With the support of the Neighborhoods First Fund, TakeRoot’s Equitable Neighborhoods team represented Tenants United Fighting for the Lower East Side (TUFF-LES), CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities and Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) in 2017-2022 as they worked with Manhattan Community Board 3 as co-applicants on a land use application based on the Chinatown Working Group Recommendations. The plan would have protected existing tenants and ensured that new affordable housing is built.
Read our Pre Application Statement and Environmental Assessment.
The campaign ended without certification for public review due to roadblocks created by the Department of City Planning. In combination with litigation, our work together slowed the march of luxury development in low- and middle-income Manhattan community by five years or more.
Selected Press
The Village Sun: Foes fight Two Bridges developer Joe Chetrit, demand Buildings Department deny work permits | April 12, 2022
Teen Vogue: Gentrification in Chinatown Is the Focus of These Young Activists | Jan. 28, 2022
New York Times: The People vs. Big Development | Feb. 10, 2020
Curbed: A judge blocked three towers planned for Two Bridges. Now what? | Aug. 2, 2019
City Limits: LES Groups Try to Revive Rezoning that De Blasio Admin. Rejected | July 24, 2019
City Limits: All Hands On Deck to Stop Two Bridges Towers in Lower East Side | Sept. 7. 2017
Photo by Dashiell Allen for The Village Sun.