By Kate E. Salute and Marley Seaman
The Spanish translates to ³the people united.²
Over the clamor of the participants, Anne Wells, vice president of the NAACP of Lakeview, said, "affordable housing needs to be built in Garden City, which is part of Nassau County. We should all be allowed to live in nice places, like in Garden City all people, not just the elite."
The event was sponsored by organizations from all over the state, including the Hempstead branch of the national Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and representatives of the Lakeview NAACP.
Fred Brewington, an attorney representing ACORN, said the significance of the venue for the sleep out was that the land the participants were on represents available land where affordable housing could be built. Brewington was raised in Lakeview and is an alumnus and assistant football coach at Malverne High School.
About a hundred people of all ages and races, chanted, "What a shame, what a pity, we can't live in Garden City."
Felix Aponte came from his Brooklyn residence for the event. He said, "It's a good cause. It's hard to find a place to live even though they have a good income. I'm retired and have a pension of $2,500 a month. I'm 56 and we deserve to live in a nice place. I don't want to live in a ghetto but we have to live where we can pay the rent."
Naomi Barash brought her family from Port Washington. She said, "There needs to be affordable housing in every place. We have to give integration a push, we can't wait for it to happen."
The evening's events consisted of food, music, poetry readings and speakers. A flyer about the sleep out indicated that the Rev. Al Sharpton would be a speaker, though he did not show up. After 9 p.m. the festivities ceased and the "tent-city people," as Brewington called those staying to camp out, retired to their respective temporary abodes.
There were more than a dozen tents set up on the property, including one that had a sign designating it for Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi.
Aside from enjoying the food and music, Brewington, along with a number of other attorneys, served as legal observers for the sleep out. To be identified as lawyers, most wore orange armbands; some, Brewington said, were incognito.
³Our job is to be the eyes and ears, take notes and to make sure that everything goes smoothly,² Brewington said while letting the music move him to the beat. "We're going to stay on this property for 17 1/2 hours because this property is ours."
Brewington said that the county executive has had a change of heart on the issue of affordable housing in Garden City. ³[Suozzi] said affordable housing was not necessary in 2004, but now says it is." Brewington provided the Herald with a transcript of a February 2004 public hearing in the Village of Garden City, where Suozzi said, ³We're absolutely not interested in building affordable housing there, and there is a great need for affordable housing, but Garden City is not the location.² Brewington also provided print-outs of news articles following a May 8, 2006, press conference the county executive held to propose mixed-use housing on 11.8 acres of currently undeveloped county-owned land across from Roosevelt Field Mall. The area is zoned for commercial use and it is up to the Garden City village officials to decide if the zoning will be changed to allow for such housing.
Suozzi said in a statement released after the press conference, ³We propose a model housing plan that will appeal to young people, the children of Garden City residents, who are starting out in their careers, empty nesters who no longer need large homes and for those who work in Garden City but cannot afford to live there.²
Brewington said, "If it wasn't for something called a gubernatorial election, I might be able to take him at his word." His response to Suozzi's proposal: "Don't be a liar, because you ain't going no higher."
ACORN extended Suozzi an invitation to the sleep out, but Suozzi declined, saying in one article that he would not attend because he was interested in "real solutions,not publicity stunts."
Days after the event, Brewington said, "This was not a publicity stunt. We were making a serious statement by putting our bodies where our words are. It was the very essence of the exercise of the First Amendment." He added, "It was an amazing success. Imagine, any issue that can get 30 people to sleep out during the worst weather of the year windblown, rain torn, yet not a single person who planned to sleep out was deterred. That's a wonderful and important success that shows a level of excitement around the issue by people on Long Island."
Photos by Richard Wendt/Herald
Comments about this story? KSalute@liherald.com or (516)569-4000 ext. 205.
