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tel/fax:
718.362.4784
Please note our new postal address when sending
contributions to the legal fund:
121 5th Avenue, PMB #150
Brooklyn, New York 11217
About DDDB
Our coalition consists of 21 community organizations and
there are 51 community organizations formally
aligned in opposition to the Ratner plan.
DDDB is a volunteer-run organization. We have over 5,000
subscribers to our email newsletter, and 7,000 petition
signers. Over 800 volunteers have registered with DDDB
to form our various teams, task-forces and committees
and we have over 150 block captains. We have a 20 person
volunteer legal team of local lawyers supplementing our
retained attorneys.
We are funded entirely by individual donations from the community at large
and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.
We have the financial support of well over 3,500 individual
donors.
More about
DDDB...
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New Yorkers Against Eminent Domain Abuse
 
For Immediate Release: June 27, 2007
New Yorkers Against Eminent Domain Abuse
Well Over 100 Property Owners, Tenants,
Advocates, Elected Officials
Unite on City Hall's Steps To
Oppose Eminent Domain Abuse In New York
(photos available at: http://www.pbase.com/jonathanbarkey/cityhall)
New York, NY — A broad-based coalition of property owners, tenants, advocates,
elected officials and citizens gathered today on the steps of New York's
City Hall to voice opposition to epidemic abuse of eminent domain in New
York City and New York State.
The group, united under the banner New Yorkers Against Eminent Domain
Abuse, gathered to mark the two-year anniversary of the US Supreme
Court's much reviled decision, Kelo v. City of New London. Since that decision
was rendered, 38 states have enacted eminent domain reform legislation,
but New York, widely regarded as one of the nation's leading abusers of
eminent domain, has yet to lift a finger to defend the rights of homeowners,
business owners, and tenants.
"We haven't seen this level of eminent domain abuse in New York City
since the days of Robert Moses," explained Lumi Michelle Rolley, contributor
to NoLandGrab.org. "Mayor Bloomberg's policy has been to threaten the
use of eminent domain to force property owners to sell and to thwart every
effort towards legislative reform both in Washington and Albany."
"The abuse of eminent domain is an abuse of our fundamental constitutional
rights and must be opposed like all other attempts to violate constitutional
rights. Our government has no business forcing us to sell our properties
to benefit their developer friends," said Daniel Goldstein, a Brooklyn homeowner
fighting to protect his home from abusive government seizure. "Everywhere
developers want to build, government officials are paving the way with phony
blight studies to accommodate them. We are sick and tired of the Bloomberg
Administration's policy of eminent domain abuse, and it has got to stop.
Many of the participating groups intend to coalesce formally to raise awareness of New York's politicians' addiction to eminent domain abuse. Participating groups cite these ten reasons the current situation must be reformed:
- According to a comprehensive study performed by the Institute for Justice, New York State remains one of the leading abusers of eminent domain in the nation.
- Eminent domain abuse in New York has increased dramatically in the past three years.
- In the two years since the US Supreme Court Kelo decision, 38 states have passed eminent domain reform legislation, while New York State's politicians have refused to act.
- If the City and State can seize people's homes and businesses for private development, then no one in New York is safe from eminent domain abuse.
- Government should not collude with private developers at the expense of its citizens
- Wherever developers see an attractive piece of real estate, the City or State accommodates them by issuing trumped-up declarations that the neighborhood is "blighted."
- Our homes, our stores, our apartments and businesses are not for sale to politically connected developers.
- Mayor Bloomberg's policy has been to recklessly misuse eminent domain and thwart legislative attempts to curb its abuse.
- Any neighborhood undergoing rezoning is ripe for eminent domain abuse.
- Property rights are fundamental constitutional rights.
Participating elected officials and organizations included:
- Councilmember Letitia James
- Councilmember Tony Avella
- Councilmember John Liu's Chief of Staff
- Councilmember Charles Barron
- Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
- NoLandGrab.org
- Historic Districts Council
- Fifth Avenue Committee
- New York Community Council
- Society for the Architecture of the City
- NY Solidarity Coalition with Katrina and Rita Survivors
- Willets Point Business Association
- Harlem Tenants Council
- Coalition to Preserve Community
- West Harlem Coalition
- 550 Riverside, 55/69 Tiemann Pl. Tenants Alliance
- Coalition To Save The East Village
- Coalition for a Livable West Side
- Lower East Side Residents for Responsible Development
- Duffield Street Block Association
- Green Party of Brooklyn
- Park Slope Greens
- United Neighbors for Brooklyn
- Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association
- Brownstone Revival Coalition
- Fans for Fair Play
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn leads a broad-based community coalition advocating for development that will unite our communities instead of dividing and destroying them. DDDB opposes Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards' abuse of eminent domain. DDDB has organized owner and tenant plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit charging that eminent domain for Atlantic Yards violates the US. Constitution. Like the other neighborhoods, phony "blight" findings were used to justify the eminent domain abuse.
Joy Chatel and Lew Greenstein are fighting to save their historic homes on Duffield St. in Brooklyn. Their homes were part of the Underground Railroad network and are under threat of demolition to make way for a hotel parking garage. A lawsuit has been filed contesting the accuracy of the City's study, which determined that the historical significance of the homes could not be proven.
Property owners and tenants in West Harlem are battling to keep their homes and businesses from Columbia University's expansion of its uptown campus. Since the project was unveiled the university has refused to take eminent domain off the table. The application for review under the city's land-use procedure was just approved by the City Planning Commission.
Once again, Willets Point Queens businesses and a longtime resident are under
threat of eminent domain. For decades the City has failed to provide basic services
to this neighborhood. Despite the municipal neglect, the area is the location
of hundreds of successful businesses that the City is seeking to displace. NoLandGrab
is an information portal run by several private citizens to increase awareness
of the Atlantic Yards fight and eminent domain battles citywide.
Posted: 6.27.07
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