Deeds for the better good are not necessarily for the better of the entirety of the people, but for the selfish acts of some. This is what can be said about the Inwood Action Plan. Although you may say that you are proposing this action for the betterment of the Inwood community, it is actually the opposite. Within the plan, there are many subsections that explain its extensiveness in attempts to persuade the people of Inwood to agree with it, but let me explain the reasons why this plan should not be in effect at any time in the near or distant future. The first reason you put forth on this action plan is the support of affordable and mixed-income housing. To do this, you suggest removing the communities only library to rebuild it into a 14-story …show more content…
Nonetheless, the rezoning suggested for the newly affordable housings increases the risk of gentrification in the community. By adding new housing buildings, you both are essentially trying to improve the appearance of the neighborhood to bring in more wealth to the area selling us out to gentrification, “private developers can build luxury housing that would draw wealthier residents into the community, triggering massive gentrification—as we have witnessed in other areas of the city. In exchange for tax relief the developers would set aside a limited number of units for below-market rentals that few, if any, residents living in the area would be able to afford” (Oltman). You are choosing to get rid of the library so you can slowly start this process of gentrification ignoring the actual background of the …show more content…
However, you are both going about this the wrong way. There are petitions within the community and their uproar on social media on how against these community members are on this plan. You think you are correctly investing in the people, but are not even taking the time to actually hear their input, only their complaints. The community feedback and priorities record may be true, but the ways this plan handles these complaints are in disagreement. There is a Facebook page called “Save Inwood Library/Salvemos la Biblioteca de Inwood” with 462 members that share their thoughts on what is currently happening with the action plan and how they feel towards it. The page also encourages people to attend discussions and to sign a petition against the Inwood NYC Action Plan. The petition itself has almost 5,000 signatures and these are opinions and suggestions you should be working with—listening to them instead of just hearing them. According to the action plan, it also mentions bringing jobs in the community and supporting the creation of small businesses with loans, but with the additions of the affordable housing, there will be competition for jobs. There are a number of community members that currently do not seek employment within the community and bringing more people it will only make it worse. There are only so many businesses that can be opened and with that, the majority are run by Spanish speaking