Added updates as of March 1, 2022. Please scroll down for petition.

More info on http://astorianotforsale.org/

Here are more details about the project and further considerations for those of us opposing the development since we first created this petition:

• There are now two 27-story buildings, one 26-story, one 22-story, one 20-story, one 19-story, one 16-story, one 15-story, one 13-story, one 12-story and additional building heights of 11, 10 and 9 story buildings all in the 5-block, proposed area that is next to one of the last remaining areas of affordable housing in Astoria.
• The minimum percentage of mandated affordable housing will not be at income levels that are affordable to those who need it most, and the other 75% of the 2800+ units will be high-end market-rate, rendering them unaffordable for most of our current, local community.
• Based on other new Astoria high-end listings and other Silverstein properties, studios would be more than $3100, 1 bedrooms more than $4,000. The developer will not share the actual projected price of “market rent” units.
• There will be no school built even though the developers presented a powerpoint to CB1 on 2/16/22 saying one would and that was why they needed an “expanded area” for a “superior” site. Only when asked did they admit no school would be built.
• The “open space” is mostly situated within the parameters of the luxury development. Playground 35 already exists and recently underwent a taxpayer-funded renovation. The privately owned open space that the developers say they will add next to PG 35 is insignificant considering the 7000 people that will move in, and the mass and scale bonus they are requesting to compensate for including open space. They gain in the end!  
• 1500 parking spaces will bring a huge amount of cars, further damaging bike and pedestrian safety and air quality. No increased public transport capacity improvements planned.
• The developers will be eligible for tax abatements for up to 30 years and are not transparent about other subsidies or tax breaks. The rest of the community will pick up the tab!
  
• The developer has not committed to doing a racial impact study despite this being a large scale development with serious implications on those most vulnerable.
• The “community engagement” has been a website with a survey asking rhetorical questions (e.g. Would you like affordable housing? Would you like more green space?,) hand-picked groups for presentations, Facebook and Instagram ads including many people who have direct or indirect relationships with the developers, little to no outreach to the immigrant and working class communities who live in the area, and no information sharing with the Community Board for nearly 16 months.

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Vote NO on rezoning south Steinway/Northern Blvd for Innovation QNS

We are Astoria and Western Queens residents who strongly oppose the proposed development of Innovation QNS. We do not want mega-developers to irreversibly alter our neighborhood from lower- to medium-density apartment buildings and smaller, multi-family homes to luxury, out-of-scale high-rises. We are a community of mainly middle- and low-income families and residents, many immigrants, and concerned neighbors, and this development would greatly exacerbate gentrification and displace so many of our neighbors. We object for many reasons, among them the following:

·         The effect high-rise, “market-rate,” luxury apartment complexes will have on our neighbors, raising area rents and eventually property taxes, pushing out local residents. We already have an affordability crisis, with about half of Astoria residents already considered rent-burdened.

·         The capacity burden on local, public resources. As one example, the Steinway train station is already very busy and crowded during rush hour. Adding 6700 more commuters would be outrageous. The development plans to add 1500 parking spaces, inevitably attracting more cars to an area that already has poor air quality and substantial traffic.

·         The majority of jobs promised are temporary and the permanent ones are in the lower-paying service sector. They offer little to no long-term economic security and empowerment for local residents.

·       The commercial space promised is an empty and unnecessary offer; Steinway Street has vacant storefront after vacant storefront. (Forty vacancies on a five-block stretch.) Many of our small business owners are already threatened by rising local rents, and a shiny, new mega-development aimed at higher-rent-paying tenants will not fix that. This project will push more local mom-and-pops out while landlords speculate.

·         The massive shadows cast by the complex – four buildings are 20+ stories, seven are 15+ - are unwanted by existing neighbors, and the high-rise towers are in complete dissonance with the neighborhood at large. The lowest residential tower is still taller than almost every structure in Astoria at 8 stories. Clearly, the developers care not an ounce about our neighborhood’s existing aesthetic, history and personality.

·         This project is the continuation of harmful practices by developers that have threatened and displaced residents across the city. We resent the actions and rhetoric these developers have taken and used, calling the area dormant and not renewing the leases for businesses that were recently and are currently there, many of which employed blue collar, immigrant workers. We demand more respect for our community and neighbors.

We don’t want to hand our neighborhood over to billionaire developer Larry Silverstein or real estate investment firms, whose actions and political contributions bolster over-development of NYC’s neighborhoods at any cost, while middle- and low-income New Yorkers ultimately pay the price.

What do we want? Real affordable housing (not MIH bare minimums in price and quantity!) that meets local residents’ needs and incomes, not “market-rate” rent inflation; well-paying, long-term union jobs, aimed at employing and empowering our local community; publicly-owned green spaces that are truly designed to be enjoyed by all; investment in our existing businesses and spaces on Steinway; and new construction that complements the neighborhood, not defies and erases it.