornbkro at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.
>
>6. FLORIDA REQUIRES SMALLER CLASSES - Florida voters passes a referendum
>requiring smaller class sizes in public schools.  St. Petersburg ACORN and
>SEIU promoted this effort and ran the largest call center in the state
>urging voters to pass this demand for better education, despite the fierce
>opposition of the Governor, who won reelection.  The new requirements, to be
>phased in by 2008, limit class sizes for kindergarten through fourth grade
>to 18 students, fifth to eighth grade to 22, and ninth to twelfth grade to
>25.  For more information, contact Josh Myles at flacorntaro at acorn.org or
>727-327-6869.
>
>7. ACORN TURNS OUT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS TO VOTE - ACORN chapters in 38
>cities around the country engaged in non-partisan Get-Out-the-Vote work this
>election season, registering 205,354 new voters and contacting over 800,000
>occasional voters and new registrants, all in low-income neighborhoods.
>ACORN members and organizers went door to door getting commitments to vote,
>doing get-out-the-vote reminder door knocking, and making calls and pulling
>out voters on Election Day.  Preliminary analysis of the results shows that
>turnout increased well over 5 percent above 1998 in ACORN's targeted
>precincts.  ACORN distributed 100,000 door hangers, 8,000 lawn signs, 3,500
>window signs, and 70,000 postcards as part of this effort.  ACORN also
>mailed postcards to over 130,000 households in these targeted precincts and
>called 75,000 voters twice in the last four days.  Most importantly, ACORN
>knocked on doors and had real conversations with families about what they
>wanted to see changed, including policies related to home ownership, higher
>wages, health care for their kids, high electricity bills, and overcrowded
>schools.  Low-income people talking to other low-income people brought out
>hundreds of thousands to the polls.  In ACORN's 12 targeted precincts in
>Providence, R.I., turnout was 42 percent higher than in 1998 and 20 percent
>higher on than in precincts with similar demographics that ACORN didn't
>work, efforts that likely contributed to David Cicilline's election as
>mayor, Juan Pichardo's election as the first Latino state senator in Rhode
>Island, and Miguel Luna's election as the first person of color to represent
>Ward 9 on the Providence City Council.  In Minneapolis turnout in ACORN's
>precincts increased 24 percent over 1998.  In Boston over all, voter
>turnout, as compared to the average of turnout for the last two
>gubernatorial elections, was up only 14 percent.  But in the 11 precincts
>where ACORN worked most heavily, turnout increased 42 percent.  Houston
>ACORN registered 16,728 new voters and held a Youth Civic Participation
>Conference with 800 high school and college students.  For more information,
>link to
>http://www.acorn.org/campaigns/pc.php?p=1640 or contact Joanne Wright at
>vrnat at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.
>
>PHOTO: Vijay Bangari works on Get Out The Vote campaign for Boston ACORN,
>encouraging Olivia Hoskins to vote in the November 5, 2002, election.
>http://www.acorn.org/photos/gallery.php?p=279
>
>8. PG ACORN SUES PREDATORY LENDER - On November 7, Prince George's County,
>Md., along with Washington, D.C., ACORN filed a class action lawsuit
>against, and demonstrated in the front yard of Forest Heights Town Council
>Member Paula Renee Noble, owner of the notorious predatory lender, EZ Home
>Mortgage.  The suit charges Noble with stealing equity from hundreds of area
>homeowners.  ACORN members plastered Noble's neighborhood with posters
>reading "Warning: Loan Shark in the Neighborhood" and detailing her role in
>driving families toward foreclosure.  For more information, contact Jessica
>Lehman at mdacornpgro at acorn.org or 301-641-2173.
>
>9. BOSTON JANITORS WIN DEMANDS - On Oct.23, 2002, Boston area janitors ended
>a 24-day strike and won a contract providing substantial wage increases (to
>$13.15 per hour from $9/95 and $10.20) and the extension of health care to
>1,000 part-time janitors.  Nine ACORN members, including National ACORN
>President Maude Hurd, were arrested for blocking traffic at major Boston
>intersections as part of large rallies supporting the over 2,000 SEIU Local
>254 janitors who were on strike from 93 buildings. For more information,
>link to http://www.acorn.org/campaigns/pc.php?p=1501 or contact Lisa Clauson
>at maacorn at acorn.org or 617-436-7100.
>
>10. BRONX DEMANDS QUALIFIED TEACHERS -- On October 30, Bronx ACORN and the
>Community Collaborative to Improve District 9 Schools held a rally in the
>South Bronx with over 350 parents to demand qualified teachers, qualified
>principals, and a real partnership with the community.  The rally was
>attended by a senior advisor to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, the District
>9 Superintendent, the UFT's President of Elementary Schools, and State
>Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene, as well as representatives from Borough
>President Adolfo Carrion and Congressman Jose Serrano.  Everyone present
>pledged their support for the school improvement platform and committed to
>implementing it by Fall 2003.  For more information, contact Heather Appel
>at nyacornbrx at acorn.org or 718-292-0070.
>
>11. DC DEMANDS AFFORDABLE HOUSING - On November 12, DC ACORN held a public
>forum with 200 residents to discuss new luxury development in Capitol Hill
>and its effect on property taxes and rents for long-time residents, many of
>whom are being pushed out by these costs.  ACORN members have met with a
>number of developers and demanded that they set aside 30 percent of their
>developments for households making no more than $30,000 per year.  The
>developers have said no, and ACORN is now planning demonstrations at their
>offices, beginning on November 21, as well as working with City Council
>Members to create legislation requiring set asides for affordable housing.
>For more information, contact Will Ward at dcacorn at acorn.org or
>202-547-9292.
>
>PHOTO: ACORN member Katie Smith spoke at November 12 forum.
>http://www.acorn.org/photos/gallery.php?p=282
>
>PHOTO: A DC ACORN member tells it like it is in the Deanwood neighborhood.
>ACORN won from Council Member Kevin Chavous's office a commitment to clean
>up 11 overgrown and trash-covered lots by Thanksgiving.
>http://www.acorn.org/photos/gallery.php?p=281
>
>12. ACORN DOMINICAN COUNCIL FORMED - On November 10, ten Dominican ACORN
>leaders from Brooklyn and the Bronx met with ACORN staff to initiate the
>formation of the ACORN Dominican Council.  Two of these leaders recently
>visited the Dominican Republic along with ACORN Chief Organizer Wade Rathke.
>The Council aims to build power for Dominicans in the United States and to
>build bridges to and support social change in the Dominican Republic.
>Council leaders plan to travel to other U.S. cities to organize Dominicans.
>Maria Polanco, National Vice President of ACORN, is among the leaders of
>ADC.  For more information, contact Heather Appel at nyacornbrx at acorn.org or
>718-292-0070.
>
>13. SLOW DOWN FOR KIDS DAY A SUCCESS - ACORN chapters in nine major cities
>recently worked to improve traffic safety in their neighborhoods through a
>Slow Down for Kids Day.  Dallas teamed with police and the public works
>department to hold events in seven locations and plan improvements to signs
>and signals.  Portland held a rally calling attention to an intersection in
>need of a turn lane, a spot where children and elderly pedestrians have been
>hit.  In Newark, a child had been hit and injured outside one of the
>schools, so the parents spoke at an event and asked the police, who were
>present, to see that a stop sign was installed.  St. Petersburg won speed
>bumps in neighborhoods where children play.  Fort Worth won a traffic study
>on one street for stop signs, and speed humps on two others scheduled for
>December construction.  For more information, contact Brennan Griffin at
>txacornfwro at acorn.org or 817-626-0251.
>
>TAKE ACTION: TELL CONGRESS TO BAN PREDATORY LENDING - With Republicans soon
>to have a majority in both houses of Congress, predatory lenders are likely
>to push for a law banning state and local restrictions on abusive lending
>practices.  Many states and localities have put carefully crafted laws in
>place or are currently working on them.  All such laws would be thrown out.
>Tell your Congress Members that they don't work for the loan sharks and must
>not prevent states and localities from protecting their citizens.  Tell
>Congress, instead, to learn from local efforts and restrict predatory
>lending.  Predatory lenders -- including many mortgage companies and other
>financial institutions -- prey on communities with a variety of aggressive
>and deceptive practices.  These lenders charge borrowers interest rates well
>above what the borrowers' credit records indicate they should receive and
>load the loans down with a number of hidden fees.  Urge your Congress
>Members to support and co-sponsor S. 2438 / HR 1051, which would take needed
>steps to address the growing problem of predatory lending.  To easily
>contact your Congress Members and the President in support of
>ACORN's positions, link to
>http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/takeaction.htm.
>
>PHOTO: Genevieve Stewart, left, an active ACORN member for over 12 years was
>reelected to Little Rock's City Board.
>http://www.acorn.org/photos/gallery.php?p=283
>
>DONATE TO ACORN -- Membership dues and chapter-based fundraising programs
>pay for 75 percent of ACORN's budget. But ACORN also needs financial support
>from non-member allies, people who do not live in neighborhoods with ACORN
>chapters but who support the work ACORN is doing. For more information, link
>to
>http://acorn.org/donate/ or contact Steve Kest at natexdirect at acorn.org or
>(718) 246-7900.
>
>LINK TO PAST POSTINGS TO THIS LIST AT
>http://www.acorn.org/campaigns/pastpostings.php
>
>ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the
>nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income
>families, with over 120,000 member families organized into 600 neighborhood
>chapters in 45 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action
>and won victories on issues of concern to our members. Our priorities
>include: better housing for first time homebuyers and tenants, living wages
>for low-wage workers, more investment in our communities from banks and
>governments, and better public schools. We achieve these goals by building
>community organizations that have the power to win changes -- through direct
>action, negotiation, legislation, and voter participation.
>
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>
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>David Swanson, communications coordinator
>ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
>739 8th Street SE
>Washington, DC 20003
>(202) 547-2500 p
>(202) 546-2483 f
>acornnews at acorn.org
>http://www.acorn.org