the guy by the door …

On Tuesday May 5, the Boston City Council Committee on Government Operations held a hearing on the protection of victims of the foreclosure crisis. Jason Pramos of Open Media Botson reports that over 60 activits attended [ photo]. There is also a number of bills before the Great and General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts¹in this vein. The Green-Rainbow Party and City Life/Vida Urbana have invited me to a rally and hearing at the State House. The action alert from the Mass Alliance Against Predatory Lending website. It was todayTuesday May19.

Break Up the Banks Rally at the State House when I broke my camera.

It was a clear sunny day. Perfect for pictures. But since I broke the LCD at the “Break Up the Banks!” Rally, I couldn’t see that my camera was set wrong. The folks for City Life/Vida Urbana[CL/VU] showed up.

Steve Meacham of City Life/Vida Urbana [standing] with Professor Jacqueline Bhabba of Harvard Law School. See my earlier post.

Steve was in good form as he was two weeks ago. Professor Jacqueline was probably back at Harvard grading final exams.² A number of members of the CL/VU Bank Tenants Association told their stories. They were seeking passsage of H.B. 1232 which would require the Banks to keep them as tenants until they actually sell the building.

Grace Ross who ran for Governor on the Green-Rainbow ticket, is leading the lobbying effort for Maapl. She made quite a good picture introducing the hit sensation anti-foreclosure group, ‘The Raging Grannies’.

Representative Gloria Fox came out to greet us. If we could just clone her about 200 times we would have a great legislature.

A number of public officials testified in favor of several iniatives citing the effects of the foreclosure crisis on their communities. Details of this legislation is available on the MAAPL Legislation page. MAAPL asks concerned citizens to contact their State legislators on these issues. It is not too late. The WhereDoIVoteMa website will give you links to your legislators’ home pages.

All of these measures affect a small segment of the people effected by the foreclosure crisis. The Obama plan is also limited. I urged the legislators to pass these bills because we, the homeless, do not really need anymore company in a system that is already taxed beyond the limit. They must pass these bills quickly because there is much more needs doin’ There are so many more in the foreclosure pipeline.

¹This is the offcial name of the state legislature. ‘Court’ is in the name but it is not judiciary.

²Lee Goldstine was there and testified, but he was not representing Harvard i.e. I don’t think Bob Iuliano asked him to go :).