Overdevelopment
From The Peopling of New York City
Contents |
Defining Overdevelopment in Flushing
Development in Flushing has become a major concern because of the scale and volume of new projects. In the 1970s, Flushing was beginning to falter economically and it showed in the rising vacancies in downtown Flushing. Later years brought about an explosion of immigrants whose deep pockets allowed for a rebirth to occur in downtown Flushing. Now, that original bubble has grown to its capacity, and as developments grow upwards and spread further away from downtown Flushing, they are, in some cases, met with upheaval from the community that has inhabited the area. The sides to this dispute, and whom they consist of, reveal more about the community of Flushing and also will help determine the results of this dispute, along with the future of Flushing.
Defining overdevelopment is mostly a matter of perspective. The following definition is a useful guideline: “a quantity of building or intensity of use that is excessive in terms of its demand on the infrastructure and local services and/or its impact on local amenity and character.” [source?] With regards to Flushing and its real estate market, we believe that overdevelopment refers to a new development that does not match the local area in size, design, or purpose. We review Flushing's new development projects and community opinions or perspectives about their significance. Opinions about these overdevelopments vary, but patterns do exist in groups defined by certain characteristics such as location, wealth, homeownership, race, religion, and occupation. Further examination of Flushing's main demographic groups and their characteristics can help determine the reasoning to their opinion.
Current Development Projects
Currently, Flushing is undergoing more new development as well. For example, a proposed Flushing Commons will be built in place of current Municipal Parking Lot 1 that will provide residential units, a hotel, retail space and recreational facilities for the citizens of Flushing. In essence, the project is intended to revitalize downtown Flushing once again and create another well-known and populated center. Another project that is intended to do more renovating and revitalization is the Flushing Town Center developed at the intersection of College Point Blvd. and Roosevelt Avenue. Both sites are intended to boost Flushing’s economy. The question, however, is: To what extent will these projects impact the periphery, the less recognized areas of the Flushing neighborhood? The following is an excerpt from the website describing the intended Flushing Commons project: The developers expect to invest more than $500 million in the project, Flushing Commons, which will create more than 2,000 construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs. The project architect is Perkins Eastman; Tishman Construction Corporation is the construction manager; and Thomas Balsley Associates is the landscape architect. “The Flushing Commons proposal features dynamic retail choices, reasonable parking solutions and much-needed community amenities that will benefit the entire neighborhood and attract visitors to the area,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “It also provides an attractive town square area that will become the center of community activity, which was a major recommendation of the Development Framework for Downtown Flushing.”
The Flushing Commons development includes:
* A one-acre town square of open space with a fountain plaza to be maintained by the developer; * Parking for 2,000 cars with short-term parking at below-market rates, in response to community requests; * A 50,000-square-foot recreational center featuring amenities such as a swimming pool, basketball courts and an exercise room, with memberships available to community residents; * A 200-room hotel with meeting rooms and banquet facilities; * Approximately 500 residential units, with 20% marketed to seniors; * 350,000 square feet of retail space including local and national retailers, restaurants and a multi-screen cinema; * 20,000 square feet of space for community or cultural tenants; * 15,000 square feet of space for small professional businesses.
The Flushing Commons and Flushing Town Center are both demolishing part of Flushing’s lesser known community including a municipal parking lot and a sixteen acre industrial brown-field. In this instance, the new developments can be considered a type of “invasion landscape” created by interest groups of developers and ignoring the already stable landscapes of Flushing. Click here for more information about these new developments, Mega-development
However, to play devil’s advocate and support development, one can view these projects as an overall improvement to under-used land. Currently, municipal lot 1 is a parking lot that provides an ample parking space for the many vehicles that run through the Flushing streets on a daily basis. Nonetheless, the area is filled with inanimate vehicles and the area provides very few advantages to the community in terms of social services. Therefore, the Flushing Commons would represent an improvement. Along the same lines is the brownfield located on the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and College Point Blvd. This area was simply barren unused land that could have had the potential to hold some type of development. Thus, the new Flushing Center will be an area that will include luxury housing, high-end retail, and commercial space to offer the community more social offerings.
Opinions on Development: Main Stakeholder Groups
The main stakeholders can be broken down into four groups:
Overdevelopment and the African American Community
Overdevelopment and the Non-Hispanic White Community
Overdevelopment and the Latino Community
Overdevelopment and the Asian Community
Combating Overdevelopment
Overdevelopment can be combated in few ways due to money being the contributing factor to this issue. The money developers use to buy properties and rebuild does not match the resources communities have to try and preserve their image and way of life. The next viable option for resistance is organization.
Representative government acts as a method for the many people of Flushing to gain some power against overdevelopment. Rezoning and protesting is becoming an effective method of assuring developments stay at a reasonable level. Rezoning is done when the consensus of a neighborhood is against a certain kind of zoning that would allow a certain kind of development. If no one were to speak up against overdevelopment, no rezoning would be done, therefore rezoning and fighting overdevelopment is in the hands of the people and comes down to participation of a community, and certainly Flushing is a large and diverse community with varying opinions that can contribute to this process.
Conclusion
Flushing will carve its own path into the future and so-called overdevelopments may have a place in this Flushing of tomorrow. Few can resist the temptation of money and as prices rise, more development will be proposed. Due to the recent housing market crash, a result of the sub prime mortgage crisis, Flushing is heading down an uncertain path. Before the crisis, Flushing looked like it would become something totally new in terms of development and housing prices in a melting pot of ethnicities; but now that future is much more questionable. If there is one thing that can be concluded regarding Flushing and this issue of overdevelopment, it is that Flushing has always been constantly changing and developing, and this one issue is likely to be miniscule in the grand history of Flushing. Overdevelopment represents a crossroads in terms of paths Flushing can go down, but Flushing will always be Flushing.