Gotham Gazette

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Opinion

Queens Deserves Better Than a Development Plan That Benefits Too Few


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Flushing Waterfront development rendering


When faced with a crisis, whether 9-11 or Hurricane Sandy, New York has always rebuilt. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic damage means that, now more than ever, we need to invest in our city. 

But that doesn’t mean that all development is created equal, or that all proposed projects should get a blank check under the guise of recovery. That is why we have a review process for developments seeking to benefit from city approvals – to weigh whose interests should be represented in deciding how to move forward.

The developers behind the plan for a new Special Flushing Waterfront District project, which is now before the City Council, have long claimed that their proposal to build up to 1,700 luxury housing units, over a million square feet of commercial space, and as many as 2,000 luxury hotel rooms will be good for Queens. Now they claim that their project will help Flushing bounce back from the economic consequences of the coronavirus. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. Our unions represent the building service and hospitality workers who would be most affected long-term by this project, and we know that as-is, it is not good for frontline workers, for Flushing residents, or for New York City. That is why we oppose the rezoning the developers seek, and why we hope that the City Council will deny the current project.

The pandemic and its economic effects have hit building service and hospitality hard. Thousands of essential workers in building services – cleaners, superintendents and security officers who are 32BJ SEIU members – have risked their health daily to protect the rest of us. And thousands of them have lost their jobs, with some still out of work. Over 80% of Hotel Trades Council (HTC) members are currently unemployed, relying on unemployment insurance, union benefits, and any cash reserves they have to get by. A significant percentage of those unemployed hotel workers live in Queens, and many of them are Flushing residents.  

Clearly New York needs more jobs. But real recovery and prosperity require creating jobs with prevailing wages and benefits, like our members have. Contrary to the developers’ assurances, the current version of the Special Flushing Waterfront District plan does not include any credible commitments to make the building service and hospitality jobs their project promises into good jobs that will sustain workers and families. Allowing a mega-project like this to advance without a meaningful guarantee that the working-class people who operate it every day will earn livable wages and be able to afford healthcare would be irresponsible, and a major disservice to New Yorkers.

This project also offers few meaningful benefits for Flushing residents who are struggling to afford housing. Of the residential units planned, as few as 75—roughly 4%—would be set aside for low-income people to rent. This is a drop in the bucket in a neighborhood where 76% of residents are renters, and where two-thirds of those renters are “rent burdened” – paying a too-large percentage of their income for rent.

Throughout the review process, the developers of the Special Flushing Waterfront District have said they will build a similarly sized development as-of-right if the rezoning fails. We reject the notion that this is a choice between bad options, and we encourage decision-makers to do the same. The developers have spent $1.7 million lobbying city government to approve the rezoning, so we know that it is valuable to them. The City Council should stand up for workers and Flushing residents and say no to the rezoning unless those residents will truly share in its gains.

Hit harder than most communities in the country by the COVID-19 pandemic, the last thing that Flushing needs are front-line jobs without standards that protect essential workers, or housing beyond the reach of the majority of people in the neighborhood. We are not against development. But bad development masquerading as recovery will only hurt us worse. Queens deserves better than the current Flushing rezoning plan, and so does our city.

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Kyle Bragg is the President of 32BJ SEIU and Rich Maroko is the President of New York Hotel & Motels Trades Council. On Twitter @kyle32bj@32BJSEIU and @NYHTC.

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Supreme Court Hearings Could Be the Beginning of the End of Your Healthcare


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Hospital emergency room (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


It has been a tumultuous week for all of us. The uncertainty about who will lead the country for the next four years has left America anxious, scared, and exhausted.

But with that question appearing settled, other threats remain. Starting Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that will decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act.

The consequences could not be more dire. As a health-care professional, I see firsthand how important access to quality, affordable health-care is to Americans—especially our country’s most vulnerable.

The timing could also not be worse. Medicaid budgets are shrinking across the country as a pandemic ravages our communities and finances.

Should the ACA be repealed, millions of Americans will lose their healthcare overnight. Premiums will skyrocket. Protections for pre-existing conditions will disappear. The tens of millions who have benefited from the Affordable Care Act will suddenly find themselves scrambling for healthcare—and likely a more expensive version than what they currently have.

It did not have to be this way. The ACA allowed states to expand Medicaid, allowing more Americans access to the core health-care program that’s benefited our country for decades. It allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ health-care plans until the age of 26. It ensured that the one-third of Americans with pre-existing conditions – like diabetes and cancer – are not discriminated against when it comes to health insurance.

I know from both work and personal experience the importance of these aspects of the ACA. As someone who has lost a loved one who battled cystic fibrosis and passed away from pancreatic cancer, I know first-hand how important these protections are, and have dedicated myself to working in healthcare to ensure that I can save as many lives as possible.

Yet for four years, President Trump, his administration, and the Republican Party have done everything in their power to dismantle the ACA and see that millions of Americans either lose their healthcare altogether or pay a higher premium for the care they deserve. The failed attempt to repeal the ACA altogether was a blow to the GOP, but thanks to their changes to the individual mandate, they now have another chance at destroying a landmark health-care law that has proven for more than a decade how valuable it is to the American people.

There have been over 100,000 new COVID-19 cases every day over the past several days. More than 1,000 Americans are dying every single day. The fact that Americans have to even worry about their access to healthcare is not only disconcerting; it’s un-American. As a health-care worker I know first-hand that we take care of one another, and I have been risking my life to save the lives of others for months now.

Despite the efforts of my colleagues and me, we are nowhere near off the hook when it comes to protecting American lives amid this devastating pandemic. We need funding for our hospitals, funding for Medicaid, funding for PPE, and broader assistance from those leading the country. It’s not just my life that depends on it, or the patients I care for in hospital beds; it’s the lives of every New Yorker and every American that are at risk.

The stakes could not be higher. The Supreme Court will rule one way or another in the coming weeks; regardless, we must find solace in unity, and that means we cannot lose hope but must be spurred to action. Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, we can not only preserve -- or reinstate if needed -- quality, affordable health-care our fellow citizens deserve, but strengthen the laws and insure even more Americans.

Every voice matters in this fight while we wait for a ruling from the highest court in the land. Call your local representatives, call your Congressional representative, call your U.S. senators. And most of all, call your family to tell them to make calls to remind our lawmakers that healthcare should be a human right, not a privilege.

Together, we can fight this virus, and keep America healthy into the future.

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Mary Maggio Fischer has worked at Flushing Hospital for 39 years and is a local political activist. She is a member of 1199 SEIU.

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Building Community and Local Civic Engagement in the Shadow of Presidential Politics


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Engaged New Yorkers (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photography Office)


We are in a critical moment. We’ve been seeing how the national political arena has impacted everyday life at a hyper-local level. But amid an ongoing dialogue on polling, voter engagement, and how the presidential election will shape our nation we continue to miss the mark on how elections affect municipalities. The broad strokes of national politics continue to exclude the significant local impact that an election of this magnitude can have.

As we look beyond this month and this election, in the wake of a pandemic that has yet to subside, we are just less than eight months out from a wave of local elections that can flip our democracy on its head. Too few seem concerned about expanding how we engage and inform voters -- but we must.

From one presidential election to the next, and three years of local and state elections, our democracy remains largely stagnant. We continue to invent ways to bring people to the table but fail to actualize these new systems with processes. We pushed student voter registration and now automatic registration, yet the civics curriculum in schools remains nonexistent. We voted for a citywide participatory budgeting process. Yet, it -- one of the only voting processes that encourages student and undocumented civic engagement and enables voting on actual initiatives that directly impact communities -- is not being implemented. Our judges remain invisible to the electorate, while many on the bench gain access to power through backroom deals brokered to control our courts and uphold the law, often to the detriment of our children and underserved neighbors. The Board of Elections continues misfiring every single election, every single year, yet its control by political parties goes unchanged. Poll sites misinformed, ballots unclear, voter purges, and New Yorkers too often left in the dark.

These are reasons local elections are essential. They determine where our tax dollars go, the policing of Black and brown neighbors, housing our seniors, maintaining our transit system, paving our roads -- they dictate the type of struggle we live.

We need leaders who understand how to engage communities of color that have lost faith in a system that falsely alludes to inclusivity and a democratic process. Through in-depth, intentional civic engagement that represents every person's best version in our communities, we can ensure people can be seen, heard, and understood more effectively. That is how more community members will become involved on the local level -- through community board meetings, PTAs, local organizing, and the electoral process. Involvement is how we change our communities' dynamics.

Local engagement in the electoral process can change the face of politics in 2021. After the 2017 election, we found other ways to improve the connection communities have to leadership and the democratic process. We have uncovered ways to uplift the community's voice and give our neighbors a seat at the table. We began building a bench of new leaders in the Bronx, which turned out to be massively beneficial. In the shadow of Trump's presidency, we have been dealt a terrible blow through the coronavirus pandemic. The Bronx was already suffering through unemployment, homelessness, and food insecurity before COVID-19; all have become exacerbated. We already lacked federal support, and many felt as though the Bronx was fated to fall further and further behind. Through the bench of new community leaders that we fostered, we can assemble and find ways to protect Bronxites and look after those most vulnerable. Over the past six months, I and several others stepped up by building a mutual aid network serving hundreds of neighbors weekly, filling the void of social services, providing healthy fresh food and groceries, baby essentials, PPE, and more.

We saw that communities could come together, serve each other, and work towards standard solutions. This model has been replicated across the city and validates the connection that our neighbors deserve. When community members are engaged they share and develop new ideas and invest in finding solutions and discourse to address their communities' issues. This participation influences elected officials and public policy, serves as a check on our government and unites people under a shared purpose; building trust, empathy, deep connections, and a community base.

As we just saw millions vote in the presidential election, we should be reminding them that there are more ways to create an impact. The engagement we feel now, the importance of our vote and this election, needs to be a familiar feeling. We have seen an energy and passion for bringing dignity into our politics. That means we should be fostering a vocal and involved electorate that also considers the local matters that impact us day-to-day. I can only hope that we continue, and am optimistic about the type of representation that would deliver for us if we maintain this engagement locally. Our vote is not only necessary every four years. Our impact can resonate much closer to home. We have to stay engaged and help bring others with us. Our democracy relies not only on our votes but on our voice; let's use it to keep ourselves and others involved, informed, and accountable.

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Amanda Farias is a candidate for City Council in the 18th City Council District in the Bronx. On Twitter @AmandaFariasNYC.

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