continues to report, the site for the proposed Flushing Commons development may well sit atop an old cemetery-and the controversy could well delay a scheduled vote on the project: "A prominent Queens councilman has urged the city to fulfill its "obligation" by investigating Daily News reports that 19th century graves may still exist on a site slated for a controversial Flushing project. Leroy Comrie, chairman of the City Council's powerful land use committee, called on the city to ensure "gentle" treatment of any tombs at the plot set for Flushing Commons, a mix of housing and retail space. The proposal is expected to be voted on by the land use committee on July 28 and then by the full Council. But Comrie said too many question marks remain."
If so, that would be good news-particularly to the Union Street merchants who, if the project goes forward as is-would have their businesses buried when the three year construction period commences for this over developed project. But we did get a kick out of the Queens BP's statement about the possibility: "Later, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall echoed Comrie's calls for a careful check. "There should be reasonable measures to ensure there are not human remains on the construction site," Marshall read from prepared testimony. She lifted her head and continued off the cuff: "We treasure our people, both while they're alive and after they pass away."
You'll perhaps pardon the Flushing shop owners for feeling that the concerns are greater for those passed than they are for the living and breathing; although EDC couldn't really be bothered with either: "At Thursday's hearing, Comrie (D-Jamaica) pressed Seth Pinsky, president of the city Economic Development Corp., for details about new excavation plans. "No one has said to date what will be done," Comrie said. Pinsky defended the 1953 excavation as an "extensive investigation." But when Comrie asked how far down the hand-diggers went in 1953, Pinsky admitted, "I don't have that exact figure." The News asked the city last month for records of the excavation to determine its scope, but the city has not yet produced any. A spokeswoman for the city Law Department, which officially declared the cemetery nonexistent in 1954, said the agency is "still looking" for the report."
Meanwhile, back with the living, the Flushing Coalition for Responsible development is planning a town hall meeting and rally against the project scheduled for this weekend-with all of the area's elected officials-including the evanescent council member Peter Koo-slated to be invited. The Coalition hopes to breathe life into the opposition, and thus help to get the city council to scale down the over-sized development so it doesn't destroy the already shaky small business community of this unique neighborhood.
As the NY Daily News - Greenspan's Cult of Personality... Review topics and articles of economics: Alan Greenspan was a legend in his time and there was no shortage of praise for him back then. For example, who can forget Bob Woodow's 2000 book Maestro: Greenspan's...
- Yes Tyler, Low Interest Rates Matte... Tyler Cowen is wondering whether the Fed's low interest rates in the early-to-mid 2000s really were that important to the credit and housing boom of the early-to-mid...
- The Eurozone Crisis: Deja Vu... Review topics and articles of economics: Randal Forsyth sees similarities between the current unfolding of the Eurozone crisis and that of the U.S. financial crisis a few years back:Just as the problem on this...
- Charles Plosser and the Burden of F... The Economist's Free Exchange blog is shocked to hear this from Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser:"Since expectations play an important role...
- Arnold Kling and Expected Inflation... Review topics and articles of economics: What do we know about expected inflation? According to Arnold Kling not much if we look to financial markets:I'm also not convinced that we can read expected inflation...
- A Paper on Stabilizing Nominal Spen... Given the recent discussion on stabilizing nominal spending as a policy goal I found this article by Evan F. Koenig of the Dallas Fed to be interesting: The article...
- Why The Low Interest Rates Mattered... Review topics and articles of economics: This is the second of two posts detailing why the Fed's low interest rate policies in the early-to-mid 2000s was one of the more important contributors to the credit and...
- Why The Low Interest Rates Mattered... This is the first of a two-part follow up to my previous post, where I argued that the Fed's low interest rate policy was a key contributor to the credit and housing...
- The Stance of Monetary Policy Via t... Review topics and articles of economics: There has been some interesting conversations on the stance of monetary policy in the past few days between Arnold Kling, Scott Sumner, and Josh Hendrickson. Part of...
- Scott Sumner's New Best Friend:... Joseph Gagnon is calling for $6 trillion more in global monetary easing. This should not be too hard to implement since the Fed is a monetary superpower.Update: The...
0 comments:
Post a Comment