Inwood Rezoning Opponents Occupy Councilman's Office

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — Members of a coalition of neighborhood groups opposed to the city's efforts to rezone Northern Manhattan's Inwood neighborhood occupied their city councilman's district office Thursday after he voted in favor of the plan.

A contingent of rezoning detractors — united by the Northern Manhattan is Not For Sale coalition — slept overnight in City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez's district office on West 177th Street and Wadsworth Avenue after he voted with the City Council subcommittee on zoning and franchises to approve a modified version of the city's rezoning plan. More rezoning foes supported the occupiers by holding a rally outside the office and sending the occupiers pillows and food for the night, according to social media posts.

The occupiers demanded that the city postpone a final vote the Inwood rezoning proposal until it's guaranteed that the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing rule requires new developments to be 50 percent affordable at deep affordability levels for people making less than $25,000 per year. The occupiers also demanded that MIH use neighborhood-based income levels for affordable housing eligibility requirements instead of the currently-used Area Median Income, which pulls data from all over the city and some suburban counties.

"We're saying Inwood should be the precedent case in which we are putting a moratorium on these [neighborhood] rezonings, and this should be the first one where the city stands with us," Em Hirsch of the Met Council on Housing said Friday.

Other demands from groups such as the laborers and iron workers unions, the Inwood Small Business Coalition, the Democratic Socialists of America and the Riverside Edgecomb Neighborhood Association include a rezoning that would cap building heights, better small business protections and include investments to the area's overtaxed infrastructure and transit.

Occupiers said that the concessions won by Rodriguez in the modified version of the rezoning plan — which include the removal of a proposal to dramatically upzone the neighborhood's main commercial streets and about $500 million in various neighborhood investments — do not reflect the demands concerned residents have been advocating for years.

"If he truly represents us and hopes to someday represent the interest of all New Yorkers as Public Advocate, he must vote no on August 8 and redo the rezoning of Inwood the right way." Chris Nickell, member of Northern Manhattan Not For Sale, said in a statement.

Rodriguez said he would allow the occupiers to continue their protest in his office, but on Friday afternoon announced that the office would be closed and emptied due to "safety reasons." Community Board 12 Housing Committe Chair Ayisha Oglivie was arrested while police were clearing the office, protesters said. She was later released, according to protesters.

Occupiers insisted that even though they are no longer inside Rodriguez's office, the protest would continue.

The modified version of the plan passed without opposition Thursday in the City Council subcommittee on zoning and franchises. The committee approval and support from Rodriguez point to a likely approval from the full city council on Aug. 8, which will bring an end to a three-year process to rezone Inwood.

Rodriguez called the rezoning plan an "important" step in solving the affordable housing crisis facing Inwood. The neighborhood is located in the community district with the highest number of rent-regulated housing units in the state, but as units have fallen out of regulation the area has seen little new affordable housing added.

The councilman said Thursday that 1,500 affordable units will be created within the first year of the plan and that the city has targeted several publicly-owned sites in the neighborhood for 100 percent affordable housing developments.

Read more about Thursday's vote here.

Photo by Brendan Krisel/Patch