On March 23, 2019 a coalition of neighborhood groups filed a lawsuit against the City of New York for its approval of four luxury megatowers in the Two Bridges area. AAD thought it would be helpful to create a series of blog posts to help clarify the legal position and why we support this specific lawsuit. It has been our long-standing belief that these towers should not be built at all and we encourage others to join us in standing with our neighbors to send a message to our city administrators — we refuse to accept their continued failure to protect at risk communities. We will hold them accountable for their lack of vision in the planning of our city’s future.
The first two parts of our multi-post series, Complaint and Violations, are an introduction to the lawsuit and our reasons for supporting Lower East Side Organized Neighbors (LESON), Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association (CSWA), Youth Against Displacement (YAD), National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS), Clara Amatleon, Elvia Fernandez, Antonio Quey Lin, David Nieves, and Audrey Ward in their case against The City of New York, Marisa Lago, the Department of City Planning, the City Planning Commission and the Department of Buildings. The suit aims to nullify the approval that City Planning gave for these massive towers in December 2018 despite tremendous outcry from the community and despite 3 specific violations:
The proposed towers violate the terms of the Large Scale Residential District (LSRD). The Zoning Resolution of the area (LSRD) of Two Bridges, specifically Section 7, Chapter 8, states that any development in this zone cannot: interfere with light, air, and privacy, change the character of the neighborhood, cause detrimental building bulk, or create traffic congestion.
There is a deed restriction on 247 Cherry Street, which states that the property is to be used “in perpetuity” only as housing for “elderly and handicapped persons of low income.”
The inclusion of an inter-building void in 247 Cherry Street building design. Nearly a third of the building’s 80 stories are empty in order to artificially increase height.
AAD Monthly Meetings occur on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at the NYPL Seward Park Branch as part of their Community Conversations.Designing for a Stronger CommunityTuesday, April 9, 2019, 6:30 - 8 p.m
Join Art Against Displacement (AAD) for a conversation between artists Luke Cheng, Margaret Lee and co-founder of Are.na, Charles Broskoski that looks at the mechanisms necessary for communities to grow in a sustainable, healthy, and ethical way. Given that we live in a time of increasing disempowerment and alienation, many are working to form political bodies that are large enough to tackle the issues we care about and create communities that affirm the human-ness of the members in a holistic way. Unfortunately, the majority of this work relies on platforms created by Big Tech firms that manipulate our attention and harvest our personal information to sell ads. This discussion will focus on how we can design new programs, both digital and non-digital, that foster sharing of knowledge and values in order to build stronger, more autonomous movements.Fully accessible to wheelchairs
Everyone is welcome!