The mayor’s response to the concerns over what he sees as already-happening gentrification in the area was to say that “when the government steps in and creates some rules, and some boundaries and some guarantees of affordability it actually rebalances the equation in favor of the people.An overwhelming majority of residents in Washington State’s fifth largest city feel that the housing market is failing to meet the needs of the community and agree that a stronger “hands-on” approach is urgently needed to deliver affordability-focused solutions for Bellevue, a new groundbreaking poll conducted for the Northwest Progressive Institute and its partners has found. Ad hoc groups like the Northern Manhattan is Not For Sale Coalition have advocated for capping the height of new developments and for deeper levels of affordability they feel that improvements shouldn’t have to be dependent on rezoning. Opponents fear the rezoning isn’t contextual to the the neighborhood’s character: Most new units will be market-rate, which they are concerned will bring residents not interested in its current collection of shops that serve the area’s immigrant population. As one longtime resident lamented, “Where will we go? This is the last bastion.” There have been several protests in the weeks leading up to the city council vote. 24 percent for all of NYC–than the city’s overall.īut some in the community feel the impending changes will undermine the character of the diverse neighborhood, which is increasingly becoming home for people displaced from other NYC neighborhoods due to rising rents. The city says the rezoning will fight detrimental gentrification by curbing rent increases that are already hitting the neighborhood, which contains many rent-regulated units but has seen rents in Community District 12, which includes Inwood, Washington Heights and Marble Hill increase at a faster pace–38 percent between 20 vs. “These negotiations are an opportunity to bring many of the resources we currently lack in our neighborhood,” he said. An additional 675 units will be created in the aforementioned market rate buildings according to mandatory inclusionary housing rules.Ĭouncilman Rodriguez negotiated to have a business zone known as the “Commercial U,” removed from the rezoning as some residents were concerned that the rezoning area was too large and would harm small businesses. In addition to bringing in $200 million in public investments including over $50 million in improvements to the George Washington Educational Campus, the city’s rezoning plan also includes a new 20,000-square-foot public library facility that will include 175 units of affordable housing as well as pre-K classrooms and community facilities.
The neighborhood’s median income of almost $42,000 is also well below the $73,000 approximate median income in Manhattan and the $53,000 city-wide median income. 25 percent of Inwood residents live below the poverty line. Almost half the neighborhood’s population is foreign-born 75 percent of Inwood’s 43,000 residents are Latino, and Inwood has the city’s largest concentration of Dominican residents. Many of its streets are lined low-rise tenements. Inwood is home to the last natural forest in Manhattan, the 196-acre Inwood Hill Park, and is known for its riverfront views.
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