Watch this 10-minute documentary film, directed and produced by Luisa Dantas, about the community engagement process that generated the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan. The Neighborhood Plan was developed in response to Mayor de Blasio’s plan to increase density, and along with it, affordable housing through rezoning. Concerned that what the Mayor’s plan calls “affordable” does not represent the economic situation of the existing community, The Neighborhood Plan offers over 300 recommendations for mitigating displacement advancing the residents’ own vision for the place they live. The process proves that, as Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director of the the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC) states, “when people are presented with the opportunity to participate in a genuine negotiation of trade offs, they can embrace change”.
Organizations Referenced:
Community Voices Heard, Neighborhoods First Fund, New York Foundation, New York City Planning Commission, Ford Foundation