Coalition to Rally for Broadway Triangle Tonight

The Broadway Triangle Community Coalition will hold a rally at 6 p.m. tonight to demand that the City develop a plan for the stalled Broadway Triangle project, at the border of south Williamsburg and north Bed-Stuy.

The rally will begin at 41 Whipple Street, near Throop Avenue, and then march to the schoolyard on the other side of Throop, between Whipple and Bartlett streets.

In December 2009, after City Council approved the re-zoning of the 30-acre Broadway Triangle for affordable housing, a judge ordered a temporary halt on all work at the Triangle, after the opponents argued that the housing units would give preference to the Hasidic community. The BTCC then brought forth a lawsuit, citing the Fair Housing Act, and arging that because the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg was given a contract to manage some of the units, the project was favoring Hasidic families’ preference for three- and four-bedroom apartments and low-rise buildings (during the Sabbath, elevator use is not permitted).

The City criticized Judge Emily Goodman’s hearing of the suit, saying that the stalling of the project will endanger state money promised to the two non-profit groups slated to develop the Triangle, as well as for those in the community in need of affordable housing.

Tonight, the BTCC wants to see a new plan for the Triangle.

In a statement, Coalition Chair Juan Ramos said, "The Mayor has to face reality, admit his horrendous mistake, and move on to an inclusive process and real plan that will avert random sale and development of privately owned properties in the Triangle.”