Community and advocacy groups, Occupy Wall Street, and unemployed and underemployed activists gathered outside of Bank of America Merrill Lynch headquarters to demand the investment bank create jobs or return the public money it has received.

“Unemployed, underemployed and struggling New Yorkers have too often seen little benefit out of expensive corporate subsidy deals, while having to fight for every penny to fund essential public services,” said Nathalie Alegre, an organizer with ALIGN. “Today we say: another way of doing things is possible, another city is possible!”

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Advocates from ALIGN praised the increased scrutiny of the New York City Industrial Development Agency (IDA) through a new audit by Comptroller John Liu’s office. The audit examined the IDA’s project financing, evaluation, and monitoring process.

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More than a dozen elected officials, community, labor, and advocacy organizations sent a letter today to the Authorities Budget Office requesting an investigation of a tax break deal between the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA) and Ward’s Natural Science, a division of VWR Educational LLC.

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This afternoon, members of the Getting Our Money’s Worth Coalition commented on Good Job First’s new report, Money for Something: Job Creation and Job Quality Standards in State Economic Development Subsidy Programs, which ranked New York State 43rd.

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Downtown Brooklyn was filled with a raucous crowd of protesters this afternoon, as dozens gathered in front of JP Morgan Chase at MetroTech to demand corporate subsidies deliver good jobs. Community, labor, and Occupy Wall Street activists joined together to draw attention to Chase’s misuse of public dollars meant to retain employees in New York City.

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