Saturday, December 8, 2012

Hotels keep coming to Dutch Kills


From the Wall Street Journal:

Even before the financial downturn ended the last building boom, some residents of the Dutch Kills section of Long Island City were lobbying to curb the number of hotels that were being built in the Queens neighborhood. They wanted to discourage hotels rising in the middle of blocks comprised mostly of small one- and two-family homes and to promote the creation of more housing.

City officials did change the zoning in much of Dutch Kills in late 2008 to allow for noncommercial construction and limit building heights, but the area continues to see interest from hotel developers. In addition to 10 hotels that are already open, three more are under construction and two others are planned.

Residents still have mixed feelings about the number of hotels built and in the pipeline. Many locals would like the neighborhood to be on the map for other New Yorkers, not just for tourists passing in and out of the city.


I thought that UPZONING, UPZONING, UPZONING! was supposed to put an end to this. Be careful what you lobby for. You just may get it.

5 comments:

Nora from Dutch Kills said...

"Residents still have mixed feelings about the number of hotels built"

Typical pro-development garbage found in the newspapers.

With the exception of George and his home-boys in Dutch Kills Civic (you can count on one hand) the rest of the community is ADAMANTLY opposed to hotels.

While the cultural groups in western Queens are mostly starved for funds DKCA once had meeting where they asked ideas on how to spend their funds.

Tells you a lot about the politicians in western Queens and who they build up and why they build them up.

Anonymous said...

Wadda ya expect?
The western shore of Queens is Manhattan East!
There's no denying that any more.

The tsunami of over development hasn't even begun to hit full strength yet.

Prepare for the oncoming tidal surge of building, building, and yet even more building!

The old intimate neighborhoods are fated to disappear. Evacuate now!

You cannot turn back the clock on "progress".

Maybe it's time to move further east if a quieter lifestyle is required by you.

These facts are hard to face...but it's far worse to get caught in a trap that you can't get out of later.

Anonymous said...

You cannot turn back the clock on "progress".

Maybe it's time to move further east if a quieter lifestyle is required by you.

These facts are hard to face...but it's far worse to get caught in a trap that you can't get out of later.
---

Where are you - stuck in a 1960 time warp?

Anonymous said...

I don't understand the 1960s time warp comment? The author is correct-- move east if you need trees and houses. LIC is going to be built up to Manhattan standards over the next 20 years.

Nora from Dutch Kills said...

Urban renewal, displacing a community so that others can get enriched, elected officials that give lip service (I am spending money on your community said Baloney Maloney when the money is spent UNDER the community to help Long Island commuters) and finally, a civic leadership that treats its own community as ignorant serfs to be bought and sold.

Yea, that is 1960.

The world has moved on and sooner or later, so will Queens.