MARCH AGAINST DISPLACEMENT
Wednesday, October 28 at 3:30PM
Start at Cherry Street and Pike Slip | End at City Hall
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