August 24-25 action -- report & photos!

 

***UPDATED***   Checkout another great set of photos by Alan Greig.

 

Thanks to everyone who attended yesterday's walking tour of vacant buildings and lots in NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn's district, to bring attention to and advance City legislative Intro 48, the vacant properties count bill... which ended-up being a twenty-person all-night sidewalk sleep-out in the pouring rain, by Quinn's office!  [see below...]

 

Also, this week we are launching "Vacant NYC" -- a "crowdsourced" online mapping project -- we need your participation!   Anyone (including YOU!) can submit a vacant building or lot address -- together, we'll be able to build and share this online map, using a software pioneered in Kenya called Ushahidi (Swahili for testimony).  Our map project is to get the ball rolling toward the City's count, by showing them how easily its done.

PARTICIPATE!

When you see a vacant lot or building anywhere in the five boroughs, let us know:

visit vacantnyc.crowdmap.com to submit a report, or text the address to 917.412.3064, or send it via Twitter using #housingnotwarehousing or @pthny

More about Ushahidi software:
*  short "What is Ushahidi?" video  *  Not An Alternative video on using Ushahidi in NYC
*  New York Times profiles on Ushahidi's use in Kenya & Haiti, and the Louisiana Gulf Coast

After our press conference and walking tour, over twenty members, staff, and allies slept out all night in Quinn's district, on the corner of 31st St and 8th Ave -- that is, around the corner from Speaker Quinn's office, right outside a building that's been vacant since 1979, across the street from Penn Station where many homeless people sleep every night.   This morning, PTH members are proceeding around the corner from the sleep-out site to deliver a letter and information packet to Quinn's office when it opens in the morning.

Checkout a bunch of PTH's best photos from August 24-25 on Facebook:

[PHOTO: Lynn Lewis]

 

and this 25-photo set spanning the run-of-show from 5pm to 5am, on Flickr: