Chinatown, Lower East Side
advocates press mayor to
stop high-rise vision for area
BY DEAN MOSES
The Coalition to Protect
Chinatown and the
Lower East Side held a
Zoom conference on Dec. 3 to
demand that Mayor Bill de Blasio
halt appeals for the construction
of luxury high-rise buildings in
Lower Manhattan and to pass
the Chinatown Working Group
Rezoning Plan.
Four towers were set to be built
in Two Bridges, Chinatown and
the Lower East Side, but due to an
injunction fi led by the Lower East
Side Organized Neighbors and
Coalition to Protect Chinatown
at the beginning of the year, the
plans were temporarily frozen.
A number of concerned community
members were appalled
to learn that de Blasio is working
with the developers in court, appealing
the injunction in hopes of
continuing the desired building
plans.
“He is really going against what
the community wants, and even
during this pandemic when everyone
is having hard lives, he is still
trying to side with the developers.
Since they appealed, we also
submitted our court papers to
bring our case to the developers,
we are still waiting for the hearing
dates,” said Zishun Ning, a community
activist and the meeting’s
host told the Zoom callers.
Ning organized the Thursday
Zoom call as a “phone zap” where
participants called the Mayor’s
offi ce and delivered a unifi ed
message for action.
“I think this is a good time
for us to keep the pressure on
the Mayor and also all the other
elected offi cials, including the
judges. If we make more noise,
then it makes more pressure.
It’s up to us to use this time to
mobilize,” Ning added.
Much like a letter-writing
campaign, the callers were given
a script to read from when they
dialed the Mayor’s number or
were given the opportunity to
improvise their own pleas to the
offi ce. The participants muted
their microphones while on Zoom
for about 20 minutes as they each
made their calls, demanding the
Mayor cease aiding the developers,
discourage the privatization
of public land, prevent more
luxury high rises from being built,
and guarantee truly affordable
housing in the area.
“The mayor will get a lot of
voicemails. This is a very annoying
tactic that really gets the
attention of the staff, and I think
will remind him that we are still
fi ghting and we are not going
to go away any time soon,” said
Caitlin, a member of the coalition
and Zoom co-host.
The meeting culminated with
attendees being asked to email
the Mayor’s offi ce and to take
their cause one step further, by
Zishun Ning, a community activist, hosted the Zoom call and
explained what the ideas were behind the Chinatown Working
Group Rezoning Plan.
calling into the “Ask the Mayor”
segment on WNYC radio’s The
Brian Lehrer Show this Friday
morning, Dec. 4, at 10 a.m.
The organization created a
shared document for all attendees
to use during the meeting and for
tomorrow’s calls stating: “We’re
going to put the Mayor on the spot
about his predatory upzonings by
sending our questions to Brian
Lehrer for his Ask The Mayor
segment on WNYC Radio…If
the Soho/Noho Rezoning is really
SCREENSHOT
about racial justice and truly affordable
housing, then why haven’t
you listened to the working class
communities of color in Chinatown
and the Lower East Side in
our demands for the Chinatown
Working Group Plan, a community
led rezoning plan designed to
protect our neighborhoods (just
adjacent to the newly proposed
up zoning in Soho/Noho, which
will impact our communities, too)
from speculative overdevelopment
and displacement.”
BY MARK HALLUM
Work that began in
August to complete
Superstorm Sandyrelated
repairs within the Rutgers
Tubes of the F line between
Brooklyn and Manhattan will
enter its fi nal phase coming in
January with an April completion
date.
“We are making strong progress
on the Rutgers tunnel using
strategies similar to those we
pioneered on the L Project: use
state-of-the art technology and
work smarter and faster so that
the project costs less and impacts
Rutgers Tube rehab on F line to enter
final phase of completion Jan. 1: MTA
fewer customers,” Lieber said.“We
also see from our experience with
Superstorm Sandy recovery,
where funds from Washington
were a big part of the response
to that national emergency, the
positive impact when the federal
government steps up during a crisis
to assist mass transit agencies.”
With the MTA looking down
the barrel of a $16 billion defi cit in
2024 and $2.9 billion in potential
loans to pay back to the federal
government, the agency has been
requesting $12 billion to fund
their operations until better days.
Better days, being a time when
New Yorkers begin returning
to the subways at pre-pandemic
levels and the MTA again has
cashfl ow from fares. But since
April, the U.S. Senate, under the
leadership of Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, has given
public transit the cold shoulder.
The tunnel rehabilitations will
come with other benefi ts for riders,
however.
There will now be cellular
service throughout the tunnel
and improved accessibility improvements
compliant with the
Americans with Disability Act at
the East Broadway station.
According to the MTA, the
service plan going into January
will be as follows:
F trains will be rerouted over
the E line between 36 Street in
Queens and West 4th Street, and
via the C line between West 4th
Street and Jay Street-MetroTech.E
trains will be rerouted over the F
line between 36 Street in Queens
and a temporary terminal at
Delancey Street in Manhattan.
This change will accommodate
the changes to F service
above to provide the same level
of service on Sixth Avenue.East
Broadway and York Street F stations
will be closed during these
periods. The World Trade Center
E station will also be closed. Free
shuttle buses will be available to
take customers between Delancey
Street and East Broadway stations.
Customers at York Street
will be directed to take the
existing B67 or a shuttle bus to
Jay Street-MetroTech. Customers
at World Trade Center can take
A, C, and F trains at Chambers
Street or 2 and 3 trains at Park
Place. ADA customers should
transfer to 1, 2 or 3 trains at 42nd
Street-Port Authority or 2 and 3
trains at Fulton Street for the
accessible Chambers Street 1,2,3
station.Service changes may vary
on select dates due to other work
in the system. Please check the
project microsite athttps://new.
mta.info/projects/rutgersfor the
latest info.
On weekends the tunnels
will remain closed at 10 p.m. on
Fridays until 5 a.m. on Mondays
between Jan. 1 and March 29.
This means that between
Dec. 7 and Jan. 1, overnight and
weekend service changes will be
on hold.
Weeknight schedule for closures
between 10 p.m. and 5
a.m. are available on www.mta.
info
FILE PHOTO
Schneps Media December 10, 2020 3
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