Nadeem SalaamNational Renters Day Of Action | Downtown Brooklyn
National Renters Day of Action is a nationwide effort to raise awareness on the issue of gentrification plaguing our major cities that took place on September 22nd. ElevtrTrax joined Families United for Racial & Economic Equality (FUREE) to help capture some of the demonstrations right in front of Barclay’s Center in Downtown Brooklyn. The above is a recap featuring an original protest song featuring renowned activist Robin Laverne Wilson (feat in orange.)
As grassroots movements demonstrated everywhere from Los Angeles to Boston, FUREE & allies gathered to mourn the loss of affordable housing across our communities in New York City. They held a rally and memorial service to recognize the dispossession of affordable homes and displaced residents followed by a march through Downtown Brooklyn. Much of the temperament was of an uplifting positivity backed by a firm and urgent need to demand the laws of New York serve its community.
FUREE’s official statement is a bold decree on the matter, “Now more than ever housing is unaffordable for millions of people. Rents nationwide are higher than they have been in history, evictions are at epidemic levels! Our communities can’t wait for affordable housing anymore. Working-class people, low-income, communities of color, immigrants and formerly incarcerated folks are bearing the brunt of this crisis as housing become even more unattainable and our cultures and communities are displaced. As more and more of us become renters, and the crisis escalates – it’s time for the #RenterNation to stand up to declare our power and fight back for our homes, our cities and our communities.”
Photographed by: Nadeem Salaam
“No Mas Acoso”
Uprose Representing With A Banner For The March Downtown
Black Lives Matter
Crowd Of 100 Gather In Front Of Barclay’s
Robin Laverne Wilson Is Running For Senator And An Active Voice In The Community
Speaking On Behalf Of The Lower East Side’s Gentrification
A statement which echoes the large grass roots movement in all major cities where the communities of low to middle income are bought and re-built with double sometimes triple the amount of rent. An act that is forcing massive (record breaking) amounts of people to become either homeless or be forced to move out of very communities that have sustained a life for them their entire lives.
To make matters worse, the forces at work are often illegal, predatory, and aggressive, by the real-estate development industry. This is only one side of the behemoth, the other only made worse by the politicians that accept money by real-estate developers; essentially restricting protective laws to be put into place and/or have the laws to protect communities, actually be enforced. In the end the people lose.
This is not a movement. This is not a wave, this is not a trend or hashtag activism. This is a fight for life. Evictions kill people, astronomical rents kill people and the people who are on the line are hoping their voices coalesce with the national message being delivered by people of all colors, ethnicities, religious, or sexual identities; we matter and deserve to live, because your greed is killing us.
