Occupy Sandy’s main hub in the Rockaways began with a solar powered generator from Greenpeace. Before long, the National Guard was relying on OccupySandy to distribute food and water. DIRECT ACTION is breaking down walls that divide us.
The whole world is watching!
See for yourself - Video, Rockaway Peninsula, Queens, NYC, Nov 3rd
See for yourself - Video, A gap that OccupySandy Relief stepped up to fill, Nov 1st
See for yourself - An interactive map of OccupySandy's efforts
See for yourself - OccupySandy's social media feed at Interoccupy.net
See for yourself - OccupySandy covered by Democracy Now, Nov 5th
(More below the fold)
OPTIONS FOR DIRECT DONATION
If you want to see exactly what your money was spent on (and know that none of it was used for executive salaries or bonuses). You can see for yourself what items are urgently needed. Some of the items are things that are hard for local volunteers to pick up and drop off.
1. OccupySandy on Amazon, (Priority items were updated Tues Nov 6th).
2. OccupySandy NJ on Amazon, (Ships to Jersey City, New Jersey, which is directly across the Hudson River from downtown Manhattan.)
3. You can ship items directly to Occupy Sandy's main distribution hub in New York City.
They are cooking meals there, serving meals there AND using volunteers to personally deliver hot meals and supplies to those in need who can’t come out to pick up things for themselves. And they are training and coordinating volunteers and full vehicles of food/water/supplies and clean-up crews out to other sites, especially focusing on the Rockaways.
St Jacobi Lutheran Church
5406 4th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY, 11220
Occupy Sandy Contact No. at St. Jacobi
(347) 470-4192
If you choose option No. 3 let them (and others) know what you are sending by posting to their social media feed at http://interoccupy.net/...
4. BROOKLYN - direct donations and volunteer hub (via UnaSpenser, Nov 5, AM). This is Occupy Sandy's second main hub and it is coordinating volunteers, donations, and supplies, focused on Brooklyn needs. If you want to focus support in Coney Island, Sheepshead Bay, Redhook, and Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Occupy Sandy Outpost
Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Clinton Hill
520 Clinton Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238
5. Chelsea NYC - Consider a direct $ donation to a drop-in center for homeless LGBT youth. It was flooded by the surge up the Hudson River on Manhattan's west side. (via Dave in Northridge, Nov 5)
Sandy Destroys Ali Forney Center for Homeless LGBT Youth
Occupy Sandy is also handing out information for people to access other available resources and services, of which there are many options. But there is nothing like the boots on the ground that Occupy Sandy is organizing and deploying on a dynamic basis. They have ZERO overhead since they are tapping into and partnering with whatever local sites and organizations are available.
For up-to-date needs see the interoccupy.net page, which maintains nodes for many distribution cites in all the NYC boroughs. http://interoccupy.net/...
At the beginning of Occupy a powerful chant was, "The whole world is watching." Let us Kossacks let the folks on the ground know that we hear them and see what they are doing for their communities and our country.
GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
Many people out in the flooded and burnt out neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens and surrounding areas depend on mass transit to get around, and on deliveries to where they live.
Many who did not evacuate lost their cars to the storm. Those whose cars survived the storm could not afford the time to spend hours in line getting a few gallons of gas. Those that did have fuel in the tank, and donated food/water to offer faced massive traffic jams, and lack of knowledge about where to go out there to meet up with those in need. Those without power quickly lost any ability to tap any of their own wider networks receive updates of what services are coming their way.
The Rockaway Peninsula will remain without adequate mass transit service for some time because the bridge that carried the subway out there was badly damaged. Even if they had power out there, there are no rail cars on the peninsula, since they were stowed safely before Sandy came through.
With the railroad bridge out of commission, they will have to deliver some subway cars out there by truck, in order to restore minimal train service up and down the peninsula. MTA said they will have to close the only bridge out there when they do that. There is still no shuttle bus service.
NYPost Nov 5th: http://www.nydailynews.com/...
The Rockaways will not have service on the A line for at least a month as the bridge over Jamaica Bay was badly damaged. The MTA plans on trucking subway trains to the peninsula to run a shuttle but has not yet started bus service to the nearest working subway station in Queens because there are no traffic lights, Seaton said.
A FEW SNAPSHOTS of the need and OccupySandy's impact.
Democracy Now reporting on devastation in the Rockaways on November 5th.
http://www.democracynow.org/...
Democracy Now reported that when Mayor Bloomberg visited the Rockaways on Saturday November 3rd, he did NOT notify the press.
Huffington Post reports that Mayor Bloomberg turned volunteers away, telling them to donate money instead.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
“On Sunday, [November 3rd], New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city was overwhelmed with volunteers and suggested people donate money, rather than show up at a volunteer site. But as Occupy Sandy's Twitter feed shows and organizers confirm, help is still needed in many forms.”
Business Insider reports on the Rockaways on Monday evening - one full week after the storm.
Residents Of NYC's Devastated Rockaways Are Still In A State Of Disbelief
http://www.businessinsider.com/...
"While city workers began clearing main streets, residents said federal relief was still largely absent. The majority of the assistance residents received was from individual volunteers going door to door."
OccupySandy's effective actions are attracting attention!
NY Magazine reporting on medical canvassing, November 6, 4:01 PM
Occupy Sandy’s Street Medics Go Door-to-Door in Coney Island
Let's support OccupySandy, Kossacks! The temperature dropped below freezing this week, and a
Nor'easter is heading our way - WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON!
NBC reports "Gusts up to 50 miles per hour and several inches of snow are possible in New York City and along the New Jersey coast starting Wednesday evening, the National Weather Service warned Tuesday."
EARLIER EDITIONS of this diary:
Nov 5th AM (First Edition)
Nov 5th PM (Second Edition)
Thank you to all of you who gave me suggestions and advice with my first diary.
And huge thanks to all of you who have already supported OccupySandy!