Tenants Together To Offer Voices
Concerned about a rising cost of living in Ridgewood, a group of neighborhood residents are banding together to look for ways to keep the community affordable.
The Ridgewood Tenants Union was formed earlier this year in response to the neighborhood’s “hypergentrification,” according to one of its co-founders, Raquel Namuche, a long-time Ridgewood resident.
“In Bushwick, the neighborhood shifted gradually,” Namuche told the Times Newsweekly in a phone interview Monday, July 21. But in Ridgewood, she said, changes seem “to be happening more drastically.”
“All neighborhoods go through changes in different shifts. We understand that’s got to happen,” she added. “But it seems to be happening [in Ridgewood] at a faster pace.”
Linking up through social media websites, Namuche and two other area residents-Manny Jalonschi and Katy Knight-began meeting to look at rising rents and zoning changes and explore ways to react to them.
“Our overall goal is to create some sort of transparency with the zoning process and the development that’s happening more and more in Ridgewood,” Namuche said. “We want to build an organized response to luxury developments that may come down the line. We think it’s a way to preserve the neighborhood’s affordability, culture and history.”
Rent increases, in particular, are a major concern for the Ridgewood Tenants Union. According to Namuche, some landlords are looking to cash in on Ridgewood’s growing popularity by charging high rents comparable to gentrified areas of Bushwick, where a studio apartment can go for about $1,800 a month.
Higher rents and luxury apartments built on what was formerly industrial lots in Ridgewood could price many neighborhood mainstays out of the community, she indicated.
“I think it’s unfair to have these speculators and developers, all of a sudden, rush into Ridgewood,” Namuche added. “We’ve seen value in Ridgewood all along. For all of that to be threatened just because, all of a sudden, Ridgewood seems like the next big thing seems unfair.”
Having already launched Twitter and Facebook pages, the Ridgewood Tenants Union is building a website, www.ridgewoodtenantsunion.org, to serve as a community resource. Namuche said the site will include information on tenants’ legal rights and links to legal services.
Looking ahead, Namuche hopes the union will hold a town hall forum to spark a dialogue between local residents and businesses with elected officials.
The Ridgewood Tenants Union reached out to City Council Member Antonio Reynoso, who shares with City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley representation of the neighborhood.
Namuche mentioned Crowley and Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan as two other lawmakers the union hopes to engage in its campaign.
“We’re looking for allies and different stakeholders to have a say in how Ridgewood is shaped,” Namuche stated. “We all live in Ridgewood and we should all have a say in how our neighborhood develops.”
For more information on the Ridgewood Tenants Union, follow its Twitter page, @RidgewdTenantsU, or its Facebook page (search Ridgewood Tenants Union).
