Saturday, May 25th:

12 noon: Petrosino Square (South side of Spring Street where Lafayette and Cleveland Place meet)
Remove the Bike Docking Stations out of Petrosino Square!
CitiBike is scheduled to go ‘live’ Monday, Memorial Day. In advance of that people are coming together to ask the Department of Transportation (DOT) to respect the community and the park at Petrosino Square and remove the bike stations, now in the park, “immediately.”
From Friends of Petrosino Square:
Join us at Petrosino Square on Saturday May 25 at Noon for some community action & festivities!
We’re asking DOT to move the big bike station out of the open space — created for the display of public art — and relocate it to a street nearby. Our elected officials have sent a letter to DOT, declaring that the bike station should moved immediately, stating:
“… the placement of bike stations in small, pocket parks, in park starved communities is inappropriate – including Petrosino Square Park … We urge the Department of Transportation to follow through on the previous agreement not to have a docking station within Petrosino Park, and relocate it immediately.”
There is a simple remedy: DOT should move the bike station out of our little park.
Join them! Then…
** March Against Monsanto! ** 1- 5 p.m.
1 p.m. Rally: Union Square
2 p.m. March: Union Square
3 p.m. Teach Ins/Discussions: Washington Square Park
4:35 p.m.: Community Assembly
Wear Red! Bring creative signs and props!
from the press release:
March Against Monsanto: “marches are being planned on six continents, in 36 countries, totaling events in over 250 cities, and in the US, events are slated to occur simultaneously at 11 a.m. Pacific in 47 states.”
Tami Monroe Canal, lead organizer and creator of the now-viral Facebook page, says she was inspired to start the movement to protect her two daughters. “I feel Monsanto threatens their generation’s health, fertility and longevity. I couldn’t sit by idly, waiting for someone else to do something.”
An organizer for the march in Athens, Greece, Roberta Gogos, spoke about the importance of the events in austerity-impacted South Europe. “Monsanto is working very hard to overturn EU regulation on obligatory labeling (questionable whether it’s really enforced in any case), and no doubt they will have their way in the end. Greece is in a precarious position right now, and Greece’s farmers falling prey to the petrochemical giant is a very real possibility.”
Josh Castro, organizer for Quito, says he wants to protect Ecuador against Monsanto’s influence, too. “Ecuador is such a beautiful place, with the richest biodiversity in the world. We will not allow this Garden of Eden to be compromised by evil multinational corporations like Monsanto. Biotechnology is not the solution to world hunger. Agroecology is.”
Also, from the main website, How the March Against Monsanto Can & Will Change the World by Nick Bernabe:
There’s a revolution happening right before our eyes, and before I had the opportunity to help with the world-wide March Against Monsanto, I was largely oblivious to this sea change that is coming. The rules of change, of activism, of consciousness, and of helping people are being rewritten by you and me, one connection at a time. The new revolution of good is coming from the grass-roots and making its way upward; this bottom-up effect is exactly what those who would like to see us silent are afraid of.
This new way of media and activism cannot be controlled by the likes of corporations or governments; these are ideas and they cannot be stopped. This new paradigm shift starts with you, your friends and family, and the way you can connect with people around you; the way information is disseminated makes all the difference in this new paradigm. The mainstream media controls 95% of the information that we see, from television to newspapers, to magazines. This is the top-down technique, where you have no choice but to consume what’s being served, making for a fickle population that was manipulated by commercials and where money made the major difference between a bill passing or failing, and a politician being elected or losing. The new media is a media of choice, where people can choose to get information on a topic that they choose. What does this mean? This means that a person that participates in the new media is more passionate, better informed, in turn a much more valuable asset to a social movement. These people are well versed in the information, founded in fact, and immune to the manipulation of a mainstream media establishment that is 90% owned by 6 monopolistic corporations. These new activists are warriors for truth and justice, and for those currently controlling the agenda, this can be a scary situation.
Yay! That’s us!!
For background on Monsanto, check out this page from Organic Consumer’s Association.