The proposal has encountered resistance from would-be neighbors and local Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, who’ve cited concerns about impact on infrastructure, parking and the area’s suburban feel. But one planning commissioner who voted in favor of the project Wednesday believes the opposition is driven by a rejection of affordable housing.
“If everything…is just a question of ‘Does the local community support or not support it,’ the answer will almost, inevitably, always be ‘no,’ so it can’t just be that, it has to be a broader consideration,” the former councilmember said during an interview on the WBAI radio program City Watch.
The question soon facing the City Council—and in particular, local member Julie Won—is how much affordable housing is enough to replace the Queens industrial scene with a complex three times bigger than One45, another Harlem development proposal recently squashed over affordability concerns.
Advocates want the city to take a more proactive approach to lead paint inspections and enforcement, saying the current system contains loopholes that allow property owners to skirt the rules. Their push comes as the Health Department considers lowering the childhood lead-level threshold that would automatically trigger an investigation.
“Public land is a treasure that we need to maximize for truly affordable housing,” said Councilmember Lincoln Restler, whose new bill would preventing the city from selling off land to private, for-profit developers unless no qualified nonprofit group makes an offer.
At a Council hearing short on details, officials from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration pinned the shelter population rise on newly arriving immigrants from the Southern Border.
Councilmember Julie Won issued a list of “land use principles” she said she will apply to new projects in her district that require Council-approved changes to the city’s zoning code—including a controversial proposal to build a 3,000-unit complex in southern Astoria.
The 15-member NYC Districting Commission released a set of preliminary maps this month for the public to review, updating Council districts to reflect population changes based off the 2020 Census ahead of the City Council elections next year. See how would your current City Council district change under the proposal.
The land use plan, part of a broader initiative known as Resilient Edgemere, encompasses the area bound by Beach 35th Street and Beach 50th Street and will change zoning rules to increase density in some areas, limit development in others and raise the shoreline along Jamaica Bay.
“Scientific research very clearly demonstrates that solitary confinement is torture. It also shows that it is counterproductive in achieving its goals because it often increases an inmate’s violent behavior.”
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