www.BXTimes.com BRONX WEEKLY June 23, 2019 8
Residents and workers protest Southern Blvd. rezoning study
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Car horns were honking and
plastic buckets were converted
into makeshift drums as Longwood
Avenue and Southern
Boulevard residents rallied to
protest the area’s proposed rezoning
outside of Fannie Lou
Hamer Middle School at 1021
Jennings Street on Thursday,
June 13.
Anxious about displacement
that could follow a potential rezoning,
residents marched and
voiced concerns over what they
described as a lack of transparency
with the NYC Department
of City Planning-lead rezoning
process that “marginalizes
voices like theirs.”
The DCP study of the Southern
Boulevard area encompasses
Crotona Park East and
Longwood neighborhoods,
fl anking Southern Boulevard
between the Cross Bronx Expressway
and East 163rd Street.
Specifi cally, it will focus on
the surrounding Bronx River
waterfront near Starlight Park,
which will have easier pedestrian
access from the New York
state-approved conversion of
the Sheridan Expressway into a
street-level boulevard.
Residents and protestors fear
that rezoning nearby auto body
shops and other industriallike
businesses would bring in
large, market rate luxury housing
that would create displacement
in the neighborhood, keeping
locals out of the loop during
the process.
“As DCP proceeds with a
major neighborhood study and
rezoning around Southern
Boulevard, of which nine of ten
community members know little
to nothing, they are missing
the opportunity to work collaboratively
with the community
in a transparent process,” said
Kerry A. McLean, vice president
of Women’s Housing and
Economic Development Corporation.
As a way to help the ‘mom
and pop’ stores remain afl oat
along Southern Boulevard,
WHEDco previously launched a
commercial corridor ‘touch up’
initiative that gave small businesses
a much-needed facelift
near the Freeman Street IRT
station.
“We’ve seen how detrimental
(rezoning) can be to low-income
residents and small businesses
when the government’s process
doesn’t fully take their vision
and needs into account,” she
continued.
The local unions, organizations
and others are calling on
DCP and the city to consider
“an independent assessment
of direct and indirect displacement,
including standards
for what is unacceptable and
metrics for changes to ownership,
control, and wealth, real
workforce and economic development,
including apprenticeships
and local hiring provisions,
and protections and
support for businesses owned
locally by people of color,” along
with protections for industrial,
auto and manufacturing spaces
in addition to more permanent
forms of affordable housing.
“The issue isn’t that we oppose
local investments, we need
local investments,” said Dalyla
Santiago, Youth Ministries for
Peace and Justice leader at the
rally.
“There are easy solutions to
these issues like real community
input and involvement, but
the city speeds through the process,
and doesn’t focus attention
or investment where it could
matter the most,” she continued
(l-r) Banana Kelly’s Improvement Association director of Organizing Gregory
Jost and The Southern Boulevard Coalition’s Megan Khan and Dalyla Santiago.
Photo by Silvio Pacifi co
mentioning that its imperative
for DCP to slow down and
rethink its procedure with the
study and potential rezoning.
Although, according to DCP,
“the study will allow the city to
coordinate across all agencies
and use every tool at its disposal
to protect tenants.
“The city will work closely
with local organizations to conduct
extensive landlord outreach
to keep existing homes affordable
and make repairs. The
city will make targeted code
inspections to identify and address
distressed properties,”
DCP Southern Boulevard study
documents stated.
There is no fi rm timetable
yet for a DCP verdict on the corridor
yet.
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com