From the Queens Chronicle:The city’s announcement that the burgeoning and long-contested development project at Willets Point would not be proceeding as originally outlined and the lack of sufficient affordable housing for the middle- and lower-income families living in the borough led about 100 distraught residents to pack a Queens Housing Coalition meeting on Nov. 20 in Jackson Heights.
The Willets Point Redevelopment Plan was approved by the City Council in 2008 and included the construction of 5,500 mixed-income residential units, 2,000 of which were to be affordable housing.
This past June, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the affordable housing plan would be delayed until 2025.
“We just want the mayor to remember the promise he made about affordable housing at Willets Point,” said QHC’s coordinator Ivan Contreras. “We feel betrayed.”
You too? Welcome to the club! See, this was the old bait-and-switch. Convince activists that they will get something they want in return for their support of the project. (Extra points if the activists have skin that's a color other than white and especially if they are bilingual.) Once the project is in motion, pull the rug out from under them. And there are suckers that fall for it every time.
The Wilpons don't want to build affordable housing. They want to make money. Period. end of story. Wake up, Queens.
8 comments:
When are they going to put that old cow "granny" Shulman to pasture in a 50 gallon drum?
LOL!
Could she fit in one?
Yes the all mighty $$$ destroying Flushing one new "Crappy" building at a time. This weekend I took a walk on Northern Blvd. from 162nd St. to Main St. and saw all the "Crap" for myself. I could not count the number of illegal basement apartments and paved over front yards.
Where is the D.O.B. ?
Illegal basement apartments you say?
The Department of Bribe-taking...DOB...is far too busy collecting payoffs.
Maybe a call to FDNY will get quicker action.
Then there's always a phone call to ICE.
There might be illegals living there.
Hey. no problem.
According to the Vallones, TONS of affordable housing will be built on Halletts Point.
Also lots of neighborhood stuff to win the hearts of locals like senior centers and restaurants.
And when all those western Queens hotels need a retrofit in a few years they will make marvelous SROs.
Broken promises? Say it isn't so!!!
When will morons in this city ever learn? Whenever the developers and politicians have a big project in the works, and one of the things they absolutely guarantee is "affordable housing", YOU CAN BE GUARANTEED that the one thing you WON'T be getting out of the deal is affordable housing.
just the fake name Queens Housing Coalition should tell you it's crap. anything to do with housing rights is locked down in Queens. ask the bastard who works at the Citywide Task Force on Housing Court in the Housing Court on Sutphin Boulevard. he rats out tenants to landlord's attorneys. A low life snitch. Gives wrong information to tenants on purpose. ever wonder how he wound up in that wheelchair? ask him who has the money from the bank robbery he participated in. He was shot while committing a crime and was paralyzed.
Has ANYONE actually EVER defined or refined the term "affordable housing" (in precise legal terms) to indicate it's real meaning?
It seems that the "affordable" concept is rather open ended. Exactly WHO is it "affordable" to?
If I clear about $260,000 a year, my "affordable housing" would be located on Park Avenue!
Try substituting "middle income" or "low income" and see what flies at the next developer's presentation!
On the other hand, if I earn only $30,000 a year, I live in public housing...a project in the ghetto.
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