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| photo by Jenna Pope |
Over the last few weeks, many of us
have reveled in ways the city has responded
to the storm, both good and bad. Before Sandy, we already knew just how ridiculously
top down, cold, and hyper controlling the city tends to be; witness
a recent edict by the city against feeding the homeless. This indifference faced a brick wall with Hurricane Sandy, as city, state, and
federal responses lagged behind those of grass roots mutual aids groups, such
as Occupy Wall Street's project Occupy Sandy. From the earliest days of the OWS, the movement highlighted the power of mutual aid networks, in which people shared ideas and
resources, friendships and material aid. The idea was that revolution meant we needed
each other. When we got kicked
out of the park a year ago, Occupy had already been spreading
citywide. The process only extended
itself over the next twelve months as the New York based movement dovetailed
with local and global struggles and the city had its own Katrina Moment. The result was a tempest of creative direct
action. "We believe in the power of
the people and we believe in creating a sustainable future without destructive
fossil fuels!"" explained Monica Hunken, one of the prime organizers.
I spent the weekend with my pop in Texas, hanging out reading,
watching football, telling stories, sharing poems with Dad. "It was his last play," noted Dad
as we pored through his well read undergraduate edition of The
Tempest. The play's storm forced the
bard's characters reflect on who they were.
Our revels now are ended.
These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inher
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inher
it, shall desolve,
And, like this unsubstantial pagaent faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on. And our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
With lives and fortunes "melting into air" just as Marx and Marshall Berman paraphrased the bard, regular folks responded to our tempest, helping us reimagine what a city could look like, the way it could function, the way peole could care, the way people could transport themselves, and share what they have. This interconnected "we" really is such stuff as dreams are made of." It is really a place where we imagine and practice what we could really be.
Squatters cooked food thrown away by the market, giving it away for free, in the days after the storm. Certainly non monumental, the gesture would portend to a different way of living and making choices about resources.
Occupy started organizing relief efforts and Times Up! started organizing rides to deliver supplies to hard hit areas.
This last weekend, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the group organized Fossil Fuel
Squatters cooked food thrown away by the market, giving it away for free, in the days after the storm. Certainly non monumental, the gesture would portend to a different way of living and making choices about resources.
Occupy started organizing relief efforts and Times Up! started organizing rides to deliver supplies to hard hit areas.
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| Keegan on one of the XUP energy bikes. Photo by Monica Hunken |
This last weekend, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the group organized Fossil Fuel
Disaster Relief bike rides to deliver food, blankets, bike-powered charging stations, and mobile bike repair units to neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Sandy. use their fleet of bike-trailers and cargo-bikes to deliver food and blankets from Occupy Sandy and their own bicycle-powered phone-charging station and mobile bicycle repair units to hard to reach areas, where they set-up distribution centers with free bike-powered charging stations and free bicycle repair – sustainable solutions to the devastation caused by climate changed from the burning of fossil fuels.
“The idea is to offer relief to people who are cold and hungry today and to address the root cause of this disaster at the same time so that fewer people will go through this in the future,” noted volunteer coordinator Keegan Stephan. “All this devastation is the direct result of burning fossil fuels. We should not ignore that while trying to help those who have been devastated. That is why Time's Up is offering sustainable alternatives to energy-production and transportation as well as delivering food and blankets.”
Time's Up volunteers had already been working with Occupy Sandy to transport food and blankets to Coney Island, Rockaway Beach, and Staten Island with their bike trailers and cargo bikes. Time's Up deployed their bicycle-powered charging stations in Manhattan's Lower East Side and East Village all three days that those neighborhoods were out of power, charging hundreds of cell phones per day.
All weekend long, Times
Up bought food and supplies out to Rockaway with a hub set up in the
empty lot across the street from Veggie Island. Beach 96 and Rockaway Blvd.
Monica Hunken explained: "We provide: bike repair, bike-powered cell phone charging, bike delivery of food/supplies to homes, messaging, dance music!and clean up crews. All free!"
Monica Hunken explained: "We provide: bike repair, bike-powered cell phone charging, bike delivery of food/supplies to homes, messaging, dance music!and clean up crews. All free!"
For Hunken,
actions such as this were just part of building a new society. "Please
come on by! All welcome!"
After the Saturday ride, Jackie
Junttonen wrote: "Thank you Time's Times
Up for organizing a steadfast and well executed show of support to
NYC. Today was the first of the Fossil Fuel Disaster Relief Rides. Over 20
cyclists with bike trailers and panniers converged from the 5 boroughs to
deliver Occupy Sandy donations to families without electricity, heat and other
basic services. We rode en mass from Williamsburg to the Rockaways offered help
with cleanup, distributed food, blankets and necessities, charged many cell
phones with pedal power energy, and offered free bike mechanic services. GO
TIME'S UP!!!"
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| Bike power vs Exxon. Photo by Monica Hunken! |
Sunday, the
ride destination was altered taking riders back to the Rockaways instead of
Statan Island. "There are many reasons for this," noted Keegan, "but the primary one is that
bicycles are more useful in the Rockaways than
Staten Island. The Rockaways are
gridlocked. It takes cars 2 hours to make deliveries, whereas bikes can make deliveries is less than 15 minutes. On Staten Island, cars are making deliveries faster than bikes."
gridlocked. It takes cars 2 hours to make deliveries, whereas bikes can make deliveries is less than 15 minutes. On Staten Island, cars are making deliveries faster than bikes."
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| Park Slope morning. Photo by Caroline Shepard |
I got back to
Brooklyn on Sunday, with the words from the Tempesting warming my insides. I felt like I was floating, I was so grateful
there was one more ride in which I could take part. I had planned to visit my pop the weekend
before the storm, but changed plans to this one. Sometimes there is so much going on its hard
to know when to stay or to leave. But my
Dad seemed revived and energized. So I
was glad I went. But I was also glad to
ride over for the Monday relief ride after dropping the kids off at school.
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| Times Up! space by B. Shepard |
I love the ride
from my house in Boerum Hill up to Williamsburg, past the Manhattan Bridge,
over to Admiral's row, along the waterfront to 99 S. 6th Street, where Times
Up! meets in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge. Keegan and Adam were there getting the bike
trailers ready for the trek. Noticing
me, Keegan put his arms out, smiling, welcoming the day.
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| Photos of the Times Up space by Benjamin Shepard |
My friend Sarah
was there to send us off. She talked
about the need for bioremediation.
We have tools to clean up and remove pollutants from communities around
the city, she explained. Already the landfill in Staten Island is spreading
around the island. Its really dangerous
out there. Levees and sea walls won't
'do it, she suggested. We will need to
rebuild the marshlands around New York.
Wonderful
things happen when communities face these challenges. We rebuild cities from the ashes and flood
waters. Kids squatted buildings in New
Orleans. Here in New York, we are
already reimaging what our city could look like. Punk rock band, the Ramones wrote Rockaway Beach
amid the rubble of the 1970's fiscal crisis.
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| Author and activist LA Kauffman |
Much of this was on my mind we rode our bikes to the Hurricane
Sandy Emergency Relief Station organized by Occupy Sandy. Arriving at 520 Clinton Ave, my friend LA
Kauffman greeted me. She had brought her
kids after doing relief work all day long.
Kauffman, an old friend from the Lower East Side Collective and the
Absurd Response to an Absurd War, was one of the organizers who helped me see
the radical potential of a community garden.
Today these spaces are more important than ever.
In front of the Church of St Luke and St. Matthew, a sign declared
"Mutual aid Not Charity."
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| "Mutual aid Not Charity"sign and volunteer training at Occupy Sandy 520 Clinton Ave. Photo by Benjamin Shepard |
There, countless activists talked about the idea that recovery had to
involved a different kind of model than charity, which seems to put a band aid
on the problem, while leaving capitalism still in place. Mutual aid involves
creating a different set of engagements, which involve connections and networks
of support rather than power imbalances or dependencies. Here everyone helps each other. Revolution
means we need each other.
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| A well organized Occupy Sandy relief station. Photos by B. Shepard |
Walking through the Occupy Sandy station inside the church, I was blown
away. The place was pulsing with
volunteers pointing people at drop off areas for new supplies, coordinating
supplies for those going out to the Rockaways, and new volunteer orientations. Long time activists and neighborhood people
there to help. Kids home for Veterans
Day were there to help.
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| Photos by B. Shepard |
A UPS van was there to help drop off packages. And
FEMA was nowhere in sight.
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| Monica and Keegan and the bikes lines up ready to carry supplies. Photos by B. Shepard |
It was a glorious day for our ride down Flatbush to Ft. Tilden and the
Rockaways. Riding we passed cars parked
in bike lanes waiting for gas, while the cyclists zoomed by.
Riding up to Rockaway Taco on 96th, it felt like New York city was a disaster area, so many fire engines, police cars and houses with no electricity. From what I understand there are no plans for electricity anytime soon. The damage from the storm is only intensifying in areas such as Coney Island, Staten Island and the Rockaways.
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| Above cars parked in bike lane in gas line as cyclists zoom by. Rockaway disaster area. Photos by B. Shepard |
Riding up to Rockaway Taco on 96th, it felt like New York city was a disaster area, so many fire engines, police cars and houses with no electricity. From what I understand there are no plans for electricity anytime soon. The damage from the storm is only intensifying in areas such as Coney Island, Staten Island and the Rockaways.
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| Dee Dee Maucher |
The Center for Constitutional Rights notes: "Two weeks after Hurricane Sandy, many people remain without
electricity and heat, depending almost entirely on grassroots relief efforts
organized through groups like Occupy Sandy Relief NYC.
Follow the link below to volunteer with Occupy and SHARE the information with
others. You can also mail urgent supplies through Occupy Sandy's Amazon Wedding
Registry http://amzn.to/RC9w7J
The time is now to be part of the people's recovery and counter any
corporate-dominated response that would further exacerbate the social
inequalities laid bare by this crisis!"
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| photo by Jackie Junttonen |
"After touring only a few of the devastated
areas in NYC--the Rockaways, Sheepshead Bay, it is clear that New York is not
ready for the devastating effects of extreme weather," argues Josh Fox, director of
Gasland. "Seeing Riis Park turned into a massive
landfill of rubble, the ruins of houses from Breezy Point, it is almost too
much to bear. To think that this type of destruction goes all the way up the
east coast is beyond what any film could encompass. We have to get serious about
reducing emissions folks, or else we will continue to watch our coastal areas
damaged beyond recognition. go to www.occupysandy.com to help out. Donations, volunteers
needed round the clock. Hats off to the remarkable work that Occupy Sandy is
doing to provide mutual aid. Hundreds of thousands of meals provided, tens of
thousands of volunteers, medical clinics, relief supply distribution...amazing
to see what non-hierarchichal leadership can provide. Power to the people
y'all. Stop climate change. Prevent the next Hurricane Exxon."
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| Drop off. B. Shepard |
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| Rockaway Taco Sandy Relief Supply area. Photo by Shepard |
Riding past Rockaway Taco, people cheered for the cyclists delivering
supplies. That afternoon cyclists
canvassed the area delivering supplies to people's homes. Keegan and Adam helped charge, "a dvd player,
radio, and many cell phones including this one, all with one energy bike!"
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| Charging DVD player and phones on energy bike. Photo by Keegan! |
In the meantime,
Monica and others with Occupy the Pipeline canvassed the area, drawing
attention to the potential crisis of a proposed gas pipeline through the
Rockaways, if HR 2606
passes. "Can you imagine what kind
of spill we would have had if that pipeline had been here before Sandy?"
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| A familiar site. By Shepard |
My friend Kim
notes: "Help to stop a corporate, violent
atrocity *right now* by calling your congressperson (it takes under 45 seconds)
and telling them to vote no on HR2606 which was a law written by Rep. Michael
Grimm to allow a fracked gas pipeline to be plugged into the beach (inside a
National Park) in Brooklyn/NJ shoreline. This area has seen enough devastation
from the hurricane, now the Oil and Gas indust
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| On the way back home. Photo benjamin shepard |
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