For immediate release: February 16, 2021
We are disappointed that the Appellate Court overturned the community’s victory by connecting it to the City Council’s case, which does not address the City’s violation of zoning law. But we are not discouraged in our fight against the four luxury towers in Two Bridges.
We remember when four years ago, Councilmember Margaret Chin told us these out-of-scale towers were a done deal and there was nothing to be done to stop them. We were able to find out that the City violated its zoning law to approve the towers that would significantly displace the community and damage the neighborhood environment. We have stood up to our Councilmember, our Speaker, and our Borough President when they filed a phony lawsuit, which sought to approve the towers through another process and actually undermined our chances at victory in the court. We have stood up to Mayor de Blasio and his displacement agenda funded by these developers. We have stood up to groups that try to divide the community with misinformation. Our strategy to stop the towers has never singularly relied on the court, because we do not expect the City to stand up to developers. Our victories in delaying the towers have been won by the thousands of people we have done outreach to and brought into our fight.
The community gathered over 5,000 signatures not just in support of our lawsuit, but in support of the immediate passage of the entire Chinatown Working Group Plan. The Lower East Side and Chinatown deserve the protection granted to the East Village, and now this demand is even more urgent as we see the passage of the Plan as the only way to stop these towers, and all future towers that might cause displacement, permanently. We are currently exploring our next steps for legal action, but every day we continue to organize and fight against displacement and for the full plan.
– Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the LES