2007.03.30: March 30, 2007: Headlines: COS - Kenya: Speaking Out: University Education: Lobbying: Asian American Issues: Asian Week: Kenya RPCV Henry Der writes: We will not allow Hilton Hotel and its paid lobbyists to deprive what immigrant students have been waiting for over 30 years: a permanent City College home
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Kenya:
Peace Corps Kenya :
Peace Corps Kenya: Newest Stories:
2007.03.30: March 30, 2007: Headlines: COS - Kenya: Speaking Out: University Education: Lobbying: Asian American Issues: Asian Week: Kenya RPCV Henry Der writes: We will not allow Hilton Hotel and its paid lobbyists to deprive what immigrant students have been waiting for over 30 years: a permanent City College home
Kenya RPCV Henry Der writes: We will not allow Hilton Hotel and its paid lobbyists to deprive what immigrant students have been waiting for over 30 years: a permanent City College home
In 1971, after I returned from Peace Corps Kenya, I taught English as a Second Language to Chinatown adult immigrants. After working all day, my students started studying at 6 p.m., and after class walked or took the bus home. Today Chinatown residents and workers continue to rely on City College classes during the evening, afternoon and morning, seven days a week, to learn English, prepare for citizenship, and acquire job skills. Its shameless campaign has sought to scare Chinatown businesses to believe that 6,000 "new" students will descend on the proposed facility during the same couple of hours every day, exacerbating traffic and parking congestion. Truth be told, these 6,000 students are already in Chinatown, dispersed in their classroom attendance throughout the entire day, on any given day of the week. 90 percent of all Chinatown City College students either walk or take public transportation to get to their classes. City College has always welcomed immigrant students, who may live in another neighborhood but work in or near Chinatown and find it more convenient to access bilingual classes and services, right before or after work.
Kenya RPCV Henry Der writes: We will not allow Hilton Hotel and its paid lobbyists to deprive what immigrant students have been waiting for over 30 years: a permanent City College home
The Shameless Hilton Hotel
Henry Der, Mar 30, 2007
Caption: The Goddess of Democracy in Freedom Park in Rosslyn, Virginia. Photo: uofmpike Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0
In 1971, after I returned from Peace Corps Kenya, I taught English as a Second Language to Chinatown adult immigrants. After working all day, my students started studying at 6 p.m., and after class walked or took the bus home. Today Chinatown residents and workers continue to rely on City College classes during the evening, afternoon and morning, seven days a week, to learn English, prepare for citizenship, and acquire job skills.
City College has struggled to meet the pressing needs of its students because it lacks a permanent Chinatown facility.
Over three decades, City College has lost access to 30 community sites to hold classes because community organizations needed the space for their programs. Responsive to this loss, three times, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly have approved bond funds to build a permanent facility in Chinatown.
Like other projects benefiting Chinatown, outside special interests are putting up barriers to deny Chinatown residents and workers, who typically earn less than $11,000 a year, what they deserve and need.
For the past half year, Justice Investors, the owners of the Hilton Hotel-Financial District, and their paid lobbyists have waged a mean-spirited campaign of deception to confuse and mislead the Chinatown community and general public about the proposed City College facility on the corner of Kearny and Washington Streets, across from the hotel.
This campaign of deception has purposely made up unsubstantiated, wild-eyed allegations that City College is going to build a "massive high-rise" that will negatively impact Chinatown parking, traffic and Portsmouth Square Park. To create the illusion of legitimacy to their campaign, these paid lobbyists have traipsed out State Senator Leland Yee as a "community leader," rallying Chinatown against this "high-rise."
What this campaign of deception does not disclose is that, according to public records, Hilton Hotel owners and their paid lobbyists and families have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Yee’s political campaigns. Knowing that Justice Investors and their lobbyists are capable of contributing more, Yee has easily, and not surprisingly, kowtowed to Hilton Hotel’s interests, at the expense of immigrant educational needs. Pure and simple, Hilton does not want any building to block its hotel window views.
Hilton’s campaign of deception also fails to disclose that this so-called "massive high-rise" will not cast a significant shadow on Portsmouth park.
For a very limited period of time during the summer and no later than 7:45 a.m., the proposed Chinatown City College facility will shadow a narrow sliver of the northwest corner of the park. In contrast, the 31-story Hilton Hotel, 15 stories taller than the proposed City College building, casts a significantly larger shadow, much later into the morning and for many more days each year, on park users as they exercise and sit. Hilton Hotel, who’s calling the kettle black?
Its shameless campaign has sought to scare Chinatown businesses to believe that 6,000 "new" students will descend on the proposed facility during the same couple of hours every day, exacerbating traffic and parking congestion. Truth be told, these 6,000 students are already in Chinatown, dispersed in their classroom attendance throughout the entire day, on any given day of the week.
90 percent of all Chinatown City College students either walk or take public transportation to get to their classes. City College has always welcomed immigrant students, who may live in another neighborhood but work in or near Chinatown and find it more convenient to access bilingual classes and services, right before or after work.
Chinatown repudiates Hilton Hotel’s campaign to misrepresent community concerns expressed about the design of the proposed City College building. Hilton has tried to exploit these concerns as "opposition" to the City College public process and plans to build a facility adequate to meet the community’s educational needs.
We will not allow Hilton Hotel and its paid lobbyists to deprive what immigrant students have been waiting for over 30 years: a permanent City College home.
Henry Der is the son of Leung Kwan Ying, an immigrant who attended City College ESL classes to prepare for citizenship.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: March, 2007; Peace Corps Kenya; Directory of Kenya RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Kenya RPCVs; Speaking Out; University Education; Asian American Issues
When this story was posted in April 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Chris Dodd's Vision for the Peace Corps Senator Chris Dodd (RPCV Dominican Republic) spoke at the ceremony for this year's Shriver Award and elaborated on issues he raised at Ron Tschetter's hearings. Dodd plans to introduce legislation that may include: setting aside a portion of Peace Corps' budget as seed money for demonstration projects and third goal activities (after adjusting the annual budget upward to accommodate the added expense), more volunteer input into Peace Corps operations, removing medical, healthcare and tax impediments that discourage older volunteers, providing more transparency in the medical screening and appeals process, a more comprehensive health safety net for recently-returned volunteers, and authorizing volunteers to accept, under certain circumstances, private donations to support their development projects. He plans to circulate draft legislation for review to members of the Peace Corps community and welcomes RPCV comments. |
| He served with honor One year ago, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul (RPCV Kenya) carried on an ongoing dialog on this website on the military and the peace corps and his role as a member of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just received a report that Sargeant Paul has been killed by a car bomb in Kabul. Words cannot express our feeling of loss for this tremendous injury to the entire RPCV community. Most of us didn't know him personally but we knew him from his words. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. He was one of ours and he served with honor. |
| Peace Corps' Screening and Medical Clearance The purpose of Peace Corps' screening and medical clearance process is to ensure safe accommodation for applicants and minimize undue risk exposure for volunteers to allow PCVS to complete their service without compromising their entry health status. To further these goals, PCOL has obtained a copy of the Peace Corps Screening Guidelines Manual through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and has posted it in the "Peace Corps Library." Applicants and Medical Professionals (especially those who have already served as volunteers) are urged to review the guidelines and leave their comments and suggestions. Then read the story of one RPCV's journey through medical screening and his suggestions for changes to the process. |
| The Peace Corps is "fashionable" again The LA Times says that "the Peace Corps is booming again and "It's hard to know exactly what's behind the resurgence." PCOL Comment: Since the founding of the Peace Corps 45 years ago, Americans have answered Kennedy's call: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." Over 182,000 have served. Another 200,000 have applied and been unable to serve because of lack of Congressional funding. The Peace Corps has never gone out of fashion. It's Congress that hasn't been keeping pace. |
| PCOL readership increases 100% Monthly readership on "Peace Corps Online" has increased in the past twelve months to 350,000 visitors - over eleven thousand every day - a 100% increase since this time last year. Thanks again, RPCVs and Friends of the Peace Corps, for making PCOL your source of information for the Peace Corps community. And thanks for supporting the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come. |
| History of the Peace Corps PCOL is proud to announce that Phase One of the "History of the Peace Corps" is now available online. This installment includes over 5,000 pages of primary source documents from the archives of the Peace Corps including every issue of "Peace Corps News," "Peace Corps Times," "Peace Corps Volunteer," "Action Update," and every annual report of the Peace Corps to Congress since 1961. "Ask Not" is an ongoing project. Read how you can help. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Asian Week
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Kenya; Speaking Out; University Education; Lobbying; Asian American Issues
PCOL36756
28