Not only did Chin ram through the developers’ demolition-and-displacement agenda, doing enormous harm to her communities and constituencies, she also targeted the Soho residents who opposed her merciless attack on their community. When Soho cried foul, she seems to have lost her mind and plotted revenge in a spasm of vengeful fury.
I thought that her last act of civic vandalism was colluding with the developers to pass the Soho/Noho/Chinatown upzoning, but–there’s more. She’s left a poison pill in her wake. Soho artists who cannot show that they are “certified” by NYC will now face enormous fines and could lose their homes as a result. Chin’s discriminatory bill was actually passed by the city council. It is another tool to drive displacement in Soho.
Of course, NYC has “certified” very few artists in years, and btw, can you imagine any City Hall administration with the capacity to objectively decide which artists are worthy of “certification”?
Village Preservation is calling on Mayor Adams to veto the bill.
NYC Council works against the interests of this city and its residents. Without structural change in NYC governance, this city is finished.