The LIC Coalition’s vision for 44th Drive.
March 2, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
A rally protesting the city’s plans to bring a massive mixed-use project on 44th Drive will be taking place tomorrow at the very site eyed for development.
The community rally, with the tagline “This Land is Our Land”, will begin at midday at 44th Drive and Vernon Boulevard. A number of local civic groups are expected to appear, including the LIC Coalition, which organized the rally, the Hunters Point Civic Association, and the Justice for All Coalition.
Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer (D- Sunnyside) and Assemblymember Cathy Nolan (D- Long Island City), who have voiced their opposition to the city’s plans, will also be attending, along with some members of Community Board 2.
Locals and elected leaders will demand that the city use “public land for public use”, like open space, schools, job training centers, and more. Currently, the city’s Economic Development Corporation has plans to bring 1,000 units (25 percent affordable) in two towers scaling over 500 feet on two publicly-owned parcels, along with thousands of square feet of commercial and industrial space.
The LIC Coalition said the rally will be a chance to demand that the city embark on true comprehensive planning for the area, and to listen to the community rather than the EDC.
An EDC spokesperson told the LIC Post that they’re proud of their project, and look forward to continued discussions with the community on how to make the project better.
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Regarding any major real estate dealings, keep this in mind:
The destruction of schools, libraries, historic buildings and the manufactured gentrification (hyper-gentrification on steroids) causing massive displacement of tenants, lack of affordable housing and record numbers of closures of small businesses throughout the city are a direct result of REBNY’s (Real Estate Board of New York) rezoning policies. The Mayor, City Council Speaker(s), Economic Development Corporation and City Department of Planning are all schilling for the super-wealthy developers, property speculators and landlords. Learn more at stopREBNYbullies.org
Not to be pedantic, but mist style guides and news organizations from AP to Reuters to BBC all advise not to use today, tomorrow, yesterday, but the specific day (e.g. Monday) or the numeric date to avoid confusion and extra work for the reader. If an article is written on Monday but published Tuesday it Wednesday what is tomorrow referring to? In this article when you’re referring to a specific event (a rally) why not be precise and give the date?
So the demands that the city (tax payer) foot the bill for a public space with various community services in lieu of private development is flawed imo. First 1/4 mile north and south of this location sits two large parks each with some of the amenities that the protesters want. Second it will be pure cost and upkeep with zero tax revenue going to an already mismanaged bureaucracy (NYC). Third the city is notorious for overspending and under performing. Just look at the Hunters Point library and our transportation system.
A joint private/public space is the way to go but concessions from all must be made. We all have demands and agendas but progress is best obtained by moving forward in a realistic fashion. Drop political posturing and get real.
Someone tell these NIMBYs to pipe down, there’s a shortage of luxury condos in LIC.
The ones who might want to consider getting real are the developers and the EDC. It’s in their court to reach out and try to make proper concession if they want the community on-board. I wouldn’t call that political posturing. Those are demands by the community.
How about a COMMUNITY CENTER & PARK with the wetlands protecting LIC against Storm Flooding. This would make sense.
Or just a park anywhere? I’m not a NYC native so technically part of the problem of yuppies moving into Astoria/LIC. But the place needs green space for people to just enjoy life. There’s already been enough construction in LIC to turn it into a new Manhattan, at least try to keep part of it nice.
The plan is basically to “bust” the use of our–we own it–NYC land zoned for light manufacturing and our Department of Education building which is intensely useful as a plant for distribution and training for DOE buildings upkeep–1.1 million pupils need a lot of equipment and building personnel–and convert this to ANOTHER set of high rises housing for short term rentals, that we don’t need, for further crowding of our scant resources–schools and transportation, security and infrastructure.
The rally might be misdirected to “grab” the DOE building, for the “student training” purpose, on the “plan,” which would be underutilized, then easily flipped to luxury housing.
There are many hazards here: the “Wetlands” were and are a hazard for the DOE building–a pond hard adjacent to a brick/cement building????
Mosquitoes as neighbors?? C’mon.
So people are mad that the city wants to develop land that the community has done nothing with ever?
What’s the community board’s alternative proposal? There probably is none, they just want it to sit as a craphole.
Locals and elected leaders will demand that the city use “public land for public use”, like open space, schools, job training centers, and more
Turn the land into high rise homeless shelters moved the 154 families in the fairveiw, all the single men from the Best Western and the City View into the new high rise. Have cameras installed,armed guards, nutritionist, a yoga instructor and a drug counselor on site and have the city pay $1500 prk month with the tenant paying $500 per month. Even if they beg on the streets they can raise $500 per month, Oh wait forgot not if they are chemically dependant and addicts. Have the people living there be screened properly, have them work on the project so that they take pride in their new homes, that could work don’t you think?
The community has tried to do many things with it, but they can’t just start building on it… also, it’s not like the community is saying screw youbto development. They’re just saying that they don’t want a dump of more housing units without input from the community, especially when the land in question is city land, not private! Seems reasonable for a community to want to push for the land to be used in a way that will benefit the people who live here rather than developers. Sounds like the above posts were posted and liked by developers, not community members.
Developer’s time would be better spent reaching out to the community and finding acceptable compromising rather than spending their time trying to defend their proposals and pretending like it is a polarizing for the community on blogs. It’s not, and the voices that they will continue to heat are not thumbs up or down on a blog, it will be the louder and louder noise that the community will make until they start to take it seriously. Unless they want to put their plans at risk, then they can continue to pretend like it’s not a problem that the community will take seriously. Could be simple?