ACORN Protesters Storm The Beacon Tower
The anti-gentrification movement stepped it up a notch yesterday with ACORN protesters storming the open house at the Beacon Tower, Shaya Boymelgreen’s 23-story condo development at 85 Adams in Dumbo. What a shame! What a pity! We can’t live in New York City, the 50-odd protesters chanted while blanketing the sales office with flyers that…
The anti-gentrification movement stepped it up a notch yesterday with ACORN protesters storming the open house at the Beacon Tower, Shaya Boymelgreen’s 23-story condo development at 85 Adams in Dumbo. What a shame! What a pity! We can’t live in New York City, the 50-odd protesters chanted while blanketing the sales office with flyers that read, Beacon Tower developers get rich off the backs of working families.” The protesters main gripe? That luxury projects like the Beacon still receive tax breaks in a holdover from a program started in the 1970s to stimulated development. The ambushed Corcoran agents manning the open house called in the cops who removed the protesters. Prospective buyers didn’t appear to be too sympathetic to the cause. “Tell them to get jobs and go live in the projects,” said Jenny Malone, who was there checking out apartments. “People just want something for nothing.”
Activists Protest Dumbo Condos [Metro]
More coverage in the print edition.
great, another a-hole out there saying rich people deserve more respect (anon 9:58). please excuse me if i don’t bow down to you in the respect that you so obviously deserve; i was unaware of your important contributions to society. and by the way, the 421-a tax abatements aren’t going to the people buying those apartments, they’re going to pay for the developers’ houses out in the hamptons. so much for that money being reinvested into the city.
“the net tax pre and post development is actually the same.”
True, but the city provides services to developed properties that it does not to fallow properties. All the hubub about the overcrowded L train in Willamsburg is a great example of tax abatements leading to development leading to service declines leading to …
Probably expensive additional train cars, buses, etc. There are very few parts of New York that require these types of exemptions to encourage development today.
hey drew, granted i agree that there is a fine distinction of classes when you speak about issues like this and perhaps even new york city in general. But how can you deny growth spurred by the rich regardless of who directly benefits. think about all those who indirectly benefit. to have an economically balanced country is pushing on the verge of communism. why focus on such macro issues when the focus should really be making a personal difference on your own, through perhaps something called hard work. why are poor people poor and rich people rich?
to jism. big question is, if you don’t live in dumbo, why are you so passionate about this? why do you really care? why dont you give me justification for that. please save your there is not other places in nyc to live in. there are plenty of more affordable housing other than dumbo.
Right on Jenny. What these people don’t understand is that they NEED gentrifiers. Because once those new development tax abatements run out in 10 years, those taxes will be paying for pretty things like the 2nd Avenue Subway and other assets to the SHARED space we call New York City. This is why richer people do deserve more respect. There’s a reason why NYC’s “low moment” in history was when the opposite effect was occurring: Poor people replacing not-poor people, in the 1960s and 1970s. Remember when the city went bankrupt in the 1970s? Crime? Urban decay? It’s easy for white people with higher education degrees to cushily sit back–especially in places like Williamsburg and DUMBO–and complain about gentrification when THEY STARTED THE EFFECT simply by initially looking for “cheap rent” and by having a career in the arts (which is a complete luxury in of itself–the poor of Williamsburg have no financial safety-net called “parents”).
So take a look at the demographic of the protesters in DUMBO and tell me with a straight face that they are a group that is in dire need of assistance in housing because gentrification has exhausted their financial resources.
It’s funny because to me the underlying issue of inequality is paramount. But people seem to obsess about the minutia of the specific example, in this case tax code. I believe it’s about time for wealthy people to recognize that their wealth is directly connected to the poverty of others. The onus for creating a more economically balanced country lies on the shoulders of the haves, not the have-nots. Poor people don’t want to be pushed around because those that fled the cities now want to live here again. Does that constitute hate and envy?
At first, I thought the protest was simply over another hideously designed building. However, it’s time to end 421-a exemption for projects like this. There is no justification for giving tax breaks on million dollar apartments – none. If we saw development in all segments of the housing market perhaps another argument could be made. There is nothing being built that is not “luxury” and that does not consideritself high end. Jenny’s comments were repugnant and ought to rejected and rebuked by everyone. Jenny is the type trash that is going to make areas of Brooklyn more like some upper-eastside or Tribeca-wannave cunt nest.
to bjs, the concept of the 421a tax exemption is not to take public money but to give incentives for development. the net tax pre and post development is actually the same. perhaps dumbo is no longer an area that needs a tax exemption but that can definitely be debatable. regardless, i feel these protest are more driven by hate and envy, than anything constructive.
edit: “why” between “so” and “is”