Once again, we were dismayed to see an in‹depth review of the current Queens West development without any recognition of the current community... The implied "win-win" scenario fails to explore the potential loses which will result from Queens West¹s refusal to adequately recognize the Hunters Point community planning for the neighborhood... Part of the Queens West strategy has been to create the appearance of Hunters Point as being a fallow industrial wasteland... Queens West makes the statement that the Hunters Point site is abandoned‹yes it may be partially under-utilized (partly because Queens West has driven business off the site), but when taken in context the site is located in a historic industrial community‹providing approximately 36,000 industrial jobs in the L.I.C. zip code.
After nearly a decade of appeals from the local community, there is still no plan in place for secondary displacement‹residential, retail or industrial. The developers must be held accountable with regards to displacement‹particularly since significant government subsidy and support are in this project. Besides the industrial sector, at risk of secondary displacement are 700 Hunters Point households (identified in the original plan¹s Environmental Impact Statement), as well as the merchants along Vernon and Jackson who have hoped for local neighborhood development... Store owners are already leaving the community because of the realization that the long haul through the construction period will not result in any benefits...
By encouraging future QW residents to "leave the neighborhood to do much of their shopping" until retail is built on-site creates a lose-lose scenerio for local neighborhood retail growth. All these issues continue to drive home the alarming point that there is neither a stabilization or community development plan in place for the neighborhood...
The article quotes that the early stages of the QW development will "not be a great place for the elderly." If you look at the current demographics of the community, you find that the Congressional District that Hunters Point is located in has the fourth highest ratio of senior citizens to the general population in the nation. They are the real pioneers and to ignore them in terms of the future of this project and their current place in the community is both inaccurate and disrespectful. Over five generations... have valued this community and recognize it as one of the last great neighborhoods in NYC.
Do the "juicy" numbers really work for the future QW residents? The latest QW policy on avoiding speculation and flipping units is inadequate. By QW own estimate, units can be purchased at $25,000 and potentially sold two years later at $150,000 with a reduced flip tax1 (still undisclosed) is still a speculators dream. Since there is so much government subsidy in QW, maintaining the affordability of the units (which is still questionable to begin with) should be a priority. And placing a ten year limitation (no flip tax) on flipping units is unsound housing policy. Why should the government‹as it cuts back drastically on financing and maintaining the nation¹s affordable housing stock‹subsidize a development that will eventually reap huge profits for individual buyers? Encouraging speculation is hardly a basis (or a model) for community planning or public policy. In addition, the new Coop "pioneers" face loses by living through a 15-20 year construction period for QW¹s full build out...
If the developers are considering this a model for financing middle income housing, then the future growth of community planning is really at risk. Is this the new direction for federal and local housing policy? If so, it must be something that every taxpayer should question.
1"...to deter speculation that would increase turnover." "Pioneers Wanted, East River Views," New York Times, October 6, 1996.
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Last Update: Dec 1996