Fighting Gentrification With Community Action
When developers planned to build three massive luxury buildings in the Two Bridges neighborhood on the Lower East Side, community groups fought back.
When developers planned to build three massive luxury buildings in the Two Bridges neighborhood on the Lower East Side, community groups fought back.
The Al-Muneer Foundation had its applications for exemptions repeatedly denied and had to fight back foreclosure. For nonprofits with city contracts, like the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center, difficulties with exemptions and debt can jeopardize their funding.
The Equitable Neighborhoods unit of TakeRoot Justice is seeking a Community Based Planner & Advocacy Coordinator to join us! The TakeRoot Justice Equitable Neighborhoods practice works with grassroots groups, neighborhood organizations and community coalitions to make sure that people of
Daniel Carpenter-Gold, of TakeRoot Justice, which represents the tenants association, said the proposed commercial upzoning is tailored more for big box stores ... “Why would they need this [commercial] rezoning?” he said. “Their renderings showed a coffee shop.”
“We’re asking the court to step in and enforce the law before it’s too late,” said Paula Segal, an attorney with TakeRoot Justice who represents QNU.
We are looking for current law students to intern with us this summer, in Capacity Building, Consumer Justice, Equitable Neighborhoods, Housing & Tenants' Rights, Immigrants' Rights, or Workers' Rights.
"You don't see places like Target in the pretty renderings that the developer gave the City," Daniel Carpenter-Gold, a staff attorney at TakeRoot Justice, said in a statement. "But make no mistake, that's what they're going for here."
TakeRoot threatened a court challenge over the project's environmental impact statement, which it says is insufficient because it assumed a wetlands permit that the state refused to be bullied into issuing in 2012 and has not issued yet.
"The message is that the rule of law applies to people who want to spend a lot of money building big buildings in New York, In 2019, that is a change."
Paula Segal said the recent ruling is “certainly a word of caution for anyone who’s looking to add buildings to any of the dozens of ‘large scale’ development plans in the city.”