Sunday, January 20, 2008

Dutch Kills development opposition

A large and vocal contingent of Dutch Kills residents expressed mounting frustration and anger over unchecked development in their neighborhood at a town hall meeting last week.

A list of grievances to city officials, particularly those of the Department of City Planning, were presented at a January 10 town hall meeting held by Assemblymember Michael Gianaris and the United Community Civic Association (UCCA) at the Museum of the Moving Image.


Dutch Kills Residents At Town Hall Oppose Development

But it was the development of two large buildings, with 144 and 122 residential units, respectively, and no parking, that led Stamatiades to raise his voice.

"I need help, my community needs help," he said. "Somebody has got to stop this lunacy."

The fact that parking requirements for the two buildings had been waived by the Department of Buildings was especially galling to Stamatiades. "I'm telling you, you are the New York City Department of Developers Association," he fumed.

The Department of City Planning has proposed rezoning for Dutch Kills that is supposed to aid the residential development of affordable housing, which the community has supported. But approval for the plan has bogged down and certification of the rezoning is not scheduled until this spring.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

People like Stamadiades ......
AND GEORGE DELIS (and CB#1 from hell).....
have remained silent for many years
regarding the over development of the area.

They both had a lot to GAIN from it.
One buries the dead while the other
sells them real estate.....very lucrative professions.....wouldn't you say?

NOW that it might be
AFFECTING THEIR BUSINESSES....
they have found their consciences
hiding somewhere in their shoes.....
and are becoming veritable loud mouths
of protest!

Too little .....too late......
you lazy spinless opportunists!

I guess that the "prominent" Greek
businesses in the nabe are afraid of the onslaught
of (non Greek?) hipsters about to invade their turf
and usurp control of their Astoria/Dutch Kills
business domain!

Hey Stammy.....
look ahead and open up a Starbucks franchise
next door to the florist in your funeral home.....
where grieving widows etc.
can pause for a sip of java and munchies
to break up the day.

Anonymous said...

Stamatiades and Walsh are responsible for bringing in the developers into the community (to say nothing of Mickeljohn and another one of her little 'studies' whose conclusions, more immigrants and more development, are defined before a word is written.)

George and Jerry egged on the people (you want to add that extra story right?) and outside developers show up with plans for 11 or 14 stories.

Now they tell everyone to stay quiet and push through quickly the city's plan.

Wall after wall of 15 story buildings.

Get rid of George and Jerry and stop the rezoning.