This Martin Luther King day, residents from across the city joined Lower East Siders in solidarity, marching against displacement of local communities by luxury developments.
The focus was the construction of luxury mega-towers in the Two Bridges area of the Lower East side, but the march brought together people opposing similar developments in Inwood, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.
“My students are being made homeless, they are going into shelters…there’s a domino effect happening.”
“The tower just encroaches on the community, and shades the project from the sun. I’m also here to defend the Elizabeth Street garden and the Nelson Mandela garden. To turn the neighborhood into luxury towers for people who use them as investments is very wrong.”
“Artists have a lot to learn about how to participate in a community, how to be a neighbor. We are here because we want to protect Chinatown, we want to protect cultural spaces from being destroyed by gentrification, and the dumping of construction projects over here on the waterfront.”
Read “Why We March“, a statement by Art Against Displacement on their solidarity with the march.
More details from the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side, on the Two Bridges developments.
The Chinatown Working Group’s Community-led Rezoning Plan.
And City Limits on a joint lawsuit brought against the project by the City Council and Manhattan Borough President, and lawsuits filed by community groups.