NEW YORK—A showdown between the Bloomberg administration and City Council is looming as more than half of the Council has pledged to vote no on the Willets Point Development Plan.
Around 100 affordable housing advocates protested at City Hall on Monday, including City Council members, Queens residents, the Queens for Affordable Housing Coalition (Q A HC) and the Association of Communities for Reform Now (ACORN) rallied, marched, and set up a symbolic tent town, as they demanded Bloomberg’s administration withdraw its proposed redevelopment plan for the Willets Point area of Queens, and make major changes.
The two key issues they have with the plan is the affordable housing promised by the plan is not actually affordable to local residents, and that those small businesses and workers who will have to move out of the area will not be fairly compensated. The bigger issue being that they don’t feel that Mayor Bloomberg has done enough to provide “real” affordable housing in New York, while venturing into another big public spending project that does nothing for those on the poverty line.
“The average Queens family does not make enough money to afford even the lower-end affordable housing in this plan,” ACORN spokesman Evan Thies said. “That’s outrageous.”
Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial plan to redevelop Willets Point into an up-market residential and commercial zone is up for vote on November 12th in City Council.
The possible use of eminent domain to force some 250 businesses out is the main objection of most council members.
About 1,000 apartment units of the planned 5,500 are to be in the affordable housing range, as opposed to market-rate housing. However, according to ACORN, those will not be affordable to the majority of Queen’s residents, or to the vast majority of residents who live nearby the project, where the median income is nearly ten thousand dollars a year less than the borough average.
“Currently the plan calls for 20 percent affordable housing, but we certainly can expand dialog with the community board and these folks,” said Joseph Pally from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) who are spearheading the plan.
“It is wrong for the Bloomberg administration to push ahead with a plan that gives away so many City resources when New Yorkers are getting so little in return,” said NY ACORN President Mrs. Pat Boone. “That is why, without true commitments to affordable housing and protections for workers, the City Council has called this plan dead on arrival.”
The 60-block area consists of small businesses, auto mechanics, and junkyards, employing a total of approximately 1500 – 1700 workers.
Retraining is being offered through La Guardia College to business owners and workers who will have to pack up.
“It’s important for us that we not forget the men and women who are working in Willets Point today,” Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber said last week as he unveiled the job program.
On The Plus Side of the New Development
The 60-acre area is currently polluted, due to its history as a coal ash dump, and continues to be polluted. In 2001, the State Attorney General announced the indictment of 21 junkyards and 35 individuals for violating State environmental laws by dumping motor oil, antifreeze, transmission fluid, and other vehicle fluids onto the ground and into storm drains and Flushing Bay.
The United States Green Building Council designated Willets Point as a pilot project based on the City’s commitment to creating an environmentally friendly neighborhood and protecting the waterways that surround it.
Pally from the EDC says 5,000 permanent jobs will be created in the new development, and 18,000 to 20,000 project construction jobs. Construction would last several years.
They promise permanent jobs in a diverse array of sectors including retail, office, entertainment, restaurant, education and hospitality, among others.
As well as new housing, new public parks and playgrounds would be created in the plan, a new school, a community space, retail and entertainment amenities, a convention center, and a hotel.
