Thank you for your interest and support! Please note that this petition is ON HOLD. 

In mid-December 2021, a representative of outgoing Mayor de Blasio’s administration announced that no housing will be built on this site and therefore, no Request for Proposals (RFPs) for development will be issued. Earlier, in October 2021, newly elected Mayor Eric Adams, also indicated his opposition to the housing plan. We are waiting to see what the new Mayor's actions will be on our demand for a Black-led, democratic, and meaningful community engagement process to determine the best ways to memorialize and honor the burial site.

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Flatbush residents need food security, adequate housing, health care and access to green spaces. The 2020 pandemic has made it clear that all these needs are essential to create and sustain whole stable communities. 

We ask that the city-owned Bedford-Church Avenues property (Block 5103, Lot 58) not be transferred to private developers and be retained forever in public ownership either through a community land trust or within the City Parks Department. 

We question the Mayor’s proposal to construct housing on this site. The City’s Flatbush African Burial Ground Remembrance and Redevelopment Task Force aims at creating a community advised memorialization of the site’s history, but only within the limits of its announced housing construction plan. It is a contradiction to seek community input to honor the site’s past when the City has already predetermined the site's future.

Our vision is that the lot serve people-centered, equitable, and sustainable uses and that these uses be determined in open, accessible, and democratic discussions among the multi-generational, multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-talented voices in Flatbush and surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods.

City policies have prioritized building new housing stock, which has not eased the housing crisis because the official area median income (AMI) does not reflect actual neighborhood median income. Until the AMI used takes into account only incomes in the neighborhoods where housing is built, new buildings in these neighborhoods will continue to be financially inaccessible to longtime and recent residents.

Green space is a proven sustainer of public health and community well-being. Notably, the Bedford-Church Avenues lot is located in Community District 14, bordering Community District 17. Citywide, CB17 has the least green space among 59 community districts, and both districts rate among the lowest in residents' ease of access to green space – out of 59 districts, CD14 ranks 54th and CD17 ranks 47th.

*This open, accessible, and democratic planning process must explore all uses that Community Board 14 and Community Board 17 residents deem would honor the land’s past and address the community’s present and future needs, including:

• Development of this site into a community owned and operated farm that would serve as a social hub, educational center, and earth-serving workplace for urban farming, composting, recycling, and soil-rehabilitation. (See opinion piece in the Gotham Gazette: https://tinyurl.com/BedfordChurchLot
• Development of truly and deeply affordable housing through: prioritizing renovation and upgrading of existing housing stock; and defining affordability based on the area median income (AMI) of the neighborhood, instead of the greater NYC region.

To preserve this lot as a sacred public community space will honor the past, present and future –– acknowledging the indigenous Munsee Lenape and Canarsee people who stewarded the land, the enslaved people of African descent who may have been buried here, and the former students and educators of Flatbush School District 1; tending to the well-being of current area residents; and,  protecting the land for future generations.

*Note: After the first 500 signatures, this petition was amended from "To be clear, we need this open, accessible, and democratic planning process to explore" to the wording above in order to clarify that we are calling for a meaningful process of community planning for this public land, one that is open to all community voices and proposals.

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