Locals Protest 27-Story Luxury Tower Slated To Rise In Bushwick

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Protesters rallied outside the site where a 27-story luxury tower is slated to rise to speak out against the endemic displacement they said the “middle finger building” represented.

“We need to finally invest in truly affordable housing in Bushwick,” said Julia Salazar, the progressive candidate running to represent Bushwick in the New York State Senate. “Not so called affordable housing that excludes black and brown people.”

Salazar addressed a crowd of Brooklynites that gathered outside 452 Wyckoff Ave. — where developers from the Mattone Group plan to build a 400-unit mixed use building — as part of Take Back Bushwick, a month long campaign to advocate against a spike in luxury developments.

Salazar, City Councilman Antonio Reynoso and several organizers from Churches United For Fair Housing spoke out against the 27-story tower, slated to begin construction within the next six months.

The project will be financed through the 421-A program which gives tax breaks to developers who promise to sell a certain number of apartments at an “affordable" rate, organizers said.

Out of 400 apartments, 100 will be reserved for people with an annual income between $60,000 and $100,000, which organizers pointed out was between double and triple the average salary for Bushwick residents, between $25,000 and $30,000.

“So-called affordable housing, it’s all bull,” said Marty Needleman, a Brooklyn Legal Services attorney. “It promotes such displacement … And Mayor de Blasio is responsible.”

Construction will also force the Food Bazaar on Wyckoff Avenue and Madison Street to close for about two years, organizers noted.

“It’s what keeps this neighborhood from being a food desert,” said CUFFH organizer Stephanie Cancel. "It will change the landscape of Bushwick completely."

Two men began shouting “Trump 2020” from a nearby rooftop as the group chanted “Take Back Bushwick,” but all were silenced by protester Robert Camacho, 57, a lifelong resident whose voice cracked when he asked what was going to happen to him and his grandmother, who had lived in Bushwick for 102 years.

“I’m not even making ends meet, my kids are helping me," said Camacho. "I can’t continue.”

“I don’t want my kids to move away from me and that’s what they’re doing,” Camacho added. “They’re pushing away our kids that were born here.”

Photo by Kathleen Culliton