Chinatown Tenants Hold Successful "It's Our Waterfront" Event in Manhattan

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.

As the City and its Economic Development Corporation (EDC) prepare to redevelop a two-mile stretch of the waterfront that encompasses the Lower East Side and Chinatown, the CTU is working together with other organizations in the LES and Chinatown to make sure that the development of the waterfront doesn’t lead to more gentrification and displacement, and that the development meets the needs of community members, especially low-income residents.

The O.U.R. Waterfront Coalition includes: CAAAV and the Chinatown Tenants Union (CTU), Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), Hester Street Collaborative, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Public Housing Residents of the Lower East Side (PHROLES), University Settlement, Urban Justice Center (UJC)

For more information, please contact ewang@caaav.org or call 212-473-6485.