From the Daily News:A developer selected to build a high-tech veterans center in Queens revealed plans on Friday to place new medical facilities next to housing and green space, riling veterans groups whose demands they say were disregarded.
The Daily News learned the plans of developer St. Albans Village LLC - run by a prominent local pastor - after five years of rumors about the fate of the site at 179th St. and Linden Blvd.
Veterans groups had called for a hospice and a women's shelter. They also wanted the entire plot to remain veterans property, instead of allowing a private group develop 25 of 55 acres.
The Rev. Edwin Reed, pastor of Morris Brown AME Church in South Ozone Park, said he will listen to the veterans' concerns. But he said his group will stick with the federal government's original call for a 221-bed facility.
"I'm really ticked off," said Pat Toro, president of the Queens chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America. "They didn't pay attention to any of the things we wanted."
Reed previously served as a minister at Greater Allen AME Cathedral. Its pastor, the Rev. Floyd Flake, was embroiled in controversy this year over ethical problems relating to his group's winning bid to run an Aqueduct racino.
Reed insisted Flake is not involved in the St. Albans plans.
3 comments:
What else is new? It's been 40 years and Viet Nam Veterans are still being dissed by dickhead politicians
Nope; who are these "veterans" that demanded a hospice and women's shelter?? Sounds like Obama social engineering to me. Interview some real vets (as opposed to south queens "reverends") who just want decent health care. Also, federal property all over the country is being excessed so that WE TAXPAYERS (that includes vets, right?) don't have to pay for it anymore. Semper Fi.
You just know that in Bloomberg's New York more than half the property would be hived off to enrich private developers.
Thos veterans were fools to think anything else was possible.
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