EDC’s Sunnyside Yards Steering Committee
loses AOC, Justice for All Coalition chair
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
The Sunnyside Yards Steering
Committee, organized by
the Economic Development
Corp. (EDC), officially lost two
members in Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and
Justice for All Coalition Chair
Sylvia White.
The EDC is leading a multibillion
dollar effort to build
new land atop Sunnyside
Yards, a 180-acre rail yard
considered one of the busiest
in the country, partly owned
by Amtrak, MTA and the
city. They created the Steering
Committee with citywide
and local leaders to advise
and guide them through their
Master Planning process.
But after several months
of the EDC’s community outreach
portion of the process,
many Queens residents and
leaders are protesting the
project and calling for the city
to instead use the funds they
want to allocate for the project
toward the community’s more
immediate needs.
Justice for All Coalition
(JFC), a community organization
based in Astoria and
Long Island City, is one of
the organizations leading
the fight against Sunnyside
Yards. In November 2019, they
sent letters to several elected
officials asking that they step
down from the EDC’s Steering
Committee.
In response, Councilman
Jimmy Van Bramer and Ocasio
Cortez sent a joint letter,
obtained by The City, in which
they emphasized that their
roles in the Steering Committee
didn’t “imply endorsement
of the project” and that
the EDC’s current proposal
“reflects a misalignment of
priorities.”
Senator Michael Gianaris
also sent a letter, stating that
while his name and office appeared
in the Steering Committee,
he never accepted the
invitation. Gianaris added
that although the planning
process includes some public
input, “that input does not appear
to be reflected in the public
facing materials released
about the project and rather
tinkers around the edges providing
a few token benefits.”
An aerial photo of the Sunnyside railyards. Photo courtesy of NYCEDC
On Jan. 24, Ocasio-Cortez
sent the EDC her letter of resignation.
She wrote that while
she understands that the
ambitious project requires a
“lengthy, complex, and multistakeholder
driven planning
process,” she felt the need to
resign due to the project’s proposal.
“Despite the many outreach
meetings that you have
cited, I have yet to see sufficient
inclusion of the feedback
from those meetings in the
current plan,” Ocasio-Cortez
wrote in the letter. “This feedback,
both from community
members and from my office,
includes but is not limited to
community land trusts, truly
affordable housing, and public
and green infrastructure
of the scale necessary to meet
our 21st-century housing and
environmental justice challenges.”
White sent her letter of
resignation on Feb. 14, stating
that she agreed to participate
in the Steering committee
after being invited to join in
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.2 COM | FEB. 27-MARCH 5, 2020
2019 in order to have “another
venue for advocating for the
needs of the community members”
she represents.
“So far, I have not found this
to be the case,” White wrote in
the letter. “Specifically, the
community members that I
represent and work in solidarity
with have repeatedly, and
in multiple ways … communicated
to the NYCEDC that NO
development over the Yards is
what is most desired.”
White mentioned that beyond
advocating for issues
of equity, the environment
and health, they are also calling
for the public money that
would be directed toward development
over the yards. She
said the funds “should be invested
in shoring up the existing
transportation infrastructure
that already exists there
or investing it in other underfunded
public resources that
our community relies on.”
The EDC is currently working
on its final Master Plan,
which they maintain will be
ready sometime in the winter.
They don’t have any upcoming
events scheduled on their
website, but recently participated
in two.
The Trust for Public Land,
a nonprofit dedicated to creating
parks, hosted “A Public
Future for Sunnyside Yards:
Open Space and Social Infrastructure”
a panel on the possibilities
of having parks in
and around the project, with
a keynote from the EDC’s Sunnyside
Yards Director Adam
Grossman. At the event,
which took place in January
at MoMA PS 1, Grossman announced
that they are planning
to include 60 acres of
park land in and around the
deck.
On Feb. 10, the New York
Building Congress hosted “A
Public Future for Sunnyside
Yard: Green Building and a
Transition to a Green Economy,”
with the EDC. It was only
open to their members, but
was live streamed and is available
on the EDC’s website.
An EDC spokesperson told
QNS that while the work of the
Steering Committee wrapped
up in December 2019, they
still welcome feedback from
Ocasio-Cortez, White and the
JFC.
“Sunnyside Yards presents
an opportunity to build a stronger
New York for generations
to come that includes more
open space, transit, affordable
housing, jobs and green infrastructure
in western Queens.
This planning process has always
put community engagement
at the center. We’re committed
to continuing our work
with the community to build a
strategic vision that can better
serve local residents and
all New Yorkers,” the spokesperson
said.
According to the EDC, the
Master Plan is “not a development
plan or a rezoning,” but
rather a long-term plan that
will develop a framework on
how to build over the deck for
years to come.
The spokesperson also told
QNS that once the Master Plan
is out, construction won’t start
right away.
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