Zoned Out! Ridgewood and Bushwick

RIDGEWOOD. UR editor and CUNY - Hunter College professor emeritus Tom Angotti, will join the “Community Forum on Luxury Development in Ridgewood” organized by Ridgewood Tenants Union. The forum will take place on Saturday, August 3, 2:30-4:30p at the Ridgewood Branch - Queens Library.

BUSHWICK. Tom Angotti took part in a panel to “discuss methods of resistance with residents and community leaders from across the five boroughs”. More from The Brooklyn Eagle.

The event was organized by Bushwick-based political art collective, Mi Casa No Es Su Casa. A live recording of the event can be found here.

Excerpt from Mi Casa No Es Su Casa’s Change.org petition:

…But rezoning doesn't provide what our community needs and deserves.

It is for that reason that we oppose the rezoning of our community before irreparable harm is done to our neighbors in the name of progress. We know many of the local nonprofits that have engaged in this process and our local council members stand to gain from political favors from the city, but we stand for the people.

We demand that Community Board and Reynoso stop engaging with DCP, and to stop the rezoning of Bushwick.

Please join us in fighting for a people-led plan that will keep us in our homes and in our community.

Left to right: Cynthia Tobar and Pati Rodriguez of Mi Casa No Es Su Casa, economist Lynn Ellsworth, urban policy expert Tom Angotti, local historian Dennis Sinned and Bronx activist Chino May. Photo by Paul Stremple forThe Brooklyn Eagle.

#ICYMI: Zoned Out! author Tom Angotti writes about how New York City’s rezonings reinforce the chronic "color blindness” of city policy.“ “In New York City, Mayor de Blasio’s Rezonings Amplify Inequalities” (Metropolis)

For The Indypendent: “Real Estate Rules, Bureaucracy Obeys, Communities Rise Up”:

Outrageous rent increases. Illegal evictions and buyouts. It’s not just bad landlords doing this. It’s big real estate. And real estate has trusty allies in government. The only thing that stops them is when tenants organize and communities rise up.

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A major challenge we face is deeply understanding this monster of a permanent government so we can change it. It is not good enough to get a seemingly progressive figure elected as mayor or city council representative. We need more radical community activism. We need more “guerillas in the bureaucracy” to cripple the institutional resistance to real democratic and just alternatives. When brave leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez step forward to run for office, they need more allies in government. Veteran community activists know that a strong “inside-outside” strategy is essential to every struggle against the powerful real estate machine.