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About DDDB
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there are 51 community organizations formally
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and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.
We have the financial support of well over 3,500 individual
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Ratner and ACORN: Quid Pro Quo Pros
ACORN has continued its undying, unconditional support of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic
Yards project even though there is barely any talk of affordable housing any more,
let alone construction of any. (Yes, ACORN's contract with Bruce Ratner requires
this support and promotion of the project, but only
up to a certain point.)
What does ACORN get in return?
Norman
Oder stumbled upon a report from blogger Anita MonCrief that Bruce Ratner's
developemnt firm gave its "community benefits agreement" partner ACORN $1.5 million
(ONE POINT FIVE MILLION DOLLARS) worth of grants and low interest loans this past
summer. That's the same ACORN that has been in legal and financial hot water.
MonCrief wrote
on her blog:
What is really intriguing about this whole Atlantic Yards mess is
that Forest City Ratner has begun layoff s while at the same time bailing out
their old friends Bertha Lewis and ACORN. I wonder if those unemployed workers
know about the $1.5 Million bailout loan to ACORN by the company. At the East
Regional Meeting in August of this year, ACORN leadership stated that
“Big NY ally Forest City Ratner agreed to loan us $1M at 2% and grant
us $500k to pay back health fund and to use for other transition costs. Board
will decide how much to allocate to IRS payment and how much to allocate to
lawyers.”
Norman Oder gets
to the crux:
With $1.5M grant/loan, FCR bails out national ACORN, parent
of major CBA partner
...With a grant and (low-interest) loan worth $1.5 million, developer Forest
City Ratner this summer helped rescue the embattled advocacy organization ACORN,
which represents low- and moderate-income people on housing and other issues—and
whose New York affiliate, the developer’s lead partner in the Atlantic
Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), has supplied vigorous support at public
hearings regarding the project.
In doing so, FCR has helped stabilize an organization reeling from the revelations
that not only did the brother of ACORN’s founder embezzle nearly $1 million
in 2000 but also, as the New York Times reported September 10, that the news
was “concealed by senior executives until a whistle-blower told a foundation
leader about it in May.”...
The something-is-not-quite-right-here tell? Oder continues:
While Forest City Ratner is quick to trumpet
its support for local community events, it has not publicly announced its
gift to ACORN.
Since Ratner has been willing to help bail out ACORN, and has never given a gift
of this magnitude to his partner, presumably ACORN and the interim chief organizer
of the national group Bertha Lewis (also executive director of New York ACORN)
will continue to support and promote the Atlantic Yards project no matter how
putrid it becomes.
Posted: 12.02.08
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