CJWP

• Pacific Renaissance Plaza
• Oakland Chinatown
• 9th St, between Webster + Franklin
• Saturday, April 28, 2007
• 10:30 am

Four years ago, Oakland’s social justice community came together to support the Pacific Renaissance Plaza families who were being evicted from their homes. Please join us as we commemorate the families who stood up for housing rights and as we recommit to realizing justice for the Pacific Renaissance tenants and Oakland Chinatown.

It’s been four years since tenant families, community groups, and the City of Oakland sued the Pacific Renaissance developers. Last May, the parties entered into a tentative settlement agreement that would have resulted in preserving the 50 affordable housing units as permanently affordable housing for the Chinatown community. Yet the wheels of justice currently turn slowly, while many of the Pacific Renaissance families face uncertain futures.

The Pacific Renaissance units represent the last remaining option for affordable housing in Chinatown—a community that is experiencing a serious affordable housing crisis. It also represents unmet promises made to Chinatown. Beginning in the 1970s, community leaders fought to secure community benefits from the Pacific Renaissance project, which received over $30 million in public subsidies. With the documented loss of thousands of Chinatown’s affordable housing units due to redevelopment, affordable housing at Pacific Renaissance was a key community demand.

With your continued help, we will write a different chapter of history on the treatment of Chinatown residents and realize justice for the Pacific Renaissance families. We look forward to seeing you on April 28th.

In peace and solidarity,

Chin Jurn Wor Ping, Oakland Tenants Union, Just Cause Oakland, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, East Bay Asian Local Development Corp, East Bay Asian Consortium, ACORN, East Bay Community Law Center, East Bay Housing Organizations, Movement Strategy Center, Alameda County Central Labor Council, Urban Strategies Council, Siegel & Yee; California Affordable Housing Law Project, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky, & Walker LLP; Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, SEIU Local 1021, League of Women Voters, East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economy

• PDF of invitation
• Time line of the struggle ([produced by EBCLC][3])

For more information, contact Eric Chang :: wokwhiz _at_ sbcglobal _dot_ net :: 650.580.7719

For those who don’t know, CJWP (Chin Jurn Wor Ping/Chien Jin He Ping/Moving Forward for Peace) is an intergenerational alliance of people of Taiwanese, Chinese and Hong Kong heritage, working together in the Bay Area for peace and social justice.

We empower and build leadership within our communities through education, grassroots organizing and activism on local and global issues.

We build community strength and resist systems of injustice by exploring our shared, diverse heritages, and by building alliances with other people of color involved in social justice.

The above is from our Mission Statement, which can be found on the main CJWP Web site. We’re starting this blog so we can do more frequent updates on our actions, including the upcoming 4th Year Commemoration of the struggle for affordable housing at Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Oakland Chinatown which is coming up this Saturday, April 28, at 10:30 a.m. at the Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Oakland Chinatown.