Introduction to Organizing
Your neighbors are natural allies. If you are concerned that your public housing development is under threat, chances are your neighbors might, too! Try to plug into existing Resident/Tenant Association meetings, or if you don’t know of any, call a public meeting to find folks nearby who share your concerns. You can start small with a meeting in your lobby or at a bench area; it is your right to organize and have a say in what happens to your home.
Existing community-based organizations are a great place to start since they and their members are already invested and involved in the community. Tenants’ rights groups, block associations, and local neighborhood institutions are all good places to connect. Here are some of the many organizing groups around the City you might want to connect with.
The Community Board is often the first in the neighborhood to know about important land use issues. Figure out how to get in touch. The property page on NYCommons will tell you which Community Board to contact for each property in the database.
Elected officials including your local Council Member, your Borough President, your local Member of Congress, State Senator, or Assembly representative may be able to help you advocate for a community-oriented plan for the site in question. Council Members and the Community Board are directly involved in many NYC land use decisions. For each property on NYCHARealTalk.org, the Council Member and Community Board for that specific property is listed. Want to look up another property? Check here: http://www.mygovnyc.org/.
Here are some routes you might want to take for your organizing campaign: