Sunday, March 23, 2014

Protest against Flushing Meadows megamall

Senator Tony Avella hosted a Press Conference today with residents, small business owners, park users, civic groups, legal advocates, community members and petitioners in support of the lawsuit that was recently filed challenging the give-away of 47+ acres of Queens parkland worth $ 1 Billion to build the "Willets West" mega-mall.

The groups met Senator Avella at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and 114th Street in Corona. Everyone then marched down, chanting “Parks are not for sale,” to a close by location on Roosevelt Avenue, overlooking the proposed site for the Mega-Mall, which is currently the CitiField Stadium parking lot.

“We stand here today to say NO to park giveaway for a billion dollar development in the City of New York,” stated Senator Tony Avella. “Community members who have gathered here today all represent many different neighborhoods throughout the entire borough of Queens, all of whom are extremely upset over the Willets West mega-mall proposal. This was a true Bloomberg era back-door policy which slipped under the radar and had virtually no community input. How can we allow such a blatant parks land grab? And without any required review or oversight. The city should be ashamed for allowing this to pass despite stern and outspoken community opposition. I am proud to stand here with these groups to say STOP. Stop the illegal land grab, stop the illegal taking of our parks.”

Mr. Geoffrey Croft of Parks Advocates stated, “Quite simply, this deal was an abuse of power. Mayor Bloomberg has so far been able to successfully seize the power from the old Board of Estimate which enabled the project to bypass ALL legal approval process. No official vote from anyone except the Mayor who gifted OUR public park away to one of the City’s most successful developers. No More! This is public parkland, this is not a dispute. It does not belong to Bloomberg or the developers – it belongs to the people of the City of new York and it must be protected. The parkland was never alienated. The City simply does not have the right to seize this parkland for these non-park purposes without the consent of the State Legislation. Parks belong to the People, NOT to private corporations.”

Mr. Richard Hellenbrecht, President of the Queens Civic Congress stated, “The Congress strongly opposes any further alienation of parkland in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The Willets West mega mall proposal is yet another gross overreach of the former Bloomberg administration. The mall will not only remove public space that is used for numerous events like circuses and disabled sports, but would create competition to nearby malls and especially harm local mom and pop stores, already struggling to stay in business.”

Mr. Michael Gruen, President of the City Club of New York added, “The City Club is very pleased to participate in this important case and to underscore that great parks are currently under grave threat in the borough of Queens and throughout the City, not just Manhattan. We must do what we can to stop the shopping mall!”

Mr. Paul Graziano, a longtime civic leader from North Flushing and co-founder of Save Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, stated his steadfast opposition to the proposed mega-mall on parkland.

"This project represents everything that's wrong about development in New York City," Graziano said. "When billionaire friends of former Mayor Bloomberg can pervert the land use process in order to steal over 40 acres of our parkland for private commercial development - without so much as a public hearing - it is our duty as citizens and taxpayers to stop what will clearly be a terrible scenario should this be allowed to proceed. This park is the backyard, the recreational space for tens of thousands of people every weekend. While this particular part of the park is used for parking, it is also used for many other park purposes during the year. The city should be spending money helping Roosevelt Avenue merchants revitalize their commercial district, rather than giving away a piece of our public parkland valued at over $1 billion dollars."

Mr. Marty Kirchner from Queens Neighborhoods United further explained that, “The construction of a massive commercial retail center on public parkland is the anchor piece of an expansive developer-led urban overhaul of the immigrant neighborhoods of Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Flushing. Flanked by the simultaneous rezoning of commercial corridors near the expected site of the mall, and the proposed formation of a large-scale Business Improvement District along Roosevelt Avenue, the sprawling Willets West mega-mall and its related development projects will cause such dramatic rent hikes and traffic congestion as to permanently displace ethnic small businesses and immigrant working families from the surrounding area.”

Mr. Benjamin Haber, a long time parks activist, stated “Today’s New York Times reports Mayor de Blasio’s appointment of Mitchell Silver as the new Commissioner of Parks. He described Mr. Silver as a visionary who shared his commitment to making sure that parks work for all our people. Actions speak louder than words, Mr. Mayor. Bill de Blasio now has the opportunity to distance himself from Bloomberg’s abysmal record and to not contest the pending lawsuit that would require compliance with ULURP and legislative approval for park alienation.”

All of the speakers, including Senator Avella, are petitioners in a pending lawsuit filed against the City of New York which seeks a declaratory judgment to invalidate approvals already granted to the project. The lawsuit also seeks a declaratory judgment for a permanent injunction to prevent the construction of a megamall on City parkland without respondents having obtained required State legislative authorization and without respondents having obtained any zoning for this un-zoned park area.

The petitioners named in the lawsuit also include not for profit organizations, taxpayers, businesses in Willets Point and on nearby Roosevelt Avenue, as well as individuals who are user of Flushing Meadows Corona Park and whose residences overlook the portion of the Park at issue; all of whom stand against the mega-mall project.

Senator Avella concluded, “We now call on Mayor Bill de Blasio to tell us if he really meant what he said during his campaign because once you take away this park land, you can never bring it back again. By allowing developers to build a mega-mall at this location, the City will also take away countless jobs, as they have already started doing at the nearby Iron Triangle with respect to auto shop tenants, and cause a tremendous burden on the local mom and pop stores in the area. PARKS are simply NOT FOR SALE.”

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why no other elected officials standing next to Tony? where were Stavisky, Koo, Rozic, Kim, Lancman, etc., etc...
Why weren't they at the protest?

Anonymous said...

Why wasn't De Sleazio there?

Anonymous said...

This whole thing is proof positive that Queens is indeed, in the words of Joe Moretti and many other posters to QC, being turned into a third world country.Not only that, but ee are imitsting one, following in its wake, as there already exists a Megamall, in Ortigas, Mandaluyong City, Manila NCR in the Philippines.Just want to know who's going to direct the jeepneys?

Anonymous said...

Enough is Enough, NO MALL! Thank you again Tony for standing up for Queens.

Anonymous said...

Politicians in Queens couldn't care less about their constituents, 75% of whom are recent immigrants. All of the white middle class has fled. So now the lazy, scum politicians can shit where they please!

Anonymous said...

Everyone was bashing Tony Avella when he joined the IDC, where were all those people when Tony was standing up for our parkland?

I don't care what political labels or parties he picks as long as he keeps fighting for our communities!

Anonymous said...

Malls are empty all over the country. Just seems stupid to give away parkland for a losing venture.

Anonymous said...

MIA - Borough President

Anonymous said...

Online shopping destroyed the need for malls. Why should a proposed mall kill parkland? Only in Queens.

Anonymous said...

We'll see if Mayor de Blahzio will step up and finally do what he had promised to do. So far he's been a big failure.

Anonymous said...

Why no other elected officials standing next to Tony? where were Stavisky, Koo, Rozic, Kim, Lancman, etc., etc...
Why weren't they at the protest?

____________________

Cause tony is the most hated pol in Queens. No one will work with him, hell his staff gets turned over every other week it seems. I don't care how much all you guys love Tony, he's a worthless pol who won't get anything done for you. All he's good for is a press conference and some photo ops, nothing else.

Anonymous said...

Would you care to list what our Mayor failed at during three months on job? Perhaps you can also list what you would have done.

Queens Crapper said...

So why don't they have their own press conference?

Anonymous said...

All you people do on here is talk negative...stop the bull and take action. Great for the protestors and rally at Flushing Meadows!!!

Anonymous said...

Exactly Queens Crapper. Why don't they have their own press conference?

Anonymous said...

Why aren't there more people at this event. It just shows that the public doesn't care.
I hope Queens gets a Walmart , because that what the idiots want and deserve.

Anonymous said...

H-m-m-m....the usual suspects.
Let's see if the mayor pays attention to them.

Anonymous said...

You are missing an important point here you dumb Queens farmer hicks.

This move is an offshoot of NYC's gentrification program...some more social engineering...in this case to drive "troublesome" poorer Latinos out of Corona so that the Asians (who are buying up property there) can build "luxury housing".

FMCP is used by the surrounding nabe's Latinos.
You can't upgrade a nabe until they're driven out.
Amen.
A selection from the Gospel of the NYC Realty Board.

Anonymous said...

Why aren't there more people at this event. It just shows that the public doesn't care.
I hope Queens gets a Walmart , because that what the idiots want and deserve.



The photo doesn't do the press conference and protest justice: there were more than 80 people in attendance, including people from over 30 civic organizations as well as the Queens Civic Congress; in addition, over a dozen press outlets were there, including 1010WINS, Foz News, NY1, the locals, the dailies and the Korean and Latino press as well.

As for other local elected officials not showing up? Well, since most of them supported all of the commercial projects in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the first place (with the exception of Senator Avella and Councilmember Dromm), it's no surprise that they were absent from the event.

Paul Graziano

Anonymous said...

"Why no other elected officials standing next to Tony? where were Stavisky, Koo, Rozic, Kim, Lancman, etc., etc...
Why weren't they at the protest?"

Because he broke faith with the "Party" and joined the IDC.

Why won't they have their own press conference?

Because he broke faith with them and joined the IDC.
It's Avellas Issue and Not one of the hacks will go near it now because Tony is associated with it.
It's an election year, which is precisely WHY he did what he did, and why they're not doing it.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 20: What took you trolls from county so long to come up with that? Regardless of this being an election year or not, Tony did the right thing.

J said...

this is one of the best postings I have seen in a long time.

if you recall blaz's second inauguration at gracie,there was justified(if at times hyperbolic and in letitia's speech,exploitative)criticism of the funsize mayor and his policies.The accurate statements made by Avella,Croft,Hellenbrect,Gruen,Graziano,Kirchner and Haber were spot on and eloquent,just the cold hard facts on the funsize mayor's and his realtor buddies brutal plans for a city of exclusivity,and to bailout the dumbass Wilpons(these assholes had to be complicit in Madoff's dealings).

When the Blaz was campaigning,he joined protests to save a hospital and got cuffed for it,but he never showed up at any of the willets point hearings.

And the Blaz owes a huge debt to Bloomblight for getting him elected,exploiting the fact of the widening monetary class divide(which is happening worldwide).

Most of all,The zero vision mayor is all for overdevelopment of blade runner towers,he has no hangups about it.he hired some flunkies of funsize and assigned them to his city planning committee.



Anonymous said...

Cause tony is the most hated pol in Queens. No one will work with him, hell his staff gets turned over every other week it seems. I don't care how much all you guys love Tony, he's a worthless pol who won't get anything done for you. All he's good for is a press conference and some photo ops, nothing else.

WHEN THE PUBLIC WAKES UP - AND THEY WILL - THEY WILL SEE THE PARTY HAS HIJACKED THEIR GOVERNMENT AND THEIR TAXES AND NO LONGER DOES MORE THAN PAY LIP SERVICE TO THE PUBLIC'S INTEREST.

THEY HAVE BUILT A BIG TOTTERING TOWER TO CONTINUE THEIR FICTION.

TONY EXPOSES ITS FAULTY TOTTERING STRUCTURE AND YOU ARE ALL AFRAID OF THE INEVITABLE END TO YOUR LITTLE GRAVY TRAIN.

WHEN THE END COMES, AS IT WILL, IT WILL BE SUDDEN LIKE THE SOVIET UNION AND OTHER FATALLY FLAWED PETTY DICTATORSHIPS RUN BY SMALL PEOPLE.

Anonymous said...

This group needs to move beyond Flushing Meadows to form a permanent shadow information network for communities throughout Queens paralleling the Queens machine.

Anonymous said...

The photo doesn't do the press conference and protest justice: there were more than 80 people in attendance, including people from over 30 civic organizations as well as the Queens Civic Congress; in addition, over a dozen press outlets were there, including 1010WINS, Foz News, NY1, the locals, the dailies and the Korean and Latino press as well.

As for other local elected officials not showing up? Well, since most of them supported all of the commercial projects in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the first place (with the exception of Senator Avella and Councilmember Dromm), it's no surprise that they were absent from the event.

Paul Graziano
____________________

Where you been? I voted for you I'm September and then you disappeared like every other losing candidate. Figures, you're just like the rest of them.

Anonymous said...

If Tony is "the most hated pol", he must be doing something right .

Christina Wilkinson said...

"Where you been? I voted for you I'm September and then you disappeared like every other losing candidate. Figures, you're just like the rest of them."

I'm not really sure what you're talking about. Mr. Graziano has been working on this and many other issues with different civic groups across Queens, just as he always did. There are at least 5 issues that I personally have worked on with Paul since the primary. He also got married late last year.

Anonymous said...

Bottom line is this giveaway of parkland needs to be heavily questioned and investigated by the state of NY. This is not a joke but serious legal issues here. Manhattan was able to stop NYU from taking parkland for more development. I hope Avella and these civic groups are successful and the same happens for Flushing Meadows. What's right is right. Also Flushing Meadows is a big beautiful park that has a lot more potential and the city needs to start caring and making the budget a little bigger for our park. The park is good enough to host a huge mall and luxury crap but not good enough for adequate funding for a well maintained and attractive destination.

Anonymous said...

"Where you been? I voted for you I'm September and then you disappeared like every other losing candidate. Figures, you're just like the rest of them."

I'm not really sure what you're talking about. Mr. Graziano has been working on this and many other issues with different civic groups across Queens, just as he always did. There are at least 5 issues that I personally have worked on with Paul since the primary. He also got married late last year.


I'll go a step further: where were you on Saturday, person who voted for me but thinks I've disappeared since the primary? Christina and I were at the protest, but you weren't.

I'm also one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit as well, as was every person who spoke on the issue on Saturday, including Senator Avella. We have all exposed ourselves to legal challenges because this is such an important issue for Queens and the city as a whole.

If you want more information on this or other issues, please feel free to contact me through my website, www.paulgraziano.com.

Paul Graziano

Back in black said...

No politician cares for avella because tony is the only one who stands for what's right and we all know the bill defaliurios of this city only care about developers and unions who stuff their pockets.....let's get real. When you stand for something that is illegal in 46 states that 95% of the country is against but in NYC they look at tony like he's got 3 heads???you tell me who's going green