Reader Horror Stories!!
- April 27, 2021
- 12:23 pm
It’s not even Halloween yet, but it's scary in Buffalo’s nonprofit industrial complex.
We have been receiving a lot of feedback on the PULL Buffalo website! We will share as many stories as we get about peoples’ experiences with PUSH Buffalo because we all know that “when we show up in big numbers, people listen.” Please send your stories using this contact form by clicking the button below.
We want to keep hearing from workers, community members, tenants, Hiring Hall trainees, PUSH Green weatherization customers, and anyone else about what has happened to them, even if it was a “long time ago.” Remember that PUSH has only been around for 15 years – in the context of history, none of this happened a long time ago.
Here are some questions we have for our readers:
Are you a former PUSH Buffalo member? Why did you cancel your membership? Why didn’t you renew your membership?
Have you been on PUSH Buffalo’s apartment waiting list? What happened?
Have you been evicted from a PUSH Buffalo apartment? Why?
Have you been a part of the PUSH Hiring Hall? How were you treated? Do you have a green job that pays a living wage now?
Did you get PUSH Green weatherization services on your home? Do you still live there?
Did you sign up for a PUSH Green energy audit? Have you received the energy audit yet?
Have you tried to volunteer for PUSH Buffalo? How did that go?
Here are the submitted reader stories so far:
“I was one of the first dues paying members of push. I was organizing tenants (a thing that PUSH buffalo discovered like 5 years later). When I asked at a members meeting if PUSH’s “beautification” work was contradictory to the tenant demands because they would likely help begin the path of gentrification, the original ED told me that “cities like Buffalo don’t gentrify”. Seeing the writing on the wall, I pulled my dues.”
“I was denied assistance from becoming a coop because my business would “compete” with PUSH Green. I’ve heard tons of horror stories from others who have worked there. They gentrified my neighborhood.”
“We knew from the get go what was up, Rivera was a pos 10 years ago when he, after 2 months of begging, agreed to meet with a young neighbor at his home on the corner of mass&19th. Police had been regularly harassing him, had lived there his whole life. Rivera told him straight up he needed to stay in the house. Police presence increased 20 fold with the new neighbors on the corner across the street. Push had no care about Mitchell who lived in a shithole, they failed him but just like Edwin across the street, it didn’t stop them from using him when the mayor came around. Edwin was admonished by the harvard crew to not buy a house, meanwhile they got theirs through hud deals, the city or inheritance. Originally, the idea of rental properties where each month a portion would be allocated for an escrow account to one day purchase their own house. Anita’s house wasn’t weatherized. Brooke didn’t get a new roof but Nate buckley did. Community resources were allocated for white salaries and increased police presence. I’m glad, whoever you are, that you are stirring the pot. From the very first project they did, it was egregious mismanagement of funds. A new roof over a new roof, kevin connors getting paid for shoddy design work. Take care,I hope more people can see”
“Mika was evicted for weed, a disabled, single mom”
“Mika was kicked out for weed, should get her story but this is ancient history”
“Mika was evicted for weed when she lived in the, then new “eco-logic” apartments in what was the old Costello paint building. a disabled single mother, it f’d her up for a good while. What about the magic waiting list? Martha was given the run around cause she wasn’t “appreciative” of the white saviors. How many people needed a roof or windows who’d been in the “gdz” long before the Harvard committee rolled in? That really sucks about Amina, I didn’t know this. I challenged Sean Ryan and clark years ago about construction practices, nuts and bolts shit about order of operations of working on a house which they had no fkn idea,,while folx in the neighborhood were asked to be used for photo ops, to canvas and be good volunteers for the plantation”
Reader Horror Stories!!
- April 27, 2021
- 12:23 pm
It’s not even Halloween yet, but it's scary in Buffalo’s nonprofit industrial complex.
We have been receiving a lot of feedback on the PULL Buffalo website! We will share as many stories as we get about peoples’ experiences with PUSH Buffalo because we all know that “when we show up in big numbers, people listen.” Please send your stories using this contact form by clicking the button below.
We want to keep hearing from workers, community members, tenants, Hiring Hall trainees, PUSH Green weatherization customers, and anyone else about what has happened to them, even if it was a “long time ago.” Remember that PUSH has only been around for 15 years – in the context of history, none of this happened a long time ago.
Here are some questions we have for our readers:
Are you a former PUSH Buffalo member? Why did you cancel your membership? Why didn’t you renew your membership?
Have you been on PUSH Buffalo’s apartment waiting list? What happened?
Have you been evicted from a PUSH Buffalo apartment? Why?
Have you been a part of the PUSH Hiring Hall? How were you treated? Do you have a green job that pays a living wage now?
Did you get PUSH Green weatherization services on your home? Do you still live there?
Did you sign up for a PUSH Green energy audit? Have you received the energy audit yet?
Have you tried to volunteer for PUSH Buffalo? How did that go?
Here are the submitted reader stories so far:
“I was one of the first dues paying members of push. I was organizing tenants (a thing that PUSH buffalo discovered like 5 years later). When I asked at a members meeting if PUSH’s “beautification” work was contradictory to the tenant demands because they would likely help begin the path of gentrification, the original ED told me that “cities like Buffalo don’t gentrify”. Seeing the writing on the wall, I pulled my dues.”
“I was denied assistance from becoming a coop because my business would “compete” with PUSH Green. I’ve heard tons of horror stories from others who have worked there. They gentrified my neighborhood.”
“We knew from the get go what was up, Rivera was a pos 10 years ago when he, after 2 months of begging, agreed to meet with a young neighbor at his home on the corner of mass&19th. Police had been regularly harassing him, had lived there his whole life. Rivera told him straight up he needed to stay in the house. Police presence increased 20 fold with the new neighbors on the corner across the street. Push had no care about Mitchell who lived in a shithole, they failed him but just like Edwin across the street, it didn’t stop them from using him when the mayor came around. Edwin was admonished by the harvard crew to not buy a house, meanwhile they got theirs through hud deals, the city or inheritance. Originally, the idea of rental properties where each month a portion would be allocated for an escrow account to one day purchase their own house. Anita’s house wasn’t weatherized. Brooke didn’t get a new roof but Nate buckley did. Community resources were allocated for white salaries and increased police presence. I’m glad, whoever you are, that you are stirring the pot. From the very first project they did, it was egregious mismanagement of funds. A new roof over a new roof, kevin connors getting paid for shoddy design work. Take care,I hope more people can see”
“Mika was evicted for weed, a disabled, single mom”
“Mika was kicked out for weed, should get her story but this is ancient history”
“Mika was evicted for weed when she lived in the, then new “eco-logic” apartments in what was the old Costello paint building. a disabled single mother, it f’d her up for a good while. What about the magic waiting list? Martha was given the run around cause she wasn’t “appreciative” of the white saviors. How many people needed a roof or windows who’d been in the “gdz” long before the Harvard committee rolled in? That really sucks about Amina, I didn’t know this. I challenged Sean Ryan and clark years ago about construction practices, nuts and bolts shit about order of operations of working on a house which they had no fkn idea,,while folx in the neighborhood were asked to be used for photo ops, to canvas and be good volunteers for the plantation”