City Says It's Delivering Inwood Rezoning Investments 1 Year In

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — Elected officials and city agencies gathered in Washington Heights on Tuesday to tout the city's progress in delivering on investments promised as part of a controversial Inwood rezoning plan passed one year ago.

Nearly 1,000 units of affordable housing have been preserved in Inwood through city programs and tenants' access to free legal counsel in housing court, and 3,6000 residents were enrolled in rent freeze programs since the rezoning passed in August 2018, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Vicki Been said Tuesday. Millions in city funding has also been allocated for 13 parks projects, a planned Immigrant Research and Performing Arts Center and neighborhood schools at the Gregorio Luperon and George Washington campuses, city officials said.

Some investments mentioned during Tuesday's announcement include:

• $2 million for STEM education investments in district 6 schools, including a $200,000 robotics center at Gregorio Luperon;
• $15 million for the Immigrant Research and Performing Arts Center;
• $67 million for 13 parks projects in Washington Heights and Inwood including the Highbridge Park Anchor Parks Initiative and the already-completed Dyckman Green Gym project;
• Future affordable housing developments at city sites such as the reconstructed Inwood Library.

Tuesday's announcement didn't offer many updates on future projects linked to the Inwood rezoning plan — city agencies have announced funding and progress updates on many of these projects in the past months — but did offer a comprehensive look at the short-term effects of the plan since it was passed. The event also gave elected officials who supported the plan — despite some strong opposition from neighborhood groups — a chance to celebrate.

"We use today to talk about how we are leaving society better for the future generation," City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez said.

The uptown lawmaker admitted that there's no such thing as a "perfect investment," but said that the investments being made in Northern Manhattan can serve as a model for other underrepresented neighborhoods in New York such as the South Bronx. Rodriguez recently filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to run for the soon-vacant 15th Congressional District in the Bronx.

Officials also applauded Community Board 12 for establishing a task force to ensure that the city follows through will all the promised investments made when the City Council passed the rezoning plan in 2018. Elected officials were able to secure a commitment of $250 million to benefit schools, parks, infrastructure and more as part of the rezoning package. Nobody from the board spoke during Tuesday's event.

Inwood residents who opposed the rezoning, and continue to fight it through a lawsuit, briefly disrupted the end of Tuesday's after city officials wrapped up their speeches. Inwood resident Bennet Melzak took the stage and accused the city of failing to involve Inwood residents in discussions surrounding the rezoning by holding Tuesday's announcement nearly 40 blocks south of the neighborhood on West 165th Street.

"Through this rezoning nothing was learned. Because [this event] is still being done without the community, with three hours notice and on a Jewish holiday," Melzak said as elected officials left the room.

Paul Epstein, a member of the Northern Manhattan is Not 4 Sale coalition, accused city officials of holding Tuesday's announcement in Washington Heights to avoid protesters that would have showed up to an event in Inwood. Epstein said that most of the investments announced during the even actually benefit Washington Heights rather than Inwood, which will bear the brunt of thousands of people moving into the area as a result of upzonings in the city's plan.

"Did you hear anything new? It's all the same old stuff, and most of that investment in parks — most of that is not in Inwood," Epstein said Tuesday. "Yeah Highbridge park needs the investment, but it's not in Inwood where you're rezoning and going to cause the most displacement."

Read more about the details of the Inwood rezoning plan here.