Opinion: Getting It Right For Hunters Point North

"The city's recently approved OneLIC rezoning for over 50 blocks of Long Island City threatens to repeat mistakes of the Greenpoint rezoning on the Hunters Point North waterfront. Despite OneLIC's marketing as a Neighborhood Plan, it is the opposite: it serves private interests while failing to address the community's critical needs. What's more, it creates a false choice between housing and everything else, exploiting the simplistic YIMBY vs NIMBY divide."

"OneLIC claims to provide 14,700 new apartments-but at a high price. Its massive scale will compound existing problems, including soaring rents resulting from the nearly 40,000 mostly luxury apartments built here since the early 2000s. Rents for "affordable" units, calculated as a percentage of the city's inflated Area Median Income, will be out of reach to most of those in need."

"This half mile of shoreline just south of the Queensboro Bridge has the potential to become the city's next great waterfront-if we prioritize public interest over private profit. New Yorkers treasure every inch of waterfront, yet too often the public loses out. Hunters Point North-with its panoramic views of Midtown Manhattan, rich industrial history, and vibrant, creative community-is uniquely positioned for revitalization on one of the last remaining underutilized stretches of the East River."

Hunters Point North offers a half mile of underutilized East River shoreline with panoramic Midtown views, industrial history, and a creative community ripe for revitalization. The OneLIC rezoning for over 50 blocks risks repeating Greenpoint mistakes by serving private interests and failing to meet community needs. OneLIC promises 14,700 apartments but would intensify existing problems caused by nearly 40,000 mostly luxury units built since the early 2000s. Affordable units tied to an inflated Area Median Income will be inaccessible to many. City-owned waterfront land and public streets face privatization, and towers up to 100 stories could cast long shadows.

Read at City Limits