An Artist-Led Coalition in New York City Has Won a Big Legal Victory Against a Real Estate Developer’s Planned Skyscrapers

Residents of the Two Bridges neighborhood in New York,
bolstered by artists in their ranks, have won a lawsuit against a
group of real estate developers who proposed a luxury skyscraper
complex in the area. The local victory is the fourth recent court
decision to negate the city’s approval of such projects.

“This is very emotional for me,” said Jamie Chan, a
curator who spent the past year organizing against the development
as a member of the activist group Art Against
Displacement (AAD), a member of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower
East Side.

“It felt like we were constantly having to fight
politicians who were never on our side because they were in cahoots
with the developers.”

In his decision, a state judge barred developers from
building four high-rise towers that would have included thousands
of pricey apartments. The administration of New York mayor Bill de
Blasio had sided with the developers, arguing that because the
towers did not require special permits, certain environmental
reviews were not necessary.

Developers had previously used the same argument to
fast track the development past the city’s exhaustive land-use
review process, which would have required input from neighborhood
residents, many of whom worried that the plan violated local zoning
rules meant to safeguard the area’s air quality and sunlight.

Filing his decision on Monday, Judge Arthur Engoron
agreed with activists and nullified the city’s approval for the
project.

Before the recent court ruling, members of AAD
collected 5,000 signatures from local residents who opposed the Two
Bridges development.

“Beyond stopping these towers, the primary point is
that we are advocating for the Chinatown Working Group,” explained
the artist Vanessa Thill, referring to a community-led rezoning plan for the neighborhood that
seeks to prevent over-development and displacement.

The city’s law department says it is evaluating its
next steps, including the possibility of an appeal. In a statement,
the developers—JDS Development, L+M Development, CIM Group, and
Starrett Corporation—signaled that they would appeal the
decision.

Chinatown and the Lower East Side are home to dozens
of galleries, and many dealers have openly worried
that upscale development and the tides of gentrification would
force them to relocate or go out of business.

AAD was cofounded in 2017 by the artist Margaret
Lee, who ran the 47 Canal gallery, as a response to the
neighborhood’s rapid development. Among the group’s roughly 40
members is Heather Hubbs, the executive director of NADA.

Many members say they joined the cause after being
outraged by German artist Kai Althoff’s 2018 exhibition staged
inside a Chinatown mall. Critics, including artist Jamie
Chan, described the show as cruelly exoticizing and complicit
with the displacement of Chinese immigrants.

“The relationship between art and urban centers is
complicated,” Andrew Fairweather, another artist involved with AAD,
told Artnet News. “Artists are often thought of as precursors to
things like gentrification, but we can redeem whatever role artists
have played in gentrification by building a better future.”

The artist Francisca Benitez has lived on the Lower
East Side for more than a decade, joining the Coalition in 2015
when she saw the group marching down her street. Later, she joined
AAD.

“We stand in solidarity against gentrification,” she
said. “This court decision invigorates our struggle. But this is
more than a struggle for one plot of land; we have plans for the
whole neighborhood.”

The affordable housing crisis has hit cities across
the United States, widening the economic gap between renters and
homeowners. In San Francisco, some experts have advocated for a
rapid building program that would add housing units without regard to
affordability, looking to increase space in a city where jobs
outnumber apartments by a ratio of eight to one.

In New York, activists say that such a plan would fail
to help those in immediate danger of displacement. In a city where
more than a quarter of luxury high-rises are vacant and the
homeless population steadily climbs, activists are looking for
different solutions.

“It’s important to emphasize that we are not
anti-development,” Thill said. “We aren’t saying there shouldn’t be
change. We just want affordability. It’s life or death for the
neighborhood.”

The post An Artist-Led Coalition in New York City Has Won a
Big Legal Victory Against a Real Estate Developer’s Planned
Skyscrapers appeared first on artnet News.