Gentrification

Those posters that said Gentrification CUNY, I went to that workshop. Maribal Sisters Community Center and Students for Educational Rights came together in NAC 1/211 to discuss a common cause, Gentrification, or, the G word.



The Maribal Center is on 142nd Street and Broadway. They are basically a tenant rights group. The workshop began with a session by Maribal, focusing on the Columbia U expansion, the scale of gentrification in Northern Manhataan and the actions they have taken. Next, SER spoke about G here at CUNY and what the students have done and are doing about it. Lastly, we all discussed questions and comments. Cort from SER translated.

A man from Maribal said some 80,000 people have been displaced in the last 20 years. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who I've discovered to be very active in the food and green movements, is part of the process to "beautify" Harlem from "river to river."

A woman testified that her landlord or other, had "racist ideas" that her and her family was "illiterate and things like that." She went to Maribal, who basically took care of the eviction situation. They have many stories of winning in court.

Margie from SER spoke alongside Ana. She explained that the school was mostly white until there was a strike in 69 and we obtained an open admissions policy. She described the process that pushes minorities out of school as "sneaky." Part of the sneakiness is the raising of standards for admissions.

Ana went on to say that the SATs are considerably racist. A professor Crane or Krane, spoke as an expert on the subject, saying that SATs predict your race and income, that both parts do not correlate with previous grades and (what made everyone gasp) was the items in which black and Latino students do well are removed from the tests. He also said, there has always been suspicion since women always did quite poor in comparison to men. Therefore, he said, as opposed to hoses and dogs, people of color are kept out by more subtle and sneaky tactics.

They elaborated that the price of tutors, Kaplan preparation, et cetera, are evidence of racism. Kachet, an attendee from League for a Revolutionary Party, said those considerations exist for the whole of the educational system. She alluded to all sorts of things, that neighborhoods have bad schools, there are private schools, parents may or may not be available to help their children, children have to take care of the family. These are all considerations in the discussion of remedial classes and open admissions. It is considerable because the school is capping admissions for the first time since way back (if not ever) and is raising admission standards.

Cort, a founding member of SER in 88, experienced a CCNY with a larger immigrant population. The drop out rates have been escalating and more out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition have been admitted. More things like, that students are forced to pay more to take more labs, were discussed.

We discussed the hotel supposedly being built on top of the Harlem landmark, Victoria Cinema 5 (originally a burlesque theatre), the Greek Collegiate Diner being closed and the Subconscious chain store appearing across the street.

A highschool student discussed how he feels, losing the student metro cards, talk of charter schools, maybe having to pay eventually for school. He came "from a country that is being destroyed by this country to this country," translated Cort.

An alumni said he was here in the SLAM days, (Student Liberation Action Movement). He explained that we won the fight to open admissions in 69, but the community, faculty and more students were involved. We lost, he said, when there was no community involved. (He also noted an upcoming Hunter action).

Margie said she feels not enough students get involved. 1st of all, if I may, they outnumbered the 350 climate rally in the education movement by about 4 times. Davey said something about our Edu movement that echoed my thoughts on the Climate Justice movement, that the students just don't feel it yet. In the community, gentrification is felt. A woman said, "We could talk about the [G] issues all night."