The fourth land grab in Queens is underway, as you read this.
All of this development has avoided upgrading the municipal infrastructure which the new population would require – cops, fire department, sewerage, hospitals, schools. If you’re walking through one of the glorious new waterfront parks in Hunters Point, and you suddenly grab at your chest, where the FDNY ambulance will take you is either Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, the Mount Sinai hospital on Crescent street in Astoria, or out to Elmhurst hospital. FDNY’s fire fighting apparatus in western Queens was designed for industrial fires, and the 108th precinct is housed in a tiny 19th century building which still has horse stables. The sewer plant servicing this gargantuan residential population was opened by Fiorella LaGuardia in 1936. Our transit needs far outweigh current capability. There are not enough school desks. Don’t get me started on the environmental legacy of all that industry which used to be here. The buildings being erected in the photos in today’s posts are on the site of a former chemical factory in Queens Plaza, for instance.
Simply put, “gentrification” is nothing new in Western Queens and it’s been going on since at least the Civil War. The “G bomb” has already been dropped, and it has gone off. A looming infrastructure crisis is just beginning.
7 comments:
Gentrification is so not the word for it. Hello, it's nearly all foreign Chinese living there or building it,
The rezoning tactics are like a carpet bombing version of gentrification.
" Our transit needs far outweigh current capability."
Yeah but they'll soon have a $2.5 Billion trolley to nowhereville thanks to the dope.
I'll take "gentrification" over diversity any day of the week
Response to "I'll take "gentrification" over diversity any day of the week"
Gentrification and Diversity are the same thing - they just use bigger words to complicate simple minds.
"Its nearly all foreign Chinese living there"
I didnt know the entitled self-satisfied White guys living in L.I.C were foreign born Chinese.
@anonymous. Ever been around a bunch of 65 IQ non-Whites when they talk about gentrification? They mean the area is getting Whiter. Williamsburg gentrified. It got Whiter. Crime went down. Be careful who you call simple minded
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