It’s been a little over a month since Sunset Park neighbors and activists fought to end the Industry City rezoning and now face another.
And it is that a piece of land on Fourth Avenue and 25th Street tries to be sold to build a building with luxury homes.
For neighbors, it is something that many fear could displace them from their homes.
Alexa Avilés, is a neighbor of the area: “Doing more apartments that are luxury or that the families here cannot pay, does not make sense.”
The members of the community table indicate that the project includes 140 apartments, of which 40 will be for affordable housing.
But of those 40, 30 are for just one room and with rental values close to $ 2,000.
This comes as the neighborhood faces an unemployment and over-population crisis.
“It is not fair that after all we have suffered, abandoned in this Covid-19 they left us without help, with nothing. And now they not only want to evict us from our apartments but from our neighborhood,” says a neighbor.
For this housing project to become a reality, the block needs to be rezoned; because exactly on one side of Calle 25 is a manufacturing area, while on the other side is a residential area.
Activists claim that this rezoning process wanted to be covered up from the community because no elected leader in the area has announced that the only public hearing on the matter will be held on Thursday.
Marcela Mitaynes, an elected state assembly member, points out: “Things are happening very quickly. There is not enough communication with the community and they are really doing this during the pandemic, where people are more concerned about other problems.”
The neighbors will also organize a virtual meeting for the community to learn more about the project.
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