Two acres of tweeding at Willets Point

From Willets Point United:

A new video released by Willets Point United demands that the de Blasio administration act before a December 2018 contractual deadline, to protect taxpayers’ interests by reclaiming two acres of Willets Point property which the Bloomberg administration gave to Queens Development Group.

In the video (below), Willets Point property owner Irene Prestigiacomo explains the give-away of the two acres to Queens Development Group; the comprehensive development project which the property was supposed to facilitate; the court decision that effectively prevents that project from proceeding; the contractual provision that allows the City to take back the property under present circumstances; the lack of action by the de Blasio administration thus far to reclaim the property; and City officials’ fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers to do so before the deadline lapses.

Ms. Prestigiacomo asks (06:38): "As corrupt as this City sometimes can be, have we really reached the point where a developer can keep public property worth tens of millions, without delivering any of the project that was the basis for it to receive the property in the first place?"

AG comes up with bogus reason for mall support

From the Queens Chronicle:

After the Chronicle mentioned that Schneiderman has received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from members of the Queens Development Group — a joint venture between Sterling Equities and the Related Companies — a Schneiderman spokesman, Doug Cohen, cited innocuous government interests as the real reason the Office of the Attorney General is involved.

“As the lawyer for the State, OAG is acting at the request of State [Department of Environmental Conservation] and the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, which identified State interests related to future environmental clean-ups, and the proper uses of parkland,” he said.

Developer illegally demolished affordable housing

From DNA Info:

A major developer that demolished a residential building by falsely telling the city it didn't contain any rent-regulated apartments should compensate for the lost units by constructing new, permanently affordable ones, local officials say.

Last week, representatives for The Related Companies attended a Community Board 4 land use committee meeting hoping to secure the board’s support to construct a mixed-use building at a five-lot site at the southeast corner of West 23rd Street and 11th Avenue currently owned and operated by U-Haul.

But ever since the committee discovered that Related filed false information with the city’s Department of Buildings allowing the developer to raze a residential building at 500 W. 28th St. in the Special West Chelsea District that shouldn’t have been demolished, the board has been “very upset,” committee co-chair Betty Mackintosh said.

Department of Housing Preservation and Development records show that the West 28th Street building housed six apartment units before its demolition — at least one of which was rent-controlled or rent-stabilized, according to a letter CB4 plans to send to the DOB.

AG Schneiderman lobbied on mall in park; submits court brief in favor

Dear Editor (Queens Chronicle):

(An open letter to state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman)

For many years I and many other residents of Queens have fought to protect the integrity of Flushing Meadows Corona Park as an urban park. We successfully defeated an attempt to construct around Meadow Lake in the park a Grand Prix racetrack. We were not successful in opposing the usurpation of parkland for the USTA stadiums and their expansions. We made it clear we would oppose any attempt to place in the park a soccer or hockey stadium.

There is currently pending before the New York State Court of Appeals, our highest state court, litigation that seeks to prevent the construction of a 1.4 million-square-foot shopping mall on the parking lot adjacent to the Citi Field stadium, on the grounds the lot is on land that is part of FMCP and there can be no alienation of parkland without New York State legislative approval and the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure before the community boards whose areas touch upon the park. The developers claim that with regard to use of the Citi Field parking lot they have no obligation to seek legislative approval nor any requirement to engage in the ULURP process. While we lost our case in the lower court, our attorney, John Low-Beer, was successful before the Appellate Division First Department in having the lower court reversed and construction of the mall prohibited. The developers then appealed to the Court of Appeals.

We recently became apprised of the fact that you as attorney general of New York State have injected yourself into the litigation and are submitting an amicus curiae brief in support of the developers and their projected mega mall. We find your 11th-hour entry into this litigation indeed strange, given that at no time while the issue was being debated before the public was there any participation by you or your office. As the attorney general we expect you to be the defender of the public trust doctrine as it relates to parkland. We are certain you are familiar that in the past the AG office has invoked the public trust doctrine in the cases of Friends of Van Cortlandt Park v. City of New York and Capruso v. Village of Kings Point. We fail to understand how you differentiate a mega mall on parkland from the cited cases.

We do not know if your initiative was prompted by yourself or as the result of lobbying from the developers or at the behest of Gov. Cuomo, who in the past has sought to settle the pending litigation and permit a mall. In this connection, we think it relevant and important to take note of the fact that, according to the Board of Elections’ website, Sterling Equities, Sterling Mets LP, Related Companies, Stephen M. Ross, Kara Ross, Jeff T. Blau and Lisa Blau — all related in various ways with the developers of the mall project — have contributed to election campaigns of both you and Cuomo a total of $187,300 since 2010. That is a large amount, which raises serious questions regarding the obligation of both you and the governor to protect the interests of your constituents and not that of billionaire real estate moguls.

Benjamin M. Haber
Flushing

Related buying Astoria affordable housing complex

From The Real Deal:

The Related Companies is in talks to buy a 444-unit Section 8 multifamily property with development rights in Astoria for $115 million, its latest move to add to a giant affordable housing portfolio.

Related, which got its start in the 1970s buying and rehabilitating affordable housing, is negotiations with Long Island-based landlord Benjamin Properties to buy the 10-building Marine Terrace portfolio, located in the northeast corner of the Queens neighborhood.

The Stephen Ross-led firm, which is behind the Time Warner Center, Hudson Yards and 70 Vestry Street, plans to develop 53 new apartments on the Astoria site for the homeless and veterans.

Representatives for the two companies did not respond to requests for comment, but in a state application for $108 million in bond financing for the deal, Related revealed plans to invest in upgrading the apartments and adding the new units.

The state’s Housing Finance Agency plans to vote Thursday on the developer’s application.

The eight-acre development, which Benjamin constructed in the 1990s, also includes a series of garages with nearly 130 parking spaces at its northern end. Related plans to clear 100 of the spaces to make way for a pair of new rental buildings.

City Council desperate to have mall built on parkland

From Capital New York:

The New York City Council, which often sides with Mayor Bill de Blasio, is breaking ranks over a planned development at Willets Point in Queens.

The Council plans to vote on Wednesday on a resolution that would authorize it to file an amicus brief defending the plans, which were initially approved by the Council, as land-use applications must be.

The amicus brief itself has yet to be written, and the resolution gives the Council six months to file it in court, but the legislative body will side with the developer in arguing that a mall should be built on existing parkland outside Citi Field.

The Queens Development Group, a partnership of the Related Companies and Sterling Equities, is appealing a decision from earlier this year that would have banned the construction of the mall. The state Court of Appeals last month decided to consider the developer's case.

The Council seems to have no problem disregarding clear public sentiment since 2012, exemplified by Queens Civic Congress being a plaintiff in litigation opposing the Willets West mega-mall on parkland. The Council may be soliciting this vote of its members based on a misrepresentation, as council never considered or voted to approve the mega-mall. (All the council did approve was a special permit to temporarily use Willets Point as a parking lot.) Council must solicit this vote based upon the facts, not upon Queens Development Group's inaccurate revisionist history.

I guess we should be checking campaign contributions in a few months?

Big developer preserving existing housing?

From LIC Post:

The Related Companies have purchased two, nearly century-old residences in Astoria and Long Island City, with the intent to preserve the properties.

According to Department of Finance documents, Related bought 36-05 Vernon Blvd. for $3.4 million, and 5-16 47th Rd. for $3.1 million, from Silvershore Properties in July. Both are four-story, eight-unit buildings constructed in the '30s, per the DOF.

According to Related, the buildings will be preserved as “workforce housing.” Specifically, they will not be converted into luxury units, the spokesperson said.

Judge questions developers' sweetheart Willets Point deal

From the Daily News:

A judge for a state appeals court questioned the city’s plan to build a mega-mall on parkland in Queens, raising a concern that developers were getting an overly sweet deal.

Officials helped win over the City Council for the $3 billion Willets Point development in 2013 — which is slated to include a 1.4 million-square-foot shopping mall and a hotel near Citi Field — by upping the amount of affordable housing included in the project.

But one of the appellate panel’s judges said Wednesday she feared the relatively modest $35 million penalty that developers would incur if they don’t build the housing isn’t enough to see it through.

She said she was concerned that the deal could be a “win-win for developers and owners of malls.”

“We have a lot of those,” the judge said.

Avella calls Willets Point developer out for double-dipping

From the Times Ledger:

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has called on the state Department of Conservation to reject an application by the developers of Willets Point for millions of dollars in tax credits.

Avella slammed the Queens Development Group, a joint venture by Related Co., and Sterling Equities, for applying for credits from DEC’s Brownfield Cleanup Program in addition to $40 million they received from the city for clean-up costs associated with their $3 billion redevelopment of Willets Point.

“The QDG is attempting to take advantage of the BCP tax credit program by trying to apply for millions in tax credits for costs that will already be paid from the taxpayer’s pocket. It’s absolutely disgraceful,” Avella said. “The DEC’s response is alarming, as it completely disregards the fact that the QDG is already required to clean up the site and will already be receiving taxpayer funds to do so.”

Avella said he contacted the DEC after he learned the developers had been granted the city funds despite having already applied for Brownfield credits.

In a recent letter the DEC said, “The public interest is served by allowing these properties to participate in the BCP.”

The DEC did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman for the developers said that any tax credits they received from the DEC’s Brownfield program would not necessarily overlap as not all eligible clean-up areas were being reimbursed by the city.

Cuomo rolling in brownfield developer dough

From Crains:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has collected at least $650,000 in campaign contributions from recipients of tax credits to redevelop industrial sites during the past four years, a review of state data show.

Related Cos., its executives and entities controlled by the New York-based developer of Time Warner Center were the biggest donor, giving at least $262,700 to Cuomo, who is running for a second term. Syracuse shopping-mall magnate Robert Congel, members of his family and executives at his Pyramid Cos. contributed $143,250.

Critics of the incentives, which have cost taxpayers more than $1 billion since 2006, say they benefit wealthy developers and have done little to clean up contaminated industrial sites. Unlike other states, New York doesn't limit the program to cleanup costs, and a study found that 94% of its brownfields tax credits have been used for redeveloping properties instead of remediating blighted land.

"It's all too common in Albany for recipients of aid from the state government to be among the biggest campaign contributors," said Bill Mahoney, who studies campaign-finance data for the New York Public Interest Research Group, a government watchdog. "Even if decisions aren't being directly influenced by checks, there's definitely an idea in Albany that interest groups will be less successful if they don't find a way to funnel money to elected officials."

CitiBike to become more elitist

From the Daily News:

The cost of Citi Bike annual memberships could rise by more than 50% under a new deal to save the cash-strapped program.

The city has discussed raising the annual membership fee for the popular bikeshare system from $95 to $140 or even $155, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions.

The price hike would be part of a deal to save Citi Bike, which has been on a pathway to bankruptcy and plagued with operational problems.

REQX Ventures — an investment firm formed by Equinox gyms and its parent, the Related Companies — is currently in negotiations with the city to purchase 51% of Alta Bike Share, which oversees Citi Bike through a subsidiary.

“It’s well understood that fees will go up,” the source said.

While the cost of annual membership would soar, 24-hour access passes would probably remain at $9.95.

There's a $185M tunnel to NJ should we ever need one

From Crains:

Taking shape on Manhattan's West Side is a $185 million, federally funded tunnel that leads to nowhere, for now.

The 800-foot-long, 35-foot-deep concrete trench could someday lead to two new commuter rail tunnels under the Hudson River to New Jersey, if the billions needed to build them ever materialize.

The access tunnel is being built now because the massive Hudson Yards development with six skyscrapers, the tallest being 80 stories, will soon be built on top of it. Trying to dig such a huge trench through the bedrock after those buildings are completed, officials say, would be an engineering and financial nightmare.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was among the lawmakers who pushed Congress to approve Superstorm Sandy relief money for the planned flood-resistant access tunnel, calling it mitigation to protect infrastructure from future storms. But he argued it would have to be built now because the skyscraper developers could not be delayed indefinitely.

"We asked them to delay months, but if we asked them to delay years, they may have said no," said Mr. Schumer, referring to the Related Cos., the main Hudson Yards developers. "Sandy relief funding was there, available, the criteria fit, and the money was getting through quickly and fit the timetable."

The access tunnel is expected to be completed in fall 2015.

Developer may bail out CitiBike

From the Wall Street Journal:

The company that runs Citi Bike is in advanced talks with an affiliate of a major real-estate developer about an investment that would fuel an expansion of New York City's bicycle-sharing program, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

Alta Bicycle Share Inc. of Portland, Ore., which runs Citi Bike, has been negotiating a deal with REQX Ventures, an investment firm formed by the upscale fitness center chain Equinox and its parent, Related Cos., these people said.

Both parties have signed a term sheet outlining a deal to inject capital to help bring the Citi Bike program to more neighborhoods in New York City, according to the people. The potential investment would also fund improvements to Citi Bike's software, one person said.

It was unclear how much capital REQX Ventures might invest or what kind of stake in the Citi Bike program the company might get in return. It remains to be seen whether the two sides would close the deal, or whether city officials would approve it.

Luxury condo developers discriminate against disabled

From Capital New York:

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara today filed suit against Related Companies, one of Manhattan's most prominent developers, and two of its star architects, for violating the Fair Housing Act by designing buildings that are inaccessible to the disabled.

In the suit against the Hudson Yards developer, Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Ismael Leyva Architects, Bharara alleges that Related Companies "discriminated" against people with disabilities thanks to its "pattern or practice of failing to design and construct dwellings" and accompanying common areas that are accessible to people with disabilities.

The suit, in particular, focuses on One Carnegie Hill and Tribeca Green, two high-end Related rental buildings with a total of more than 750 units.

Among other flaws cited in the suit, the U.S. Attorney's office claims that at the Upper East Side's One Carnegie Hill, where "alcove studios" rent for $3,095, the mailboxes are out of reach to people in wheelchairs, the kitchens in some units are too narrow to accommodate people in wheelchairs, and the bathrooms in some units aren't accessible. The suit makes similar complaints about Tribeca Green, where "alcove studios" rent for $3,425.

Avella, activists, file lawsuit to stop shopping mall at Flushing Meadows

Notice of Petition & Petition

From Save FMCP:

State Senator Tony Avella of Whitestone, Queens, The City Club of New York, park advocacy groups, and an array of residents and business people neighboring the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, filed suit today to cut off the threat of construction of a 1.4 million square foot shopping mall within the Park.

The complaint alleges that the project cannot proceed without approval by the State Legislature under the “public trust” doctrine that protects all parkland throughout the State against any form of transfer or introduction of non-park uses without consent of the Legislature. It does not appear that any such approval for the shopping center use has been requested or obtained.

The complaint also alleges violations of the City’s Zoning Resolution and Charter, and seeks annulment of approvals granted by the City to date for the related Willets Point plan.

The site is 30.7 acres near the northerly end of the Park. From 1964 to 2006, the site was occupied by Shea Stadium. When Shea was demolished and replaced in 2009 by Citi Field at a location slightly east of the Shea site, the project site became a parking field for visitors to Citi Field. The site has also been used for a variety of public recreational events including foot races, circus performances, an annual wheelchair baseball game, and concerts.

In 2012, Sterling Equities and the Related Companies, both well-known developers, convinced the Bloomberg administration to allow the shopping mall on Park property, although the City Council had approved a plan in 2008 to place the intended retail development in the neighboring Willets Point development project along with affordable housing.

The project has moved forward without the customary public review. There have been no hearings on it before community boards, the Planning Commission, the City Council, or the State Legislature. The Bloomberg administration appears to have acted on the assumption that no public review is required because in 1961 the State Legislature approved construction of Shea Stadium and provision for parking, with wording broad enough, say proponents of the project, to allow replacement with a shopping center. The Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the project on the parking field declares that the parcel is on designated parkland and that legislation permits the shopping mall project. It lists approvals that the City and developers expect to seek, but State legislative approval is not among them.

The contention that the 1961 law exempts this transaction from the public trust doctrine, says John Low-Beer, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, is wrong. “The 1961 law was intended to allow a stadium and uses directly related to a stadium, such as parking, concessions, and other commercial activity typically incidental to a professional sports arena.”

Low-Beer adds that the 1961 law “says nothing about a shopping center. In fact, the Legislature explicitly prohibited any purely commercial uses other than ones strictly related to the stadium, such as concession stands. The public trust doctrine requires that any legislative consent be very specific about what it will allow. If it doesn’t specify a use, then that use is not permitted.”

Senator Tony Avella stated that “Parks are intended to serve the people, to provide open space, landscaping, opportunities for recreation, playgrounds for children, and escape from the hordes and noise of a busy commercial city. The only commercial uses that belong in them are those, such as snack stands, that enhance the park experience. A shopping center is not one of them. We have a wonderful law that is supposed to assure all of this, known as the ‘public trust doctrine.’ I’m outraged when the people who are supposed to administer parks for everyone turn them over to private interests without seeking the State Legislature's consent as the public trust doctrine requires. So, I am very pleased to be a party to this action.”

The plaintiffs include Paul Graziano, Al Centola and Ben Haber who have prominently opposed a spate of recent proposals for new or enlarged sports venues in the Park, as well as the shopping center. The efforts of “Save Flushing Meadows Park,” a coalition of many Queens civic groups put together by Graziano, Centola, Haber and others, thwarted the proposed professional soccer stadium, though it was unable to stop a half-acre expansion of the Tennis Center. They have also led opposition to the shopping center.

Because 23 acres for $1 just isn't enough corporate welfare

From the Daily News:

The developers of a mega-mall slated to rise on the parking lot at Citi Field are seeking almost $43 million in tax breaks, but opponents of the project — including many auto body shops in the area — argue they should get no breaks at all.

The city will hold a public hearing on Thursday to evaluate the request for the exemptions for the $3 billion Willets Point redevelopment, which includes the one-million-square-foot mall and housing.

The city plans to sell the 23-acre site near Flushing Meadows-Corona Park for $1 to the Queens Development Group, which is composed of Sterling Equities and Related Companies.

The city’s Industrial Development Agency will decide whether to grant the tax breaks to the group on Tuesday — and there is plenty of opposition. “This whole thing has been a disaster from beginning to end,” said state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside.) “How do you justify (giving) tens of millions of taxpayer money when you’re selling the property to the developers for a dollar?”

Sorry, that $43M is needed for the NYS Pavilion. Take a hike.

The land that the Wilpons' mall will be built on is parkland that was never officially alienated, and is basically being handed over as part of the $1 package deal. The city can point to an outdated Robert Moses contract mentioning the Board of Estimate, but I can see this ending up in court.

Here's Tony Avella's testimony on the matter:

Testimony for NYC Industrial Development Agency Straight Lease Transaction for Willets Point Development

Selling off public parkland is now common practice

From City Limits:

The audacity of the mayor's final development campaign has been unprecedented. "I can't recall any comparable push by lame-duck mayors to cement their ‘legacies' with such chutzpah," says Tom Angotti, a professor of urban planning at Hunter College. Angotti had worked in city government under Koch, Dinkins, and Giuliani, and he was on the inside when two of those administrations drew to a close. "It really does seem that Bloomberg is trying to make it difficult for the next mayor to take a different path," he says.

But will the next mayor take a different path? The candidates have their own ideas, but both de Blasio and Lhota would essentially build on Bloomberg's development agenda, supporting such current initiatives as the rezoning of Midtown and the expansion of public-private partnerships in parks. De Blasio has even said the Flushing Meadows soccer stadium is "worth discussing" if the league provides funds to fix up the rest of the park. Both candidates would allow new construction on public-housing property, though de Blasio insists any towers must contain affordable housing and Lhota says developers would not be allowed to take playgrounds.

Also from City Limits:

While Manhattan and Brooklyn have ended up with some showplace parks, no one is interested in operating, say, Highland Park on the Brooklyn-Queens border or Ferry Point Park in the Bronx. Donald Trump has struck a deal to take about half of the 413-acre Ferry Point to build a private club and a "world-class" golf course on what had been a garbage dump , but he won't be sharing the revenue with the park, and it's unlikely the patrons of his luxury facility will be the residents of the neighboring public housing project.

Even middle-class and well-heeled areas have been forced to pick up the slack, with volunteers maintaining such parks as Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village, Queens, and Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in Manhattan, right across the street from the United Nations. Half of the city's 1,800 parks and playgrounds now depend on some type of private group to at least chip in on maintenance, according to the Parks Department, but many, if not most, of these groups struggle.

Some people, like Public Advocate and mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, have pinned their hopes for more equitable parks funding on legislation proposed by state Senator Dan Squadron that would create a Neighborhood Parks Alliance to take 20 percent from the budgets of large park conservancies and distribute that money to the parks most in need. "It will make for a fairer city," says de Blasio, "and I think it's a great idea."

But the proposed alliance would be blocked from accessing a large part of the nonprofit funds, says James J. Fishman, a professor at Pace Law School. Endowments would be off-limits, and if donors make restricted gifts, then that money can't be diverted to another use. Nonprofit-law experts consulted by City Limits say the legislation is sure to face legal challenges.

Fact is, the proposed fund would draw from the same private-money system that led to the great disparities it seeks to correct, and the redistribution of money simply won't be enough to right the deeper wrongs. There is no such thing as a free lunch: Taxpayers still cover a portion of the budgets for even the biggest park conservancies, and that means they would end up funding the Neighborhood Park Alliance too. In the end, most public parks remain the responsibility of the public.

Though Ferreras compared her new nonprofit to the Central Park Conservancy and the Prospect Park Alliance, she had created a new model, funded not by philanthropic contributions but by extracting money from businesses that want parkland.

When Ferreras told City Limits of her plans to ask the Willets Point developers for money, she listed other businesses located in the park, including the Mets and the Terrace on the Park banquet hall, noting that all of these businesses already operate under agreements with the city—the Terrace on the Park, for example, pays the city $2.5 million a year, or $100,000 more than the U.S.T.A.

But some park advocates fear Ferreras's forging of separate deals will now set a dangerous precedent, encouraging more development in underfunded parks. The Willets Point deal was "shameful," according to Richard Hellenbrecht, president of the Queens Civic Congress, an umbrella organization of 106 civic and community groups. The Congress opposed the mall plan not only for its taking of parkland but for the harm it could cause to local small businesses, not to mention the likelihood of more traffic and congestion.

"It's taking parkland, mapped parkland," Hillenbrecht says of the "Willets West" shopping mall. "It makes me angry. I worry about this in a lot of ways, and it upsets me that it could have been approved so quickly, ignoring all the concerns of Queens residents. We're going to have a new administration in a few more months. Why couldn't it wait?"

Several community groups have told City Limits they're contemplating a lawsuit over the city's claim that the shopping mall is permitted under a 1961 law that allowed for the financing of Shea Stadium. They claim the administration wants to avoid the burden of alienating that parkland, which would require state legislation to strip the land of its legal protections. Alienation legislation mandates the replacement of lost parkland or a payment for other park improvements equal to the land's fair market value.

As for the combined $25.5 million for Flushing Meadows from the mall and tennis projects, more than half of it will be spent on one-time capital improvements while the rest gets spread over two decades. That might sound like a lot of money, but it amounts to an annual $550,000 over most of the life of these two deals.

"That really won't do much," Hellenbrecht says. "It might pay for some more staffers, but not many. It's not enough to make a dent in what needs to be done, either operationally or even capital-wise. It's better than nothing, but I'd rather not have somebody taking parkland."

Food court to replace Willets Point businesses

From the Daily News:

Fledgling businesses will be able to avail themselves of some incubator space at the massive Willets Point development, officials said Tuesday.

The 18,000-square-foot space — to be split between two different sections of the development — will be operated by the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

“You’re giving businesses a chance to learn the ropes while they’re actually conducting business,” said Jack Friedman, the Chamber’s executive director.

The companies will receive a 30% to 40% discount on rent at the space and receive free trainings and other services, he said.

The plan for the incubator was a little-known detail buried in the list of concessions agreed upon by the developers, the Related Co. and Sterling Equities.

The duo will give the Queens Chamber $165,000 to help fund the start-up costs for the entrepreneurial space.

One possibility, he said, would be to utilize the space as a local food court, which would enable area eateries to share one industrial-sized kitchen and save on costs.

The Queens Economic Development Corp. operates a similar food incubator in Long Island City.

If space permits, the incubator could also house smaller storefronts, which would be occupied by merchants who hope to appeal to the area’s ethnic enclaves. For example, an Indian Sari shop from Jackson Heights.

This makes a whole lot of sense, doesn't it? Evict currently operating businesses that provide something useful in order to open a fast food court and recreate 82nd Street. What would we do without innovative ideas like this?

Developers get all the breaks

From the Village Voice:

Remember that $328 million subsidy for a shopping mall and skyscraper being developed by the Related Companies? Well, as expected, the city's Industrial Development Agency went ahead and approved the massive giveaway despite questions about its propriety.

The 25-year tax exemption comes on top of a $106 million tax break for another skyscraper on the site. The project is also getting $3 billion in city bonds to extend the No. 7 subway line. The snail's pace of building the platform which will undergird the 13.3 million-square-foot project has already cost the city more than $100 million in taxes it expected to have collected by now.

This latest subsidy will force the city to pump yet more money to meet the debt obligations of the subway bonds. As as we previously wrote, it's a break from a previous Bloomberg era policy of denying subsidies for shopping malls.

City officials insist the subsidy is "consistent" with the original 2006 Hudson Yards plan and necessary because of the size of the project. In remarks before the IDA board, a Related official called the tax breaks "indispensable" to the project and insisted the area was "underutilized."

However, property values are rising in the area, once again raising the question of why yet another tax break is needed for an area likely to blossom just from market forces.

Willets Point on the brink

Quotation of the clergyman at the end: "Julissa -- We are your people.
This will destroy our neighborhoods; change our lives. Council members,
listen to us: Vote "NO" on October 9."