YESTERDAY at the LIC Summit one of the speakers marveled at how everyone on the panel lived in Brooklyn and was talking about LIC. In fact given that this panel and several others included NYC policy makers the reality is that they were not only commenting about Queens but also deciding its fate when it comes to big decisions. Which I guess is how these things shake out when hiring decisions are made, but shouldn’t there then be extra special attention paid to the community voice and an awareness that these areas are not blank slates?
The obvious answer is ‘yes’ but the bureaucratic one is ‘huh?’ Our last post talked about the ‘Water’s Edge’ development, and that proposal should be an interesting litmus test. I learned yesterday that a) an answer should be forthcoming soon and b) there never was the intention of having a bake-off. We’ll see.
More disconcerting was the advocacy of ‘densification’ by all the Brooklyn Intelligentsia as the solution to the city’s problems, and how Queens was Ground Zero to test their urban planning theories. I believe it helps a few people and diminishes the quality of life for all – the only question is ‘To what extent?’ Either way, we will experience de facto densification in the addition of roughly 10,000 new units to LIC by 2020 and thousands of other units along the 7-train line outside of LIC. Why not wait to see how that plays out?
Another sign of cluelessness occurred [Read more…] about WHY IS BROOKLYN RUNNING QUEENS?
