Mayor Eric Adams was scheduled on Tuesday to attend a pro- upzoning rally of the Throggs Neck Foodtown on Bruckner Boulevard at Crosby Avenue, but cancelled an hour before the scheduled start. Union leaders of 32BJ, Local 79 Laborers International of North America, union members, and those who are in favor of the Throggs Neck upzoning went on with the rally.
Stan Halie, a laborer who works at Lehman High School said he lives in Throggs Neck and he is in favor of the upzoning. Only one other person who spoke in favor of the upzoning said they live in Throggs Neck, yet there were shouts of those who oppose the upzoning don't represent the city. More shouts included 'What do we want, affordable housing. When do we want it, now.'
Stanley Richards Deputy Director of the Fortune Society said he is a lifelong Bronx resident who lives in Bedford Park. He said that the Fortune Society supports affordable housing, adding that the Fortune Society is the provider of the Just Home project at Jacobi Hospital that will have seventy affordable apartments for people re-adjusting to the community after serving their time in jail. He said Just Home in Morris Park and The Bruckner upzoning is good for the community and the city.
Bertha Lewis of the Black Institute said there is an affordable housing crisis in New York City, Throggs Neck is not an island, we got empty lots and we should have affordable housing there. She then said "Do you not like Black and Brown people?" Where are you Marjorie, then chants of 'Where are you Marjorie (Councilwoman Marjorie Velazquez), as Ms. Lewis continued "You should be with us here, the fight has just begun, we are not backing down, we are coming strong and you are not going to stop us, this is going to happen. She then mentioned the September 7th City Council hearing on the Bruckner Upzoning.
There was a bit of irony to this union rally at the Throggs Neck Super Foodtown which is a non union store, and the person requesting the upzoning is rumored to have lied to a bankruptcy court about his ownership of the supermarket.
Police officers were on hand to keep the community residents opposed to the upzoning and the pro upzoning union members apart.
Bertha Lewis of the Black Institute may of said it best when she said "This is going to happen,"
2 comments:
Back in 2004 NYC did a survey that determined that this area needed to be low density zoning due to the building boom that changed the once single home area to attached two and three families with very little parking.The zoning enlarged the needed space to build, demanded front and rear yards, added on site parking requirements for any new or expanding properties. This was based on the burdened infrastructure that could not be expanded or funded. Nothing has changed except the upzoning along the No.6 train which has caused a mess ever since. One school was expanded which is still overcrowded.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Black, Brown or white. We have been a diverse community for 2 generations already. We have a lineup of diverse Restaurants. Our neighbors are from basically everywhere. My neighbors are Americans: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Honduran, Bolivian, Pakistani, Arab, Dominican, Jamaican, Belize, Chinese, African, Italian, Polish Irish and more we live together fine. How diverse can you get?
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