BLACK PAPER #1: The Digital Edition
Redistributing the Land Resources of the NYPD in East New York and Across NYC
Introduction
Across New York City, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has dozens of vacant parcels of land and parking lots. These lots are overwhelmingly located in the same communities of color that have been subject to overpolicing by the NYPD for years. We, the East New York Community Land Trust, are fighting to bring this land under democratically controlled community ownership, so that it can be used for what these communities need - deeply affordable housing and commercial and community space.
Explore the interactive map and see what land the NYPD has control over in your community. Click an icon to learn more about each lot.
About East New York CLT
In March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, longtime East New York and Brownsville residents mobilized quickly to form the steering committee for what is now the East New York Community Land Trust . The steering committee saw the community land trust (CLT) as a tool to address gentrification driven by the City's sale of public land to for-profit developers and real estate speculation. The steering committee feared this trend would only exacerbate displacement at a time when residents were more vulnerable than ever due to the COVID-19 crisis.
East New York CLT is led by residents, small business owners, and volunteers with the goal of acquiring and stewarding the land in East New York and Brownsville. Our community-led planning process brings residents and community members together to collectively determine how vacant and underutilized land will be used. Our board is democratically elected by the members of the East New York CLT and consists of three equal parts: one-third of board members are residents in East New York and Brownsville, one-third will be residents who will be living in the CLT land, and another third are public stakeholders who support the CLT with various skills.
What is a CLT?
A CLT is a community-controlled nonprofit organization that acquires and retains ownership of land permanently to ensure that the uses of land serve the community, not speculative investors that see our community as a source of profit. When a CLT acquires a property, it separates the deed to the land from the deed to the structures on top of the land. The CLT maintains ownership of the land and places restrictions on the sale price of the houses or other structures on the land. This allows the CLT to ensure that the buildings on the land remain permanently affordable, even when market-rate development and gentrification drive up the price of land and housing in the neighborhood. CLTs are not limited to housing and can provide affordable commercial or manufacturing space, community centers, gardens and farms, and other land uses. The CLT emerged from the Civil Rights Movement as a means for self-determination, collective wealth building, and community safety for Black people in the Jim Crow South who were denied individual ownership of land and lost their homes and farms. To combat this violence, Black farmers and civil rights activists in Albany, Georgia formed the first CLT, New Communities, Inc., in 1969 after purchasing 5,000 acres of farmland.
Charles Sherrod, President of New Communities, Inc. and member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) said, “The only way African Americans in the Deep South would ever have the independence and security to stand up for their rights — and not be punished for doing so — was to own the land themselves.”
Planning 'By Us, For Us'
The East New York Community Land Trust believes in community-led planning where the future of our neighborhoods are designed and implemented by the community, for the community.
We reject top-down planning where professional planners come from outside of the community to gather input from residents only to develop recommendations that don't reflect resident voices. To this end, our plan has involved the residents, small business owners, and community members of East New York and Brownsville at every stage of the planning process.
We initially surveyed the hundreds of city-owned vacant lots in East New York and Brownsville to identify lots that are suitable for community-led development. During this process, we learned that many of the poorly maintained and underutilized vacant lots were being used by the NYPD. We then talked to hundreds of local residents about what they would like to see on these lots. We also partnered with local community organizations to hold visioning sessions with community members for a set of City-owned lots in the East New York Industrial Business Zone (ENY IBZ), which is discussed in greater detail below.
Our commitment to community-led planning has only grown stronger and we are just getting started!
The History of East New York and Policing
The physical and social landscape of East New York has been shaped by white colonist and capitalist forces beginning with the displacement of the Canarsee Lenape tribe, followed by redlining in the 1930s, blockbusting in the 1960s, disinvestment through the 1980s, and the predatory real estate investment that is threatening to displace lifelong East New Yorkers.
In the 1970s East New York was dotted with abandoned buildings and vacant lots filled with debris. Debra Ack, a founding ENYCLT member and former Secretary of the Board of Directors, remembers as a child doing flips on mattresses that were dumped in vacant lots. “Those were our playgrounds,” she says. At the time, deindustrialization and white flight to the suburbs exacerbated a fiscal crisis that was hitting the entire city. New York City’s chief housing administrator Roger Starr instituted a policy of “planned shrinkage” – the deliberate withdrawal of essential services like garbage removal, street repair, fire services to public transportation, libraries, and parks – from communities of color like East New York. We are living in the aftermath. While New York City has rebounded since the 1970s, East New York continues to be left behind. The neighborhood is in the midst of a local economic crisis, felt through extreme housing instability, a high rate of homelessness, and chronic unemployment. In 2016, Mayor de Blasio’s administration rezoned East New York, promising 3,900 jobs - six years later, residents are still waiting. One thing the city has invested in East New York is policing. Since the 1960s, the NYPD's 75th Precinct has been one of the most well-resourced precincts in the city. “The precinct is not the largest by geography nor [by] resident population, but it employs the most cops in the city. It also paid out $7.8 million in overtime in fiscal 2020, accounting for the highest payout among all 77 police districts,” according to Bloomberg CityLab + Equality. The 75th Precinct has employed a total of 471 full-time or salaried employees for the last eight years, an amount greater than the whole NYC Parks operating staff in Brooklyn. Beyond its large human resources, the 75th Precinct enjoys access to an exorbitant amount of public land.
In the remainder of this section, we highlight the NYPD land holdings around the 75th Precinct Building and the East New York Industrial Business Zone. This land must be brought into community ownership. This is why we are telling the City, "Don't cop out on community ownership!"
75th Precinct Lots
Click on an icon in the map to see a photo of the lot and explore the area using the street view link.
In the area surrounding the 75th Precinct Building on Sutter Avenue, there are nine city-owned lots under the control of the NYPD. On Sutter Avenue, between Elton Street and Berriman Street, the NYPD has control of five lots, including the one that the 75th Precinct building sits upon at 1000 Sutter Avenue. The lot between Elton Street and Linwood Street is used as a parking lot by 75th Precinct employees despite its jurisdiction under the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). The public record reveals that this lot was originally part of the East New York Urban Renewal Plan to create 1,300 single-family Nehemiah Homes. The lot on the northeast corner of Essex Street & Sutter Avenue usually holds two parked NYPD emergency service vehicles and was supposed to be part of the Nehemiah Homes, too. The lot next to it on the corner of Sutter Avenue & Shepherd Avenue also serves as a parking lot for precinct employees. In 2003, the lot at Sutter Avenue & Shepherd Avenue lot was designated as part of a plan to create thirty-seven two-family homes.
The lots between Shepherd Avenue and Berriman Street are used as storage sites for junk, dilapidated vehicles that have either been abandoned or have been in traffic accidents. Most of these lots, and in particular the easternmost lot, are poorly maintained: overgrown with weeds, trash strewn about, and perfect sites for dumping. These conditions are common for lots used by the NYPD.
Planning for the NYPD Parking Lot at Sutter Avenue & Linwood Street
The largest city-owned lot near the 75th Precinct is used as a parking lot for officers' personal cars. Notably, this lot is under the jurisdiction of the Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and should be used for housing.
During the Summer of 2021, we surveyed a total of 141 East New Yorkers about their vision for the site. There was a clear consensus that deeply affordable housing - deeply affordable to the residents of East New York - should be developed on the land.
There was strong support for both affordable rental housing and affordable homeownership opportunities, including cooperatives or condominiums. Many people also indicated a need for community spaces where neighbors could meet and youth could engage in extramural activities. Half of the respondents wanted a community center and one-third wanted a park or playground, other general recreation options, cultural space, or healthy food options. The respondents also expressed a need for a building height to correspond to the neighborhood context.
Black Paper #1 Release & Rally
On May 21, 2022, we released Black Paper #1 at a rally in a community garden across the street from the 75th Precinct and the parking lot on Sutter Avenue & Linwood Street. We were joined by our neighbors, elected officials and candidates, members of other community land trusts and supporters from across NYC on a sweltering 95-degree day to demand that the City "put NYPD land in community hands!"
Our members, Debra Ack and Boris Santos spoke with Margaret Kimberley from the Black Agenda Report about the rally and report.
Read the local media coverage of the event and paper using the links below.
East New York Industrial Business Zone
Click on an icon in the map to see a photo of the lot and explore the area using the street view link.
Within the ENY IBZ, specifically on Snediker Avenue, between Liberty Avenue and Glenmore Ave, the NYPD maintains control of four major lot assemblages: one being a 5-story building hosting the NYPD’s Narcotics Brooklyn South Division, and the other three serving as parking lots mainly for those employed there. All of the parking and vacant lots in this part of the IBZ can serve as potential job creation sites given their light industrial zoning. It’s worth noting that just to the east of the Narcotics building, between Hinsdale Street and Williams Avenue, there are also three lots under the jurisdiction of three separate city agencies: the NYC Dept. of Homeless Services (DHS) operates a women’s shelter here, the NYC Parks and Recreation Department has a community garden here (TLC Sculpture Park Garden), and the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) has a parking lot just to the south of the DHS shelter.
Planning for NYPD Land in the Industrial Business Zone
Beginning in Summer 2022, we held a series of envisioning sessions with our partners in the IBZ - Universe City , East Brooklyn Mutual Aid , Preserving East New York , East New York Archives , and the Coalition for Community Advancement . This work demonstrates our commitment to economic justice for East New York and Brownsville residents. We enlisted the support and assistance of Nandini Bagchee of Bagchee Architects , who along with her students at City College helped design and facilitate the sessions to inform planning on city-owned land in the IBZ.
We held a total of four envisioning sessions where residents and local entrepreneurs shared their visions and dreams for the IBZ while hearing from experts in food systems, cannabis cultivation and production, and other industries that can help revitalize the IBZ and provide opportunities for community members. We captured the interest of entrepreneurs, elected officials, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and will be releasing a report and plans for the area in the coming months!
Tour the IBZ
Bagchee Architects produced this virtual tour of the East New York IBZ for our envisioning sessions and planning work. We hope you enjoy learning more about the NYPD lots and other city-owned land we are working to reclaim for community ownership in the IBZ.
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