[Peace-discuss] more than a nuisance

Wed Feb 11 11:30:22 CST 2009

My posting definitely did not focus on "upkeep", but on neglect.  The point is: "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."  By "toxicity" I mean all these threats, which you and I do not face when we step outside our homes. 

Of course this law should not be repealed, and it is preposterous and insulting to people with criminal records that you should ask in this context.  We are not talking about people with a past here, but with people who continue to be a threat to those around them.  Very different.

I'm not sure why you bring up rich politicians who do not live in our community, but if you have information that GW Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld or someone is moving in, and you want to apply this ordinance to them, more power to you.  (And I'm not sure how Obama is much of a "dangerous criminal" yet, but that seems even more beside the point here.)

 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 9:49:11 AM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] more than a nuisance

Excuse me, but your posting did focus on upkeep.

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Do you think this law should be repealed?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.

Certainly not all dangerous criminals have criminal records, vis a vis,
the past and current President, many members of Congress,...
And not all persons with criminal records are really "dangerous
criminals", but there may be some correlation.

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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