Amid shouts of “Uncle Tom” and “sellout,” the City Planning Commission yesterday approved a controversial rezoning plan for 125th Street that would create condos, more performing-arts space and a 21-story office tower with such tony tenants as Major League Baseball.
The plan was approved 11-2 and now goes to the City Council.
When the vote was over, opponents booed and Michael Henry Adams, an architectural historian and author of “Harlem Lost & Found,” began a diatribe against the commission’s chairwoman, Amanda Burden.
“You’re a rich, rich, rich horrible person. You’re destroying our communities. You’re a rich, rich socialite. You’re a rich, rich socialite. How dare you! You’re destroying Harlem. You’re getting rid of all the black people,” he screamed.
He was ejected.
The plan, which also includes 124th Street and 126th Street, would allow developers to build more if they provide affordable housing and space for performing-arts groups.
A total of 450 units of affordable housing are planned. And while developers will be allowed to build structures of up to 29 stories, the scale of the brownstone neighborhood will be preserved.
City officials argue that the plan will revive a cultural identity that is being undermined by development.
But residents fear a rezoned 125th Street – picked as one of the country’s 10 greatest main streets last year – will price them out of their homes and erode even more of their community.
Adding to their fears is the expansion of Columbia University into Harlem.
During the voting, minority members of the commission who voted for the plan were greeted with shouts of “Uncle Tom” and “sellout.”
Afterward, Nellie Hester Bailey, head of the Harlem Tenants Council, said she would sue.
The rezoning, she said, would change “that residential corridor, Harlem’s main street, into a residential enclave of luxury housing. The rezoning will only exacerbate Harlem’s current woes. We are very, very disturbed. This is a tragedy. It’s unconscionable.”
On 125th Street, Shihulu Shange, 66, owner of the Record Shack, a Harlem institution for 46 years, echoed Bailey’s words.
“The black community is devastated,” he said.
“The plan doesn’t count black people. Soon it will all be millionaires and the native people won’t be able to live in their homes. This city is run by a billionaire who is insensitive to people’s suffering. Soon there won’t be any black-owned businesses.”
Jermaine Dawkins, 25, a neighborhood entrepreneur, disagreed.
“I think it will boost the economy and become a great place for up and coming artists, entrepreneurs, writers, choreographers, fashion and entertainment people,” he said.
“People up here have a hustler’s spirit, and they all grind no matter what happens. It will build up revenue for small entrepreneurs. Every little makes a bittle.”