Girls' High: Keeping public space public

For more than 140 years the Girls' High School Campus has stood as a cornerstone of public education, opportunity and community life in Brooklyn. Recently, our local city council representative, along with other city officials, fast-tracked a plan to take public land for private use at this historic site, without community input or transparency.

This was an intentional plan, designed to avoid meaningful community engagement, ignoring the voices and needs of the residents it will most affect. The proposal advanced while purposely bypassing key oversight processes and without a full assessment of the impact on Bed-Stuy's infrastructure, environmental health, public transit, drainage systems and overall community wellbeing.

We believe development should be community-led, transparent and accountable to residents. We have worked together to propose alternative sites for housing development within the neighborhood, which were rejected.

Since 1886, the Girls' High School Campus has served as an engine of racial equity and economic mobility in New York. Founded to provide education to women at a time when their instruction was largely ignored, the institution later expanded its mission to empower generations of Black and brown communities. Today, it continues to serve thousands of New Yorkers, nurturing the seeds of upward mobility and boasting a legendary roster of alumnae that includes Shirley Chisholm, Lena Horne, Roxie Roker, and Gwendolyn B. Bennett—a living legacy that our community is fiercely committed to expanding.

According to the New York Times, in 1895 it was "the ambition of every Brooklyn girl" to attend Girls' High School, where students received a rigorous college-preparatory education in the sciences, languages, mathematics, and humanities.

In response to unchecked environmental risks, bypassed public oversight, and the explicit rejection of local alternatives, we have submitted an Article 78 petition in Kings County Supreme Court challenging the community engagement process, as well as the rezoning and disposition approvals for the Girls' High School Campus. This legal proceeding seeks to hold public agencies accountable by demanding a judicial review of whether the City's actions violated legal requirements for transparency, environmental review, and a fair, lawful public review process.

Sign our petition and join us in protecting public land on the Girls' High School Campus, keeping it a community asset in support of a thriving neighborhood and city.