For weeks 5 and 6, I followed 5 new Twitter accounts: @NYCHousing, @NYCHA, @NPR, @ShaunKing. and @Kirstentheodos. A few questions that I pondered when looking at the posts and exchanges on Twitter were: “What qualifies as a public space?” And what spaces need to be shared?” For example, @Kirstentheodos retweeted a story about developers wanting to raze a playground in the middle of a Manhattan public housing project to build an expensive high-rise apartment building. This is an example of an attempt to privatize a public space. Several of the accounts I followed retweeted a July 26th protest of New York State governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to put 300 million dollars worth of funding towards extravagant light shows on NYC’s bridges instead of spending it on badly needed subway repairs and upgrades. The presence of the protesters who stood on the street outside of the MTA Board meeting was a way of reminding those who work for the state (“public” figures), that they, the protesters also have input in the dialogue.

For weeks 3 and 4, I have been following several twitter accounts that tweet about New York City public housing, homelessness and gentrification. I’ve noticed that many of these are of non-profit organizations and individuals who work for them. None of these accounts are just commenting, but are fully involved in the work that they tweet about. Many are recording protests in real-time and interacting directly with policy makers.

Twitter coverage of the July 12th Tenant March in Washington, D.C. to protest the planned cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) brought to mind the situation in Kashmir where journalists were tweeting protests as mentioned in the Leo Marini article “Sorry Malcolm Gladwell, the revolution may well be tweeted”. Two days after the Tenant march, HUD issues has a press release on their website titled “HUD makes $2 Billion available to Local Homeless Programs”. This is not a concession by any means as it is still unclear how much of this $2 Billion would go towards permanent housing for the homeless, but it makes me believe that the tactics of community organizing groups like New York City Communities for Change, Banana Kelly and Urban Upbound are working.

The Housing Not Warehousing Act (promoted on twitter with the hashtag #housingnotwarehousing) is calling for the city to move away from funding homeless shelters and putting that money into permanent public housing. Though the hashtag #housingnotwarehousing has been in use since 2010, it didn’t catch on until this year, particularly after President Trump’s proposed budget was released. This is reminiscent of #blacklivesmatter mentioned in the “Beyond the Hashtag” article where the infamous hashtag did not become popular until after the Ferguson riots. In both cases, timing was very important.

The rhetoric on the issue of public housing on Twitter tends to be that of pathos, but I find it interesting when logos is also used to reach an audience that normally would not be interested in these causes. For example, there is a video piece called, “Housing Not Warehousing” by Marika Wolff which was included in a tweet by NYC public advocate Letitia James and has been shared throughout Twitter. Wolff is able to make a logical argument as to why it makes no sense to have so many vacant lots in a city that is heavily populated. I think that the way she makes the argument is interesting because she uses a homeless person to be the main narrator and tell his own story, rather than placing herself in the video as an “expert” and having the viewer see it through her lens.