Brooklyn’s Community Board 4 is changing the way they handle their contribution to New York City’s long and complex budget process, creating a series of short surveys they’re hoping will engage the interest and knowledge of their roughly 130,000 residents. Every summer, the city’s community boards are responsible for assessing the financial needs of their districts and submitting their budget requests and priorities to the Mayor’s Office of Budget and Management by the end of October. There are 59 community boards across the city, each with their own method for assessing their community’s needs, but a few things are the same. Each board is required to have a public meeting about the …
Elected officials and tenants launch divestment campaign against private equity landlord Greenbrook Partners
Activists and elected officials from Brooklyn and Texas have joined forces to launch a divestment campaign against the predatory equity landlord Greenbrook Partners, which has kicked scores of Brooklynites out of their homes after going on a pandemic buying spree. The effort is targeting the Texas Permanent School Fund, an organization meant to benefit public schools in the Lone Star State that has a $100 million stake in the United Kingdom-based real estate investment firm NW1, which in turn…