Monthly Archives: October 2015

Community Marches Against Racism and Displacement

Community Demands de Blasio Adopt LES/Chinatown Rezoning Plan

On Oct. 28, hundreds of residents, workers, students, small business owners, and others — including children and elderly — from the Lower East Side, Chinatown and across the city marched to City Hall. The marchers slogged through Hurricane Patricia’s driving rain from Cherry Street in the Lower East Side, past the Department of City Planning. Arriving at City Hall, marchers called on Mayor de Blasio to adopt the Chinatown Working Group (CWG) Rezoning Plan that will protect the entire community, which has become vulnerable to rampant luxury development.

Since the East Village Rezoning Plan was passed in 2008 — protecting majority white and wealthier neighborhoods while excluding majority Latino, African-American and Chinese neighborhoods in Community District 3 — new luxury development has accelerated gentrification and led to massive evictions. One stark example is the 80-story Extell tower with poor door that has applied for the 421-a tax break. The Lower East Side/Chinatown is now ground zero for the displacement of low-income people of color.

For the past seven years, nearly 60 organizations from the Lower East Side and Chinatown joined CWG to create a community-led rezoning plan that would protect the entire community using similar protections afforded to the East Village. Earlier this year the City’s Department of City Planning (DCP) rejected the community rezoning plan adopted by Chinatown Working Group, calling it too “far-fetched.”

On September 25th, close to 1,000 concerned individuals marched to City Hall to demand Mayor de Blasio take a stand against the displacement and adopt the CWG Rezoning Plan. The outpouring of community concern has encouraged other sectors of the community–including churches, students and small business owners–to join the call to pass the CWG Rezoning Plan. Some businesses even closed their doors for a few hours in a show of support for the march.

Coalition members invited Mayor de Blasio to attend the rally and put out his position on the marchers’ demands to:

  • End the 421-a tax abatement (a tax subsidy for luxury developments)
  • Immediately halt the Extell luxury tower at 227 Cherry Street
  • Adopt the CWG rezoning plan

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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