Will Mayor de Blasio’s Rezoning Plan Help or Destroy Harlem?
Story by Gregory Cagle
What is rezoning anyway? “Definition: to reclassify a property and/or neighborhood as belonging to a different zone or being subject to different zoning restrictions.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio has made affordable housing a top priority of his administration and committed to build or preserve nearly 200,000 affordable units. Last month, the City Council decided to back the mayor’s affordable housing plan. It will require developers to set aside a number of affordable apartments based on income and family size. It also allows builders rezoning to make the buildings taller to accommodate the plan if needed.
East Harlem is among the first seven neighborhoods to kick off Mayor de Blasio’s plan. Since last year, local community organizations and residents have been involved in an intensive process called East Harlem Neighborhood Planning and Rezoning. Melissa Mark-Viverito, speaker of the New York City Council as well as the council member for Harlem’s 8th District, launched the plan, and urges residents to stand behind it. “We need to be as focused on supporting neighborhood economies, re-investing in schools and open space, and creating room for social service and cultural organizations as we are on urban renewal, rezoning, and housing production,” she wrote on Facebook.
Still, others are pushing back. Keith Wright who is running for Congress to replace long-timer Charles Rangel, calls New York rent regulation fight “personal now.”
What’s the problem? Not every agrees on what “affordable” really means. The mayor’s initiative calls for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH), which requires that 25 to 30 percent of new apartments be affordable to people earning 60 to 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI). AMI is a number, released every year by the federal Department of Housing and Development, that represents the combined income of an average New York household. On the same day that the new rezoning plan was approved, East Harlem residents gathered to denounce what they referred to as the mayor’s “luxury housing plan.”
Other residents, organizations and business owners also oppose the rezoning of Harlem. “All of sudden they want to rezone Harlem and make affordable housing, but at what cost?” asks Henry Veal, 42, who has lived in Harlem his whole life. “Seems like they are more interested in the properties than helping people survive. Every new building I have noticed the new tenants are not from Harlem or even this city.”
A 547 deli on 125th street across from Grant houses, a worker who wanted to remain anonymous, adds: “I do not think the plan is to help residents or any business in Harlem. All the businesses around me do not last that long, they come and they go. I have not seen a storefront stay empty for me than a month recently which says a lot.”
Others are trying to remain open-minded. “I understand everyone’s concerns but if this makes the neighborhood better, safe and brings more business why would I complain,” says Rajeesh, co-owner of Oasis Deli on Madison Avenue off 125th, who has made recent improvements in his store in the face of gentrification. “That’s why the important thing for small business owners is to maintain their stores, because it makes it very easy for a developer or the city to come in and take over if you don’t.”
