On Halloween, the Chinatown Justice Project held a creative action in Chinatown that highlighted how the City’s waterfront development plan for the East River will further the gentrification of the neighborhood and increase the pace of displacement of low-income tenants and small businesses. The event featured “Mayor Bloomberg” as the “Development Devil,” who spoke about his plans to push forward development and continue to gentrify poor and working-class neighborhoods of color during his potential third term as mayor. “We know that four more years of Mayor Bloomberg means four more years of luxury development, gentrification, and displacement,” said CJP youth organizer Kyle Lin, who played Bloomberg during the action.

During the event, CJP organizers and tenant members spoke to Chinese, Latino, and Black residents about the impact that the waterfront development will have on low-income residents and small businesses:

Impact on Chinatown tenants:
* Landlords will raise rents and also evict even more tenants, in order to bring in wealthier residents who can afford to pay $4000 or more in rent per month.
* Wealthier people will move in, displacing even more low-income tenants.

Impact on Small Businesses:
* Small businesses will close – their rents will go up as landlords realize they can charge much more for retail space.
* Small businesses in Chinatown will lose their customers as Chinese tenants are forced to leave Chinatown, which will lead to the closing of small businesses as well.

CJP is working with tenants and small businesses to make sure that no one is displaced because of the waterfront development. We're also working to make sure that what ends up being on the waterfront meets our community's needs. For more information, contact Esther Wang at ewang@caaav.org or (212) 473-6485.

On Saturday, July 19th, the Chinatown Tenants Union (CTU) of CAAAV and the O.U.R. Waterfront Coalition held a community event – “It’s OUR Waterfront Day” – to kick off our community visioning around the East River waterfront development. More than 150 residents of Chinatown and the Lower East Side came to the waterfront and took part in this fun day of food, dancing, live music, surveying, and community visioning. We asked community members what kind of activities and services they want to see on the waterfront, what their greatest concerns are around the development, and what they’re most worried about in their neighborhoods.

Language Access to City Services

On July 22, 2008, Mayor Bloomberg signed Executive Order No. 120- Citywide Policy on Language Access to Ensure the Effective Delivery of City Services- a major victory for all New Yorkers to access City agencies, regardless of their language.

In coalition with Communities for Housing Equity (CHE), Chinatown Tenants Union (CTU) has been working on language access legislation over the past 4 years. The first of its kind nationally, we began this process with legislation that would ensure language access services and adequate outreach in immigrant communities at the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). CHE worked with the City Council to draft Intro 596, the Equal Access to Housing Services Act. Introduced in 2006, Intro 596 gave us the momentum we needed towards the Executive Order that Mayor Bloomberg signed into law on August 22, 2008.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EXECUTIVE ORDER

Under the provisions of the Order, ALL city government agencies will:

* Translate essential public documents and forms into the top six languages spoken in New York City;
* Provide interpretation services in at least the top six languages spoken in New York City;
* Post visible signs about the rights to interpretation and translation in all agency offices;
* Designate a language access coordinator and develop plans for complying with this Executive Order in the coming months; and
* Convey information in their materials using plain, non-technical language.

And importantly, implementation and compliance oversight is placed under the Mayor's Office of Operations. Progress-or lack thereof-in implementing the Executive Order will be reflected in the annual Mayor's Management Report, which serves as a public report card on city agencies.

Member Organizations of Communities for Housing Equity (CHE):
Asian Americans for Equality, Chinatown Tenants Union of CAAAV, El Centro del Inmigrantes, Make the Road NY, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, New York Immigration Coalition, University Settlement, and the Urban Justice Center.

At CJP and CTU, we are excited for the Executive Order to be implemented. We've worked hard to draw attention to the fact City agencies can hold slumlords accountable, yet these same agencies don't do anything to protect the rights of immigrant tenants. We've held rallies, did petition drives, published two reports, educated city officials- the list is goes on! And while we know that the City needs to do much more, this is a great first step that we have worked hard for.

To see a clip of the August 22nd press conference, click here.
To download a PDF copy of the Executive Order, click here.

With other organizations, we put together the following reports:
Hear This! [2006]
Living in Isolation [2007]

Residents Win Legal Battle to Stay In Their Homes

After over two years of struggle, tenants at 81 Bowery Street in Chinatown won a major victory. A judge has decided that all the tenants in the single-room occupancy (SRO) building can stay in their homes!

Tenants in 81 Bowery, a single-room occupant (SRO) building in Chinatown, won a major victory in June when a judge dismissed the landlord’s case against all the tenants.

In 2006, all the tenants were served with legal papers that challenged whether the space was for residential use. Many having lived there for more than 10 years, and some for more than 20 years, the tenants knew immediately that this was a ruse to get them out of their homes. If the landlord had issues with tenants living there, then why was he illegally converting empty rooms into hotel rooms and charging people $50-$80 a night to stay there?
With the support of CTU and MFY Legal Services working on the lawsuit, the tenants organized, refused buy-out offers and made consensus agreements to fight the landlord.

After two years, a state judge finally made the decision that all the tenants had a right to stay in their homes and dismissed the case. CTU will now continue to work with the tenants around improving their housing conditions and fight the landlord on rooms that have been illegally converted to hotel rooms.

The Chinatown Justice Project (CJP) and The Chinatown Tenant Union continued their efforts to combat gentrification and displacement of the Chinatown community this summer, and were featured in two local papers. Navigate over to our media page to learn more about how CJP created a game to educate the community about gentrification,and about CAAAV's role in a City-wide network fighting gentrification.

Also, on July 2, 2007, the Chinatown Tenant Union gave public comments on the City of New York's Economic Development Corporation's plan to develop the waterfront of Manhattan near Chinatown. While development and improvement of the area is certainly needed and desirable, the CTU demands more investigation into whether the proposed development will lead to primary and secondary displacement of residents and small businesses in the area. Click here to read the comments.

On August 11, 2007, CAAAV Received the Social Action Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems, an community of scholars, practitioners, advocates and students dedicated to the study of vital social problems. To learn more about the award, please click here.

To the over-three hundred friends, allies and supporters who attended our 20th anniversary celebration, Our Roots Grow Deep, on Friday, May 18th, we would like to express our deepest appreciation. We were deeply touched by the incredible turn-out and tremendous show of support; in one evening, CAAAV received pledges totaling over $20,000! Thanks to you, our event was an amazing success. We hope you were as inspired by our speakers, performers, and members as we were by your presence and gestures of appreciation.

With your support, CAAAV continues its community organizing and movement-building efforts with the Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee community in the Bronx, low-income tenants and youth in Manhattan's Chinatown, and Asian immigrant women working in low-wage service industries city-wide. Your support also ensures that we will be able to continue with our movement-building alliance and coalition work locally, nationally and internationally - most notably as we continue to build for the first U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta (www.ussf2007.org) which will take place from June 27 to July 1. We thank you for taking action, for joining us in this critical work, and for being a part of CAAAV's ever-growing community.

Please visit our website again in the near future for a recap of the evening which will include photos!

Click here to read a letter from CAAAV's 20th Anniversary Benefit and Host Committees!

On April 10, 2007, Chinatown tenants celebrated a victory against their landlord, who had been cited with over 500 housing code violations and subjected the tenants to some of the worst living conditions in the city. The victory came after tenants, with the assistance of CAAAV and the Chinatown Tenants Union, organized a rent strike and negotiated with the landlord. The landlord has agreed to grant rent abatements for the tenants, renew leases, and make regular and timely repairs. For more information, see the press release here.

A special 20-year anniversary issue of the CAAAV Voice has been published. For our friends and supporters on our mailing list, you should be receiving a copy in the mail soon. A PDF version of the CAAAV Voice is also available here.

You can also find a PDF version of last year's issue of the Voice on that page as well.

If you are not currently on CAAAV's mailing list, and would like to be added, please send an email to justice@caaav.org with your request.