Today Russell Simmons posted a letter to Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, which reads:
Dear My Friend, Mayor Bloomberg,
In the summertime, as a child, I used to play in the streets of Hollis, Queens. As we played, there were always kids hanging out on the corner. Most of those kids that stood on that street corner of Hollis and 205th either died or went to jail. So, yesterday I was looking forward to joining you at the press conference announcing the expansion of New York City’s Summer Streets program, because I know that good programs will keep kids playing in the streets, rather than standing on the corner.
As I stood there and listened to all of the city officials, including you, tout the various programs of Summer Streets, I realized that we should be spending as much energy on programs for the poor and disenfranchised as we do on the programs on Park Avenue and in other affluent neighborhoods in the city. I think it is wonderful that the city will be closing streets throughout all five boroughs during the summer; however we need to make sure that the people who live in the poorer communities have free programs as well. We also need to make sure that the information to participate is easily accessible for those communities. We respect the city’s interest in servicing the tourists and more affluent New Yorkers and we recognize these programs, in some way, benefit the entire city. However, frankly speaking, the poor do not benefit enough.
With the horrific economic conditions that have devastated our communities, we all know that times are tough. However, during these tough times we would expect our leaders to give those who need a hand, two hands. I have been a friend and supporter for many years, and will always give you credit for the excellent job you have done in areas like education and the environment. As your friend, I urge you to create more and enhance the existing programs that you have already created for those who are suffering in poverty. Let’s make sure that we do not create two New York Cities; one for those with privilege and access and one for those who are living in struggle.
During this long, hot summer, we need more programs that will keep our young people from literally killing each other. Just last week, I met with the leaders of the Bury Da Beef coalition who asked for my assistance to stop an escalating street war that is going on right now in my old neighborhood in Queens. They are fearful that with the summer in full swing, the violence will not stop across the city. And without anything for the kids to do, I am sorry to say, it definitely won’t. As we all don’t want more trouble in our city, I strongly recommend that the city makes more of a commitment to support programs that are community based and community-run, like Bury Da Beef, LIFE Camp or Man Up, amongst many, many others.
Lastly, let us be honest, that if we do not help those who are suffering in poverty, they will eventually rise up and put many elected officials on the same unemployment line as they are on now.
Your Friend,
Russell Simmons
We should all follow Mr. Simmons’ lead and continue in the democratic process past election day. Contact your city officials to let them know what you like or dislike about how they using city resources.
Today the S&P 500 dropped 2.9% to 896.42 in New York, extending its slump since June 12 to 5.3 percent and erasing its 2009 gain. The Dow dropped 223.32 points (2.6%) to 8,280.74. For every stock that was up today, a whopping 14 were down. That’s the worst decline since May. As for sheer volume, about 734 million shares were traded on the floor today. That is by far the lowest number of the year. All this occurred among the news that unemployment had increased to 9.5%. Numbers show that over 476,000 jobs were loss last month. This number makes the 300,000 jobs lost in May look bearable. President Obama met with many CEOs of energy companies that were actually creating jobs. He was told that many of these energy firms are making money and looking to hire double and sometimes triple their staffs in the coming years. **Message** If you are looking for a field to get into, energy is the one…lol…On the economy, to sum it up, he basically said that it took years to drag the economy into the hole that we are in now, and that when we see little corrections (the minor increases we saw for a couple days before today) we can’t jump the gun and think everything is ok. I completely agree. You can’t fix years of miscalculations and reckless trading in a couple months…
