#brooklynisours

#VICTORY!  Grassroots Community Effort Wins New Lease for Errol’s Bakery

For Immediate Release: February 19th 2017                       Contact:  Imani Henry 646 342 9673

Grassroots Community Effort Wins New Lease for Errol’s Bakery

Long-time Caribbean-owned small business will remain in Flatbush, Brooklyn

#SaveErrolsBakery #ThisIsFlatbush  #Beforeitsgone  #TakeItBack ​ #BrooklynisNotforSale #WeLoveErrols

After close to 3 months of struggle, 3 community rallies, and over 1500 petition signatures, the Flatbush cultural institution, Errol’s Bakery, has won a new lease at 661 Flatbush Avenue. Renowned in New York City for its wide selection of Jamaican patties and its jerk chicken , Errol’s Bakery is a beloved Caribbean establishment. “We just want to thank everyone in the community who supported us. From the people in the neighborhood who came out, to our people in The Caribbean and Europe who signed the petition, we couldn’t have gotten a lease without you,” said Errol Miller, the co-owner of Errol’s Bakery.

In 2016 the lease at 661 Flatbush Ave expired. Although Dorothy and Errol Miller had never been late on their rent in 15 years, they found themselves in court with their landlord Rothstein Management fighting for a new lease at an affordable rent.  Eventually, the Millers were able to secure a temporary extension on their lease but on December 16th, a judge ruled that they would have to vacate on February 28, 2017. Currently NYC commercial tenants are not guaranteed lease renewals and face exorbitant rent increases. For the last 30 years NYC activists have fought for the passing of The Small Business Jobs Survival Act  (SBJSA) which “supports a 10-year minimum lease, with equal negotiating power as the landlord for new terms". With the rapid gentrification of Flatbush many long-time small and  family-owned businesses, especially along Flatbush Avenue, are losing their leases and being displaced.

In late November, the anti-gentrification group Equality for Flatbush -E4F, received word about the situation and reached out to the Millers. E4F then put out the call for people to come a “Community Support Day for Errol’s Bakery” on December 17th . E4F also launched an online petition “Calling on  Rothstein Management to: ‘DO THE RIGHT THING!’” which received 1462 signatures with another 100+ people signing onto a paper petition.  Filmmakers Rehana Esmail  and Sina Zekavat, also worked with E4F to create a campaign video  .

“The  #SaveErrolsBakery campaign has been very  important to us because it not only demonstrates how much people appreciate small businesses in our neighborhoods but it also shows what is possible when a community comes together.”  said Soraya Palmer, a lifelong Flatbush resident and Equality for Flatbush leader. “People from all over Brooklyn and NYC in general, participated in getting out flyers and posting the petition on social media. We had over 25 people come out in a snow storm, on  January 7th  to show their support for Errol’s Bakery .  

Founded in 2013, Equality Flatbush does anti-police repression, affordable housing and anti-gentrification organizing in Flatbush and East Flatbush, Brooklyn. E4F’s Brooklyn-wide anti-gentrification campaign, BEFORE IT'S GONE // TAKE IT BACK: Documenting Brooklyn - Fighting Gentrification, provides political organizing, legal and housing resources to Brooklyn tenants, homeowners and small businesses.

Equality for Flatbush : E4F statement on the Town Hall on “Criminal Activity” November 20th 2014

We won’t allow our communities to be divided by race and class.

What Flatbush needs are more jobs and affordable housing for all

NOT more Racial Profiling or Cops!

The Equality for Flatbush Project, (E4F) is a new people of color-led multi-national grassroots organization which does anti-police repression, affordable housing and anti-gentrification organizing in the Flatbush and East Flatbush communities of Brooklyn, NY.

We, too, are concerned about the recent armed robberies of Ditmas Park

businesses and community members. As community residents, we understand that people are scared. It is an incredibly traumatic experience to be robbed or attacked. The underlying issue with these robberies is about the economic divide in our society, which is increasingly highlighted in our communities because of gentrification.

Equality for Flatbush defines gentrification “as the deliberate pricing out of low-to-middle income residents from neighborhoods by corporations, real estate developers, and landlords in favor of renting, selling, and catering to people of higher and/or more flexible incomes.” We see gentrification as an intersectional issue that is deeply connected to the ways that race, class, gender, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, nation of origin, immigration status, physical and mental capacity, and other characteristics that impact individuals and our communities. For example we know, from first-hand experience, that the same unscrupulous property owners who use tactics to force long-time older tenants of color out of their rent-stabilized apartments will illegally overcharge incoming younger white tenants for the same apartment. For this very reason, we believe all of us, long-time and new residents, communities of color and white communities, low-income and middle-class people have a stake in the urgent struggle to fight gentrification and save affordable housing in Brooklyn.

Police repression has been an instrumental tool in enforcing gentrification in our neighborhoods. Numerous articles have been written exposing the highest rates of “stop and frisk” reports have occurred in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. It has also been proven that “stop and frisk” does not to deter crime but instead has led to the rampant violations of people’s civil rights as well as police brutalization and murders of especially young people of color in our communities. We know that the vast majority of the residents of Flatbush and East Flatbush do not condone police violence and continue to call for justice for the families of Kimani Gray, Shantel Davis, Kyam Livingston and others who have endured police terror/murders in the last several years.

For these reasons and more, Equality for Flatbush opposes to the call for increased police presence in the Ditmas Park and surrounding neighborhoods of Flatbush. We believe that an increased presence of the NYPD will continue to racially and economically divide our community as well as distract the focus from the real issues of skyrocketing rents;the growing loss of the racial, cultural and economic diversity within Flatbush; and the fraudulent real estate practices leading to foreclosures and displacement.

Instead Equality for Flatbush offers the following 3 steps as part of community-led initiatives to build unity among neighbors so we can to take better control of our neighborhoods:

COME TOGETHER: Brooklyn has long history of neighbors coming together to solve community problems such as violence, drugs and safety. We call upon new and long-term residents to become more involved with the existing tenants’ rights organizations, block and building associations, and community organizations that reflect the true racial, class, ethnicity,and socioeconomic diversity of our communities. We see these resident-led organizations as the foundation for neighbors getting to know, trust and work together to deter robberies like those that occurred in Ditmas Park. We are not in favor of the “George Zimmerman-like gated community” neighborhood watch groups that lead to further racial profiling and unnecessary violence that fosters the current climate where a Black man is killed by the police or a vigilante every 28 hours in the US.

SUSTAINABLE JOBS: We need a sustainable jobs program in New York City. We ask all our neighbors to call on and hold all politicians accountable in the creation of real solutions to the economic crisis facing our communities. We can no longer tolerate that the average income needed to rent ($50K-60K) in Flatbush being far above what the average resident makes (40K). We can longer tolerate being unemployed, underemployed, and/or working multiple jobs to try to pay our ever increasing rents and mortgages. We need better jobs, job training, more government entitlements and services.

TOWN HALL MEETINGS: Equality for Flatbush will have a town hall meeting for Flatbush and East Flatbush residents in 2015 to discuss gentrification and ways for us as community residents to fight the developers, banks and greedy landlords who pit neighbor against neighbor, newcomer against long-term residents, based on race and class,and grossly profit from economic suffering of the very diverse community that made this neighborhood attractive in the first place. Please come and participate. Join us for the next Equality for Flatbush meeting on December 16, 2014 at 5:30pm at the Flatbush Library, 22 Linden Blvd, Brooklyn

The Equality for Flatbush Project, (E4F)

[email protected] or call /text (646)820-6039

PARA PARLANTES DE ESPAÑOL LLAME (513) 445-8532

http://equalityforflatbush.tumblr.com/

Follow us on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/EqualityForFlatbush

Dear friends and supporters, Thank you so much for generous donations to Before It's Gone // Take It Back, a Brooklyn-wide project of Equality for Flatbush : E4F Since you last heard from us, we have been working hard with new volunteers and organizers joining the work and bringing their own interest and skills to the table. Equality for Flatbush's phone number has become an anti-gentrification hotline for dollar van drivers who are being racially profiled and harassed in Flatbush, people suffering from heinous abuse by their landlords, and tenants looking to organize themselves. Our volunteers and organizers also regularly give out vital legal and housing resources right there on the street when we flyer about our campaigns. This is a testament the need for an affordable housing resource hub which you have helped to raise money for. We are asking you once again because as a grassroots initiative, we are still in urgent need of funds to support continued operations to build our an anti-gentrification website hub, that will simultaneously document and resist gentrification by featuring the photos, videos, and art work of Brooklyn residents while providing a range of housing-related resources, including advocacy, legal counsel, research and community organizing. We do not yet have any grants so we are relying on donors and community members like you to help us build the website. We're still about $2,933 short we are asking for people to give between now and December 15th, 2014. Every amount, $5, $25, $50, $100, is vital to the continued operation of this project. Become a sustaining donor by giving a little bit each month. At the end of the day, it all adds up. Please donate again here: http://www.gofundme.com/Before-Its-Gone. B4G is a Brooklyn-wide project of E4F, a new people of color-led grassroots organization. Currently, Equality for Flatbush is a growing organization of volunteer organizers and community members. Our campaigns include: Police Repression NYPD Checkpoint Surveillance Dollar Van and Cab Drivers Solidarity Campaign Community Patrol with East Flatbush Cop Watch Supporting the call for justice for the families Kimani Gray, Shantel Davis, Kyam Livingston and others who have endured police terror/murders Affordable Housing The compiling and sharing of Housing, Legal and Community Resources with East Flatbush and Flatbush residents Support of the campaigns of Flatbush Tenants Coalition, Crown Heights Tenants Unions and others NYC tenant organizing groups Anti-Gentrification BEFORE IT'S GONE // TAKE IT BACK: Documenting Brooklyn - Fighting Gentrification is a Brooklyn-wide project facebook.com/BeforeItsGoneTakeItBack Working with Prospect Park East Network and other groups to hold the developers of 626 Flatbush and the other luxury residential projects accountable to the residents of Flatbush In coalition with Movement To Protect the People and other groups against the Upzoning of Empire Blvd New Flatbush Resident Community Outreach Project Humbly, Imani Henry Lead Organizer, Equality for Flatbush Shoshana Brown Board Member, Equality for Flatbush Daliah Heller Collaborator, Before It's Gone//Take it Back Nevin Rao Organizer, Equality for Flatbush Roy Cherian Collaborator, Before It's Gone//Take it Back