Today's New York Daily News exposes how Corona is being inundated with luxury condos, forcing long-time working class residents to either leave or live in (illegally converted) basements:Cramped tenants priced out & fed up
The 7 train runs through the heart of that neighborhood, so immigrants, get out, yuppies please move in! How about tax breaks for working class families instead of for developers? The city thinks upzoning for Corona is a good idea. Queens Crap predicts a disaster.
Pictured is the Sanford House in Corona on 47th Avenue between 102nd and 104th Streets. Fortunately, it is landmarked and protected. Unfortunately, 99.95% of the rest of Corona isn't.
6 comments:
I guess that, on one hand, the city extolls the virtues of supporting immigration, and on the other hand, those same poor immigrants are offered little aid and are being kicked out of their "dormatories" in Corona via the practice of "upscale-development"! It seems that the city really doesn't want them occupying valuable, developable real estate in this neighborhood! They would never actually admit to this (except, perhaps, behind closed doors) because that would be politically incorrect. Hey, what are you worried about fellas, they're "illegals" and can't vote! So you can force them out to Nassau County!
Oh come on boys! If the unholy trinity (read politicians, developers and the media) notices the plight of the immigrants and poor folks it's because they are gearing up for another outrage. Are these the guys that had that mysterious conference in LIC recently about the need for 'affordable ...' I mean 'over development' that wonderfully coincided with that stupid scheme to roof over the Sunnyside Yards. Almost no one came from western Queens, but again, who needs local input unless it's the 'right' input carefully scripted?
Hummm. Reminds me of ACORN being the tip of the spear in Ratnerville in Brooklyn. Get a bunch of poorer minorities (sure to get sympathy in the press) to come into a community to legislate for more development. Remember, targeted interest groups that support the machine are far more important than troublesome constituants. When you cannot depend on the local population to follow the script, bring in the Hessians.
I too read about that conference on bringing in housing to LIC a few weeks ago and was puzzled about it. Who was behind that conference? How is it that people from outside our area knew that it was being planned and attended but no one from Astoria or Sunnyside was told? You would think with a half dozen newspapers someone would have reported about it beforehand, and they would have held meetings in the evenings so that we could go to hear what it was all about. Did our politicians know about this and our community boards? If they did, why didn't they tell us? If they were not told, why didn't they complain that their constituants were not told?
My God! I grew up there but haven't been back for almost 15 years. What the hell's going on there with $300,000 condos??? The old Corona I remember must be on some other planet.
That lovely "Carpenter Gothic" style house pictured in this posting is the "Sanford House". It's, fortunately, a certified & officially designated N.Y.C. Landmark! There used to be a wonderful old wooden fence surrounding the property at the time that it was Landmarked in keeping with the character of this home. (Note that a chain-link one has replaced it.) The owner had removed the original one in violation. I don't know if he was fined by LPC. But the law states that he must replace it! There are many other fine examples of gracious old homes in Corona, but the hunger for overdevelopment may soon eat them all up!
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