Backing a developer and the use of eminent domain to remove poor people from their homes.
(Page 2 of 4)
His brother is Michael Ratner, a Che Guevara admirer who has long campaigned for the closure of the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center in Cuba. Michael heads up the Greenwich Village-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which has scored legal victories that undermined the Global War on Terror. Their sister Ellen is a left-wing journalist who said in 2002 it was "my hope" that President George W. Bush "messes up the war" in Iraq so he wouldn't be reelected in 2004.
Although in 2005, Forest City Ratner, struggling to move forward with Atlantic Yards, might have needed ACORN more than ACORN needed it, by 2008 the roles were reversed.
Stung by internal scandal, election fraud allegations galore, unprecedented nonstop negative media coverage, and cash flow problems, ACORN agreed to accept a cash infusion from the developer.
With millions of dollars in back taxes owing to the IRS, states, and localities across the nation, ACORN's continued backing for Atlantic Yards was apparently purchased for $1.5 million in 2008.
According to documents posted online by ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief, this bailout consisted of a $1 million loan and $500,000 in donations. The loan agreement stipulated that $500,000 would be paid to ACORN upon signing and a further $500,000 would be paid out on Oct. 1, 2008. A promissory note provided that interest would accrue at the rate of 4.58% with a final balloon payment of $100,000 due on May 31, 2011.
Forest City Ratner indicated in a letter to ACORN that it would disburse $500,000 in grants but the money wouldn't go to ACORN directly. The grants were to be made to the ACORN Institute, one of ACORN's 100-plus tax-exempt nonprofit affiliates.
Whether the money will stay at the ACORN Institute, which trains aspiring community organizers, is anyone's guess. ACORN routinely shuffles cash around its network. Its nebulous legal status and opaque corporate structure allow it to keep its activities largely hidden from public view.
And there's a powerful financial incentive for ACORN not to withdraw its support for Atlantic Yards. That's because the ACORN Institute was to receive $300,000 of the $500,000 grant up front, with the remaining $200,000 to be paid out in equal installments in August 2009 and August 2010.
Not surprisingly, as doubts have surfaced about whether Forest City Ratner will honor the promise it made to build 2,250 units of affordable housing -- the promise that helped it win the support of ACORN and the Prospect Heights community -- ACORN has remained silent.
Despite ACORN's acquiescence, local politicians are becoming increasingly nervous about the affordable housing component of the project.
"The sweeping promises of affordable housing made by the developer at the onset of this project have now evaporated to a mere whisper," Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat who backed the original plan, told the New York Post last month. "At this point, it is not clear that the developer plans to build anything other than an arena and a few affordable apartment units, and that is simply unacceptable."
Although the officially approved plan called for 2,250 units of affordable housing to be built over 10 years, there is evidence that Forest City Ratner has been trying to renegotiate the deal for some time, noted an intrepid researcher named Norman Oder on a recent episode of CUNY TV's "Brian Lehrer Live."
"In September 2007, before the economic downturn, September 2007, the city and state signed funding agreements that require Forest City Ratner to build much, much less," said Oder, who maintains the encyclopedic Atlantic Yards Report blog. "They can get away with building much less without penalty, maybe three towers, only 300 units of affordable housing in 12 years."
The idea that the developer would construct only three residential buildings was floated by Bruce Ratner himself. In a rare New York Times report on the difficulties the project is facing, Ratner said in March of last year that the bad economy and credit crunch were delivering a double-whammy to his plans. "It may hold up the office building," he said. "And the bond market may slow the pace of the residential buildings."
So in the developer's hierarchy of priorities, creating affordable housing seems to be far down on the list.
Galen| 7.9.09 @ 7:33AM
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Melvin| 7.9.09 @ 8:19AM
This crap about, defending the poor, the party of the poor, the faith of the poor is nothing but pure dog squeeze and propaganda.
Unfortunately for the prodigies of government run education, they'll sit there like dumb sheeple and swallow every word.
For some reason the dumb masses fail to fathom that it is about the money, it always has been and always will be about the money.
ACORN is no different that any politician that eventually realizes, "Hey, this is a tremendous opportunity to skim off untraceable copious amounts of tax payer money."
It is getting to the point that doing the right thing, working forty or more hours a week is working us into the poor house. The problem is that we don't have the ability to skim money off the top like Community Organization and politicians do.
LogicalSC| 7.9.09 @ 8:41AM
Little different that Obama when given control of the 155 million dollars at the Annanberg Foundation for Chicago education, most of the funds went to his do-gooding liberal friends and their groups to help them grow their power.
It was shut down after only three years because so little of it went to the actual children of Southside Chicago and their education.
Look at other's around Obama, William Ayers, Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright have all taken millions by using the plight of the poor in southside Chicago slums, they now all live with Obama in Hyde Park.
The people in the slums are even worse off but waiting for the next "messiah" to come thru to save them.
Pingback| 7.9.09 @ 9:10AM
ACORN Sells Out the Poor | Citizen Right links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Tim| 7.9.09 @ 10:03AM
Obama did get one thing right.....very right!
You should never waste a crisis.
In similar fashion, we should not waste this golden opportunity to destroy Acorn and with it all of the wackos that profit from its illegal work.
If we capitalize on all of Acorn's criminal indictments and all of the truth that is coming out about this corrupt left orginization we should have nuetralized its reach by 2010 and certainly by 2012 and hence we will take this country back from the socialists who's only goal is and has been to infiltrate and take over the USA and the world.
Pingback| 7.9.09 @ 10:12AM
ACORN – Whoring out the poor « Speaking My Mind links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Big J| 7.9.09 @ 10:19AM
Right on, Melvin.
"pure dog squeeze and propaganda" - I love it!
Hope you don't mind, but I'm stealing it.
:)
Robert Rosencrans| 7.9.09 @ 10:49AM
Selling out the poor has been the mainstream thesis of liberalism at least during the last 50 years.
Keeping them barefoot, pregnant and shoeless is an apt description of how liberals view the poor in this country.
When Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid dismissed a group of visitors at the Capital as "smelly tourists" it was a revealing glimpse of the contempt that the political liberal elite hold against most of normal America.
There's a lot of money in poverty and the liberals can't hold onto power if a majority of the population accumulates wealth and freedom.
That's why Obama has to make the population reliant on government with public health care and in fear of government with cap and trade.
Both are designed to keep the public barefoot, pregnant and down on the farm.
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What the hell did you say? In English, please... Reads like that other fella said "dog squeeze".
pher| 7.9.09 @ 11:18AM
The only correction I'd make to this otherwise accurate article on ACORN's involvement with Atlantic Yards is that Forest City Ranter never won the support of the Prospect Heights community. The paid supporters of the AY project are almost entirely drawn from neighborhoods a long way away from the project--for good reason. None of the project's immediate neighbors are interested in what promises to be decades of construction and condemnation blight.
Rafeal| 7.9.09 @ 11:54AM
ACORn got a number of city owned properties for their support of this deal, as well as the contested Atlantic developlment yards, including 672 east 136th street where they threwout dozens of residents after setting a fire, shameful
Michael Tomlinson| 7.9.09 @ 1:06PM
ACORN like all Democrat surrogates is committed to one thing power for themselves and their political masters (Obama, Reid, Pelosi, etc.). If they have to steal elections, which they and Democrats routinely do, they'll do it. If hurting the poor gets them what they want the poor are expendable. This is par for the course for all liberal Democrats and their minions.
Sadly, some Americans like to be abused and that's why they're Democrats. Don't forget the party of slavery, Jim Crow and segregation is now not only home of the rich, but the political victims of such bigotry and intolerance too. I guess it's hard to quit bowing and scraping to the Mas'a.
Angel| 7.9.09 @ 2:41PM
Liberals don't give a damn about anything but power. They'll sell their mother out to get what they want; they've already sold their souls a long time ago.
Pingback| 7.9.09 @ 3:44PM
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Capital Research Center: links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Marc Jeric| 7.10.09 @ 5:36AM
The following bears repeating. Obama's only "working experience" was: 1) as a community organizer; 2) as a lawyer for community organizers; and 3) as a law instructor for future lawyers for community organizers. The most important invention by VI Lenin that brought him to absolute power was the soviets - i.e. local community organizations controlled by the centralized Communist Party. This concept of local community organizations was perfected and applied to the American conditions by Davis, Ayers, and Alinsky - all 3 highly placed executives of the Communist Party USA and of course Obama's intimate teachers. His Kenyan father was also a revolutionary marxist. This country is not being socialized - it is much worse, it is being lulled into a communist state. With ACORN brown shirts in charge of the 2010 census, with their expertise in stealing the elections by voter fraud, and with $9 billion earmarked for them in the first stimulus bill, with many more billions to follow, we are in the middle of the communist coup d'etat.
David| 7.10.09 @ 10:08AM
It is incorrect to say that low inome aprtments will be destroyed. The low income tenants were moved out long before talk of Atlantic yards. Most of these buildings are way too expensive or regular working people to consider.
Anonymous| 7.12.09 @ 12:51PM
And George Soros (who owns and runs ACORN, the Deomcratic party, etc.) gives a damn about the poor how?
Pingback| 7.17.09 @ 4:35AM
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Trackback| 7.17.09 @ 8:04AM
Yedda: Why is the NY Times So Corrupt?, on MarineReconDad's questions on Yedda - People. Sharing. Knowledge., links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 7.22.09 @ 11:26PM
Ms Placed Democrat » ACORN AND ACLU In Bed Together…Trying to destroy PA Law (Update) links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 7.26.09 @ 8:27AM
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The American Spectator : ACORN Sells Out the Poor | Eye Candy Bags links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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مركز تحميل| 11.5.09 @ 6:24AM
It is incorrect to say that low inome aprtments will be destroyed. The low income tenants were moved out long before talk of Atlantic yards. Most of these buildings are way too expensive or regular working people to consider.
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Pingback| 11.26.09 @ 6:01PM
ACORN’s Flagrant Eminent Domain Abuse « NewsReal Blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Poor People Will Soon Be Homeless — Thanks to ACORN « NewsReal Blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Politics| 9.28.10 @ 6:37AM
Selling out of the Poor? What would Elmo say?
Full Name: Wayne Berman Title: Vice-Chair; Finance Co-Chair; Adviser
Over the course of three years, Berman’s lobbying firm was paid $660,000 to lobby on behalf of UnitedHealth subsidiary Americhoice, a managed care HMO providing health insurance to Medicaid, Medicare, and SCHIP recipients. Specifically, according to the lobbying report, they lobbied on Medicaid issues in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.[Americhoice Lobbying Reports 2004 – 2007; Americhoice.com ] Berman Also Lobbied For “Absurdly Low” Rates for Medicaid Managed Care Companies to Pay Out of Network Hospitals. Also included in the DRA, and mentioned as a lobbying issue on Berman’s Americhoice lobbying report, was a provision setting rates managed care companies must pay to out-of-network providers -- mainly hospital emergency rooms -- for care received by Medicaid beneficiaries. Rather than forcing managed care companies to reimburse out-of-network hospitals an amount comparable to network providers, the legislation set the default amount to the state’s “fee-for-service rate,” which often is “absurdly low.” The provision thereby shifted financial responsibility for services to Medicaid beneficiaries from the managed care companies to the hospitals themselves, permitting managed care companies to rake in huge profits, while hospitals incurred added losses.[Modern Healthcare, 1/29/07; Text of S. 1932] To Save Money, Bill Cut Services to Medicaid Beneficiaries, But Left Managed Care Providers Untouched. Under the final budget package, substantial Medicaid spending cuts were achieved by imposing new premiums and increased co-payments on Medicaid beneficiaries; some costs were also shifted to the states, who in return were awarded new powers to drop coverage or reduce benefits to certain beneficiaries. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the AARP CEO decried the final bill, saying it “protects the pharmaceutical industry, the managed-care industry and other providers at the expense of low-income Medicaid beneficiaries.”[Inside CMS, 12/29/05; Los Angeles Times, 12/22/05; World Markets Analysis, 12/21/05; The Hill, 12/20/05]
The Players and whats up for grabs. Profits United Health Group 2010 $4.293 billion
Here are some other 2010 budget numbers: Wonder what it cost CMS ( Can't Manage Sxxx) to operate each year.$453 billion Medicare///$290 billion Medicaid ///$78.7 billion Department of Health and Human Services/// UnitedHealth Group Awarded TRICARE Managed Care Support Contract ... Jul 13, 2009 ... UnitedHealth Group Awarded TRICARE Managed Care Support Contract for more than $20.3 billion. BILLIONS awarded and still to be awarded United's AmeriChoice unit is the largest government contractor administering state Medicaid programs for the poor and federally sponsored plans for children. AmeriChoice's revenue rose 34% last year, to $6 billion. United Health Group and its subsidiarys must be exhausted from signing Corporate Integrity agreements each and every year and as reward for their violations well what happens? they are awarded more contracts and more money and maybe even an ambassadorship here and there and if anybody should question what the heck is going on, then send them a Elmo doll.(Americhoice sponsors Sesame Street) Up side, Billions to be made, down side pay some fines (cost of doing business) move on and nobody goes to jail or gets excluded from the game. Get up the next day put on your Elmo costume and its back to work as usual. WOW, even in the Casino world or Mob world this would be a no no, suprised Hollywood has not done a movie on this or maybe even great TV.
The Government created this monster and now they don’t know what to do about it, like shooting yourself in your own foot etc.Tons of money to advance their national growth, its market positions, tons of money for political donations, tons of money to send 75 millon back to its home office from New York state alone, tons of money to suppot National TV shows, tons of money to pay hugh State fines, tons of money to hire the very best law firms, tons of money to pay for bribes and kickbacks, tons of money for hugh salarys and bonuses, all done on the back of the American taxpayor, you see this company receives all its money from the Federal State governments. Should your tax dollars it be held to a higher standard? Should the government agencys responsible for there review be held to that same standard? Should the IRS audit their corruption? Why has this company not been charged? How long can the buck be passed here in more ways then one?
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Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron Corporation president, has one last, good chance to get out of prison soon. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Houston will hear arguments today about how many, if any, of the 19 felony counts on which Mr. Skilling was convicted in 2006 should be overturned as a result of the landmark Supreme Court decision in his case. Please don't worry Election Year Medicaid Medicare Inducement issues left open for November not openly discussed.Politics have gone from heated to man on fire thoughts. Also the Judicial dilemmas, since all are offically allowed to bear arms again, the big city Mayors are concerned about how the poor will be able to rearm themselves, and are looking for some type of financial relief from Federal State Medicaid programs to maintain their status quo.The higher courts face tough issues this term since making honest fraud legal, there agenda now turns toward making honest kickbacks and honest bribes equally as legal. This topic remains high as a shared issue by the medicaid medicare enrollment providers since they are looking to expand inducements past the complicated pregnancy stage.
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