Post 18: An angry hearing

As always, with the exception of public figures, I use altered names to protect the individuals in this history.

A rezoning process must go through the city's Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP), which includes a series of public hearings. The first and often the biggest, is the final Community Board hearing. It was at this meeting where Jenny's organizing paid off. There were dozens and dozens of Coalition members in attendance expressing themselves clearly and unambiguously about the exclusion of Chinatown. Their protests then and in the streets made the news and marked the rezoning as a controversy over race. Also excluded from the rezoning were the public housing projects, the NYCHA properties which are almost entirely inhabited by non whites, while the EV and the Task Force mostly white. 

CB3 had a history of raucous meetings, and this one was no exception. It was followed by street protests and a petition of some 11,000 signatories. The 2016-7 exhibition on zoning "Mastering the Metropolis" at the Museum of the City of New York, displayed, in its final room on zoning today, a photograph of the Coalition protesting. The Coalition's protests led directly to the creation of the Chinatown Working Group.