So I’m a few days late on hearing this news, as I’ve been mostly watching the stock market and looking forward to the vice presidential debates. But being an honest to god child of hip hop, I found this story to be just as new worthy…
Apparently last week community leaders watch hopelessly as the courts ruled to allow the sale of 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the South Bronx to real estate developer, Mark Karasick, which puts the future of the 100 families residing in the building, in jeopardy. This, even after tenants partnered with housing advocates filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court in an attempt to block the sale aaaand assembled a $10 million offer for the building, which doubles the $5 Million mortgage that needs to be paid for the current owners to withdraw the building from the city’s Mitchell-Lama moderate housing program.
In march of this year, the first attempt at the sale of this property was rejected when the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development deemed that the roughly $7.5 million sale price “significantly exceeded the building’s assessed value”, and was “not sustainable.” At the moment, no one seems to be sure which bank is financing the sale of the property, and are all wondering would finance this project at such an inflated price and during such pressing financial times. Housing advocates were actually hopeful that the recent financial woes on Wall Street would prevent the deal from holding up.
What’s extra-speacially heartbreaking here is that 1520 Sedgwick is more or less the birth place of Hip Hop. So it seems a shame to know to know that the rec center in the front of the building, where DJ Kool Herc first learned to work his two turntables, happens to also be the same room from which Senator Charles E. Schumer delivered the news conference when the sale was first rejected in march.
Shout goes out to The New York Times’ blog for covering the story so well. You can check it at length here. While you’re there you should also check this story about bronx area photographer Lisa Kahane who, much like Jamal Shabazz, played an integral role in documenting life & times in the Bronx, during the early 80s. Get smart.
I never thought the phrase “drill baby drill” would elicit psuedo-pornographic images in my mind, but yesterday I think that happened.
My history teacher Mr. Williams would say “I remember in the seventies, during the Oil Crisis – by god you couldn’t even hardly get gas! Ya’ll are just spoiled, it’ll run dry… *cue Charlie Brown trumpet blather*
“Don’t everybody like the smell of gasoline? Well burn motherfucka burn American Dreams…” – Outkast Gasoline Dreams
Well um… Atlanta as the locals say, “ain’t hardly got no gas – nowhere”. That’s a triple negative statement if you didn’t notice, so you know its bad. Worse – Atlanta’s mass transit, is well, less than sufficient. The Math ain’t in our favor. NYCs buroughs represent 305 sq. miles, L.A. 499 sq. miles on a good day and the Atlanta Metropolitan area? 8,376 SQUARE FUCKING MILES. Meaning if you
a) can’t afford the 4.40 gal. b) can’t FIND the 4.40 gal or c) Need to get to work, buy groceries, are mortally wounded and need urgent medical attention, and/or Wife is preggo and you need to get to the hospital?
Then yes, I hope you got a quarter tank, because otherwise you’ll be googling “home remedies” or sucking gas through a hose.
Aside from realizing I reflexively shift into neutral anytime I sense inertia is on my side… I saw something disturbing yesterday that made me realize its so bad PEOPLE WANT TO PAY $4.40+ gal for gas. Seriously, these are crack prices people. CRACK. After work yesterday you woulda thought this one guy was making babies with his gas tank, eyes closed, head to the sky, fisting the hell outta…that err uhm, gas pump. I wasn’t sure if he was nodding his head to music or the rhythm of the gasoline surging through the hose and deep into the empty tank. A big grin of apparent satisfaction came on his face when the loud “click” from the tank rung through the air. “Got my tank full ya’ll!”. Strutted into his car, lounged in the driver’s side, reved up – and sped off.. as if he didn’t just drop at least $75 to get from point A to point B. I live off of Metropolitan Parkway in Atlanta, which was once known for prostitution… I imagine at this rate prostitution for petro will soon take hold.
What followed was even scarier – two cars (one SUV and one sports car) swerved where I swear fumes were still swirling in the air, where Mr. Petro Puta himself just left. An argument starts, one guy cursing gets out his car, then goes back at which point it occurs to me “Its now legal to carry concealed guns in this city – one of these mofos cap off, burst open a tank in flames – whole fucking station erupts , riots break out -end of the world etcetera, etcetera…”
I decided I’d leave and go home, coast as much as I subconciously could in neutral and wait til morning. Who got the gas you ask? Well it looks like Mr. SUV muscled Mr. Mustang out of position…only to find out that particular tank was already tapped out. He didn’t realize that upon filling up, the previous buyer went well over the $20 cap a lot of stations are asking of customers.
hello people! this is my first blog post. so listen! the thoughts of 21 x and mc are everywhere! i am in holland for a day more and tonight. im going to rotterdam to make things happen at da circle of sole.
im going to be posting somethings concerning how what and why i have been in amsterdam this weekend! so many positive things are happening with africans in african and europe! people such as francis kere and architect from burkina faso and zina saro-wiwa a nigerian film maker, nontsikelelo ‘lolo’ veleko a street fashion photographer from south africa, and emer beamer an irish graphic designer who i met yesterday at surprising africa have made me think what am i doing and what am i going to do! also people i met in so much information! so much happening in the inside and outside of africa i have not seen. you can read more at http://www.picnicnetwork.org.
if you are in amsterdam and you want me to see what youre doing you can email me at ekene at 21maroons dot com. im going to italy next week and then its all thinking, designing, and blogging! the end! but… to be continued.
ps this is amsterdam but also i have to blog something for what i was doing in london and the states this summer!
For those of you lucky enough to be in LONDON, ENGLAND tomorrow night, definitely go check out our boy ROWDY SUPERST*R at 93 feet East club. You can check out ROWDY here and check out the flyer below for more info.
The B-More Mastermind himself will be in NYC tomorrow DJing in the Lower East Side at Porch. Katie (Queen Bee) from Good Peoples and Cobra Kai throw weekly parties at Porch, and they are without a doubt, dope! I’m there every week so come by tomorrow and watch Blaqstarr give everyone a mind fuck like he did a couple months ago at Sway!
I had to share this… On the rare occasion that I catch something on television, it was Jeopardy. Imagine my consternation when I saw that “Snoop Dog” was an entire category. I didn’t get a chance to record or anything, tho I did snap this photo of the $800 question just after hearing “I’ll take Snoop Dog for 800, Alex”:
In all of this, I’m still not sure what’s funnier. The fact that “Snoop Dog” was the name of the Jeopardy category or that the question to the answer made me aware of that fact that Snoop has appeared on Weeds.
This week it’s our pleasure to share with you the results of this weeks Design Pass between Mario and myself. All these designs use elements from the M.I.A. Pharaoh Poncho Visual Remix, which come out hella soon, promise.
Greetings Maroons!
As you can see, we are hosting our first
web contest and the rules are simple...
21MC in conjunction with 21bizarre.com is
giving away this Limited Edition Pharaoh
Poncho from the 2009 Triads Collection.
So how do you win?
Follow @21MC on twitter. That's it!
If we reach 2100 followers by Oct 21 2009
1 lucky follower will randomly selected.
Additional prizes will be awarded to the
most active retweeters during the contest.
[must tag all tweets - #21bizarre] Follow @21MC!
President Obama said Friday that he was ”surprised and deeply humbled” by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The committee said it ho…
Kenyan authorities have begun to move residents out of Africa’s largest slum – the Kibera settlement in Nairobi. Officials expect to take from two to five years to clear the slum, which…
It seems that the new 3.1 iPhone OS update kills both tethering hacks and the ultrasn0w unlock hack. Be especially careful since there might be no way to undo the iPhone update – update and b…
Former executive editor of music at BET.com, Andreas Hale hit “send” on an explosive e-mail that sheds light on some of the inner workings (and malfunctions) of the once revered company.
The 21st century Maroon Colony is a NY/SF based critical art & design collective representing the Afro-Triangle and the 2/3s world.
MAKE-TANK / 21MC 21MC serves as the make-tank for The 21st Century Maroon Colony and aims to produce Tropical Wear garments and functional goods for Maroons worldwide. Read more...
Commitment
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Colony - Collective Home Base 21Trillion - Collab Studio/Think-Tank
21Maroons - You Are Here/Make-Tank 21Bizarre - Online Distro/Break-Tank Rxlngr - Rock Slingers & Trouble Bringers
