City Life/Vida Urbana led a colorful, raucous march of 3,000 people through the streets for Take Back Boston, a mass action by the Right to the City Alliance.  Our members carried signs describing their fight against foreclosure, and we were joined by more than 50 organizations, including members of UNITE/HERE picketing at the Hyatt Hotel, and CWA picketing at Verizon Wireless.  The march ended at Bank of America’s Massachusetts headquarters, where 24 Boston residents proudly blocked the doors and sat inside of the bank lobby, and refused to leave.

“I blocked the doors at Bank of America so that my neighbors, and me, can stay in our homes,” City Life member Presely Obasohan told the press. “So many people have been thrown out of their homes or lost their jobs needlessly because of mistakes made by Wall Street banks. Yet it’s the banks who are now rewarded with billions in tax refunds. It’s time to fight back!”

We took this direct action to demand payback from Bank of America.  Bank of America made a habit of pushing bad loans on people of color and the poor, and we took our message directly to their doorstep to make sure they heard us.

On Saturday, we took our message into the neighborhood. The Four Corners area of Dorchester has been ravaged by foreclosures. We took over a wrongly foreclosed home, hoping to return it from the hands of Deutsche Bank to its rightful owners—a family that was evicted and has left the area. The action team cleaned the home, brought in donated furniture, and hung art on the walls and a banner off the porch. Hundreds toured the house and cheered from the street, while music played and children danced. The power and the momentum of this past weekend’s events was the product of a wide coalition of organizations, but the movement doesn’t stop there.

Residents rally to send message to big banks: MyFoxBOSTON.com