By Rich Bockmann
Borough President-elect Melinda Katz’s experience heading the City Council Land Use Committee is at the forefront of the economic development plan she released Wednesday, which calls for developing mix-use districts, promoting a high-tech economy and developing a branding campaign that puts Queens on a pedestal.
“During the campaign for Queens borough president, the most important issue on the minds of voters was how to create jobs and spur economic development. Now, during the transition to my tenure at the helm of Borough Hall, I’m putting those concerns front and center,” Katz wrote in her four-page plan. “My influence on the capital and expense budgets can be leveraged to improve job-creating projects across the borough. And by fully leaning on the BP’s bully pulpit, my office can attract new businesses in thriving industries like health care and technology to the borough of Queens.”
Katz, who previously chaired the Council’s Land Use Committee and served as former Borough President Claire Shulman’s director of community boards, won her race for Borough Hall earlier this month with an overwhelming 80 percent of the vote.
The Forest Hills Democrat plans to create an economic development task force and hold land use hearings to identify areas prime for mixed-use development, business improvement districts and transportation investments.
In western Queens, Katz wants to take advantage of the area’s proximity to the planned Cornell Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island to make the area a hub for high-tech startups. Promoting incubator spaces, developing a new housing program and using the borough president’s authority on land use to push for the expansion of high-speed, fiber Internet access are all on her agenda.
In the Rockaways, Katz plans to push for local hiring requirements for Rockaway Beach rebuilding projects, expand ferry and bus services and market the tourist areas that have been a draw to many outside the borough in recent years.
Arguably the best-known borough president in the city is the soon-to-be-succeeded Marty Markowitz, who has left his mark by branding Brooklyn as the premier borough for growth in the 21st century and come to define the paragon of the bully pulpit.
Katz said she would like to develop a comprehensive branding campaign for the borough that will focus on its diversity and multitude of often-overlooked small businesses.
“By developing a cohesive branding campaign that sets Queens apart from anywhere else, I know we can attract new residents, businesses, tourists and capital for further development projects,” she wrote.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
