Category Archives: [:en]Anti-Displacement[:zh]反逼迁[:]

Statement on AMNY’s Coverage of the “Chinzilla” Poster

On Dec 3rd, AMNY published a news article titled “Political leaders say Lower East Side fliers are hate-filled smears against local lawmakers.” The article quotes the political leaders from East Village who accused the poster on the storefront of National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS) of being racist. This poster illustrates Chinzilla–a monster with the body of Godzilla from Japanese movies, and the head of Margaret Chin, Chinese-American Council Member. The article also gives Chin a platform to say how “hurtful” she thinks the poster is.

Chin describing the poster as “hurtful” is like a thief crying out when she sees her picture on a wanted poster. Chin is notoriously known in the Chinese community as a sellout politician who carries out the City’s racist displacement agenda — benefiting rich developers and destroying Chinatown and the Lower East Side, a neighborhoodpredominantly of Chinese, Black and Latinos who work, live and operate small businesses. The “Chinzilla” poster is an accurate depiction of Chin’s destruction of our community for more than a decade, a reflection of our community’s outrage towards her racism and displacement.

Therefore, we are angry about the AMNY’s coverage that helps the smear attack from the East Village political leaders. These people who wrote the complaint about the poster are the same ones who supported the East Village Rezoning in 2008 — a protective plan against luxury high-rises for the wealthier, white neighborhood of East Village — but denied Chinatown & Lower East Side the same protection. At that time, Chin was the head of Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) which, despite its name, ironically supported this racist rezoning plan. Our community has been calling these people out as racists or supporting racist policies. 

For the last 10 years, our community has been pushing the passage of the entire Chinatown Working Group (CWG) Rezoning Plan to have the same protection as East Village. Why don’t the accusers of the poster say anything about their own racism or the racist policies against Chinese and other people of color? Why didn’t AMNY cover the protests in the Chinese community against Chin? Do they know that Chin, in response to the community’s outcry, actually doubled down her racist act by proposing to divide the CWG plan? Her proposal would protect only a small part of Chinatown and exclude Blacks, Latinos and Chinese in the Lower East Side. This caused a lot of uproar in our community. 

NMASS, Chinese Staff and Workers Association (CSWA) and other organizations came together and stopped her divisive efforts. How dare AMNY and those accusers, whocome from outside neighborhood or don’t know this history, accuse NMASS of being racist without any investigation? NMASS has consistently spoken out against racism upon people of color, whether it comes from White, Chinese or other people of color, whether from sweatshop bosses or from politicians. NMASS is a teaching example for usChinese people, as it leads the fight to unify people across boundaries to speak out against racism and displacement. The “Chinzilla” poster is one example of such effort. We would like to further spread the poster at our center and on the storefront. On behalf of our community, we would also like to award the artist of the poster $1000 to continue to create art to battle racism.

To AMNY and those who criticized the poster: If you are genuine about fighting racism, you should cover and support our fight against the City’s racist displacement agenda, instead of supporting racist policies or helping amplify racist politicians’ words.

Wing Lam

Executive director
Chinese Staff and Workers Association

FIGHT AGAINST Displacement!

Call for the City to Stop the Two Bridges Luxury Towers and Pass the FULL Chinatown Working Group Rezoning Plan!

Mayor de Blasio has been pushing his pro-developer agenda that displaces tenants, workers and small businesses to enrich the 1%. In the Lower East Side, he illegally approved four out-of-scale megatowers that would make the neighborhood unaffordable and destroy the environment. Moreover, he refused to pass the Chinatown Working Group Rezoning Plan that would stop luxury high-rises and mandate any new development on public land to be 100% affordable to the community.

The recent NYS Supreme Court decision reverses the approval of the megatowers. The Judge has disagreed with Mayor de Blasio’s support for rich developers at the expense of the community. However, it dictates that the Two Bridges luxury towers must now go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which allows Council Member Margaret Chin to approve the towers. Her intention to align with Mayor de Blasio’s displacement agenda has been clear from the beginning. The community is not deceived into believing that ULURP is any kind of victory.

We need to take the future of the community in our own hands. Therefore, we are petitioning Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to:

1. Stop the four luxury towers that would decimate the neighborhood 

2. Pass the FULL Chinatown Working Group Rezoning Plan that would protect the whole community.

We urge Council Speaker Johnson to stand with the community and not be like Mayor de Blasio.  

Sign the petition and join our call! https://www.thepetitionsite.com/540/710/761/stop-the-illegal-megatowers-in-the-lower-east-side-and-pass-the-cwg/

Coalition to Protect Chinatown and LES

peoplefirstnyc@gmail.com 212-358-0295

peoplefirstnyc.org

Chinatown & LES Reclaim Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Demand Mayor de Blasio Step Down for Racist Rezoning

January 16 – City Hall. (Image credits – Lanny Li, Destiny Mata)

The Citywide Alliance Against Displacement held a rally at City Hall to demand Mayor de Blasio step down for promoting racist rezoning plans that target communities of color and to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of fighting against racial and economic injustice all over the country. Around 500 protesters gathered to call on the mayor to step down. The Alliance said it chose this day to hold the rally to reclaim the day from politicians like Mayor de Blasio who use celebrations on this day to cover up their own racist policies.

Lai Yee Chan from Chinese Staff & Workers Association pointed to the impact on workers in the area. She said, “I’m a home attendant, who have been taking care of Chinese seniors and patients for years. If the low-income families in the Chinese community are being pushed out, we will lose our jobs as well. Whether in Chinatown, Brooklyn or Flushing, both seniors and us home attendants are the victims of displacement, because we will face job loss. The mayor is making our lives desperate.”

For more, visit the Coalition’s website at https://peoplefirstnyc.org/.

Hundreds protest at City Hall on December 7

December 7, 2016 at City Hall

The Chinatown Working Group(CWG) Rezoning Plan has gained wide support in the LES and Chinatown community and beyond. If passed, the plan will put height limits on new developments. It will stop luxury waterfront skyscrapers, like Extell and JDS. It will prevent the sale of public housing and require any housing on NYCHA land to be 100% low-income. It will protect residents and small businesses against displacement.

Hundreds of people from the community have been protesting monthly at City Hall.

Mayor de Blasio has been colluding with big developers to slice up the plan. The city was proposing to rezone a part of Chinatown and exclude the Lower East Side, leaving the majority Latino and African American residents in NYCHA and waterfront buildings unprotected. Mayor de Blasio is pitting Chinese against Latinos and African Americans, helping the developers to displace us all!
Our community–Chinese, Latino and African American–held a large demonstration at City Hall in October against discriminatory zoning policies. The protest successfully pushed the City to scrap their Chinatown-only plan. This is a great example of people power! Now we need to make sure that the City pass the full CWG Rezoning Plan immediately, and we will keep coming back to City Hall each month until they do!
In the wake of the national election, Mayor de Blasio is trying to repair his tattered image as a Mayor for the 1%, vowing to protect the people of color being targeted by Donald Trump. But the Mayor himself has been targeting low-income, people of color communities across the City such as East Harlem, Inwood/Washington Heights, East New York and the South Bronx for luxury development. These communities are also rising up against displacement and joining us. We cannot stand by a mayor who claims to be for the people yet pushes racist policies in our community.
All images: Lanny Li