Tonight at 7:00 PM, HNBA will have our April community meeting on Zoom.

We’ve got two very interesting speakers on tap this month.  First up will be Emily Chingay from Open Plans, a group that would like to help Harlem neighbors have more say in how their streets are used (playstreets for children, outdoor dining, beautification plantings, trash bins, etc.).  

The second, and main speaker, will be Blandon Casenave who has done extensive work on increasing Black admissions to NYC’s specialized high schools.  On Tuesday, Blandon will be speaking on the crisis of Black home ownership and the struggles of the Black middle class.  He notes that although Blacks are 24% of NYC’s population, they are 60% of the homeless and have an overall unemployment rate of 15% –  about triple the city average. Over the last twenty years Black New York has lost about 15% of its homeowners and 5% of its total population. This means that Black New Yorkers as a group are smaller, poorer and more vulnerable – despite the high number of Black elected officials.  Blandon will focus on research he has done on causes of this slide in the fortunes of the Black middle class and have a conversation with attendees on what kinds of legislation need to be in place to reverse this trend and support the Black middle class.

​Here is the Zoom link for the meeting.  Please feel free to forward to anyone you think might be interested:

​Join HNBA’s Zoom Meeting – Tuesday, April 11th, 7:00 PM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86105986910?pwd=VlU3dXd5U1BMVnliR1V4MDFhM2R0UT09

Meeting ID: 861 0598 6910 Passcode: 193325

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