Anti-Gentrification March Will Lead Protesters Through Brooklyn

BROOKLYN, NY – Activists are planning to march through Brooklyn next month to protest gentrification and police violence.

The demonstration will start at Barclays Center and run through Ebbets Field in Crown Heights and Herbert Von King Park in Bedford-Stuyvesant before ending at Myrtle and Wickoff Avenues in Bushwick on Sept. 9.

“The main thing that we’re emphasizing – the reason that we’re going through different neighborhoods – is all of Brooklyn is highly impacted,” organizer Imani Henry told Patch. “We are the most gentrifying borough in this moment.”

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He said the choice of stops on the route is intentional. Henry described Barclays Center as an epicenter of gentrification, saying longstanding residents from minority backgrounds are being driven out. Among other causes the march is emphasizing, demonstrators will stop at Ebbets Field to protest the proposal to turn the nearby Bedford-Union Armory into luxury housing.

The march is being organized by the Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network, a coalition of groups including Equality For Flatbush, which Henry leads.

He said along with gentrification, activists will protest violence at the hands of police. He pointed to last month’s fatal police shooting of Dwayne Jeune in East Flatbush as a rallying point.

Henry added that organizers scheduled the march to occur the weekend before the Sept. 12 primary election on purpose.

He said, “We want to use the media coverage that is happening around the election to be able to talk and infuse the conversation with issues that matter to community members and not let it be dominated by campaign promises.”

Lead photo of an April protest in Crown Heights by Marc Torrence/Patch