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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