In a decision dated Feb. 28, New York’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development blocked the sale of the 100-unit building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. The building, widely known as “Sedgwick and Cedar,” houses the community room where the legendary DJ Kool Herc introduced a then burgeoning Hip Hop culture to his Bronx neighbors in the early 70’s.
“This is a precedent-setting move,”Senator Charles E. Schumer told the New York Times. “It means this building can’t be bought for this huge amount and be flipped.”
While various groups lobbied to save the building due to its historical significance, it was ultimately a statute against regentrification that saved the building. The high-rise has an estimated value of $7.5 million and the bid made by the building’s potential new owner exceeded that amount so much, that it became a “red flag” of sorts to the local housing authorities.
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“It’s not just about 1520, it’s about all affordable housing,” said DJ Kool Herc. Herc, whose real name is Clive Campbell, is a second-generation immigrant from Jamaica. His family was one of the many who took advantage of the low-cost housing that buildings such as 1520 Sedgwick provide. Herc was mistakenly named in a series of unrelated stories in February, when another New York man named Clive Campbell filed a $5 billion reparations claim against Barclay’s and the owners of the New Jersey Nets, who are involved in a similar regentrification effort in Brooklyn.
