Doubting the success of the whole project, resident and business-owner Seth Jacobs asked "Why are people going to pay those kinds of prices to live there?" Citing rising rents and a shortage of housing as the reasons many young families are moving away, Jacobs said "communities need families, it gives them continuity--without them the community loses." Though Jacobs has enjoyed the people and the small-town feeling of the area, he says "We are out of this neighborhood. I have given up."
But for many who plan to stay, the disruption caused by construction of QW has just begun. Hunters Point home owner Marilyn Walsh said "We had a beautiful view of the skyline and now we have to look at a huge garage. It is disgusting!" The first buildingıs 5-story garage faces a childrenıs play area in the adjacent strip-park.
Hopeful for employment Walsh said her husband, a professional in construction for 16 years, "has been down to the site three times since July, and so far he hasnıt even had a phone call." QW has not developed the local hiring office that was recommendeded by the Coalition.
Disappointed that QW did not establish a hiring office, Walsh is skeptical about the project plans for 50th Avenue where she lives. The plan lacks any schematics for the existing buildings on that block (QW maps show some populated blocks as blank space, other populated blocks are displayed properly). "I cannot buy It is an oversight.ı What is going to happen to the block that I live on?"
Third generation Hunters Point resident Jayne Mangino boasts "this is one of the nicest communities, because people know each other, and say hello on the street."
QW intends to build a 44-story building, 2 blocks wide, at the end of her street, which will obstruct the entire view corridor for her block. "Queens West promised to honor our street grid and view corridors." Mangino, who lives on 51st Avenue, says that "they call it a view corridor, but for us it is an air corridor."
As the first building encroaches on the neighborhoodıs views, Mangino says that "to take this away from the people who have lived here for generations, without acknowledging the loss, is astonishing."
The financial plan for the first building, while protecting developers, is risky for buyers, and Mangino fears being "stuck with a building that creates problems."
Mangino has studied the plans and voiced her concerns at numerous meetings, but she says "Queens West is doing nothing to provide adequate green space to replace what they have taken away."
Back to The View - Volume 3 Number 3
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Last Update: Dec 1996