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(dramatic music)

- It's gonna be a bad Christmas

because tomorrow's the last day we can stay here.

The city wants to close every shop.

- Willets Point has long been known as the Iron Triangle,

or the Valley of Ashes.

Between the city agencies and developers,

we have the potential to vote in favor for a plan

that will forever become a new benchmark,

not only for my district, but for all of New York City.

- I don't know exactly why we need a mall,

considering the Skyview Mall

is approximately 1500 yards away.

- It's Christmas Day,

and now I gotta find out where I gotta work?

- This has been a big decade of land grabs

by the mayor and rich developers.

- Life's like that sometimes.

In the life you have to hold it.

Very hard sometimes.

(dramatic music)

(air compressor running)

- [News Reporter] Mike Bloomberg says Willets Point,

the Valley of Ashes, is well on its way

to becoming the site of historic private investment,

major job creation,

and unprecedented environmental remediation.

- [Bloomberg] When fully built out, this phase one plan

will result in over 5 million square feet

of new development,

including 2,500 units of housing,

35% of which will be affordable,

retail and entertainment venues,

a new hotel and new recreational spaces.

- [News Reporter] His honor says it may have taken

a long time to get to this point,

but it will make a very big difference in our city.

Stan Brooks, 1010 WINS, City Hall.

- [News Reporter] A property owner is about to be kicked out

to make way for the Willets Point redevelopment project.

- [News Reporter] Some business owners say

they're still negotiating with the city,

and trying to find a place to relocate,

but others say many of them

haven't heard from the city since 2008,

and still don't know how or when

their companies will be moved.

At Willets Point, Stefan Kim, New York 1.

- The city doesn't have any plan approved

to develop this area, but right now,

they are sending the letters

to evict everybody in this area.

They close our business,

they kill our families, they kill everybody over here.

We need another place to continue our business.

(solemn instrumental music)

- New York City's economic development policies

are often politically made.

And in New York City,

we have something called

the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

But if you're just the average Jane or Joe on the street,

you'd swear it was a city agency.

The mayor's got his hands in it, helps appoint the board.

The reality is, is that it's not a city agency.

It is not accountable to the people of New York.

- The Economic Development Corporation

is an independent not-for-profit corporation,

and its primary purpose is to

develop the economy of the city of New York.

And because it's not technically a city agency,

it's able to move more nimbly,

and to bridge those two very different worlds,

the world of the public sector,

and the world of the private sector.

It manages properties on behalf of the city,

and sells surplus property to put it back into active use.

It also manages

about a two and a half billion dollar capital budget.

The capital comes from the city's capital budget,

and that goes through the normal city council approval,

and then the budget

is eventually signed into law by the mayor.

With a project like Willets Point,

where you're talking about 62 acres,

in the middle of a dense urban environment,

there are actually multiple constituencies.

You have people who own the land,

the people who work at Willets Point,

the people who own the businesses,

people who are affordable housing advocates.

You have neighbors.

You have the environmental community,

people who are looking for economic development.

What ends up happening is that you have to try to figure out

how best to balance all of those different interests.

And in balancing all of those interests,

as with any compromise,

you inevitably are going to land in a place

that's not gonna satisfy everyone a hundred percent.

- Good morning, I'm council member, Julissa Ferraras,

and I represent the 21st council district,

which includes Willets Point.

As a representative of Willets Point,

I want to ensure the proposed development

is fair and balanced,

with consideration to existing tenants.

While the use of this land has varied over the years,

it now hosts a wealth of auto repair shops

that have gone without many of the essential amenities

other areas of our city experience.

The owners of these shops are predominantly

low income immigrants who have come to our great city

in search of the American dream.

As lawmakers it is our duty to ensure

they have access to the same resources

that any other New Yorker and small business has.

Additionally, I'd like to point out

that the proposal calls for construction

of a housing development.

In 2008, it was made clear that 35%

of the units being constructed will be affordable.

Through this hearing I would like to have clarified

that this commitment will be solidified.

My district is continuing to grow,

and yet there is no affordable housing available,

nor is there enough green space

when we factor in our overcrowded population.

The commitment to affordable housing

and other community needs

would have a tremendous impact

for hundreds of low income residents in my community.

Although there are many positive points

within the proposals,

we must know all the facts,

and the community needs to feel reassured

that this is the best decision.

- The Willets Point development plan

approved by the city council in 2008

is one of the most ambitious

physical transformation projects

undertaken in New York City's history.

Willets Point has long tarnished

an otherwise vibrant section of Queens.

This toxic, neglected 62 acres

lacks even the most basic infrastructure,

including roads, sidewalk, and utilities.

Despite these challenges,

given its location adjacent to growing neighborhoods

and proximity to highways and mass transit,

both this administration and the council

have seen an opportunity not only to clean the area,

but also to reclaim this underutilized site

by creating a dynamic new neighborhood.

- Willets Point is in the center of the borough.

It's between the two airports.

It's bordered by Flushing Meadow Park,

which is a major recreational area.

The Queens Museum is there, the Queens Theater is there.

Going back to the 1939 World's fair,

you know, it was seen as a showplace in New York City.

But in the last 50 years you have this industry

that's grown up over there,

which has largely been unregulated,

and you know, they've really been sort of a blight.

So the vision is to create a area that is more attractive

to the people who come

for the United States Open every year,

come to the Mets games,

to create a neighborhood that's a bright spot

rather than what is today.

- I've been coming to Willets Point for some time.

I can get my car fixed, I can get parts,

I can get tires, I can get rims,

and they have a very good selection here.

I want to see exactly

what they're gonna do with Willets Point.

I know we got Citi Field right there,

and they want to make it more presentable,

'cause it's not the best looking place to drive through,

but it's worth it for the deals.

- The conditions in Willets Point

are like a third world country.

We have streets, but they're like,

look like they've been bombed.

There's potholes all over the place.

No sanitation services,

people illegally dump over here,

they don't try to catch anybody.

We asked the city to have our streets redone,

and they said, well, we're on a 15 year cycle,

and last time we did the streets was like 10 years ago.

They never did these streets 10 years ago.

They basically just collect taxes

and just leave you to fend for yourself.

Meanwhile, they'll have the street sweeper

going around in front of Citi Field,

sweeping for the Mets.

And now they want to come and take our property

to blame us for their neglect.

The city wants this area to look bad,

because when it looks bad,

then when they put a plan up and they say look,

we're gonna put this there and take this away,

people go for it, like they say,

yeah, yeah, look at that eyesore,

we gotta get rid of that eyesore.

(train squealing)

- The term 'blight' means it's yours, and I want it.

People who run cities

don't have to have excuses for doing urban renewal.

They usually say it's vitally important

to the city's economy, and they say it's progress.

Urban renewal is just an abstract term,

it could just mean renewing the city.

But it came to be associated

with a program of the United States government

under the Federal Housing Act of 1949,

that involved governments buying huge tracts of city land,

often in the most vulnerable

Black and Hispanic neighborhoods,

exercising their power of eminent domain,

clearing the land, and then giving it to private developers,

for what they called higher uses,

which included housing projects, cultural centers,

medical centers, schools.

That kind of top down land clearance

has a way of destroying the neighborhoods with the poor,

and sorting out the city by race and class.

Set a strategy that's still in widespread use, even now.

- [News Reporter] This is one of the mayor's

top development projects for his last 16 months in office.

So expect some bargaining and arm twisting

over the next few months.

- Outrage and anger.

That was the reaction from some in Willets Point,

after hearing that Councilman Hiram Monserrate

is now throwing his support behind the mayor's plan

to redevelop the area.

The city struck the deal with Monserrate,

the community group ACORN

and the Queens for Affordable Housing Coalition,

a day before the city council scheduled vote on the plan.

- Probably around 2008, when the news first broke

about the Willets Point project,

Queens Congregations United for Action,

who are now Faith in New York,

came to our church and talked about organizing.

At that time, the issue was

the dislocation of their workers

and businesses that were there.

That's when I got to know about the details of the project,

and the housing that it would include.

Living in Queens for so long,

I was aware of the overcrowding,

the marginal dwellings, the illegal dwellings.

People double up, they triple up in housing,

because they can't afford the rent.

We went to many rallies,

and gathered with other churches, to bring attention.

We had local politicians with us.

Finally, that first project was approved,

and 2000 units of affordable housing were established.

We were elated, we were absolutely elated

at our success, and that the city was going to do that.

Then it all stayed very quiet for a couple of years.

We didn't hear very much.

Then we heard about changes coming,

then we heard about the land being used for something else.

And about a year ago,

we were at a meeting with our local city councilwoman,

Julissa Ferraras,

and she announced to us

that the whole project had been changed.

A different plan was going forward,

and affordable housing was deferred until 2025.

It had totally changed.

This was not the same project at all.

- One of he most contentious parts

of this whole issue,

is that because the Mets, through a 1961 lease,

control that parking lot to the west of Citi Field,

the Related Companies and Sterling Equities,

claim that that land, which is technically mapped Parkland,

it's technically part of Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

They claim that they don't have to ask

the city, the state, the neighbors, the parks department,

or anyone, for permission to build

the biggest mall in New York City,

on a piece of land that if you look on a map,

is owned by the City Parks Department.

And I think what really angers people

is that they know that nothing like this

would ever be proposed in Prospect Park

or Central Park, places that are surrounded by wealth,

but it is proposed here

in a predominantly low to moderate income,

immigrant, nonwhite community.

- Good morning, my name is Richard Brown.

I'm a partner at Sterling Equities.

I thought I'd take a minute to address

some of the threshold questions that we have been answering

for the last a year or so,

mainly, why are we doing this in phases?

Why are we building something in Citi Field's parking lot?

Where is the housing?

And can we really clean up Willets Point?

The main reason I believe that we were chosen by EDC,

in partnership with Related, is that,

because our affiliated company,

Sterling Mets, controls the land and Citi Field,

we have another 75 acres across the street,

we're able to look at this area holistically.

Certainly the transformation of the entire area

is the goal and the vision of everybody involved.

But for our part,

to try to do meaningful retail development,

in that 23 acres, to try to do meaningful housing,

at this particular point, market rate housing,

it's just not economically viable.

So we reached out to Related, and between their resources,

our ability to avail the land west of Citi Field,

we embarked on this notion of creating a retail destination.

And again, why are we leading with retail?

You know, many of us who work and live in Queens,

are saying, isn't there enough retail already?

Aren't there enough shopping malls out there,

et cetera, et cetera.

And we've looked at it in detail,

and in basic terms, the number that I take away

is $5 billion a year.

$5 billion a year of shopping gets done

outside the borough of Queens, from Queens residents.

So to me, that's a very telling statistic.

(gulls calling)

(acoustic guitar music)

- Capital is always producing surpluses.

And the reason for that is,

that a capitalist is always looking to create something,

which is more at the end of the day

then at the beginning of the day,

and that more at the end of the day is called profit.

Then the question is, what do you do with the profit?

Well, competition forces you

to reinvest that in expansion.

So capital and capitalism are always about growth,

and it has to find new opportunities for growth.

And historically from the 18th century onwards,

capital increasingly took on the idea of city building

as a way of absorbing some surpluses,

and making money out of it.

So you build speculative housing,

and the developer makes money.

You build new infrastructures,

and the developer and the construction industry makes money.

So urbanization is one of the big fields

which absorb surplus capital in ways

which are profitable to capital.

And the profit motive then dominates.

(horn honking)

- The goal of economic development

is to make New York City the most desirable place

in which to live and work in the world,

because in the 21st century,

the most important competitive advantage is your people.

And so, we as a city need to make sure

that we are able to attract the best and the brightest

and people who are able to found companies,

manage companies and work in those companies.

So how do you attract people?

Quality of life is very important,

making sure that the city is safe,

that we have a public school system that works,

that we have open space and cultural institutions

that are magnets,

that we have infrastructure, transportation that works.

How do we make sure that we're not overly reliant

on any one geographical region of the city

and that the benefits of economic growth

are spread as far and as wide as possible

within the five boroughs?

- In 2008, the city said that

when they bought the property off the people,

and they turned it over to the developer,

that they would recoup that money.

Well, they didn't, they spent $250 million,

and they turned around and gave it to the Mets for a dollar.

So they basically gave away $250 million.

On top of that the gave them a $100 million grant

to use towards building this project

and remediating the property.

On top of that, they turned around

and gave him a $20 million sales tax exemption.

So I mean, just what we know about,

they're like up to almost $400 million

in tax payer money, just giving it to them free.

I mean, these are billionaires you're talking about.

These are the games that the billionaires

play with each other,

and the small guys, the taxpayers,

wind up footing the bill for it.

- It's pretty impossible to start to connect

exactly how many dollars went into a project like this,

because quite frankly,

these deals are hatched, made, and created,

outside of public view.

They are then presented to the rest of us,

as saying, this is a great project, look,

and they put up the fancy pictures,

the beautiful renderings,

and the promise of thousands of jobs.

And then, basically communities are left

to try and grab some crumbs from these projects

to try and find a benefit for them.

- There's been some mention today about phasing.

Let me take you quickly through the phasing.

The very first thing that happens

before anything can happen,

is we clean the 23 acres.

No development will occur on Willets,

until that cleanup is done satisfactory

to both the city and state agencies.

Once that cleanup is done,

we will start our first phase of development,

which will include a hotel,

and approximately 30,000 square feet of retail,

to built along 126th street.

We're trying very much on our first phase

to begin to change

the characterization of this neighborhood.

Second, will be the development

on the Citi Field parking lot,

for the million square foot retail and entertainment center.

Then the next phase anticipates that the city of New York

will construct two ramps onto the Van Wyck Expressway

as was contemplated in the 2008 approvals.

And then we would be able to then

enter into our last and fifth phase

that will include 2,500 units of housing,

of which 875 will be affordable,

a school, six-plus acres of open space,

additional hotels, office space,

and local retail to support

the new community that's being built here.

- You know, I can't reiterate

how important this housing piece is,

and the need for housing in our area.

So in your experience,

if we had $10 million right now to design the ramps,

would that bring the actual building of the ramps

to a closer date than 2025?

- I think the short answer is, not exactly.

We've actually begun to look at a design

and permitting and approval process for the ramps,

with our capital division.

They believe given the complexity

that it will take a number of years.

- So as EDC, the stewards to our tax dollars,

I don't think that is satisfactory to me,

to my colleagues, to the community.

And that is the issue.

And you put the linchpin on this, you've done it.

You said we can't do housing until we get the ramps.

So, you know, you can't now say,

well, we don't know, we don't,

you know, we're kind of analyzing it.

I don't think it's fair to any of us at this point.

- One of the things that complicates

planning in New York City enormously,

is the fact that real estate

is like our number one commodity.

So there will always be a lot of stakeholders

who are pushing for quote unquote, highest and best use.

And that means, how to make the most profit

out of a piece of property.

That does not always sit easily

with what a community needs in this neighborhood.

But, you know, as manufacturing left the city,

we lost a substantial tax base,

and the finance insurance real estate industries,

you know, really rose up in that vacuum.

That's a fundamental tension between

what needs to happen citywide

and what needs to happen locally.

- Many of these large developments

are being done in a vacuum.

They're not incorporating the voices, the needs,

the concerns, of people

that actually live in these communities,

to make sure that we're investing tax dollars,

and using land use in a way that will actually benefit

people that need it most.

What often are good quality jobs,

whether it's in manufacturing, or food markets,

might not be the sexiest jobs around,

but to see an administration

literally moving productive businesses

without guaranteeing that they're able

to continue their business somewhere else,

it creates this very elitist view of the city saying,

we know what kind of businesses we want here.

You might be productive.

You might be paying your taxes.

You might be creating jobs

for people that need them.

But we really like these shiny towers.

We really like these sports franchises.

And by the way, the affordable housing,

which is the carrot we used for you,

to have this development move along,

may or may not come in about 20 years.

- I worry about a city that is over-dependent on tourism,

over-dependent on Wall Street.

We have favorite, easy answers,

stadiums, malls, centers of one kind or another.

When a city is so focused on tourism,

it's my feeling that there's a bankruptcy

of real economic ideas

in terms of what makes a productive economy.

- The transformation of the city economy was remarkable.

We had about a million manufacturing jobs

in this city in 1950.

That number continued to shrink year after year.

From the million in 1950,

to about 75,000 today,

so it's a really remarkable transformation.

This was sometimes presented

as just the work of global impersonal forces.

And those were certainly in play,

but this city is very, very planned

by a financial and real estate elite,

who have the timescale of decades.

The high and mighty did not like factories,

they did not like workers.

They wanted clean air, clean streets,

no factories, and no messy working class people.

They wanted to turn the city

from manufacturing to services.

And this goes back as far as the first zoning plan

for the city.

In many ways, New York was a pioneering site

for the neoliberal experiment.

The deregulation,

the cutbacks in social spending,

the financialization,

all the familiar things that have dominated

economic news over the last 30 years or so.

It's striking how little difference there is,

from mayor to mayor,

on basic budget and land use policies.

They'd always benefit a small elite that does very well,

but they don't provide much for everyone else.

- Too many historians speak of the exodus from the city.

It wasn't an exodus, it was a push out of the city.

My family's manufacturing company

was located in Manhattan, in the east thirties,

and our square block was designated for a new post office.

Well, our building alone

had about a dozen production related businesses,

real mixed use, not mixed use

the way developers use the term today

of retail, residential and commercial,

but mixed use in that it had,

there was a school, there was manufacturing.

There were offices,

there were artists' studios.

There was residential of all kinds,

but it was declared blighted.

So we were forced to leave,

and we relocated to Long Island City,

but a number of the businesses in that building

went out of business, or left town.

That land then sat vacant,

and the post office was never built.

And eventually it was sold to developers.

So what did the city gain?

I can't judge what it's got there now,

but I know what it lost,

and that story has been repeated

over and over again around the city.

- What do we need?

- Relocation.

- Now this is something that has needed clarity,

and if we can just talk about where we are

in relocating the tenants at Willets Point.

- Over time, since the approval,

there has been consistent and regular

outreach to businesses in the Willets Point district,

keeping them informed of the status of the plan.

That formal process began over a year ago.

The city sent out notice to the businesses in phase one,

saying that the relocation process would be beginning.

HPD sent out notice to all the businesses

in the phase one area,

informing them of their rights to relocation assistance

for moving and ancillary costs.

Meanwhile, Cornerstone completed outreach,

and began working with businesses

on specific needs, locational and space.

In the springtime,

we sent out notice to tenants

saying that in the coming months,

we would be beginning the vacating process

to make way for the development.

- [Julissa] Currently, how many businesses

are at Willets Point for relocation purposes?

- Our conservative estimate of the total number

of businesses in the phase one area is 165.

- [Julissa] 165, and of those 165,

you have relocated how many?

- There are relocation plans

that have been processed or in the works

for 10 tenant businesses.

- [Julissa] So we have 10 businesses

that have been engaging with Cornerstone.

We paid $700,000 to move 10 businesses?

- No.

- Okay, explain that to me, 'cause that's what I'm hearing.

- I mean, I would say at the outset

that their work is ongoing and that

they have been in the district speaking to businesses,

and doing relocation site searches,

and engaging with landlords on a daily basis.

- Tom, with all due respect,

Cornerstone has been a part

of these conversations since 2008.

If I contracted with someone for all these years,

and all we've gotten is to get 10 businesses to relocate,

I would be questioning how I engage with them in the future.

- I am confident that they are identifying sites,

talking to people and helping the people.

But at the end of the day-

- [Julissa] 10 businesses makes you confident, president?

- I'm confident that they are working.

They are on the ground finding sites.

However, they cannot force,

they are not in a position

where they can force someone to go sign a lease.

- I think that you have an issue with your timeline, right?

You have 165 businesses, you've moved 10.

And you've told people

that they need to move out by November.

We had had discussions about the support

that these businesses have had for many years,

and they support one another.

That's just the culture of Willets Point.

In these conversations, it was recommended,

why don't they just kind of come together?

And if they come together as a group,

they can be relocated as a group.

And I'm now being told that it's impossible,

the economy, all the reasons why it can't happen.

Yet Cornerstone has also presented

very limited spaces for these businesses to move to.

It's been a total disregard

to what was originally committed to and agreed.

(crowd chanting)

(dramatic piano music)

- When we think of displacement,

what we have to understand is we're not just moving people.

We're breaking up family institutional

friendship networks, that sustain people in,

particularly in low income neighborhoods.

And this kind of network destruction

is the undermining of many family and individual lives.

That really injures

the social and economic fabric of the city.

(acoustic guitar music)

- People live in places, in very specific ways

that are almost culturally choreographed

and developed over time.

So it's a collective, lived experience.

And it enables people to maximize their chances of survival,

but it's dependent on knowing the place,

and on the people knowing each other and working together.

When communities are destroyed,

that way of life is destroyed.

And this throws both the collective and the individuals

into a state of shock.

It's a shock of being torn up by the roots.

Plants, when they're yanked out of the ground,

go into a state of collapse that's called root shock.

Applying that as a metaphor to human populations,

I've defined root shock, as the traumatic stress reaction

to the loss of part or all of one's emotional ecosystem.

It's a extremely important assault on a way of life,

and the project of recreating a way of life,

is very difficult because people are typically dispersed.

So they lose the people with whom

they had the habit of making a life together,

but they also lose the place

where they had the habit of making the life.

- [News Reporter] How long are you prepared

to go on a hunger strike?

- Somebody has to help.

Somebody has to say something so,

it's all that we can do.

- We got the opportunity to get the official contract

between the city and the developers.

And we know that is not any legal guarantee that relocations

or affordable housing is going to happen in this project.

The only guarantee that we have right now

is that the biggest mall in New York,

a hotel and a retail center,

is gonna happen right here.

After that, nothing else.

- [Crowd] No!

(crowd cheering)

(solemn music)

It’s tomorrow that decision.

And that's the big problem, the time.

It's not enough time.

We're still in communication with the lawyers

and Julissa's office, and you know, we're still working.

(solemn piano music)

- There was a time I think when the agency was,

I think much more controversial.

What it was known for was a combination

of large scale real estate projects

and giving tax incentives to corporations,

mainly large corporations in Manhattan,

to try to retain jobs here.

Both of those continued to be tools in the EDC's toolkits,

but the focus of the organization

has become much more strategic.

And the goal now of the organization

is to think more broadly

about the future of the city's economy,

and rather than being so tactical and saying,

this company is critical,

or this real estate project is critical,

it's thinking about where we hope to see

the city evolve in the coming decades,

and then figuring out the kind of large scale investments

that we can make to help move the city towards those goals.

I think the good news about the Willets Point development

is that the plan that is now moving forward

is a plan that is going to remediate

20 acres of a highly toxic site.

You're going to have the creation of a new economic engine

in the parking lot at Citi Field,

that's gonna create hundreds and hundreds of jobs

for the community.

And ultimately you're going to get

the development on Willets Point,

including the 35% of housing units that will be affordable.

You're gonna get the infrastructure,

and you're gonna get jobs.

It will also result in the relocation

of many of the industrial jobs

that were there in the first place.

And so you'll end up with an economy

that is more diversely employed

than you had before the project took place.

- That area has outgrown these businesses.

Hopefully, eventually, all of the businesses

will be accommodated to their satisfaction,

but you know, there's a major overall goal here.

You know, these businesses do not have to exist

in such a centrally located area of Queens.

- For those of you who are unfamiliar with my district,

Willets Point has long been known

as the Iron Triangle or the Valley of Ashes

because of the industrial network

of the auto shops, junk yards, and factories,

that have occupied this space of land.

For years, this area has gone without many of the resources

the rest of the city has regularly received.

Before us today is a proposal

that seeks to address these issues.

Between the city agencies and developers,

we have the potential to vote in favor for a plan

that will forever become a new benchmark,

not only for my district, but for all of New York City.

After many long years of reviewing this proposal

and taking my constituents concerns into account,

I have found that this ambitious proposal

will bring affordable housing.

Additionally, this project is set to create 19,000 jobs

that are so desperately needed

in Queens and in New York City.

A business and worker relocation plan has been created

to assist the existing tenants at Willets Point

with the continued operation of their business.

The city will pay 15.5 million for the relocation,

moving expense, and support of the Willets Point businesses,

including those businesses that want to move together.

This vote has always been about improving the needs

of our constituents, and it is for them

that today I ask you all to vote 'yes,' thank you.

- [Chairman] William Martin, committee clerk,

roll call vote committee on land use.

Council member Comrie?

- [Comrie] Aye on all.

- [Chairman] Rivera?

Reyna?

- [Reyna] Aye on all.

- [Chairman] Koslovitz?

- [Koslovitz] May I be excused to explain my vote?

- [Chairman] Yes.

- I've lived in Queens for 50 years,

and Willets Point was always a blight to the borough

and to the community that it surrounded.

I have to say that Julissa Fererras

did a spectacular job.

We've been talking about Willets Point for over 30 years,

trying to get something done there.

Congratulations, and I vote aye.

- [Chairman] Jackson?

Vann?

- [Vann] Aye.

- [Chairman] Palma?

Arroyo?

Higgins?

Halloran?

- [Halloran] Request permission to explain my vote.

- [Chairman] Yes.

- I believe council member Ferreras

has done an incredible job

against a almost a movable object,

but I will respectfully be voting no.

The threat of eminent domain

has hung over these businesses since 2008.

Anytime the government wants to redistribute the wealth

by taking it from one person

and giving it to another business, as opposed to the city,

we have thwarted the very meaning of eminent domain,

and the reason our framers made such careful use of it.

I don't know exactly why we need a mall

considering the Skyview Mall

is approximately 1500 yards away,

which contains retail space,

which is currently being under utilized,

parking space, which is currently being underutilized.

The process should have started from scratch again,

because the plan isn't in any way, shape, or form,

the same that this body voted on in 2008.

So I will vote no on those,

with all due respect to the council member,

who I think did a great job

of forcing the administration to the table,

but it was a day late and a dollar short.

- [Chairman] Barron?

- [Barron] May I be excused to explain my vote?

- [Chairman] Yes.

- My colleagues, I'm voting no one Willets Point.

Mayor Bloomberg has rezoned this city.

Developers are getting richer and richer.

Over a hundred million dollars

in the Willets Point project has been given for subsidies,

and in return we get 35% of the housing affordable.

65% of it will not be affordable,

while you get a prevailing wage,

the retail workers,

we don't think they'll be getting a living wage.

And the alienation of Parkland continues.

I think we, as a city council,

we have to make sure that we get much more from developers.

If they're gonna come into our district,

we should say what we want,

and the housing formula should be 65% affordable

and 35% should be market.

Mayor Bloomberg has given this city away

to rich developers for $1.

And while our council members have done well

in negotiating things for their constituents,

this has been a big decade

of land grabs by the mayor and rich developers.

We have to stand for the people of New York City,

and not give the city up so easily

for the deals that are being made.

- [Chairman] Garodnick?

Mendez?

- [Mendez] Aye on all.

- [Chairman] Levin?

- Aye on all, congratulations to Councilor Ferreras,

on a job well done.

- [Chairman] Weprin?

Wills?

- [Wills] Aye on all.

- [Chairman] Ignizio?

- [Ignizio] Aye.

- Thank you very much.

All items on today's general order calendar,

we're adopted by a vote of 46 in the affirmative,

zero in the negative with zero abstentions,

with the exception of land use items,

88-76 plus rezo 1960,

LU 881 plus rezo 1965,

which was adopted by a vote of 42 in the affirmative,

three in the a negative and one abstentions.

And LU 902, with rezo 1975,

which was adopted by a vote of 44 in the affirmative,

two in the negative and zero abstentions.

And LU items 904 with rezo 1977,

LU 909, and rezo 1982,

which was adopted by a vote of 45 in the affirmative,

one in the negative and zero abstentions.

(dramatic piano music)

- They're giving everybody a deadline,

and everybody has to leave.

Phase one.

Cleaning up and giving the keys to the city.

- The city says you have like $11,000

if you move this month.

But you stay here for January,

you have like maybe $4,000,

and that's it.

I don't know where I'm going to go.

I don't know where I'm going to go.

(dark piano music)

(horn honking)

- I think it's very important to understand that capitalism,

capital in general, that in fact,

it's always powered by fictions.

In effect, what is often happening

is fictions become reality.

For instance, you imagine there's gonna be a new city,

and then you make the city and it becomes real.

What we're faced with right now is a form of urbanization,

which is largely been dictated by the forces of capital,

of capital accumulation.

And to some degree, we've become

the kind of people the capital wants us to be.

- The way the city has evolved over the decades,

it's not natural, it's not spontaneous at all.

It's very, very planned.

There are human beings, very powerful human beings,

using state power to realize their vision

of what they want the city to look like,

20, 30, 40 years from now.

It happens mostly out of public view.

This idea that all these things happen spontaneously,

because of forces of nature,

I think is what people have internalized

about this kind of market fundamentalism

that's become popular over the last several decades.

If you can have elites doing this kind of planning,

why can't you have, you know, popular interests,

doing similar planning for more broader benefit?

- All American cities have suffered

from a very long series of bad policies

of which the industrialization, urban renewal,

highway building, gentrification,

the foreclosure crisis, are all examples.

I would define economic development

as supporting the integrity of the human habitat

and helping everybody survive.

Whereas what we call economic development

is really just an opportunity

for somebody to make a quick buck.

So we have to find a new way.

We have to find a way to nurture the neighborhoods.

We have to stabilize the neighborhoods we have,

to get to the good that we want.

(hopeful piano music)

(dramatic orchestral music)