Sunday, May 4, 2008

Hunters Point Development

Dear Editor (Queens Chronicle):

Instead of adding more living units to Long Island City (5000 proposed units and a potential for 20,000 more people to this already overcrowded enclave); perhaps developers should support the infrastructure of this community which is greatly overburdened by the “gold rush” of building in the past five years.

The No. 7 line cannot support the number of people here now, and the area cannot support all the cars which would come with such a massive project. If each unit has one extra car, that would mean at least, 5,000 more cars in an area that is now teeming with people and cars. Who is concerned about the congestion here? Who is considering the pollution to an area that has been trying to clean up the pollution that the factories have left in their wake? Why is Mayor Michael Bloomberg eager to stick low cost housing in an area that is trying to define itself, how about putting it in midtown Manhattan?

Community hearings are a sham because the developers have such deep pockets, they have already decided before the months of hearings take place, that this is already a fete accompli.

There is still no supermarket in Long Island City, but buildings are being razed everyday to make room for yet another high rise rental or condo. Development of an area shouldn’t mean that developers determine what is put here rather than the community and city planners should be working together to discover how the community could be best served to support what already exists and to look to the future of the community.

We could certainly use schools to support the influx of the many children already in the neighborhood. We have tried to get a library built, which was the promise of Avalon Construction when they received an extra ten stories on their proposed building Avalon Riverview North. The library/community center was expected to be completed before the building was completed, but that never happened. Avalon got ten extra stories,free of charge, on their building and the community got skunked. Why is there no stiputlation for Avalon to remove those ten stories since they did not satisfy their end of the bargain? Developers seem to rule in our fair city while our voices are lost in the pages of all the hearings, those hearing which are merely to satisfy the propriety of governing, but are in reality, meaningless.

Marlene Dodes-Callahan
Long Island City

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marlene, so the No. 7 is already too crowded? Swim the East River.

Not enough Supermarkets? Start a garden; forget meat or raise chickens or hogs.

Schools too packed? Let the children watch educational TV. They would get a better education anyway.

Look. The Dearly Beloved Commissar needs overdevelopment so his own development company can get richer (they blame the oil companies for excessive profits? Check the books of developers!).

The Dearly Beloved wants to open this city to every illegal alien who can steal a car to get here.

He wants you, Marlene, to take care of them when they get here.

If the Commissar wants it, it's your civic duty to make him happy.

Quit complaining and adopt an alien family. Please, be responsible. The Commissar and the aliens have needs and sensitivities. More than you do.

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain and I agree that community hearings are a sham and so is Bloomberg's with his supposed philosophy of making government accountable. We have written to him and to others in his administration on numerous occasions and not once have we received a response. I count the days until he leaves office and pray that the character of "their targeted communities" is not totally altered before they depart. I have read a lot about Tony Avella’s and I hope he becomes our next Mayor. We need someone who feels the pain of the average citizen, the tax payer who contributed to making the communities desirable in the first place. We need to reinstate balance, give communities a say and restore our eroding quality of life because NYC is a city where overdevelopment has gone wild.

Anonymous said...

This letter has so many false statements I can't take it seriously. No one has proposed any "low cost" housing to be built anywhere, LIC has an existing C-Town that has been there for years and a new market is opening within the next couple of months. Parking garages are included in most new development plans. This letter is NIMBY misinformation at its worst.

Anonymous said...

Are the parking garages going to be free?

Anonymous said...

Where will the people going to the supermarket park their cars?

Queens Crapper said...

It's funny how this dude (or dudette) brings up C-Town. When I made the point that Hunters Point already has a supermarket, I was ridiculed, because 21st Street is "too far" from where all the shiny new condos are clustered. Now the same rejected C-Town is being used in a feeble attempt to argue this letter.

Anonymous said...

Some of the Hunters Point South units are being set aside for families with incomes as low as $60,000! That's $30,000 each! I'd call that low income!

Anonymous said...

The one this that is accurate in this letter is the following:

"Why is Mayor Michael Bloomberg eager to stick low cost housing in an area that is trying to define itself, how about putting it in midtown Manhattan?"

Everything else is BS.

Anonymous said...

You guys gotta start working with other groups in your part of the borough. All you guys are really sharing the same problems and have a hell of a lot more in common with each other than someone, in for example, Bayside.

Anonymous said...

What an unholy alliance that would be. The big difference is that we want large scale development of LIC and are not afraid of it.

Anonymous said...

The big difference is that we want large scale development of LIC and are not afraid of it.
------

Sure ... if you are a developer

Anonymous said...

How stupid can you be - agree to a library or a community space in exchange for shoehorning even more people in a community that can ill afford it? 10 stories? are you nuts?

Dont you people see what is going on in other communities, how people are fighting developers and no on trusts them.

Helll oooo

If you want a library or a community meeting space, the Congro Transmissions building, a former Masonic Hall and civil court building was an excellent example of something that is good for adaptive reuse.

Did anyone fight to save it? How about St Mary Senior Center?

Do your entire lives have to revolve around waiting for amenities from a developer land grab? Do you fools read the papers?

AAAAuuuggghhhhh.

What is wrong with you people? Have you now leaned anything?

Anonymous said...

The library is getting built. The whole project was subject to the usual types of delays. The land has been cleared and remediated and the design process is well underway. Why do people comment when they don't know what they are talking about? Whyyyyyyyyy?

Anonymous said...

Yea, and Santa Claus is coming to town.

Interesting how, by including all these 'amenities' in these developer land grabs, the developers a set to be the heros of a community.

So why can't you morons try to save some of the buildings to have a little soul and character in your community?

Or do you newcomers have such contempt for Queens that everything and every trace has to be bulldozed - like that front cover of that horrid booklet that shows the community a pile of rubble done by that Brooklyn group you hipsters so adore.

Anonymous said...

tall buildings good.
more apts good.
freshdirect good
7 train good.

Anonymous said...

yea
me tarzen
you jane.

ok, we have established the neanderthals like tall glittery buildings, how about the rest of you, that is, those that have moved beyond slash and burn in your cultural level.

Anonymous said...

I have read a lot about Tony Avella’s and I hope he becomes our next Mayor.

The Tony Avella that voted for the Suna landgrab of three 50 story buildings on the watefront?

Ah huh

Anonymous said...

The Tony Avella who aligned himself with Charles Barron to name city streets after racist hatemongerer Sonny Carson?

Anonymous said...

LIC is adjacent to Manhattan.

That's a stark and frightening geographic fact, in this particular case.

And that's it's real problem.

The greedy opportunists who want to make vast sums of money off of real estate development have chosen LIC (along with Greenpoint, Williamsburg,etc.)for it's close proximity to the "golden isle".

Sadly, I'm afraid very little can be done to prevent the tidal wave of over development from
obliterating these neighborhoods.

I'm not a defeatist, just a realist. I wish it could be otherwise but it probably won't.

But I do say FIGHT UNTIL THE END
and NEVER GIVE UP even when you're low on ammo, tactics, troops etc!
It's still our homes!

"Go not gently into that darkness,
but rage and rage and rage"!!!

Anonymous said...

Your statements are based on emotion rather than sound research. This project has been in the planning stages for over a decade, since well before the current administration. If you took 5 minutes to read about the project, you would see that there is substantial supporting retail planned (the Amish Market is opening this summer), public school, parkland, etc. There's no "low cost" housing, although part of the project will include housing for lower-income households. BTW, how do you get 20,000 people out of 5,000 units? The avg. size household in LIC is approx. 2 persons/household. Do you really think there will be 1 car/household? If so, the pollution generated will still be better than the environmental disaster on the Pepsi site that Rockrose cleaned up (at no cost to you). Stop your whining and do some research before making misleading statements.

Anonymous said...

"BTW, how do you get 20,000 people out of 5,000 units? The avg. size household in LIC is approx. 2 persons/household. Do you really think there will be 1 car/household?"

Married couple moves into LIC, has 2 kids. Now they need a car. Case closed. Amish Market is not a practical or affordable place to shop for food for many people. And Rockrose is STILL sloppily cleaning that site up with gigantic tax credits, so there was a cost to me: not only in dollars but also possibly my health. Substantial supporting retail? I am not holding my breath in this economy.

Unknown said...

So here we are, almost 2015 seven years after my first posting and there is still no library or community center even though there has been a formal ceremony and groundbreaking and tons of money set aside for this project. The bids have gone up but no longer fit the budgeted monies set aside. Many more buildings have proliferated and the Food Cellar market, not Amish, has been raking the community over the coals. Finally an upscale Keyfood has opened , also not great. There are babies everywhere and yes those 20000 more people are here and cramming their bodies onto the 7 platform each morning since no infrastructure was built or considered to ease this enormous burden on one train. Yes, one can take the ferry to 34 th street at a greater price and more travel time. Those who have responded to my first posting anonymously, might not want to assume that I haven't done the research or do not care deeply about my community or the environment. Yes, change is inevitable but I believe that a community has the right and responsibility to make meaningful choices about those changes not be bulldozed. Since much of this land was owned by the city, the city planners had a vision for it 25 or 30 years ago. What that looked like is very different from the present result, sadly. Green spaces became almost non existent so developers could broaden their projects. Artists can no longer afford this community so many have moved to other neighborhoods or out of the state and the newest "middle" income high rises with at least 1000 new apartments are about to open.Parking is a nightmare even with the many new garages and yes, people do have cars. Many more than one. The one thing considered was schools , some new ones were built and opened.
Also, during hurricane Sandy our waterfront and streets were flooded because the sewers cannot handle the enormous overload. What will happen in future storms? Overdeveloped waterfront is at greater risk because of the many more people who would have to evacuate our deteriorating roads, rails and bridges. No community lives in a vacuum.