Housing Not High-Rises — March Newsletter

by

Arrow Action Is Now Housing Not High-Rises

In response to our community’s requests, we have registered ourselves as “Housing Not High-Rises”, a non-profit in New York State.  Thanks to input from our neighbors, we now have an organization that will outlast our fight for the outcome we want for the Arrow Linen proposal.  We intend to work to make Windsor Terrace’s and South Slope’s voices heard for a long time. Please bookmark our new website, housingnothighrises.org, and visit for updates. 

Next Community Meeting

We are planning our next community meeting for April 2024. We’ll follow up with details soon!

The State of Arrow Linen’s Proposal

Update: Arrow Linen filed a Land Use application with NYC Dept of City Planning on February 23, 2024. The application is not yet certified by City Planning, and has not officially started the land use review process (ULURP). However, the filing of the application indicates ULURP may start in the next 1-2 months. 

We are paying close attention to the city’s review process so we can tell you when important hearings and meetings are scheduled. None are scheduled yet, but we think they could start in the spring of 2024. We’ll need your turn-out, especially at these public hearings:

  • Community Board 7 Land Use Committee will hold a public hearing to incorporate the community’s recommendations about the proposal. The Land Use Committee responds to community members who show up. Please attend!
  • The City Planning Commission will accept comments and hold a public hearing about the proposal. They too will be looking at the quality and quantity of our presence. We’ll need you to comment and attend. 

What Have We Been Doing?

Meeting with our elected officials: We met with Comptroller Brad Lander, who believes that the Arrow Linen application is a good opportunity for compromise, and we discussed possible approaches to negotiation.

We also met again with Council Member Shahana Hanif, who agrees with us that rent-stabilized renters in the rezoning area should be protected by displacement.  Council Member Hanif is critical to the approval process, and we need to stay engaged with her to ensure she hears our community and there is a satisfactory outcome at the Arrow Linen site.

Organizing to protect renters: We are organizing with people who rent their homes near and within the Arrow Linen rezoning site. There are fifty-nine rent stabilized apartments near and within the site. These and other nearby renters will be vulnerable to displacement, and Windsor Terrace/South Slope could lose some of the most affordable housing we have. Do you rent near Arrow Linen? If so, please consider signing our open letter from renters to Council Member Hanif asking her to Stand with YOU, not with real estate developers. Please reply to this email if you’d like to sign.  

Building a broader coalition: We have been meeting with other neighborhood groups and local political organizations to help increase our influence with Council Member Hanif.  We are working on our connections with The Park Slope Civic Council, the Cobble Hill Association, the Boerum Hill Association, and others in Council District 39 to broaden our support.

Spreading the word: We are canvassing in our neighborhood and throughout Council Member Hanif’s district. We’ll be at farmers markets, supermarkets, and other high-traffic areas. Please reply to this email or visit the Contact Us link on our website if you’d like to help us collect signatures and distribute flyers for an hour or two.

What’s Next?

We are planning our next community meeting for April 2024. We’ll follow up with details soon! 

How Can You Help?

  • Tell your friends and neighbors about us. Ask them to join: sign up for our mailing list and sign our petition. So far we have more than 1,400 signatures. We want to quadruple that! Help get more people to sign and contact Council Member Hanif and our other elected officials. They are watching the petition: signatures = votes;  and we need everyone’s support to show them we do not want 13-story high-rises that will make housing in our neighborhood less affordable.
  • We have window signs!  If you want to show your support by displaying a Housing Not High-Rises window sign, please either reply to this email or fill out the form on the Contact Us link on our website, make sure we have your address, and we will deliver one to you.
  • If you want to hand out flyers and ask local business owners to display our posters – we need you. Please reply to this email or visit the Contact Us link on our website.

Please share your ideas, such as slogans, rallies, media campaigns. If you have contacts you think can help, let us know. We need your skills and energy. Reply to this email – we’ll respond.

As always, go to our website for our latest news and information: housingnothighrises.org

Thank you for your partnership.
The Housing Not High-Rises Team (formerly Arrow Action)

Chris, Jack, Jay, Julia, Kate, Marty and Phil