When Xiuling Xiang took a flier from a guy in front of St. Andrews Church across from City Hall on July 28, she didn’t think it would interest her. But just as she was about to throw the green paper into the garbage, Xiang caught the words “Liberty Jobs.” The two words drew Xiang into the church to learn more about it. “I have been out of work for about a year,” said Xiang. “Whenever I see the word ‘job,’ I get excited and think there might be a chance.”
There was not a job fair inside the church, but there were several hundred people, who, like Xiang, lost their job after September 11th and haven’t found a new one since. Also there were civic advocates from the Labor Community Advocacy Network (LCAN)—a coalition of 60 labor unions—representatives from community organizations, research institutes and social service providers. They gathered together to request $1 billion from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) to kick off their “Liberty Jobs” program, which is designed to create 60,000 jobs in the downtown area. After the rally, people marched to the LMDC and handed over an invoice for $1 billion to officials.
The blueprint of the “Liberty Jobs” program paints a rosy picture for unemployed laborers in the downtown area. Should the money be allocated, there would be 25,000 public service jobs fully subsidized by government agencies, ranging from parks improvement to public safety. Another 35,000 jobs would be provided by the private sector, which would be awarded subsidies to hire, promote, retain or rehire.
This proposal attracted Xiang, who “never attended any rally or march before,” to join in the march to the LMDC. When Xiang lost her job in an accounting firm on Wall Street, she wasn’t worried at all. “I have CPA certificate. I have five years experience. I thought it would not be hard to find another job,” Xiang said. After sending out hundreds of resumes and attending countless job fairs, Xiang is feeling more and more hopeless. “There are just no jobs out there,” said Xiang. “I don’t know if the Liberty Jobs could become reality, but we do need the government’s help in creating jobs.”
Xiang’s case is not isolated. Currently, there are more than 300,000 New Yorkers out of work, and half of the job loss is due to the effects of September 11th. State Comptroller Alan Hevesi reported in April that New York City lost half of the new jobs gained since 1991, and projected no improvement to the city’s economy in the coming year. In Chinatown, where the economy relies heavily on tourism, it is even worse. Even before September 11th, one third of Chinatown’s population was living below poverty level. Their situation deteriorated with the rising unemployment rate.
According to a study by the Asian American Federation of New York, a research institute in downtown Manhattan, nearly 60 percent of garment workers were still unemployed, or working reduced hours, one year after September 11th. Although there is no updated research, most community organizations in Chinatown believe the situation hasn’t recovered at all due to the overall downturn in the economy and the impact of SARS this past spring.
“I feel it is even worse this year,” said Diana Ning, an employment specialist at the University Settlement, a social service organization that assists immigrants with a range of programs. Ning’s job is to help unemployed people search for jobs and train them on resume writing and interview preparation. “We have many highly educated clients. Last year, if they didn’t mind doing lower skilled jobs like sales, they could still find a job. But this year, even an unemployed Ph.D. would like to get a security job; it’s harder to find one,” said Ning. “Liberty Jobs program would definitely help.”
However, the fate of “Liberty Jobs” is obscure. Although the LMDC is holding a series of town hall meetings with different communities in the downtown area to decide how to use the last $1.2 billion of the neighborhood rebuilding fund, the company shows little interest in the “Liberty Jobs” program. LCAN handed in their proposal to the development corporation one month ago; so far there has been no response.
The town hall meetings, including one in Chinatown, are all by invitation only. LCAN has not been invited to present their “Liberty Jobs” program. “We have tried to be faithful in getting this message to the LMDC, but up until now this seems to have fallen on deaf ears,” said Melissa Aase, a founding member of the Rebuild with a Spotlight on the Poor Coalition. An LMDC official, who asked not to be named, disclosed that the company would mainly allocate the $1.2 billion to cultural and housing programs.
This article was written as part of the Ethnic Press Fellowship of the Independent Press Association-New York.
