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Read the press release here.

Christmas Lights Bring Seasonal Anti-Gentrification Message to Bushwick

By Gwynne Hogan | December 28, 2015 4:19pm
 Twenty-one signs in businesses and homes across Bushwick decry the rapid-fire gentrification of the neighborhood.
Twenty-one signs in businesses and homes across Bushwick decry the rapid-fire gentrification of the neighborhood.
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Courtesy of Mi Casa No Es Su Casa

BUSHWICK — A lifelong resident of Bushwick tired of being hassled by developers eager to flip her family's Green Avenue House is hosting a Christmas message against gentrification.

"It just really got me angry," said Pati Rodriguez, 33, who grew up in the house. She said that several times a month her family would be barraged by fliers, letters and phone calls.

When developers started calling the family business, she'd had enough. She joined other community members to create "Mi Casa No Es Su Casa: Illumination Against Gentrification," a project in which 21 illuminated signs decorated with Christmas lights serve as a public protest.

Her home joins two bodegas, several other homeowners and tenants who have the decorations hung from their properties. The messages range from "No Me Mudo" [I'm Not Moving] or "No Eviction Zone" to "Not 4 Sale" and "3 Generation Home."

The signs went up late last week and will stay lit into the new year.

"It's not like we're going to protest in Midtown Manhattan," said Rodriguez. "[This is] straight from the houses of the people who are affected and that's the power of this art protest."

The signs were built in collaboration with Mayday Community Space and the NYC Light Brigade and funded through a GoFundMe campaign.

Organizers hoped the signs would spark conversation in the neighborhood.

"They cant be ignored, you can't walk by and not read [them]," said Bruno Daniel, 28, a community organizer involved in the project. 

"The signs make the invisible visible."