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QUEENS WEEKLY, MARCH 1, 2020
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
An aerial photo of the Sunnyside railyards. Photo courtesy of NYCEDC
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.”
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
multi-stakeholder 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 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.”T
he 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.