18 FEBRUARY 27, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
EDC’s Sunnyside Yards Steering Committee
loses AOC and Justice for All Coalition chair
An aerial view of the Sunnyside railyards. Photo courtesy of NYCEDC
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
The Sunnyside Yards Steering
Committee, organized by the
Economic Development Corp.
(EDC), offi cially lost two members in
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez and Justice for All Coalition
Chair Sylvia White.
The EDC is leading a multibilliondollar
eff ort 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 fi ght against
Sunnyside Yards. In November 2019,
they sent letters to several elected offi
cials 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 “refl ects a
misalignment of priorities.”
Senator Michael Gianaris also sent a
letter, stating that while his name and
offi ce 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
refl ected in the public facing materials
released about the project and rather
tinkers around the edges providing a
few token benefi ts.”
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 suffi
cient 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 offi ce, includes but is
not limited to community land trusts,
truly aff ordable 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
aft er 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. “Specifi
cally, 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 under-funded public resources
that our community relies on.”
The EDC is currently working on its
fi nal 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 nonprofi t
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, aff ordable 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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