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

反歧视 反逼迁 反贵租 社区大会! 邀请白思豪市长到场表示立场！

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NMASS Town Hall Poster v3

萧华被判有罪，振奋人心！华埠和下东城有转机了。萧华成为议长后称霸我们社区二十多年，对我们社区建树很少，而且最近的七、八年，他和地产商以及某些民选官员勾结，破坏唐人街下东城。在他管辖的地段上和发号施令下，以致第三社区委员会和市议会通过了彭博的歧视性的东村土改计划，令唐人街和下东城得不到同等的保护，讓地产商大量地侵占华埠，起豪华高楼和酒店。他还将苏域柏的政府公用地拱手相送给地产商，应付式地建很少低收入家庭可负担的房屋。这个民选官员贪得无厌，帮Extell 在Pathmark的旧址建80层豪华高楼和设立“穷人门”，并得到政府津贴。由此令地税和租金飙升，小生意不能负担昂贵的租金，工人减少工作机会，居民无以为继，人人在贵租的压力下怨声载道。很多民众都把愤怒指向与萧华关系密切的陈倩雯，以致人人都骂陈倩雯。
现在，萧华被判有罪，给我们华人和少数族裔大好的翻身机会。俗语讲“树倒猢狲散”，和他要好的政客，怕被调查，人人自危的时候，我们应该出来，反对这些破坏我们家园的豪华建筑和带歧视性的土改计划。
我们要将愤怒化为力量，呼吁大家踊跃参加12月5日的社区大会，要求市长出席大会，通过华埠工作小组的土改计划，停止Extell 种族歧视的大楼；终止421 A 地税优惠给地产商。

社区大会时间：2015年12月5日 (星期六） 下午4時正
社区大会地址：华埠 格兰街350号 苏域柏高中的大礼堂
联络电话: 212-334-2333

Chinatown and the Lower East Side are Not For Sale!

MARCH AGAINST DISPLACEMENT
Wednesday, October 28 at 3:30PM
Start at Cherry Street and Pike Slip | End at City Hallmarch-down-east-broadway

When New York City adopted the major East Village Rezoning in 2008, Chinatown and the Lower East Side were intentionally excluded. The wealthier white residents of the East Village got height restrictions and zoning protections for their neighborhood, while high-rise, luxury development was pushed into our community. Now the NYC Department of City Planning refuses to pass the Chinatown Working Group rezoning plan, saying it’s too “far-fetched” to give Chinatown and Lower East Side equal protection to the East Village. Will Mayor de Blasio follow Bloomberg’s racist legacy by selling out our community to luxury developers?

If the Chinatown Working Group rezoning were adopted, luxury developers like Extell would not be able to build their 80 story high-rise tower with a separate “poor door” for low-income tenants. The rezoning plan will limit the height and size of buildings, require low-income housing in every new development, and block the sale of public housing and land to developers. These measures are needed to stop skyrocketing rents and the displacement of residents and small businesses.

On Sept. 25, close to a thousand residents, workers, small businesses, students, and others from Chinatown, the LES, and across the city marched to City Hall to demand that Mayor de Blasio protect our community from displacement.

Our community has been set in motion, but we must show Mayor de Blasio that we will not stop until our community gets the equal protection we deserve. We call on everyone to join our march on Wednesday, Oct. 28!

Demand that Mayor de Blasio Protect the Lower East Side and Chinatown:

  • Stop the racist Extell luxury development
  • End the 421a tax giveaway
  • Pass the Chinatown Working Group Community Rezoning Plan
Coalition to Protect Chinatown & the Lower East Side

List in formation: 318 Restaurant Workers’Union, Action by the Lower East Side, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Cabalito Restaurant, Chinese Staff &Workers Association, District Leader Jenifer Rajkumar, District Leader Pedro Cardi, Harlem Consumer Education Council, LaGuardia Houses Tenant Patrol, Lands End 2 Resident Association, LES Dwellers, Lower East Side Anti-Displacement Project, Mujeres y Hombres Luchadoras, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, Orchard Street Block Association, Professor Peter Kwong from CUNY-Hunter, Project Reach, Sixth Street Community Center, Professor Juanita Díaz-Cotto from SUNY-Binghamton

转载世界新闻网

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转载世界新闻网
「路標」貴族化 華埠平民抗議
記者尹英姿／紐約報導
September 26, 2015, 6:04 am 2576 次
近千名示威者在華埠和市議會門前呼籲遏制華埠貴族化。(記者尹英姿／攝影)
近千名示威者在華埠和市議會門前呼籲遏制華埠貴族化。(記者尹英姿／攝影)
近千名示威者在華埠和市議會門前呼籲遏制華埠貴族化。(記者尹英姿／攝影)
近千名示威者在華埠和市議會門前呼籲遏制華埠貴族化。(記者尹英姿／攝影)
宋美榕高舉標語，強烈反對華埠貴族化。(記者尹英姿／攝影)
宋美榕高舉標語，強烈反對華埠貴族化。(記者尹英姿／攝影)
近千名示威者在華埠和市議會門前呼籲遏制華埠貴族化。(記者尹英姿／攝影)
近千名示威者在華埠和市議會門前呼籲遏制華埠貴族化。(記者尹英姿／攝影)

「反對貴族化，華埠不能賣！」318工會、華人職工會、下東城行動聯盟等17個組織的近千名會員代表，25日在曼哈坦華埠舉行遊行示威，抗議開發商 Extell Development公司將曼哈坦下東城櫻桃街(Cherry St.)227號的「路標」(Pathmark)超市拆除，興建高級豪華公寓。遊行隊伍經過華埠，在市議會門前高舉標語，呼籲市長白思豪提高對下東城土地 改革的重視。

遊行隊伍從櫻桃街227號出發，經過東百老匯和林則徐廣場，抵達市議會門前舉行集會，呼籲市長白思豪遏制包括華埠在內的下東城地區的逼遷房客的行 為。上千名示威者沿途高喊口號，呼籲遏制下東城貴族化的趨勢，保護居民和小商家的正當權益。在下個月10月28日下午4時，還將在櫻桃街227號再次舉行 示威遊行，抗議下東城興建高級建築。

華人職工會幹事李華表示，華埠工作小組(CWG)在七年前就已經提出遏制下東城貴族化的土地重畫提案，但卻沒有得到白思豪和市議會通過，令華埠小商家和居 民感到不解。她認為，以東村為例，豪斯頓街(Houston St.)到14街的社區都獲得土地規畫的保護，明確規定不允許修建超過六層至八層樓的高層建築，防止租金上漲。但針對華埠在內的下東城的土地重畫提案卻被 市府束之高閣。長此以往，華埠雖然將新建不少高級建築，但本地居民卻因為難以承擔高額的房租，被迫搬離家園。

「租金上漲，不但小商家負擔重，居民流失更令生意難做！」在華埠東百老匯家開店20多年的華裔老闆娘宋美榕表示，她做過餐館生意，也開過花舖，但隨 著華埠貴族化加劇，小商家和居民都苦不堪言。宋美榕說，做生意多年來，租金從最早先的3000多元一個月飆升至1萬2000元，普通的花舖業者根本就無力 承擔。貴族化不只影響小商家的生存，房租上漲也會進一步加劇居民的流失，生意更沒有辦法做下去。

** Press Advisory **

Communities Protest DCP’s Refusal to Protect Communities of Color,

     Call for March to City Hall- Call on Mayor to

Protect Chinatown and Lower East Side and Stop Extell

Date: Thursday, August 20, 2015
Time: 11AM
Location: Across from 227 Cherry St (corner of Pike St)
    Since the passing of the 2008 rezoning plan that only protected the East Village while excluding Chinatown and Lower East Side, many residents and small businesses have been displaced from our communities. The Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side met with the Department of City Planning (DCP) on August 5th and asked the DCP to give the same protections to Chinatown and the Lower East Side, which are mixed communities of color, as given to the East Village, a majority white community. The Coalition was told that we were too ambitious and our rezoning plan could not be implemented.
On August 20, 2015, 11am, the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side will hold a press conference at 227 Cherry Street where Extell is building a racist tower that will include a “poor door”. We will tell Mayor de Blasio that communities of color have had enough with the city’s racism and efforts to push us out! We will also call for a march to City Hall on September 25, 2015, from the former Pathmark site.
#
Coalition to Protect Chinatown & the Lower East Side
318 Restaurant Workers’ Union, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Chinese Staff & Workers Association, District Leader Jenifer Rajkumar, District Leader Pedro Cardi, LaGuardia Houses Tenant Patrol, Lands End 2 Resident Association, Lower East Side Anti-Displacement Project, La Mujeres y Hombres Luchadoras, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, Orchard Street Block Association,
Professor Peter Kwong from CUNY-Hunter, Project Reach, Sixth Street Community Center, Professor Juanita Díaz-Cotto from SUNY-Binghamton

Monday 5/18 at 10AM: Tenants Speak Out Against Eviction by Slumlord, and Demand Repairs

*Press Advisory*

Tenants Speak Out Against Eviction by Slumlord, and Demand Repairs

Urge Mayor to Take Steps to Prevent Further Displacement in Chinatown/Lower East Side

What: Press Conference

When: Monday, May 18, 2015,10am

Where: In front of 83-85 Bowery St. New York, NY, 10002

For years, residents of 83-85 Bowery Street have been experiencing constant water leakage from ceilings, and recently, a bathroom floor on the verge of collapse. For example, when one floor takes a shower, water leaks through the floor below. In one apartment, they have to keep an umbrella up in their bathroom to prevent water from the above apartment from coming down on them. In addition, the uneven and sloping stairs have been a hazardous problem for one of the buildings, where many families, seniors, and children live.  Most recently, after the tenants organized a tenant association, the tenants of 85 Bowery had their gas cut off since April 1st, 2015, and despite calls to 311 and asking the landlord to resolve, gas was only reinstated last week, after over 40 days.

The landlord, Joseph Betesh, has left the building to be rundown since he acquired it in 2013, along with 9 other buildings on Bowery Street.  Since then, no repairs or upkeep have been done by the landlord. The landlord is deliberately keeping the building in disrepair as a way to force tenants out because he cannot do so legally.

Since the passage of the 2008 rezoning, many luxury developments have been pushed into our neighborhood, and landlords in Chinatown and the Lower East Side have been evicting low income people from rent stabilized buildings left and right. The tenants are demanding the landlord to fix immediate dangers in all apartments and that the City should hold the landlord accountable.  The tenants, along with the Public Advocate’s Office, call for public attention to this concern and urge other tenants to speak out against poor living conditions.

Chinatown and the Lower East Side say “No Way!” to Extell’s Luxury Tower Call on Mayor De Blasio to Support Community-Based Rezoning Plans

***Press Release ***

Community based organizations, residents, and small businesses of the Lower East Side and Chinatown rallied Tuesday to demand that Mayor de Blasio stop Extell from constructing an ultra-luxury skyscraper for the 1% on the Lower East Side waterfront. The tower could potentially rise 700 feet and be twice as high as any surrounding development. Despite recent news that Extell is bringing the tower down from 72 to 56-stories, the community is still opposed. Allowing the tower to be built will result in the mass displacement of low-income families of color and ultimately destroy Chinatown and the Lower East Side. We are demanding that the Mayor support a community based rezoning plan with anti-displacement and anti-harassment provisions to protect the local neighborhood, and especially public housing, which is being privatized.

“The local community fears that allowing the tower to be built as proposed will exacerbate the neighborhood’s already ongoing gentrification, result in the displacement of low-income families of color, and ultimately destroy the existing unique character of Chinatown and the Lower East Side” says Ginger Lopez, Community Organizer at Good Old Lower East Side.

The Extell tower is being built on a former publicly-owned lot (the Two Bridges Urban Renewal Area) that housed a Pathmark, the only affordable supermarket serving the surrounding low-income community. Since the Pathmark was closed in 2012, residents have struggled to find quality affordable groceries. Many are forced to travel as far as New Jersey to meet this need. Furthermore, the Extell tower will be built in the middle of several NYCHA and publicly subsidized low and moderate income developments.[1] Many fear that the Extell tower will accelerate the privatization of the surrounding public housing.

The tower is yet another example of how the City is robbing the poor to feed the rich and making low-income people of color second-class citizens in our own neighborhoods” says, David Tieu, organizer at NMASS. Furthermore these policies create economic segregation while damaging the history and diversity of the Lower East Side and Chinatown. “In fact, these same policies are affecting neighborhoods all over the city from Jamaica, East New York, the Bronx and Staten Island and we stand with all those communities in their fight as it is all one fight” says, Naved Husain, Lead Organizer at CAAAV. The Extell tower may potentially be subsidized by tens of millions of dollars in public financing including 421A tax abatements, Housing Finance Agency Bonds and Low Income Housing Tax Credits, which will be used towards building a much smaller and separate “poor door” building next to the luxury tower. Rather than helping to solve the affordable housing crisis in the city, these subsidies are contributing to the destruction of existing affordable housing by encouraging and subsidizing luxury development.

“We oppose this racist tower that will displace thousands of people of color. Already public housing is being sold off to the rich. Our community says no to racism and no to the Extell development” said Wendy Cheung from Chinese Staff & Workers Association.

The Chinatown Working Group, a community-based planning process convened by the City in 2008, is in the process of finalizing a rezoning plan for the entire Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhood in order to protect the existing community from displacement and prevent luxury development. Part of the plan calls for a rezoning of the East River waterfront, where the Extell tower is to be built, in order to prevent out-of-scale luxury development. The plan also requires that developers build at least 55% low-income housing on new developments along the East River waterfront. Approximately 10,000 residents, workers, and small business owners signed petitions supporting the plan. Although Mayor de Blasio’s administration has paid lip service to community involvement in the development process, a recent letter from the Department of City Planning expressed that this plan was rejected by the administration because it focused too much on the “preservation of affordable housing”. Members of the community call on Mayor de Blasio to pass this plan to protect the community from displacement and prevent future luxury development like Extell’s tower from being built in the community.

The community organizations urge more residents and to come forward to say no to Extell and join monthly rallies at its site. Residents can call for more information.

###

[1] Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), Chinatown Tenants Union, Chinese Staff and Workers Association (CSWA), CAAAV-Organizing Asian Communities, Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), Mujeres Y Hombres Luchadoras, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS)

NYCHA developments include: Smith Houses, Two Bridges, Rutgers Houses, LaGuardia Houses, Vladeck Houses, and Seward Park Extension. Publicly subsidized developments include: Land’s End I, Land’s End II, Two Bridges Houses, Two Bridges Townhouses, Two Bridges Senior Apartments, and Two Bridges Tower.