Amsterdam News

"A spokesperson for Freedom Agenda...pointed to the Mayor’s frequent use of a Bishop Desmond Tutu quote about going “upstream” to address Rikers’ problems as an initial, unfulfilled indicator for alternatives to incarceration."

News 12

"The barge is going to close, but what's up with Rikers," said Edwin Santana, community organizer for the Freedom Agenda and a formerly incarcerated person at Rikers and the Vernon C. Bain Center. "Don't just deal with one problem and neglect the next issue..."

Portside

Ocasio-Cortez and Street Vendor Project advocates call for the continuation of locally led efforts to improve the Corona Plaza vendor market in Queens, New York.

NY 1

"I'm glad that the boat is closing. I am glad,” said Edwin Santana, a community organizer with the Freedom Agenda at the Urban Justice Center….[But] "All they're doing is shifting people from one terrible area to another terrible area."

NY Daily News

“The Boat, like Rikers Island, should have closed a long time ago,” Lezandre Khadu, a member of the Campaign to Close Rikers [co-founded by UJC’s Freedom Agenda], said in a statement."

Gothamist

“I'm glad to hear that 'the Boat' is going to close in October,” Santana [a criminal justice advocate with the Urban Justice Center's Freedom Agenda] said. “But I'm saddened to hear that they're going to put the people that are on the boat on Rikers, because no one should be at Rikers."

Queens Eagle

“'We call on the mayor to take every necessary action to do what he said he would do, to do what is legally required, and to do what is right,' Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, said during the rally."

Girl Boss

“'The pandemic really showed that sex work is work—and it's necessary work,' says Zola Bruce, communications director at Sex Workers Project. And yet, those workers struggled immensely during the pandemic—and their precarity hasn’t improved."

Pix 11

“Let the mayor know that he has an obligation to close this place down,” said Ashley Conrad of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda. “This is law. It’s a plan that was well thought out and curated by years and years of organizing by directly impacted people.”

City Limits

“'People are stuck in a really awful situation, and some vendors are taking loans,' said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of the Street Vendor Project, of those who’ve been unable to sell in the plaza in the four weeks since the sweep."