Citywide Alliance Against Displacement Demands Mayor de Blasio Step Down (again)

Citywide Alliance Rallies at City Hall to Demand
Mayor de Blasio Step Down for Ongoing Corruption   

May 31, 2017  - 3:30 pm - outside NY City Hall

"(Mayor "Red Bill") de Blasio pushes people out of their homes and neighborhoods to benefit his political aspirations and ultra-rich developers (...) destroying immigrant families and communities of color. We say no more to racism and displacement!" [Citywide Alliance Against Displacement]  Join us to demand Mayor de Blasio step down!

"Mayor de Blasio, “gentrifier-in-chief,” has designated NYC a “sanctuary city” in an effort to protect immigrants from racist and xenophobic Trump Executive Orders. "

"For many NYC immigrants, however, our communities are under siege as we live in the instability and crisis as a result of the Mayor’s own rezoning policy that is displacing us from the very places that we seek refuge."

 

"The Progressive NYC Council continues to put profit before people, abandoning small business to follow Bloomberg's Real Estate Agenda. Our New York City elected officials need to stop looking for band-aid solutions and start serving their communities." [Take Back NYC]

We demand: 

1) End racism in city planning. Pass community-based “People First” plans like the Chinatown Working Group rezoning plan.

2) End public funding for luxury development, such as 421-a. Instead; use public resources to preserve and build more permanent low-income housing.

3) Stop privatization of public land and assets.

4) Mayor de Blasio and those in City Council who also collude with developers, step down. Dump de Blasio Now!

Brief Flickr slide show:



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I've covered a few of these very small protests, aware that this particular consortium is not Republican nor Democrat, too RED. Nope, these are Mayor "Red Bill" deBlasio and NYC Councilwoman Margaret Chin's political and social comrades. YET, the consortium has a beef - a BIG on-going complaint when it comes to NYC real estate. All is not copacetic when it comes to the very personal issues of "hearth and home".

Displacement by an ever changing city will always affect someone. Old buildings come down making way for new ones. Cities grow. But, who decides what is acceptable displacement. Are these real estate deals motivated only about greed?  Graft. Is "progressive - change" only possible when it isn't PERSONAL?

Scary words, "We are from the government and we've come to .... TAKE your home - or business." No one wants to be on the short end of that directive. It's ALWAYS personal for someone.
The LES (Lower East Side) , Bronx consortium remains VERY unhappy with their comrades in City Hall, demanding - again- that Mayor de Blasio and Council woman Margaret Chin STEP DOWN. They want nothing less.

Having no desire to see De Balsio re-elected, I am feeling no sympathy for "Red Bill".  Schadenfreude perhaps, as they eat their own.  (Pamela Hall)

==
three short videos

Part 1 - excerpted chants " Hey- o deBlasio your killing our dreams"

 


Part 2 - excerpted speaker from East Harlem




Part 3 - excerpted speaker from East Harlem and the South Bronx

"..... demand Mayor de Blasio step down for promoting racist rezoning plans that target communities of color... the low-income families in the Chinese community are being pushed out, we will lose our jobs as well. Whether in Chinatown, Brooklyn or Flushing ...victims of displacement, because we will face job loss. The mayor is making our lives desperate. (he should) be held accountable for racist policy of displacement and step down now. [https://peoplefirstnyc.org/]

"Mayor de Blasio’s plan for constructing an additional 300,000 apartments for the city’s growing future is hidden under the fact that the NYC’s Homeless population has grown along with the administration’s false promises to provide real affordable housing to NYC’s vulnerable households. The disparity between rich and poor was a highlight of campaign speeches gravitating popular support to the current administration as a compassionate progressive movement."  [http://www.elbarriounite.org/]

== MEDIA RELEASE ==

Citywide Alliance Against Displacement

Chinese Staff & Workers Association, East Harlem Preservation, El Barrio Unite, National Mobilization Against SweatShops,

Staten Island Against Racism and Police Brutality,

 South Bronx Community Congress, Take Back NYC

"The Citywide Alliance Against Displacement, representing communities throughout NYC, including the Lower East Side, Chinatown, East Harlem, South Bronx, Staten Island and Flushing, will rally at City Hall to demand the Mayor step down for selling the city to real estate developers.

Mayor de Blasio continues to ignore community outcry against his pro-developer and racist development agenda. In East Harlem, he continues to push a rezoning that will destroy the historic Latino community, one of the last working class communities in Upper Manhattan. In Chinatown and the Lower East Side, community members uncovered that the de Blasio administration and local councilwoman Margaret Chin lied to the community about three mega-tower developments being built on the waterfront. The City is violating its own zoning laws by allowing these developments to move forward.

It is clear that the developers who stand to benefit the most from the Mayor's actions are those who have contributed heavily to his re-election, like Harold Fetner of Fetner Properties,[1] JDS, Extell and many others. The Mayor has turned a blind eye to the mass scale displacement New Yorkers are experiencing, to enrich the real estate campaign donors. New Yorkers throughout the city say: Stop selling our city to developers and protect our communities from displacement. " [NY Daily News]

[Click picture to enlarge]

++ Pictures and videos property of Pamela Hall+