Top political stories of the year
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | DEC. 27-JAN. 2, 2020 17
BY MAX PARROTT
Queens reacts after
Amazon pulls out of
multi-billion dollar plans
for Long Island City
The year got off to a dramatic
start when the world’s
largest retail company decided
to back out of its plans for
Long Island City in a move
that continues to resonate
throughout the borough’s
politics.
On Feb. 14, Amazon announced
that it would not be
pursuing its plans to develop
a new campus in the Anable
Basin waterfront in Long Island
City that would bring
25,000 jobs to Queens according
to timetables that the
company set for itself.
In a statement on its blog,
Amazon shifted the blame on
local political resistance for
its decision to suddenly pull
out of the project that had
taken bids from cities across
the U.S. in a years-long process.
“For Amazon, the commitment
to build a new headquarters
requires positive,
collaborative relationships
with state and local elected
officials who will be supportive
over the long-term,”
it wrote”
Amazon originally
reached the deal with the
city and state in November
2018 in exchange for receive
up to $3 billion in tax incentives.
State Senator Michael
Gianaris, whose district includes
Long Island City and
is staunchly opposed to the
subsidies in the deal, had
been named to the Public Authorities
Control Board, giving
him potential veto power
over the plan.
Gianaris and other lawmakers
— including City
Councilman Jimmy Van
Bramer, now running for
Borough President, and Assemblyman
Ron Kim — believed
the $3 billion incentive
package would be better
spent on affordable housing
and the crumbling subway
system instead of “corporate
welfare” to the e-commerce
giant.
The wake of this massive
Valentine’s Day breakup has
sparked debates about how
much potential local revenue
was lost with the deal’s disintegration
and how to incorporate
more transparency
and public input into the
process of offering economic
incentives.
Queens District Attorney
Richard A. Brown, who
served borough for nearly
28 years, dead at 86
Richard A. Brown, who
served as the Queens District
Attorney for close to 28
years, died the morning of
May 4. He was 86.
The cause of death was
complications with Parkinson’s
disease, according to
his son Todd Brown.
His office announced
in March that he was taking
a leave of absence until
June 1, when he planned to
formally resign from office.
He handed over his duties in
an interim capacity to Chief
Assistant District Attorney
John Ryan, his top deputy,
who announced Brown’s
death. After winning the
general election in November,
Melinda Katz will take
over the position from Ryan
on Jan. 1.
Before being appointed
DA, Brown had been in
the judiciary for nearly 20
years.
Public defender Cabán
touts apparent victory in
Queens district attorney
primary
On June 25, it looked like
Queens was going to get a 31-
year-old queer Latina public
defender as its next dsitrict
attorney.
At the end of the primary
night, Tiffany Cabán was up
about 1,100 votes on Queens
Borough President Melinda
Katz, who declined to concede
and instead opting to
wait until all the paper ballots
are counted.
The majority of the precincts
had reported 39.6 of
votes in favor as Cabán celebrated
with a mass of supporters,
including prominent
elected officials, at
LaBoom in Woodside.
”We built a campaign that
said every community deserves
justice,” Cabán said
in front of her crowd of supporters.
“We did it, y’all.”
To onlookers, it looked
like Cabán had replicated
the 2018 victory of Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez is still reverberating
through Queens
with no example more clear
than Tiffany Cabán prevailing
at the polls in Tuesday’s
primary for district
attorney.
It would not be until two
weeks later, when all the paper
and absentee ballots had
been counted, that Melinda
Katz would emerge as the
likely primary winner. And
it was not until the end of
July that the Board of Elections
would finish a complete
recount that finally
determined Katz won by 60
votes.
Community board
hearing on Glendale
homeless shelter draws a
huge, irate crowd
After six years of protests
and false starts, the Department
of Homeless Services
announced in August that it
was proceeding with its plan
to turn the abandoned factory
at 78-16 Cooper Ave. in
Glendale into a shelter
When Community Board
5 organized a public hearing
for DHS to broadcast the details
of the plan and collect
feedback on Monday, Oct.
8, it devolved into an over
hour-long affair filled with
shouting matches, interruptions
and an incitement of
violence.
More than 1,000 residents
— the vast majority of whom
were there to protest the shelter
— streamed into Christ
the King High School Auditorium
through a lobby filled
with a heavy police presence
and metal detectors.
After the representatives
from DHS and service provider
Westhab detailed the
programs for the proposed
shelter, residents gave their
arguments for and against
the plan in between speeches
by local elected officials
including Councilman Bob
Holden, state Senator Joseph
Addabbo and Assemblyman
Andrew Hevesi.
Shelter opponents among
the massive crowd fervently
cheered those fighting
the plan with them — and
drowned out those who did
not staunchly make a case
against the development,
including the representatives
of the city agencies and
event’s emcee, Community
Board 5 Chair Vincent Arcuri.
The affair was so unruly
that, at one point, Arcuri had
to instruct police officers to
eject numerous rowdy residents,
and end the hearing
early.
In the wake of the hearing,
CB5 voted against the
proposed plan, but Department
of Homelessness has
indicated that it plans to proceed
with the project against
the community board’s vote.
YEAR IN REVIEW
Over 1,000 residents showed up Community Board 5’s meeting on the proposed Glendale homeless
shelter on Oct. 7. Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
/QNS.COM
