NEW YORK -- Since moving to Long Island City in 1977, musician Ernie Brooks has watched the skyline shoot upward. "There were a lot of modest apartments and modest row houses," he said. "And then, as the money started flowing in, they started building the waterfront towers.
The nature of the community totally changed." When Amazon prepared to set up a headquarters in an underused city building on public land, locals resisting gentrification fought back and won. "Amazon finally publicly pulled out," Western Queens Community Land Trust co-chair Memo Salazar said.
"At that point, the dust starts settling, and a lot of people in the community start asking themselves, 'Well, what's going to happen to that building that was apparently easily given away?'" On 44th Drive and Vernon Boulevard, the six-story building measures 561,000 square feet. An idea was born for the Queensborough People's Space, a hub with deeply affordable artist studios, workshops, and a rooftop farm. Architect designs went into a feasibility study, and neighbors celebrated the vision at a block party.
Salazar says a community-driven plan should not be considered a long shot. "Where there's a political will, there's a way," he said. "It may sound like a pipe dream, but it's only a pipe dream because we have stopped thinking about community-led development.
" Fellow proponents include Donal Cogdell, Jr., minister of justice at Hope Astoria Church, and Queensbridge activist Lashawn "Suga Ray" Marston. "We have the .