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February 11, 2007
Tamar McFarlane: Gentrification Fighter
Feministing interviews Tamar McFarlane from FUREE (Families United for Racial & Economic Equality) about her work in Downtown Brooklyn:
Can you describe the work that you’re doing now with FUREE against gentrification?I’m working on the Downtown Brooklyn project to organize and mobilize low-income communities of color for accountable development. The Bloomberg administration is forcefully pushing forward a large-scale development plan for Downtown Brooklyn that will drastically impact the social, economic, and cultural stability of low-income residents of Downtown Brooklyn. If the Downtown Brooklyn Plan goes into effect, it will completely change the cultural vibrancy of Fulton Street Mall from being a place where predominantly Black and Latino shoppers, socialites, and workers can come comfortably into a 5th Avenue big chain retail district. We are working with public housing and stabilized-rent residents, clergy, and community-based organizations and services.
We’re also mobilizing members around the Underground Railroad site that is on Duffield Street. It’s located in the center of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan where they proposed a quasi–green space and underground parking lot for proposed condos and a hotel. The city planning department is abusing eminent domain to seize Joy Chatel’s house along with three other houses for the interest of corporate profit. Joy Chatel is a FUREE friend and for the last two or three years, she has been fighting tooth and nail for her house because of its site. She’s calling for a city council hearing where prominent site researchers, experts, and witnesses can testify that it’s an Underground Railroad site. And the city is basically using all types of corrupt loops to illegitimize the need for investigation. We have set out to get 5,000 petition signatures calling to landmark Duffield Street.
Posted by amy at February 11, 2007 2:55 PM