Previous Post: Can Willets Point the Way?
Negotiation Time for Willets
Well, they’re talking. As the Daily News reports today, Councilmember Hiram Monserrate is meeting with Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Lieber to discuss the NYC Economic Development Corporation’s redevelopment plans for Willets Point. Monserrate, responding to appeals from housing groups (especially Queens for Affordable Housing and its members) and unions (via the Central Labor Council), has told the Mayor’s office that he won’t back the City’s proposal, which has to go through the City Council as part of the Land Use Review Process, unless it includes affordable housing, aid for existing businesses, and “livable wage” jobs (that’s the CLC’s preferred term).
Monserrate doesn’t sit on the committees that will vote on the Willets Point redevelopment plan, but typically Council votes on land use defer to local members’ wishes, and Willets Point is in his Queens district. As Monserrate made clear in a Feb. 8 letter he sent to his 50 fellow councilmembers, he’s especially distressed at the plan’s lack of specifics on many key questions of public interest, especially exactly how the City intends to help workers whose businesses will be displaced and how much affordable housing will be included among the project’s thousands of apartments.
“All prudent elected officials should support economic development that balances the critical prongs of environmental consciousness, community sensitivity, and the broadest level of economic stimulus with full fervor,” Monserrate wrote. “Unfortunately, I must inform you that EDC’s plan fails to harmonize these critical factors.” He urged his colleagues on the City Council to oppose the redevelopment plan “until the Administration and EDC present a Proposal that has resolved these blatant deficiencies.“
What promises is the Bloomberg Administration prepared to ink in order to win over the City Council? Will Monserrate hold out for the kind of vigorous commitments his constituents have said they want, like making two-thirds of the housing affordable? The outcome won’t just remake Willets Point; it’s also poised to set an important precedent for the whole city.