The folks at at Housing Works, a NYC-based nonprofit that fights for the rights of low-income people living with HIV sent this along to me. Sadly, in a budget- and deficit-conscious world, the poor are always the first to be hit — and hit hard. It’s nice to see they have the support of the folks at Housing Works to help them hit back.
They’d like your help too. Saying, “Every December Bloomberg commits to fighting AIDS at his World AIDS Day Bagel Breakfast. But every January, he proposes a budget with devastating cuts to services such as HIV prevention and AIDS housing and nutrition programs. This year, Bloomberg also convinced Gov. Paterson to veto the “30 Percent Rent Cap†bill that would have provided housing security for 10,000 poor New Yorkers with AIDS,” they’re asking you to “Zap Bloomberg with Email, Twitter, Phone Calls.”
UPDATE: The bagels got arrested:
Dozens of outraged bagels plan to boycott Mayor Bloomberg’s annual World AIDS Day Bagel Breakfast and hold a picket outside the event, which will be held at the Brooklyn Public Library on Grand Army Plaza.
The baked goods are angry that for the last three years the mayor has hosted a bagel breakfast where he commits to combating New York City’s AIDS epidemic—and a month later proposes a budget that would devastate services for low-income New Yorkers with AIDS, especially AIDS housing services.
The bagels are calling their boycott a “schmear“ campaign.
“Mayor Bloomberg is like Marie Antoinette. His attitude to poor people with AIDS is ‘Let them eat bagels!’†said Charles “Sesame†King, president and CEO of Housing Works Bagels’ Schmear Campaign. “We bagels refuse to be implicated in the mayor’s World AIDS Day hypocrisy.â€
• In 2008, despite a city budget surplus, Bloomberg forced City Council to enact a $6 million cut to AIDS services.
• In 2009, he proposed $10 million in cuts. More than $6 million were enacted, largely to AIDS housing.
• In 2010, he proposed crippling cuts to HASA, the agency that oversees housing, nutrition and other benefits for 45,000 poor New Yorkers with AIDS and their families. Bloomberg influenced Gov. Paterson to veto the 30 Percent Rent Cap legislation.
After the Bagel Breakfast Boycott protest, the bagels plan to participate in Housing Works’ annual 24-hour vigil in City Hall Park. Hundreds of New Yorkers will read the names of those who have died of AIDS for a continuous 24 hours, beginning at 12:01 AM, December 1. All are welcome.
Pictured: Everything Bagel (aka, HIV-positive activist and Housing Works staffer Doug Sanders) prepares to schmear Bloomberg.