ACORN Is Alive and Well and Living in Brooklyn

posted at 12:21 pm on January 24, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ ACORN Watch ]   

ACORN, the scandal-plagued community-help organization that folded up shop last year following an undercover exposé revealing rampant corruption, is back. The name may have been changed—to New York Communities for Change—but the board of directors has not. Even the group’s base of operations is the same suite of offices in downtown Brooklyn that formerly housed ACORN’s New York chapter.

Like its predecessor, NYCC claims to be dedicated to providing and preserving affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers. And, like its predecessor, NYCC is in bed with big labor. The New York Post cites NYCC documents showing that unions pumped about $300,000 into the group’s coffers last year. This year, NYCC is expecting the unions to pony up $473,915.

Randy Mastro, an attorney who battled leaders of the ACORN-tied Working Families Party in court over alleged campaign finance violations, is quoted by the Post as stating:

It takes more than a name change to avoid the stigma of ACORN. Nobody is going to be fooled.

No one is going to be taken in by their actions either.

NYCC’s cozy relationship with unions means that when there is a conflict between big labor and the community the group purportedly advocates for, it will come down on the side of the unions. When New York City attempted last year to replace 20 failing schools with new facilities staffed by new principals and teachers, NYCC took up the banner of the United Federation of Teachers, who opposed the changes. The fact that the UFT contributed $200,000 to NYCC may have been a mitigating factor.

Blowback