Our Plan

Last updated Feb 3, 2020

The changes taking place in Long Island City, Western Queens, and New York City – OUR CITY – in the last 30 years especially, have not been favorable to existing community members. The direction of development in this city has displaced and threatened the well-being of entire communities, withered public resources including our housing, education and transit systems, and imposed insecurity on the masses. As was envisioned by our previous mayor, and continued by our current mayor, our City has been transformed into the playground for a wealthy and corporate global elite – at our expense. Working-class and lower-income households, who are predominantly Black, Brown, Indigenous and/or Immigrant, have bore the harshest brunt, continuing longer and broader legacies of dispossession and exploitation that underpin the processes of capitalism and colonialism that transformed our world globally.

Our plan humbly offers an alternative vision.
One that is rooted in our needs and concerns.
One that tries to move us towards just futures for all.

United we stand.

Our Basic List of Demands & Principles: 

  1. A moratorium on all new construction and major rezonings.
  2. Rework city-planning and -building processes to prioritize the needs, concerns and perspectives of working-class and lower income households, and lock real estate interests out. Specific first steps include:
    1. Abolish the quasi-private, illegitimate EDC.
    2. Stop all current and future sales of public land to private developers.
  3. Re-prioritize the city and state budget so public housing and other public resources (i.e. education, transportation) are adequately and fully-funded by public money, so that basic human rights – to housing, education, and mobility – can be realized by ALL New York residents.
    1. Start by fully funding NYCHA now.
  4. Create real protections for small businesses, small manufacturing firms, and artists that insulate them from the volatility of the market, like we do for renters.
  5. Allocate more public resources (time, staff, money, etc) to supporting community control of land and employment, specifically in the form of community land trusts and worker cooperatives.

Sections of Plan

We, the Justice for All Coalition, and on behalf of residents in Astoria, Long Island City and Western Queens, put forth this community platform as a starting point for rethinking the future of development in our region. It outlines the needs and concerns of long-time community members as we presently understand them, and proposes directions for development that create less rather than more challenges for us and our neighbors.

We present this community platform as a living document and expect that its content will expand and evolve as the context does.

Background– Changes in LIC & JFAC’s Formation

I. HEALTHY, SAFE AND FAIR HOUSING FOR ALL

II. DEVELOPMENT FOR THE PEOPLE

Anable Basin

Sunnyside Yards

BQX & Better Transit Options

III. COMMUNITY CONTROL

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