Not An Alternative

Sunday, February 27, 3pm - Meeting for Williamsburg / Greenpoint Waterfront Rezoning - Emegency Defend Brooklyn!

February 27th 2004

Hi folks,

The Change You Want to See Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn would like
to invite you to huddle up this Sunday at 3pm. We’re drafting a dream
team of creative folk to take on Dr. Doctoroff and the city’s insidious
Williamsburg/Greenpoint Rezoning Plan. This is one of the most
aggressive rezonings in NYC history. Don’t get me wrong…brownfields
are eyesores and a waste of space. And they make your hair fall out if
you live too close to them. Development can be a great thing. It can
revitalize the local economy, give businesses a boost. But there’s good
development and there’s bad development.

The city’s plan will create as many as 22 new 40-story luxury condos
along the East River, will privatize and limit access to the waterfront,
it provides no minimum requirement on low-income housing, will kick out
the light industries in W’burg (metal shops, furniture shops, etc),
won’t add parks or green space, won’t re-open the firehouse, won’t
increase L or G train service, but will bring 40,000 new higher-income
residents to the hood. Instant Soho-fication on steroids. You, me,
local industry and businesses, and long-time residents…PRICED OUT.

We have to move fast…there are just a few months to affect the
process. A number of bad apples with dollar signs in their eyes and
designs on development have partnered with the Mayor. They seek to push
the diversity and creative energy that defines the Big Apple toward the
fate that has destroyed the core of so many small towns across the
country. There’s been a lot of resistance to their rotten plan, from
religious institutions, community groups, schools, and local residents.
But the creative community needs to step up to the plate to support this
work. We can fight back to stop the homogenization and borification of
our neighborhoods. To preserve the diverse cultural landscape of our
mixed-use, mixed income communities.

Come plug in at this planning meeting so’s we can raise a ruckus and
paint a picture of the world that we want to see.

WHERE: The Change You Want to See Gallery, 84 Havemeyer St @
Metropolitan Ave (across from Black Betty’s)
WHEN: 3pm, Sunday, February 27
WHAT: planning powwow to save our city
RSVP: 917-202-5479, beka@notanalternative.net

Invitees Include Reps From:
Art Hijack
Art is Permitted Everywhere
Autonomedia
AWAG (Anti-War Action Group)
Axis of Eve
Black Label Bike Club
Blacked Out Media
Block Magazine
Bowery Poetry Club
Breaking in Style
Cinders
Circus Amok
Complacent.org
Deitch Projects
Flavorpill
Glassbead Video Collective
Greene Dragon
HOWL Festival
Hungry March Band
Independent Media Center
L Magazine
Madagascar Institute
Music for America
NoRNC Bike Project
North Brooklyn Alliance
Not an Alternative/The Change You Want to See
Oh De Twirlette
Ohms Video Collective
Repo History
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir
Ring Out
Rubulad
THAW (Theaters Against the War)
The City Reliquary
The Eh Team
The Lucky Cat
The Roundtable
The Williamsburg Warriors
Toyshop Collective
Visual Resistance
Vomitorium

About us: The Change You Want to See Gallery and Convergence Stage is a
project of Not an Alternative, a Brooklyn-based arts collective. In
support of creative resistance to the Republican National Convention
last summer, Not an Alternative offered resources to artists and groups
in the form of a space, arts materials, production crews, conceptual
development, and organizing support. Not an Alternative also produced
and curated larger-scale events including Majority Whipped at WhiteBox
in Chelsea, and the NEO-CONey Island Block Party and Fashion Show.

http://www.notanalternative.net