Juneteeth March & Rally in Harlem, NY

[XXPANTHAXX]

Juneteeth March and Rally in Harlem against Gentrification

Saturday, June 21, 2008

June 1, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

On Tuesday, June 3rd from 6 to 8 PM at St. Ambrose Church located at 9 West 130th Street (between Fifth Ave. and Malcolm X Blvd or Lenox Avenue) there will be a second coalition planning meeting to organize a Saturday, June 21st Juneteeth March and Rally in Harlem against
gentrification that is destroying the Black historic community of Harlem and other neighborhoods throughout New York City. Preliminary procedures to organize the demonstration are in place including the filing of a parade permit in April with the NYPD whom we are now in negotiations with about the route and other logistical details. Juneteenth also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is an annual holiday observance in 26 states of the US on June 19th that commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas. Our theme for the March: "Harlem's 21st Century Emancipation from Gentrification and Ethnic Cleansing!" This is truly an emancipation we seek for all working class communities now the target of global corporate developers/owners and predatory lenders now calling the shots for New York's powerful real estate industry. We are asking for your endorsement of the March, help with outreach and planning including volunteers for security, legal advisors, fundraising, media, and citywide outreach, speakers, & entertainment. Please RSVP to Nellie Bailey at 646-812-5188 or email:Harlem tenants@gmail.com. The following working committees were established with volunteers. Please sign up!

Media:
Outreach:
Logistics
Fundraising
Youth
Program/Entertainment
Security
Legal
Literature


Although we are pulling together a complete list of organizations that have endorsed to date so far it includes:

BRUSH (Buyers and Renters United to Save Harlem)
The Mirbabal Sisters Community and Culture Center
Delano Village Tenants Association
East Harlem Triangle
The Center of the Theater of the Oppressed at the Riverside Church
179-181 West 135th United Tenants Association
New York City Community Council
International Action Center
The People's Voice
Harlem Fight Back
Congo Square in El Barrio
Patrice Lumumba Coalition




We are striving for the broadest coalition to make this a successful demonstration and the largest to date in Harlem against an unprecedented 21 st Century assault of "Urban Renewal/Negro Removal" as it was coined in the late fifties and continue to resonate even today. For sure, what we are witnessing today is nothing more than the deliberate wholesale displacement of poor and working class Black, Latino, Asian, and immigrants families from Central, East, and West Harlem as well as northern Manhattan. The assault against historic Harlem is well underway with the approval and pending approval of three major developments that will permanently alter Harlem's physical landscape, drive out thousands of local residents and small businesses in addition to impacting Harlem's political, ethnic and socioeconomic makeup. Zoning and Rezoning have become our "Katrina" for Harlem's ethnic cleansing.

The New York City Council has approved two major developments in Harlem and are prepared to approve another in East Harlem that together expands across 125th Street from the Harlem River to the Hudson River, capturing the commercial thoroughfare of Harlem with tall office skyscrapers, hotels, luxury housing, retail giants and upscale restaurants, bars, night clubs, and pubs ironically classified as 'cultural bonuses."

125th Street River to River Rezoning

:

The approved rezoning encompassing 24 blocks from 2nd Avenue to Broadway between 124th and 126th Street will drive out 71 local business employing nearly 1,000 workers.

Even more egregious is the projected development of 3,845 units of mostly luxury housing of which 200 of those units will be income target for families earning $30,000 and below although Harlem's median annual income is less than $25,000.

Columbia University's spectacular 17.5 acres land grab in West Harlem:

Just the announcement of the plan has already displaced hundreds of low income Black and Latino residents with thousands more to follow over the next twenty year, the projected date of completion for the 7 billion dollar development owned by the city's third richest landlord.

East 125th Street Development Project
:

In East Harlem the Bloomberg administration through the New York City Economic Development Corporation is seeking the approval of the East 125th Street Development Project, 6 acres made up of three parcels generally bounded by 127th Street to the north, 125th to the south, Second avenue to the east and Third Avenue to the west.

The 1.7 million sq. ft. project that requires the bulldozing of everything on site will include a hotel, an office tower, national retail space and 1,100 mostly luxury housing of which only 200 are low income.

Eminent domain, the confiscation of private property by private developers and the city, will be used in all three projects, Columbia University's Expansion, 125th Street Rezoning and the East 125th St. Development Project.

Now is the time for a principle alliance of a united poor and working class Harlem with friends and supporters from around the city to stand together against this ever growing tide of displacement, homelessness, and the wholesale destruction of our neighborhoods including world renowned historic Black Harlem. We have no place to go other than to stand and fight together for our lives, our homes, our cultural institutions, safety on our streets, the right to live in the city and the preservation of our historic legacy. We stand as one with our working class brothers and sisters throughout the greater community of Harlem: Central Harlem, the epic center of Black life in Harlem; our ethnically diverse alliances in West Harlem fighting against Columbia's expansion; our Latino partners in El Barrio; the vibrant working class Dominicans neighborhoods in West Harlem and Washington Heights (the largest concentration of Dominicans in the US); our immigrant brothers and sisters from Mexico, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean; and all of our new neighbors in Harlem who are prepared to join us in this struggle for justice and equity. We welcome all principle and genuine anti- gentrification supporters regardless of race, ethnicity, religion sexual orientation/gender oppression or place of birth. Hope to see you on Wednesday, May 28 at 6 PM. Please RSVP at 646-812-5188 or email at this address or
harlemtenants@gmail.com.

Peace and solidarity,

Nellie Hester Bailey on behalf of the Harlem Tenants Council