December 20, 2019
The ruling on the field is overturned. The Inwood Rezoning plan passed by the City Council in 2018 was annulled this week by NY Supreme Court Justice Verna Saunders. The ruling agreed with NMN4S and other petitioners that the environmental reviews for the project were incomplete.
Early this morning a group of activists, elected officials, and reporters gathered in the freezing cold outside of Albert’s Mofongo House on Broadway to celebrate the win. Chants of “Whose City? Our City!” and “Alto Manhattan No Se Vende!” rose up from the huddled mass ahead of an alfresco news conference. Attorney Michael Sussman led off by observing that now the City Council will have to do the right thing. The ruling is a beginning, he explained, that will impact other neighborhoods as well as Inwood. The required reviews aren’t formalities. They’re about the impact rezoning has on actual people, he said. The Court’s ruling says the Council can’t ignore the community and its needs.
Also on hand for the news conference were local elected officials including Assemblywoman Carmen De La Rosa, State Senator Robert Jackson, Congressman Adriano Espaillat, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Espaillat explained that Columbia Uni‘s rezoning sent ripples all the way uptown through Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, and Inwood. “This is a great decision,” he declared. Rezoning’s about displacement and this plan was “gentrification on steroids” and “a clear violation of the Fair Housing Act.” But the fight’s not over, he warned. West of Broadway is already gentrifying and people are moving to the Bronx. The solution is 100% affordable housing, he said. He called on the Mayor to work with the community to create affordable housing.
An hour later Mayor de Blasio was on WNYC FM predicting that the ruling will be overturned on appeal. “The Judge got it wrong,” he said.
Standing in the freezing early morning air on the corner of Dykeman and Broadway, State Senator Jackson observed, “it’s cold but we’re happy.” Looking around he added, “it takes time to build a movement.”
