From The New York Shitty Inbox: Greenpoint Hospital & Greenpoint Bikes

This item comes from my favorite crazy yoga lady. Catherine writes:

Haven’t seen you kickin around in awhile.  First of all the article and photos about the Greenpoint Hospital are fascinating (if you ever do tour I’ll be happy to join you!).  Second, I don’t know if you are acquainted wit Pablo Airaldi, one of the founders of Greenpoint Bikes.  He’s become a fast friend of mine shortly before he was detained for deportation a few weeks ago… Currently ICE (immigration & Customs Enforcement) has a huge amount of funding to encourage deportation en masse, including anyone with any past convictions (likely in attempt to provide more jobs to those born on this soil while in fact the expense to detain and deport people is huge).  Being an idealist, as Pablo went to court to present paper to the judge without a lawyer he was held and detained on the spot.  Currently his lawyer advised him that there is nothing to be done but to try to build a case illustrating why he should remain in the US and paint the picture of him being an upstanding citizen.

I personally have come to appreciate him as a good friend… He is someone that truly cares to do what is right for the good of society and cares about people on an individual level.  I have seen him put Zigggy to work in the bike shop.  I have seen him let Victor (I call him the Mayor of Greenpoint, you know the puerto rican plumber guy always on the bike?) pawn his bike at no interest to pay a debt until Victor could come and buy it back.  I have seen him barter with my friends and yoga customers to do work on their bikes that they couldn’t afford to pay for.  He also brought art into the bike shop which hosted the biggest party during open studios.  Aside from the fact that I am missing a friend and a compassionate person in this neighborhood that I so admire, I am sad for the community to have one less person who really cared and wasn’t too afraid or too lazy to show it.  I have put together a petition to petition his deportation but according to his lawyer letters from different people stating who they are and why Pablo is a good person who should remain in the US is essential to his case.  He will likely remain in detention at Hudson County Prison for some time and anyone who knows him is encouraged to write (or send books directly from amazon).  I am wondering if you have any advice on how to help spread the word or if there is a good (condensed) way to make this known on your blog.

I have to confess: matters such as this are quite outside my area of expertise. However, I am more than happy to help spread the word (hence this post). I have also taken the liberty of contacting a print reporter I know to get her take.

To be continued/updated…

Miss Heather