Follow the Money & Change Your Community

The New York Daily News had a story yesterday that teaches us all a little something about how to really make change in our community: follow the money.

The story is about the grassroots group ACORN, and its "Fix It Now" campaign that is targeting slumlords. The story notes that "tenants in one of New York's worst apartment buildings got nowhere when they complained to their landlord but after complaining to his banker, they got results." ACORN's Bertha Lewis noted that "In our research, we saw that Citibank had a mortgage on 13 of [the landlord's] buildings, and 552 Academy was one of them. We told Citibank that it's not whether you like us or don't like us - it's whether your collateral is going bad." And after showing Citibank that the landlord wasn't living up to his obligation, the bank pressured the landlord to meet with the tenants and set up a timetable for repairs.

That, in a nutshell, is how you do it.

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