A group of around two dozen artists and art organizations held a “Rally for the Arts” at Long Island City’s Gordon Triangle last week to demand that art and culture protections are included in the OneLIC Neighborhood Plan, which is set to go before the City Council on Wednesday.
The rally, which took place at Gordon Triangle at the intersection of 10th Street and 44th Drive on Oct. 22, aimed to highlight three core demands of LIC’s arts and culture community in the rezoning plan, including incentives for developers to create free and permanently affordable arts and culture spaces.
The group has also called for any final OneLIC plan to include an LIC Arts Fund to support local public programming and public art projects. The rally further called for OneLIC to include partnerships between developers, city agencies and the arts community to ensure long-term investment in local culture, including arts and culture representation in a recommended Community Oversight Committee.
The OneLIC proposal covers 54 full or partial blocks from Gantry Plaza State Park to the Queensbridge Houses and north to the Long Island City Industrial Business Zone. The eastern boundary extends to Court Square and 23rd Street.
The plan aims to revise outdated zoning regulations to allow for more mixed-use development, increase housing supply and improve neighborhood infrastructure and resiliency.
The city has estimated that the rezoning proposal will create around 14,700 new housing units, 4,300 of which will be affordable, in addition to 14,400 new jobs and over 3.5 million square feet of commercial and industrial space.
The City Council is set to vote on the neighborhood rezoning on Oct. 29 as part of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), but dozens of artists have called on the final plan include protections for arts and culture within the proposed rezoning area.
They argued that more than 100 artists and arts organizations operated within the 54 blocks covered by OneLIC and said the rezoning could displace artists and group that contribute to LIC culture unless there are specific provisions included in the final proposals.
Groups including Queensboro Dance Festival, Culture Lab LIC, MoMA PS1 and New Yorkers 4 Culture and Arts gathered at Gordon Triangle last week to rally for those provisions.
An Ecuadorian dance display and a performance from local brass musicians framed the rally, attended by a number of prominent artists and art organizations in the neighborhood.
Culture Lab Executive Director Edjo Wheeler remarked that the organization welcomes more than 60,000 visitors every year and described the arts as a critical part of the local economy.
“Culture Lab alone brings over 60,000 people to the area each year and contributes more than $2.5 million to the local economy,” Wheeler said. “What if there was more of this? And yet, the current plan does not mention arts and culture at all.”
A Culture Lab spokesperson also warned that failure to include specific provisions for the arts could devastate smaller and underfunded arts organizations, leading to a “neighborhood stripped of the very vibrant culture that made it a destination.”
Karesia Batan, founding executive director of Queensboro Dance Festival, called on the city to include such provisions in the final OneLIC plan.
“We urge the city, developers and our elected officials to have the will to include arts and culture in the future plans of our neighborhood,” Batan said in a statement. “Arts and culture is a value of this neighborhood and it must be represented.”
Lucy Sexton, executive director of New Yorkers 4 Culture and Arts, said arts and culture can help improve local mental health, education and public safety.
“Culture and art are not extras, they are the anchor for the building of strong connected communities,” Sexton said.
Council Member Julie Won, who represents the area covered by the rezoning proposal, has consistently stated that she will vote against the OneLIC plan unless the city agrees to include a number of specific community priorities, including commitment to provide deeply affordable housing, over 1,300 new school seats, a substantial increase in open space and a comprehensive plan to improve resiliency in the neighborhood.
Her priorities, announced in April shortly after OneLIC entered the ULURP process, did not specifically mention arts or culture. However, Won encouraged all residents to make their voices heard at a OneLIC community hearing held at LaGuardia Community College in May, where a number of artists advocated for dedicated spaces for the arts.
Organizers of last week’s rally said Won and other elected officials were invited to the rally but did not attend. QNS has reached out to Won’s office for comment and is waiting for a response.
The Department of City Planning has also not yet returned QNS’ request for comment.
