Forget eminent domain. The real battle over the mayor's plans for redeveloping Willets Point is more likely to turn on the number of affordable housing units included.
Affordable housing advocates staged a rally outside City Hall last week to protest the current proposal. Under the mayor's plan, the city has promised 20 percent, or 1,125, of the 5,500 new housing units, would be set aside for low- and moderate-income families.
Protesters Monday called for a greater proportion of the housing in Willets Point to be reserved for low- and moderate-income families. Led by Councilman Hiram Monserrate, protesters repeated their opposition to the project five weeks before the City Council votes.
Monserrate wants at least 60 percent of the housing to be set aside for poor and middle-class families. The Queens Affordable Housing Coalition considers $42,000 a year the median income for a family of four. They contend that many people in Queens could not afford to buy one of the “affordable” units under the current plan.
There is a need for low- and middle-income affordable housing in Queens. But we do not see why this housing must be built at Willets Point. The concept is to build a mixed-use commercial and entertainment area that will stimulate the Queens economy by attracting tourists. The waterfront project will connect the area that will include everything in Flushing Meadows Corona Park with downtown Flushing.
The redevelopment will create thousands of permanent jobs for skilled and unskilled labor. There is no housing in this junkyard. Low-income housing is not consistent with the mayor's vision for this area. Like the rebuilt Times Square, this is not an appropriate place for low-income housing.
A compromise solution should be possible. The city should make an offer to build a large tract of low- and middle-income housing at other Queens locations while it develops Willets Point. This should satisfy critics like Monserrate, who has been using his support as a bargaining chip to get more City Hall concessions.
If Monserrate succeeds in killing the project, he will have gained nothing and led Queens real estate go to waste.
