Sign the letter on the Bowery

I've got about ninety signatures and counting. To sign, just send me your name and zip code. I'll attach the signature when I print out to send it to the elected officials. My e-mail:
robCUNY@gmail.com


November 1, 2007

To the Honorable Borough President Stringer, State Senator Connor, State Assembly Speaker Silver and Assemblymembers Glick and Kavanagh and City Councilmembers Gerson and Mendez,

The Department of City Planning has removed the Bowery from the Lower East Side rezoning plan, exposing the Bowery to out-of-scale hotel development. If the current LES rezoning is approved, prohibiting large-scale development to the east of the Bowery, the pressure to develop hotels on the Bowery will be irresistible. Such upscale development extending south to Canal Street will also transform Chinatown beyond recognition.

New York is losing its ethnic, historic neighborhoods to overdevelopment and gentrification. Chinatown and the Bowery are still lined with many of New York's unique and historically significant structures. The area is thriving, busy, socially and economically successful, full of lively, commercial and residential street life and commercial activity that serves local low-income residents among human-scale mixed-use structures. These low-income neighborhoods are safe, viable, vibrant and community-oriented. They do not need gentrification or development and they will not benefit by gentrification or development.

Rather, overdevelopment will eliminate the street life, the small commercial operations and the local community orientation. Chain stores and commercial and residential displacement follow upscale development. Landlord harassment, already on the rise in the Lower East Side and East Village, will spread throughout the rest of Community District 3. Local businesses and residents will be driven out. Upscale nightlife will replace ethnic eateries. The unique character of Chinatown will be lost.

Is this City Planning's intent for the Bowery and Chinatown?

If this is the City's plan, then all New Yorkers deserve to know it.

Will you ask the city administration and DCP to announce publicly their plans for the Bowery and Chinatown? Will you ask DCP and the Mayor:

1. Does the City intend the Bowery to be lined with out-of-scale hotels?

2. If the City does not intend the Bowery to be lined with out-of-scale hotels, what immediate action will the City take to avert hotel development along the Bowery?

3. Will DCP include the Bowery in the current LES/EV rezoning to save the Bowery from destruction?

The people of this city urgently need to know if their government intends to rob them of their history, of their ethnic variety, of their favorite neighborhoods and of the character and beauty of their city, to replace these with revenue-generating glass-and-steel anonymity, banks, Duane Reades and chain stores, devoid of community, of street life, of human interaction, of stability, of community commitment, of any character that could be called New York's.

Respectfully,

(zip code)
Alice Abell 10002
Alyssa Adams 10009
Teri Ananda 10003
Deanna Anderson 10012
James Battaglia 10128
Martin Brown 10009
Gwendolyn Bucci 10012
Brent Buell 10012
Keefe Butler 10002
Ed Cahill 10009
Elizabeth Capelle 10011
Barbara Caporale 10009
Janice Cline 10012
Carol Conway 10012
Ellin Crane 10009
Eve Cusson 10009
Martha Danziger 10003
Wendy Davidson 10003
Philip DePaolo 11211
Lou Dembrow LES Girls Club 10003
Udo Drescher 10009
Susannah Driver 10280
Nancy English 10012
Eric Ferrara 10003
Zeke Finkelstein 10009
Martha Fishkin 10009
Eden Fromberg 10009
Meghan Gille 10009
Christabel Gough 10014
Frances Goldin 10003
Mark Hatalak 10003
Rob Hollander 10009
Joseph Iberti 10003
Elissa Iberti 10003
Rafael A. Jaquez 10009
Sarah Johnson 10009
Zella Jones 10012
Virginia Kaycoff 10003
Weiwen Ke 10003
Susan Ko 10002
Bill Koehnlein 10003
Diana Lakis
Ronald Latigano 10009
Marilyn Leong 10002
Linda Levit 10012
Adriana Lopez 10003
Iris Lopez 10009
Jennifer Lynch 10009
Don MacPherson 10013
William Manfredi 10012
Michael Mauriel 10003
Marilyn Mccall 10002
John McDermott 10002
Matt Metzgar 10009
Louise Millmann 10003
Maria Muentes 10002
David Mulkins 10003
Cate Nailor 10009
MaryBeth O'Hara 10009
Michele O'Neal 10009
Bob Ortiz 10003
Tom Ostoyich 10009
Gilda Pervin 10013
Kenny Petricig 10009
Daniel Peckham 10011
Anthony Piantieri 10003
Marie-Claire Picher 10003
Don Pollock 10009
Kathryn Posin 10012
Gayle Raskin 10009
Quinn Raymond 10003
Ephraim Rosenbaum 10002
Felice Rosser 10009
Elizabeth Ruf 10009
Elissa Sampson 10009
John Schmerling 10012
Roberto Serrini 10003
Monte P. Schapiro 10009
Joelle Shefts 10012
David Sheldon 10025
Bonnie Sue Stein 10003
Dr. Harlan and Rima Strauss 10002
Dean Clarke Taylor 10003
Ed Torres 10009
Michelle Vergara 10003
George Wachtel 10012
Max Weissberg 10002
Sue Williams 10012
Katharine B. Wolpe 10003
Philip Van Aver 10009