[Peace-discuss] more than a nuisance

[E. Wayne Johnson]

The City of Urbana has a law forbidding landlords from denying housing 
to persons because of a criminal record.

Do you think this law should be repealed?  I am intending this to be a 
serious question.


Ricky Baldwin wrote:
> And basic maintenance is not my point, Wayne, but the hazards and 
> sometimes terror of living in a building or in a neighborhood where 
> landlords keep renting to dangerous criminals, and so on.
>  
> Ricky
>
> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag>
> *To:* Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
> *Cc:* peace discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>; Community 
> Courtwatch <discuss at communitycourtwatch.org>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 11, 2009 12:13:53 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] more than a nuisance
>
> Your previous experience and hard work is noted and appreciated by 
> all, but Basic maintenance is not at all what the proposed urbana 
> criminal nuisance ordinance is about.
>
> The most recent draft is available at the city's website. 
> http://www.city.urbana.il.us/Urbana/City_Council/Agendas/01-12-2009/ordinance_2008-11-135.pdf
> Additional info here:
> http://www.city.urbana.il.us/Urbana/City_Council/Agendas/02-09-2009/ordinance_2008-11-135.pdf
>
> Ricky Baldwin wrote:
>> My opinion may not be popular on either of these lists, but I think I 
>> ought to explain where I'm coming from.
>>
>> In the nineties I worked for ACORN - an association I was never 
>> prouder of than in this last election.  As a lone NYC Council member 
>> once said in another context - about not so different attacks on poor 
>> people organizing for their rights to vote, to improve their 
>> communities, to live in decent housing and safe neighborhoods, 
>> attacks by people who oppose all those things - "It is a badge of honor!"
>>
>> When I was at ACORN I spent my days and evenings six days a week 
>> walking around in the poorest, most dangerous (a.k.a. "worst") 
>> neighborhoods in the cities where I worked, talking to people who 
>> lived in toxic environments.  There were many rats, and in Buffalo 
>> skunks, garbage in the streets not swept by the city, abandoned 
>> buildings, vacant lots.  When it rained water cascaded down the walls 
>> of the living rooms and kitchens where we sat and talked and they 
>> offered me orange juice and tried to figure out why I wasn't married 
>> and we planned the next meeting and how to get the press interested 
>> and which local preachers might help and which might get in the way, 
>> which cops were honest and which were dangerous criminals.  Front 
>> doors of apartment buildings didn't lock or had been broken for 
>> months.  Some people were afraid to go out into the hallways in their 
>> own building because of the violence and violent people going in and 
>> out, or living next door, down the hall, just up stairs.
>>
>> These were hazards, nightmares, not mere "nuisances".
>>  
>> Landlord after landlord refused to fix anything, get rid of any 
>> dangerous tenants haunting the buildings, or take any responsibility 
>> at all.  People in these communities were trapped.  They lived there 
>> because they had few options, and there was very little recourse.  We 
>> organized together and fought the landlords, pressured city 
>> government to hold them accountable, and demanded that the landlords 
>> and the local government take some responsibility for the neglect and 
>> toxicity of those neighborhoods.  It was always an uphill climb, 
>> because money and influence and property rights were always on the 
>> other side. 
>>
>> We won some, one piece at a time, but in truth we lost more often.  I 
>> think a lot of us know that song.  Even the victories were often 
>> mixed bags, but we improved real lives.
>>
>> I do have concerns about the proposed "Nuisance Ordinance" - some 
>> along the lines I think expressed by Charlie Smyth - and I'd like to 
>> see a more community-based, even complaint-driven system, rather than 
>> reliance on the police - but overall I support this effort.  I hope 
>> I've explained why. 
>>
>> I continue to support efforts to expose and address police racial 
>> profiling and other abuses of power.  I still hope we as a community 
>> can strengthen the police review board some day soon.  But I do not 
>> see this ordinance as repressive on its face, but potentially very 
>> progressive.
>>
>> In Solidarity,
>> Ricky
>>
>> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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>>   
>
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