Press Release

MEDIA ADVISORY

What: Workers, Tenants, Small Businesses, Students and Groups from across NYC voice opposition to Mayor de Blasio’s Citywide Rezoning

When: December 16, 2015, 4pm – 6pm

Where: Gracie Mansion, 88th Street at East End Avenue, Manhattan

Details:

Workers, tenants, home owners, small business owners, community organizations and supporters across the city will gather to protest Mayor de Blasio’s developer-led zoning plans on the same day the City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the Mayor’s zoning text amendment proposals, also known as ZQA and MIH.

The protest follows a Town Hall meeting last week in the Lower East Side. Over 700 emotionally-charged Chinese, Latino, African American, and white community members grew livid when the Mayor sent a representative to ask the crowd to compromise on the Chinatown Working Group (CWG) rezoning plan they have spent seven years negotiating. This plan was a collaboration among nearly 60 community organizations, including developers and Manhattan Community Boards 1, 2 & 3. The community has spearheaded a citywide call to action.

The public outcry in Lower Manhattan against Mayor de Blasio’s attack on low- and middle-income families and people of color echoes sentiments in many neighborhoods all over NYC. The Mayor continues to push through his city-wide developer-led rezoning plan despite overwhelming opposition by constituents, housing activists and community boards. In response, dozens of organizations are demanding community-led rezoning that truly protects us against displacement.

This action is endorsed by: The Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the LES (318 Restaurant Workers’ Union; Action by the Lower East Side; Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Cabalito Restaurant; Chinese Staff & Workers Association; Delancey Car Service; District Leader Jenifer Rajkumar; District Leader Pedro Cardi; Harlem Consumer Education Council; LaGuardia Houses Tenant Patrol; Lands End 2 Resident; LES Dwellers; Lower East Side Anti-Displacement Project; Mujeres y Hombres Luchadoras; National Mobilization Against Sweatshops; Orchard Street Block Association; Professor Juanita Díaz-Cotto from SUNY-Binghamton; Professor Peter Kwong from CUNY-Hunter; Project Reach; Sixth Street Community Center; Take Back the Bronx); Harlem Tenants Council; Movement to Protect the People; Take Back NYC; Flushing Workers’ Center; Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE); Manhattan Green Party Local; Phil Depaolo, Housing Activist; Queens Neighborhoods United; West Harlem Coalition; Committee to Protect Rent Controlled Tenants; South Bronx Community Congress; Tom Angotti, Hunter College Center for Community Planning; Bronx Greens/Verdes del Bronx; Green EcoSocialist Movement; Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network (BAN); Trinity Lutheran Church of Sunset Park; Sisa Pakari; Bowery Alliance of Neighbors

For more information, contact:
Jei Fong, 646-387-4956
jfong2600@gmail.com