Protesters Outside City Hall Demand Mayor Resign for Displacing Poor Communities

CITY HALL, NY — Louise Velez suffers from asthma and frequent bouts of bronchitis from an asbestos and mold problem in her apartment. Over the past few years, Velez said she also developed a persistent itch which gets worse whenever she's in her apartment.

The 72-year-old lives with her son, daughter and granddaughter in a New York City Housing Authority building on East 10th Street and Avenue D. Her granddaughter, barely past her toddler years, already has a bad case of asthma, she says.

Velez spoke on behalf of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and Lower East Side on Wednesday afternoon in a protest that attracted over 100 people outside City Hall. The protesters' complaints covered a wide range of issues, everything from a refusal to rezone their neighborhood to fears over gentrification and displacement. But the theme from everyone was the same: The mayor needs to step down.

The crowd, made up of several Lower East Side and Chinatown community organizations, demanded Bill de Blasio step down over what they called "racist" and "discriminatory" housing policies in their neighborhoods.

"De Blasio, step down!" they chanted. "Displacement no more! High rent, no more! Racism, no more!"

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is unresponsive to Velez's complaints about asbestos, mold, and leaks, she said. Velez and her neighbors have resorted to calling the press to report a leak if they want it to be repaired. When her neighbor had an intolerable leak in his apartment in June, he called NY1 to get the story out there because the city didn't take action for weeks, she said.

Velez said she is convinced that the city is unresponsive to their complaints because it's all part of a plan to make low-income residents' lives so intolerable that they move to make room for luxury condos.

"Right now NYCHA often says they eliminated a lot of workers, so they can't come fix things, but that's part of the whole deal," Velez told Patch. "That's part of de Blasio's 10-year plan for NYCHA. His plan for 10 years is displacing us."

When the Lower East Side and Chinatown communities formed the Coalition to Save Chinatown and Lower East Side eight years ago its goal was to establish a rezoning plan that would protect the entire area, particularly the waterfront, from towering luxury developments. The coalition formed in direct reaction to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's approval of a 2008 rezoning plan that protected 111 blocks on the Lower East Side, half of which were in the East Village, with 75-foot height restrictions.

The coalition's rezoning plan, which would include all of the Lower East Side and Chinatown with height restrictions for new developments, has been repeatedly rejected by the City Planning Department, coalition members told Patch.

"De Blasio said rezoning the whole area is not feasible for him because it's such a big chunk of the neighborhood, the Lower East Side and Chinatown," Velez said. "But it's like a little trick. They're gonna use that as an excuse, that they have to study the neighborhood for rezoning, but in the mean time in the next two years they're gonna keep building. By the time the two years pass by, they say, 'Oh, I'm sorry, all these buildings are up already.' They're already building like crazy."

Now the coalition addresses wider concerns than rezoning and has a wider purpose, including advocating against displacement through gentrification.

Several protesters told Patch that de Blasio's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing initiative passed in March — which is meant to reserve a portion of new developments for affordable housing — is often unaffordable to the low-income residents they are supposed to be serving.

"The MIH housing that comes to my area is for people who make $30,000, but most of our people here make way less than that," Velez said.

Ale Murphy, who was born in the Dominican Republic and has lived in Manhattan since 1976, said in her experience, people in the Latino community often have trouble understanding that the term "Mandatory Inclusionary Housing" doesn't include them. She said the language barrier has something to do with it.

"In Spanish, mandatory is 'mandato,' which is like a law that has to be done," Murphy told Patch. "When people who don't speak the language well see 'mandato' with 'incluyendo a todo,' or 'including everybody,' they think it's like a definite law to bring housing to the people."

But instead of being guaranteed affordable housing, it's the people who can't afford MIH that are displaced as gentrifiers come in, Murphy said.

Naomi Garcia, 21, who lives with her family at Rutgers and Delancey streets, said gentrification has made her feel like an outsider in her own neighborhood.

"I'm really into photography, so I was so thrilled about the new art galleries and all this other stuff coming to my community," she said. "But then I was like, wait hold on, this is gentrification! They're basically displacing us."

"Chinatown? Not for sale!" the crowd outside City Hall chanted. "Lower East Side? Not for sale! East Harlem? Not for sale! Northern Manhattan? Not for sale!"

"This is our land, why are you guys able to start a business on our land?" Garcia said. "This is for us, this is for people my age and younger to start businesses in our community."

Photo credit: Sarah Kaufman/Patch