Support FUREE's Downtown Brooklyn Video

Get the free Flash Player to see this video.

The clip you just viewed is from a video FUREE is producing in order to expose the economic and social costs of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan, a major rezoning that threatens to permanently transform the physical, social and cultural character of downtown Brooklyn. This video is a critical part of our Downtown Brooklyn Accountable Development Campaign. FUREE needs your support now to complete this project and continue our organizing to fight the gentrification and displacement of viable working-class communities of color in Brooklyn and beyond.

The devastation of Myrtle Avenue you just viewed is the result of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan, which was crafted and passed by city officials without consideration of the needs of the African-American, Caribbean, and immigrant communities who have been living and working in downtown Brooklyn for generations. This plan facilitates the development of corporate office towers, luxury housing, and upscale retail. Its approval created windfall profits overnight for landlords and developers, while spurring the displacement of small businesses and residents, and the destruction of Brooklyn's historically black commercial core.

Take A&B Books, for example: Eric and Rawle Gift started A&B 18 years ago. The store specializes in African-American and Caribbean literature, and carries hundreds of unique titles by local authors. This store is an important resource for Downtown Brooklyn's current community, but will be wiped out if we don't demand protection for small businesses now.

This video is close to completion, but we need to raise $9,500 in order to cover our remaining expenses and the organizing work that will accompany the film. Please make a donation today, so that we can start showing this video and presenting our demands to our elected officials. We welcome you to make a one-time gift or commit to giving monthly as a FUREE Sustainer.

Although redevelopment plans are already having an impact, there is still an opportunity to significantly alter the Downtown Brooklyn Plan and its potential impacts. This video is a critical part of FUREE's organizing strategy to ensure that decisions about downtown's future moving forward are made with everyone at the table, not just the business and political elite of New York City.

To that end, we have been working hard with our members to create a viable alternative plan. Over the past year we have conducted focus groups, surveys, and in-depth research. A committee of FUREE members has been working to build a coalition of clergy, elected officials, unions, and other groups to support us as we carry out our Downtown Brooklyn Accountable Development campaign. This strengthens our ability to negotiate directly with elected officials, city planners, developers, and other stakeholders in order to demand:

full involvement of the local community in the planning process
truly affordable housing in all new developments downtown
protections for small businesses that have been in the community for decades
living wage jobs for local residents
childcare facilities and community space
the preservation of the social and cultural fabric of downtown Brooklyn

By using media to bring our leaders face to face with the Downtown Brooklyn's longstanding community of small entrepreneurs, workers, and residents, we will engage their moral imaginations as they make decisions about the future. We will also build alliances with organizations and communities in other parts of New York City that are concerned about how chain store and luxury condo-driven redevelopment are threatening neighborhood character by erasing economic and racial diversity.

With your help, we can expose the outrageous destruction of this vibrant community before it's too late. Donate online or mail a check to FUREE, 81 Willoughby St #701, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Ilana Berger Scherille Murray
Director Board Member