Latinos and African-Americans Protest Exclusion by Bloomberg’s Chinatown Working Group from Community Planning

On Monday, June 1st, African-Americans, Latinos, NYCHA residents and other members of the Lower East Side community protested their exclusion by Mayor Bloomberg’s Chinatown Working Group. Outside the Working Group’s townhall meeting on “The Future of Chinatown,” community members denounced the group’s racist mission from the outset—planning the development of Chinatown without equal representation from the community of Chinatown and the Lower East Side.

The Chinatown Working Group is composed of so-called representatives who are mostly white and Chinese; there are no representatives from the Latino, African-American residents or low-income workers. Like Bloomberg’s East Village re-zoning plan passed last fall which excluded Latinos and African-Americans from the planning process and ignored the interests of NYCHA and low-income people who are the majority of the community, the Working Group’s new plans will turn Chinatown into a playground for the wealthy and tourists. Together these plans will displace Chinese, Latino, African-American and other low-income working communities of Chinatown and the Lower East Side.

The protesters, who were part of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side, demanded Bloomberg:

1. Stop separating Chinatown from the Lower East Side; stop the racist planning process
2. Ensure equal representation for Latino and African-American residents and low-income workers.
3. Preserve and protect NYCHA and build more low-income housing.