It looks like the 50 protesters that showed up at an open house in DUMBO yesterday got some press for it.
With a bullhorn they shouted: “What a shame! What a pity! We can’t live in New York City.” They also blanketed the sales office’s Eames chairs, Noguchi table and glass partitions with flyers that read, “Beacon Tower developers get rich off the backs of working families.”
Are we seeing a trend here? We reported last week that on the “last night” old tenants were allowed to remain in 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg (which will be renovated into luxury lofts) a large party there ended up getting shut down by police. But a reader to Curbed cried foul: a real last night party was still in the works.
The party to be will leave portions of the 184 cellblock unrecognizable for greedy owners & developers to deal with. ‘Hold your ears Bklyn’!
Now, another writer to the site writes:
Because of the email posted about a ‘real’ party our landlord is now hiring security guards for the next 10 days to make sure there is nothing beyond a going away dinner party.
OK, so for now, the idea of protesting luxury developments has more of the feel of campus activism. But it’s still new: protesting luxury developments in person, causing trouble. It will mature and become a feature of the New York new-development landscape.
- Tom McGeveran
