Advisory for Thursday July 15, 2010
Contact: Robert Carrillo, 4DSBXCoalition: 347-739-9825 or 4DSBxCoalition@gmail.com www.4dsbxcoalition.org
BRONX COMMUNITY TO DeMAND YANKEES LIVE UP TO PROMISED Benefits FOR LOCAL Residents, BUSINESSES & Organizations
On Thursday, July 15th at 12 noon, the South Bronx community will stage a press conference outside Yankee Stadium with For The South Bronx Coalition (4DSBXCoalition) and attorneys from the Urban Justice Center to demand that team management deliver on its promises to support local residents, organizations and businesses.
The group will deliver a demand letter to Randy Levine, President of the New York Yankee Partnership, which owns the team, challenging them to release documents tracking each commitment made in the 2006 Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) to transparently show whether they have lived up to – or how far they have fallen short of – those pledges. The Yankees’ CBA outlined specific support for local business development; employment opportunities for Bronx residents; environmental protection oversight; and resources for local not-for-profit and community based organizations. In particular, the team committed to hiring local businesses and residents for the stadium construction and to establishing both a one million dollar job training program and an annual $800,000 fund to provide grants and equipment to local community groups. Almost $4 million is now at stake with very little if any accountability to the community.
“The Yankees may be All Stars on the playing field, but how Randy Levine and his partnership play with the South Bronx is real bush league”, stated Robert Carrillo, the Coalition’s chairperson. “This is an uphill battle with the Yankees. They have, sadly, local politicians in their back pockets clamoring for a photo op at every opportunity. The truth of the matter is that all these improvements in the community, be they the Metro North Station, Mill Pond Park, even the 3 ball fields, which if the NYCEDC, Parks & Recreation, and the Yankees had done a hint of a community study would know the community had bigger visions for that space, are not intended for those in the community. They’re part of a larger vision by a few for what this community should be. We must fight on, and we will. Our differences notwithstanding, we offer our condolences to the Steinbrenner family on their loss”, he concluded.
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