Residents of low- to middle-income communities of color have resisted various neighborhood-level land use applications which they say will fuel gentrification and increase rents.
Many running to represent the ethnically diverse district—which is home to the largest population of Dominicans than any other community in the United States—said in campaign materials that COVID-19 should be a key priority for the incoming Council member.
‘Across the city, the mayor and developers are pushing rezonings and development projects that attempt to rip out the fertile roots of people and place, to wholly redefine city neighborhoods for a wealthier and whiter population.’
The New York Court of Appeals declined to hear an Inwood community group’s appeal to a July court decision, which reversed an earlier ruling that would have annulled the controversial rezoning plan.
The decision paves the way for the restoration of the 2018 rezoning of the Manhattan neighborhood, which a lower court had annulled last year.
The city’s Law Department says it is ready to deliver its case to a state appeals court for restoring the Inwood rezoning, which was annulled by a lower court last year. It’s just not sure exactly when it will be able to do so.
The ruling is a potentially significant legal setback for the de Blasio administration as it moves into its final two years with at least three major potential rezonings on the docket.
The lawsuit argues the city’s environmental review process for the rezoning failed to examine how it would impact the socio-economic demographics of the Inwood community, including race, income and language.
‘The City Council has a real opportunity here to hold developers to a higher standard.’
Members of the crowd at Monday’s hearing expressed other concerns about the rezoning plan, including how the influx of residents the new development will bring could impact local schools and crowded subway lines.