NEW YORK—Queens council member and mayoral candidate Tony Avella visited the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Manhattan Chinatown Wednesday afternoon. He promised that if elected mayor, he would work with the residents and prevent over-development.
At the event, he touched upon several issues that have rubbed the Chinatown community the wrong way.
The closing of Park Row after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 has created traffic congestion in Chinatown. Park Row houses the police headquarters, which was deemed a possible terrorist target. Its closure made driving between Civic Center and Chinatown difficult and sent commuters on a roundabout route.
Residents of Chatham Towers and Chatham Green also have limited access to their street. As mayor, Avella said he would reopen Park Row as Chinatown residents have proposed.
The city transportation department’s efforts to reroute the traffic also came under fire by the locals, who said they were not being fully involved in the discussion. The community boards drew their own plan, which they say improves pedestrian safety and visibility.
He wants to reform the way the city interacts with citizens when making a decision. “Now it’s a top-down approach. We need to change that to bottom-up...Nobody knows a neighborhood better than the people who live and work there, and that’s a philosophical change that I would like to implement as Mayor.”
The skyrocketing real estate prices in Chinatown and the Lower East Side have led to dishonest and illegal practices by landlords. Some landlords take advantage of loopholes in the law and language barriers to push residents out. Avella promised to stop over-development and keep the neighborhood’s character.
“What I'd like to do is make [the affordable housing baseline] based on the neighborhood median income,” he said. “That way, it will be truly affordable.” The current formula is based on an area median income, which includes the incomes of Westchester and Long Island residents. That inflates the figures.
Avella has spoken extensively with the Chinese community in the city. When Falun Gong practitioners were assaulted in Flushing, Queens, last summer for their spiritual belief, Avella stood by them. He donned a Falun Gong t-shirt and challenged attackers to come after him. Falun Gong practitioners have been under attack by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Over the years, the persecution has extended overseas by instigators acting on behalf of the Chinese regime.
Reporting by Jianguo Wu.
