But onstage on Saturday, on behalf of a coalition of Inwood and Washington Heights residents, Lara demanded that Rodriguez vote “no” on the rezoning that was partly his idea in the first place. “We’ve been targeted by predatory landlords for years now,” says Rodriguez. It’s a pattern so pervasive, the city initiated or expanded three programs last year to try and weed out the practice.
They’re also needed, he says, to make up for the loss of existing affordable or rent-stabilized housing to predatory landlords who have swooped in with investor backing to flip affordable or rent-stabilized housing into market-rate and luxury apartments and condominiums. The new affordable housing is needed, Rodriguez argues, because of the continued population influx from other parts of the city. “I can walk around these streets and feel comfortable as myself,” says Lara.Īfter several years of study and community engagement, at the invitation of Council Member Rodriguez, the city is now on the verge of deciding whether to rezone large swaths of Inwood, permitting taller, denser construction, thereby triggering the city’s two-year-old inclusionary housing law and resulting in new units of what the city considers permanently affordable housing. Many, like Lara, are also attracted to the strong Latino culture of the neighborhood, particularly its Dominican sounds, smells, and flavors. The area has two subway lines running through it, two landmark city parks (including the last remaining untouched wilderness in Manhattan), and more than 47,000 rent-stabilized units - more than any other neighborhood in New York City. The combined Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood sits at the northern tip of Manhattan, still considered a last-bastion of affordability by those fleeing the exorbitant and rising rents of Manhattan’s Lower East Side or as far as Brooklyn. This was no ordinary block party - it was a block party about zoning. Over the decades, Inwood has been home to many waves of immigrant communities, most recently from the Dominican Republic, and proudly so, including Lara.Īfter much dancing with her feet, Lara got up on stage to do a dance of words with New York City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez. There were local bands, local choirs, percussion lessons for kids and a community art project where neighbors painted a banner saying “Nuestra Calles, Nuestro Barrio” - our streets, our neighborhood. Democrats, including Schumer, attacked Trump for not pushing China harder on certain trade issues and for downplaying human rights concerns.Paloma Lara danced a lot last Saturday, at a block party she helped to plan in New York City’s Inwood neighborhood. Trump often played up his confrontation with China's leadership over trade and withdrew from the World Health Organization over objections to China's influence, a decision Biden reversed.
Democrats declined to join a House GOP committee on China last year, out of fear, reports said, that it would be a vehicle to excuse the administration's coronavirus response. "China policy is the one last bastion of bipartisan policy on the national security side."Ĭooper said that Republicans agree with Schumer's three goals but that there may be some differences, such as that some GOP lawmakers want to spend more on defense or that some Democrats want to give the state a larger role in the domestic market.Įlection-year politics have impeded cooperation in the past. "The prospects of getting a deal done are very high," said Zack Cooper, a research fellow and expert on U.S.-China relations at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
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