WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 15
Opposition fl ares up at Sunnyside Yards
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Protestors did not let the Monday
night’s Sunnyside Yards hearing
commence without opposition
as groups expressed distrust toward
the Economic Development Corporation’s
plan to deck over 180 acres of
rail yard.
Among the loudest groups protesting
in the cafeteria of the Aviation
High School in Sunnyside were
Queens Neighborhoods United
(QNU), who brought their beef with
the EDC back to the conflict of Amazon
HQ2 which they referred to as a
backroom deal.
And while QNU and other organizations
were making a din in the
cafeteria, the teacher’s lounge saw
members of the public were asking
the planning consulting team leader
Vishaan Chakrabarti and the EDC’s
Adam Grossman Meager what would
happen to their community in terms
fabric and infrastructure.
“We really believe that if Queens
is going to maintain the diversity
that it has today … It’s going to need
more affordable homes. It’s going to
need more access to jobs. It’s going
to need better transportation, and
more parks schools and healthcare,”
Chakrabarti said. “The city, generally,
we’re facing a lot of long-term
challenges in terms of climate change,
affordability, economic opportunity.
We just think it would be foolish to
not look at Sunnyside Yards in light
of the needs of what both Queens has
and the city has.”
While an earlier feasibility study
placed the Sunnyside Yards project
between $16 billion to $19 billion,
the new price tag is marked at $22
billion, which critics say should
be spent on existing problems in
existing neighborhoods.
“Now is the time to speak out
against luxury development and
hyper-gentrification in western
Queens. Mayor de Blasio and the
EDC should not be dumping billions
into new luxury developments while
NYCHA needs billions for critical
maintenance and repairs. We need
good, truly affordable housing for all
and an end to homelessness. Invest
billions to solve these problems, not
hyper-gentrify our neighborhoods,”
said Patricia Chou, a Queens Neighborhoods
United organizer.
Along with the existing transit
infrastructure, Chakrabarti said the
deck would be equipped with roads
wide enough to handle bus service.
“Strained infrastructure, we
know that, we’ve heard that from a
lot of people, but none the less infrastructure
that can be improved
upon,” Chakrabarti continued. “The
process has really been driven, we
A hearing on the development of Sunnyside Yards projected a cost of $22 billion and left many residents with
questions concerning quality of life. Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
feel, by the public. We’ve had many,
many meetings and gotten a lot of
input. Not just input about specific
aspects of the plan but also what the
identity of Queens is and we want to
be true to that identity in the spirit
of this place.”
On the western end of the site,
Chakrabarti said there is potential
for a long-awaited Sunnyside Station
on for LIRR riders, which has federal
funding, but has yet to be built
by the MTA.
According to Chakrabarti, western
Queens is starved of open space
which he believes decking over the
yard could provide parks for the public.
The overall heigh of the deck has
been decreased in its highest points,
the equivalent of five- to six-story
buildings in some places.
Whether or not Sunnysiders would
be cast beneath a constant shadow
from the deck and the buildings
combined was a concern which the
EDC said it had taken into account
to prevent.
Garbage and other services
would be handled within the
“thickness of the structural deck,”
Chakrabarti said.
A 45-year resident of Sunnyside
said her neighborhood is diminishing
without the development as it is and
posed the question to Meager of how
it is expected to effect communities.
“We would want this to be a world
where Sunnyside is still very much
Sunnyside, and strengthened by the
development,” Meager said.
The Sunnyside Yards project is
expected to cover a space seven times
the size as Hudson Yards, which has
attracted its share of criticism since
its completion such as the unaffordability
of the housing, the cost of the
project and the return on investment
for the city.
Midville remembers 9/11 victims
Hundreds of residents came to Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village last Wednesday night to pay tribute to the
victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The vigil on the park’s ballfi elds near Juniper Boulevard North
and 78th Streets took place on the 18th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon
and United Airlines Flight 93. By candlelight, the participants read the names of local victims and heard prayers,
words of comfort and memorial music. They also gazed upon the Tribute in Light, twin beams of light illuminated
in Lower Manhattan representing the former Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Photo by Dean Moses
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