NYC Council Member Issues Letter to Gov Hochul, In Favor Of New Plans For Gansevoort Peninsula.
In big Move for Lopez v. Hochul, STARR has gained an ally on the City Council!
New York City- Just in time for Pride Month in New York (and a new season of LEGENDARY on HBOMax), a prominent member of the NYC Council has publicly expressed interest in new development plans for Gansevoort Peninsula.
In a letter addressed to New York Governor Hochul dated May 19th 2022 (attached) NYC Council Member Crystal Hudson (who represents District 35 in Brooklyn and, who is the co-Chair of the LGBT Caucus of NYC Council), cited the Black, Transgender history of the area as part of the reasons Governor Hochul should consider rethinking development plans for Gansevoort Peninsula on NYC’s West Side.
In early 2021 Hudson River Park Trust announced that it was spending a staggering 78 million dollars of NYC taxpayer funds, to construct a man made beach at Gansevoort Peninsula. HRPT immediately faced backlash from groups such as STARR and FIERCE NYC, who accused HRPT of intentionally shutting them out of the public comment process.
The letter sent to Governor Hochul today, supports the idea that plans for the site must include more input from minority groups, such as the Transgender as well as Ballroom communities, which were not adequately included or consulted during the original planning phase for Gansevoort Peninsula, which occurred in the early to mid 1990’s.
Sara from The Salt Mines(1990) dir. Susana Aikin, Carlos Aparicio
The lawsuit Lopez v Hochul accuses NYS officials of ignoring well documented Black, Trans’ history in order to develop the area for wealthy white residents and tourists. The location at the center of the case, now known as Gansevoort Peninsula, was once the subject of the documentary film The Salt Mines, which followed the lives and perils of several Trans Sex Workers who found shelter within abandoned garbage trucks parked on the site by the NYC Dept of Sanitation.https://www.criterionchannel.com/the-salt-mines
Marsha P Johnson, Stonewall veteran and American civil rights pioneer, is believed to have entered the Hudson River on or near Gansevoort Peninsula before drawning in July 1992. Proponents of Lopez v Hochul are seeking to force New York State officials to follow the clear language found within the National and Historic Preservation Acts respectively; adding the site to the state and national register of historic locations and designation the area between Christopher Street and Gansevoort Peninsula a Historic District.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/historicpreservation/national-historic-preservation-act.htm
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PAR/TCA14
“Simply put, our state will not fully honor and embrace the LGBTQIA+ community until it honors the transgender and gender-expansive folks — especially Black and Latinx queer people — who have made our culture what it is today. Hit TV shows like “Pose” and “Legendary” wouldn’t exist without the contributions of the Ballroom scene and folks like Crystal LaBeija or Paris Dupree. New York City would not have passed GENDA or banned conversion therapy without the efforts of the Black and Latinx trans women and femmes at Stonewall like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major, and Stormé DeLarverie. It’s time we honor these trailblazers and ensure future generations understand how their fearless activism and tireless advocacy for the LGBTQIA+ community molded our city and nation..”, says Council Member Hudson to Governor Hochul in the letter.
Mariah Lopez, who filed the lawsuit pro se (without the help of an attorney) and who asked Council Member Hudson to support her efforts, is the adopted daughter of Sylvia Rivera. Ms Lopez also recently won another landmark legal victory on behalf of TGNC, Disabled New Yorkers, after she successfully sued the NYC Dept of Homeless Services (Lopez v DHS) in the Southern District of New York. https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/lopez-v-nyc-department-homeless-services
In the settlement, which was made public last November by the Center for Constitutional Rights which assisted Ms. Lopez in finalizing the settlement, the City of New York agreed to sweeping reform related to how it houses TGNC and Disabled New Yorkers seeking shelter through the NYC Dept of Homeless Services; creating new systems for training, tracking and investigating complaints of mistreatment made by shelter clients, and new beds for homeless TGNC and Disabled individuals in every borough.
Parties involved in the case over Gansevoort Peninsula in the Lopez v Hochul case, have been given until June 30th (just a week after NYC Pride and days before the anniversary of the death of Marsha P. Johnson) by the court to submit filings and briefs in the case.
With the newfound support of Council Member Hudson (an emerging leader in New York City politics and prominent member of the Black Queer community) STARR intends to utilize Pride Month as a springboard to garner further support from local and state elected officials in favor of new plans to preserve critical Black, Brown, TGNC history, and honor true American civil rights and cultural trailblazers such as Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson.