Affordable For Who?

The Mayor's housing plan leaves behind the New York's most vulnerable: Under the current plan, over 1/3rd of NYC households are too poor to afford the Mayor's "low-income" housing. Fast-food worker and homecare worker will not be able to afford the vast majority of apartments under this plan, and because the plan does not include labor standards to protect good union jobs, the New Yorkers who build the Mayor's "affordable housing" won't be able to afford it! Too many families will be at risk of displacement and homelessness unless the city figures out a plan to create truly affordable housing. Join Real Affordability For All and other community activists on Tuesday, February 23rd at 10:30AM in City Hall Park to ask the Mayor, "affordable for who?"

Click here to RSVP to Real Affordability For All

One Size Does Not Fit All!

"Zoning for Quality & Affordability (ZQA) is a wholesale upzoning of the entire city, and will not guarantee either goal of affordability or quality. There is no panacea for NYC’s affordable housing crisis, and ZQA is not even a cure for its symptoms. Rather, it seems that ZQA is a concession to developers to sweeten Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH), the only part of this proposal which might actually provide “affordable” units. ZQA loosens the entire city’s existing zoning to allow greater density for market-rate development, under the guise of creating affordable units, which, as we all know, is optional... This upzoning amendment raises height limits and diminishes yard requirements across the city according to a mathematical nicety, without examining the built fabric of our city’s neighborhoods. Contextual zones came to fruition after years of effort by community-driven, carefully examined, neighborhood-specific studies. NYC thrives because of the diversity of its neighborhoods, yet this proposal’s approach will deal with each neighborhood as the same, with a one-size-fits-all approach."

Whether his heart is in the right place or not, the concessions Mayor de Blasio is making to the real estate industry in an effort to create what amounts to not enough affordable housing units, at a truly affordable rate, is incredibly troubling. The re-zoning and up-zoning will enable developers to reshape and rebrand neighborhoods, which will in turn skyrocket rents, making entire areas unaffordable to the average New Yorker.

The public hearing on Zoning for Quality & Affordability and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing is February 9th and February 10th (at 9:30AM both days). Join activists from across the five boroughs at City Hall (between Broadway, Park Row, and Chambers Street) and tell the NYC City Council that New Yorkers deserve affordable housing without upzoning the entire city.

If you can't make the hearings, the Historic Districts Council and Greenwich Village Society For Historic

Preservation have made it easy to send letters to the entire City Council: HDC letter | GVSHP letter.

Abridged quote from the Historic Districts Council Statement to NYC City Council on ZQA/MIH.

A Tale of Two Cities

Keep the pressure on... Join us for "The People's Response to the State of the City" and speak on topics such as the destruction and displacement of our communities for big business and real estate interests!

Alliance Against Displacement

“From all across the city, we’re concerned about displacement and we’re concerned about the mayor’s development policies. We’re here today to say that his complete development policy is a complete sham. It’s not building more affordable housing — it’s actually leading to more displacement and gentrification in the most vulnerable communities.” -David Tieu, Coalition To Protect Chinatown And The Lower East Side

On January 21st dedicated activists from a handful of community groups (organized by the Citywide Alliance Against Displacement) braved the cold to protest the Real Estate Board Of New York outside their 120th Annual Banquet, which was attended by members of City Hall including Bill de Blasio and Melissa Mark-Viverito. The gathered activists stood to denounce the underhanded deals between developers and NYC elected officials who receive large campaign contributions from them. The protestors called for a rejection of Mayor de Blasio’s zoning plan which they say promotes luxury development, pushing out local businesses and services, displacing more people of color and working families, and eliminating more affordable units than it claims to create.

Photography by BERodriguez © 2016
Quote from the Commercial Observer

Take Back Our City!

The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), a notorious culprit responsible for luxury development and displacement in New York City, will be holding their 120th Annual Banquet on Thursday, January 21st. The banquet is expected to be well attended by members of City Hall, including "Mayor of Two Cities," Bill de Blasio himself. REBNY has found Mayor de Blasio's administration to be "an open door," while over the past two years, the people of New York City have found Mayor de Blasio to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

We denounce the underhanded deals between developers and NYC elected officials who receive large campaign contributions from them. We reject Mayor de Blasio’s zoning plan for NYC that promotes luxury development, pushing out our local businesses and services, displacing more people of color and working families, and eliminating more affordable units than it claims to create. We call on all New Yorkers to join in a grassroots alliance to stop Mayor de Blasio’s developer-led zoning plans, and demand a People First plan for our communities that will protect us against displacement.

Event organized by Citywide Alliance Against Displacement

A Community Comes Together

"With its low-slung market-style buildings, metal awnings and battered bricks,
[Gansevoort Street] is one of the most recognizable spots in the city for location
scouts, tourism bureaus, and Instagram users. It is also one of the few
in the district to remain unchanged. So far." -New York Times

On Tuesday November 11th, 150 people turned out for the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing on the development of the Gansevoort Market Historic District (also known as the Meatpacking District). Of the 50 who testified, only two were in favor of the plan to build two massive buildings on the historic street. The proposed project threatens the unique character of Gansevoort Street, its historic streetscape, low buildings and market-style architecture, the very reason the Landmark Preservation Commission decided in 2003 to landmark the area. The fight continues, so please be sure to sign the Save Gansevoort petition here.

Photos courtesy of Save Gansevoort

Stand Against The Shadows

Are you tired of the reckless overbuilding of New York City? Do you feel that too many insanely tall buildings are coming up; that we have lost enough light, air, and iconic views to this real estate madness? Are you sickened by the way public spaces get handed over to real estate developers for luxury housing that ends up casting the rest of us in shadows? Do you think that the takeover of so many retail spaces by developers, banks and chain stores is harming the character of your neighborhood?

We feel all those things, so we have joined together as New Yorkers For A Human-Scale City to fight back, and created a petition to tell the Mayor what we think. Please join us by signing and spreading the word.

Initial sponsors: Art Loisada Foundation, Bedford Stuyvesant Society for Historic Preservation, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation, Citizens Defending Libraries, Coalition for a Livable West Side, Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, Community Action Alliance on NYU2031, Concerned Citizens for Community Based Planning, Defenders of the Historic Upper East Side, East Harlem Preservation, Fiske Terrace Association, Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, Friends of Brook Park, Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park, Friends of City Hall Park, Friends of Greenwich Street, Friends of Lamartine Place Historic District, Friends of South Street Seaport, Friends of Tribeca Park, Historic Districts Council, Historic Park Avenue, LANDMARK WEST!, Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, Lower West Side Association, Madison-Marine-Homecrest Association, Movement to Protect the People in Crown Heights, North Avenue A Neighborhood Association, NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan, Preservation League of Staten Island, Project for Public Spaces, Save Chelsea, Save Harlem Now!, #SaveNYC, Save The View Now, Save Our Seaport, SoHo Alliance, South Bronx United, South Village Neighbors, Sullivan-Ludlam-Stoddard Neighborhood Association, TakeBackNYC, TenantNet, Tribeca Trust, 29th Street Association, Vinegar Hill Neighborhood Association, West 80’s Neighborhood Association, and Women of Woodlawn.

Yes To Commercial Rent Control!

At yesterday's MAS Summit for New York City, the vast majority of people in the audience said "yes" to commercial rent control during a panel discussion. The callous reaction of Alicia Glen (Deputy Mayor for housing and economic development): "I’m not sure that necessarily adopting commercial rent control would lead to solve the problem that people think the problem is. There are some small businesses that are probably going to just fail because they’re not very good businesses."

More on the corporate takeover of New York City: Darwinian City?

Photography by J. Brash

March Against Displacement

On September 25th, close to one-thousand residents, workers, small businesses, students, and others from Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and across the city marched to City Hall to demand that Mayor de Blasio protect our community from displacement. We must show the Mayor that we will not stop until our Chinatown and the Lower East Side receives the equal protection they deserve. We call on everyone to join the march on Wednesday, October 28th! Click here for more details and to RSVP.

Preserving the Fabric of New York City's Vanishing Streetscape

As part of the sixth annual MAS Summit for New York City, Jeremiah Moss (Vanishing New York blogger and founder of #SaveNYC) will narrate a pre-recorded piece about the recent history of New York City, suggesting a death by hyper-gentrification via the loss of key small businesses and cultural touchstones. Alongside startling before-and-after streetscape photographs by James and Karla Murray, Moss will make a case for halting what is happening to the city and then outline how it can be saved.

Thursday, October 22nd at 11:05AM

The Times Center, 242 West 41st Street

Stop The Setting Sun

Save The View Now!