gentrification

Valentine’s Day fell on a Thursday this year. Although most New Yorkers had plans to celebrate after work, a conference room in Downtown Brooklyn was buzzing with excitement and it was barely two o’clock in the afternoon. A staff member of New York Communities for Change had just interrupted an ordinary meeting to inform everyone that Amazon was pulling out of the deal to bring half of their second headquarters to Long Island City, Queens. The news broke on Twitter, but soon all the major media platforms had confirmed the news. This was an enormous victory for NYCC, one of the grassroots organisations that vehemently opposed the deal. It was also a victory for Jonathan Westin, NYCC’s executive director, who stood among his staff smiling, in disbelief.