Community Victory! Chinatown & LES Elect Chris Marte for D1 City Council Seat

This City Council election, the Chinatown and the Lower East Side communities have spoken: Chris Marte is taking a decisive lead in the first choice votes, far exceeding all the other candidates, and is expected to win after the rank choice votes are counted. 

This is a clear mandate that our communities reject business as usual. We are fed up of being told that we couldn’t stop the luxury megatowers from going up, and that it’s “too ambitious” for Chinatown and LES to have equal protection as the East Village that stops luxury high-rises and discourages real estate speculation. We are sick and tired of seeing Councilmember Chin and Mayor de Blasio collude with big developers and bad landlords to destroy good jobs, existing affordable housing and the environment. We are disgusted by the City that pits one neighborhood against the other and intensifies racial violence.

We never gave up when we encountered setbacks. We were not intimidated by facing off against our enemies in big real estate and their political representatives, which so many assumed were too powerful to overcome. If anything, they made us more united and determined to turn the tide, and we made it. This is a victory of tenants, workers, and small businesses across racial boundaries. And we are prepared, more than ever, to push for the Chinatown Working Group Rezoning Plan.This election result shows that when our communities come together to fight the City’s displacement agenda, we win. 

Join us and be part of the change that’s coming!