Author: Crystal Walthall

Anti-Gentrification Marching Band Stages ‘Funeral’ at Real-Estate Gala

Mar 16, 2017 | , ,

Originally published in DNAinfo on March 15, 2017 By Noah Hurowitz MIDTOWN — An group of anti-gentrification protesters held a mock funeral for affordable housing and briefly disrupted a meeting of the Real Estate Board of New York at a Midtown hotel Wednesday. The group, led by Faith in New York, marched to the tune of a funeral dirge outside the Hilton Midtown Manhattan Hotel just after 12:30 p.m. to call attention to what they described as REBNY’s role in making New York unaffordable. “I am here to mourn the death of affordable housing in New York City, and to protect against the displacement of too many residents and small businesses from my neighborhood, Central Harlem. Much of this has been caused by REBNY”s predatory development policies,” said Bishop James Clark of Christ Temple Church in Harlem. Emily Scott, a Lutheran pastor at St. Lydia’s Church in Gowanus, joined in the eulogies. “God gives and God takes away; oh wait, it’s the developers who do that!” Scott said. “Affordable housing was not long for this world, unfortunately, and we all know it was taken too soon.” A REBNY spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Faith in New York, a group of religious leaders from across the city that promote social justice, of the event accused REBNY — which represents some of of the biggest developers in the...

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NYCHA Worries Drive Doubts About Long Island City Rezoning

Mar 16, 2017 | ,

Originally published at City Limits on March 14, 2017 Written by Abigail Savitch-Lew On Monday night, public-housing residents and other Long Island City and Astoria stakeholders expressed strong skepticism about the city’s rezoning study for Long Island City, with many attendees expressing concern that a potential rezoning would create housing unaffordable to low-income residents at a time when federal budget cuts threaten to undermine the viability of public housing. The forum, hosted by the Justice For All Coalition, was the Department of City Planning (DCP)’s sixth meeting with local groups since they launched the rezoning study in January. DCP Queens Director John Young emphasized that the agency is still in the “listen and learn” stage of the process, and that “it’s not entirely clear if there will be a rezoning [and] what parts of the area would be rezoned.” The study focuses on roughly the same area surrounding Queens Plaza that was rezoned by the Bloomberg administration in 2001. That rezoning did not create as much commercial development as DCP hoped, and the agency’s aim for their current study is primarily to stimulate more commercial development, with housing development—including the creation of income-targeted housing through the city’s new mandatory inclusionary housing policy—a secondary goal. Other core goals of the study include enhancing neighborhood quality through infrastructure and open space improvements, and increasing job opportunities. Since January, DCP has also met with...

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