Zoned for Arson: The Fate of Two Failed Rezoning Applications in Central Harlem

This walk focuses on redevelopment projects that would have brought over two billion dollars in private investment to neighborhoods sorely in need of investment. And yet, the projects were roundly rejected by the communities they purported to serve. They failure, in short, because communities of interests understood that the projects would attract newcomers to the community who would dilute Harlem’s black American plurality. The projects were a form of vertical gerrymandering or cracking-in-3D that infringe upon the voting rights of racial and language minorities. Participants will examine the physical, social, and political landscape to understand why underdevelopment was exploited as a barrier to change by a community seeking to preserve its status as a Minority Opportunity District, codified in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.