Latinos and African-Americans Protest Exclusion
by Bloomberg’s Chinatown Working Group from Community Planning
Lower East Side Community Speaks Up Against Displacement
On Monday, June 1st, at 6:30pm over 100 African-Americans, Latinos,
NYCHA residents and other members of the Lower East Side community
protested their exclusion by Mayor Bloomberg’s Chinatown
Working Group. In the street outside the Working Group’s
townhall meeting on “The Future of Chinatown,” at P.S.
124, community members denounced the group’s mission, which
was racist from the outset—planning the development of Chinatown
without equal representation from the community of Chinatown and
the Lower East Side .
The Chinatown Working Group is composed of so-called representatives
who are mostly white and Chinese. There are no representatives
from the Latino and African-American residents or low-income workers.
Like Bloomberg’s East Village re-zoning plan passed in the
fall of 2008, which excluded Latinos and African-Americans from
the planning process and ignored the interests of NYCHA and low-income
people who are the majority of the community, the Working Group’s
new plans will turn Chinatown into a playground for the wealthy
and tourists. Together these plans will displace Chinese, Latino,
African-American and other low-income working communities of Chinatown
and the Lower East Side .
Chanting “Chinatown, Not for Sale ! Lower East Side, Not
for Sale !,” members of the community voiced their demands
and handed out leaflets with the following points:
1.Stop separating Chinatown from the Lower East Side ; stop the
racist planning process
2.Ensure equal representation for Latino and African-American
residents and low-income workers.
3.Preserve and protect NYCHA and build more low-income housing.
