Jon Kest Way (Brooklyn)
Present name:Nevins Street
Location:Between Livingston Street and Flatbush Avenue
Honoree: Jon Kest (1955-2012) was a founder of the Working Families Party, a multi-state organization that advocates for paid sick leave, affordable housing and living-wage jobs. He was the co-founder and executive director of New York Communities for Change, and also head organizer of New York Acorn, a community organization of low and moderate-income families. He organized a 2012 strike by the city’s fast-food workers; and a “squatting drive” in which East New York residents took over hundreds of apartments in abandoned buildings, securing city agreement to convert the buildings into low-income housing. As a labor organizer, he was involved in efforts to unionize home day care workers and car wash workers, and to win better working conditions for members of the city’s workfare force. (Lander and Levin)
LL:2014/34