NORTHERN MANHATTAN COMMUNITY STANDS UP TO DEVELOPERS, PORT AUTHORITY TO FIGHT FOR CONCESSIONS IN $183.2M GWB MEGA PROJECT

 

Long Stalled Port Authority/Private Developer Project at George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal has Failed to Address Community Needs, Months after Politically Motivated Bridge Closings Crippled Northern Manhattan Traffic

 

Elected Officials, Community Leaders and Organizations to Call for Needs to be addressed by Multi-Million Dollar Development, set to Disrupt Community for Years

 

 New York, NY-On Friday, May 16, 2014, NYS Senator Adriano Espaillat, NYS Assembly Member Gabriela Rosa and NYC Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, Chair of the Council Committee on Transportation, gathered with over half a dozen community groups to call for real community engagement from the New York New Jersey Port Authority and their developer partners, Tutor Perini and SJM Partners. The $183.2 million project will bring a number of large chain stores into the renovated building, yet the community has not received guarantees on a number of crucial sticking points.

 

Initial guarantees were made to the Northern Manhattan community, prior to a change in developers in 2011. After the new developers--Tutor Perini--were found, contributing $83m to the NYNJPA's $100m, a 99 year lease was agreed upon between the Port Authority and the new developers. The community had no voice in these discussions, and saw the previously agreed upon provisions slip away.

 

Elected officials, community leaders and advocacy organizations will voice their continued frustration with the developers as well as the troubled NYNJPA, in relation to:

• The lack of adequate space offered to the Washington Heights community;
• The loss public space: a subway entrance at 175th st. and second floor of the terminal;
• The quality of the businesses set to open and their refusal to guarantee a living wage for prospective employees;
• The refusal to fully fund a traffic study and the additional traffic enforcement necessary for increased activity; and
• The lack of outreach to local and MWB/Es in the area to date.

The community will suffer through long periods of construction, truck traffic, congestion and loss of public space, yet are receiving little to no benefits aside from big box and chain stores that fail to pay more than entry level poverty wages. For these reasons and more, the Northern Manhattan community calls for an end to the unresponsiveness to their needs as the developers stand to profit immensely on their backs.

 

"The bus terminal project is moving forward, but too many concerns remain unanswered," said Senator Adriano Espaillat. "We need a real commitment to investing in local and minority owned businesses, and creating living wage jobs for our community. We need specifics about the community center that will be built, so our neighborhood isn't shortchanged. And we can't wait until construction is underway to have the results of a traffic impact study - we need the results now."

 

"Together, the Port Authority and developer are investing $183 million right in our backyard," said Assembly Member Gabriela Rosa. "It is imperative that they be receptive to community feedback during the spending of that money and the execution of this project."

 

"We send a clear message today: if you want to be part of our community, you must work WITH our community," said Council Transportation Committee Chair Ydanis Rodriguez. "I am always happy to support community-oriented developers, but when we are given a raw deal, we will always push back. With this project, our community has been pitched poverty wage-paying jobs, two years or more of traffic congestion and no space in this new glorified shopping mall, and we aren't buying. We want to see a concerted effort on the part of the Port Authority and their developers, to build a community responsive, sustainable project; and with this, improvements in our transportation options, which is after all real the mission of the Port Authority."

 

"We are coming together to ensure that our community receives the respect it deserves," said Maria Lizardo, Executive Director of the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation. "We are demanding community space and jobs. We will not rest until the Port Authority and the Developers meet our demands.

 

"Much too often when major development occurs in our community, by large private developers, quasi or governmental agencies, the community is the last to be called upon for our involvement, yet are the most to be impacted and much too often impacted in very negative ways," said Yvonne Stennett, Executive Director of the Community League of the Heights. "Our community is sadly positioned to be a 'pass through' for benefits to others while we bare the brunt of the adverse affects of traffic, absence of community presence in this development, absence of Minority and Women -owned Business Enterprise participation, and more. This project is long over due and the benefits to our community even longer over due."

 

"It is astounding that a developer of a public space, like the Port Authority's GWB Terminal, would move forward without meaningful input from or in partnership with the community that would be directly impacted by the renovations.  We need guarantees that the businesses set to open will provide living wages, not poverty wages, to its employees.  We need a fully funded traffic study. Without these guarantees, and others, the viability of these renovations will be in serious question and the community response against the development will be swift and effective," said Angela Fernandez, Executive Director of Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

 

"This is a quality of life issue that impacts the residents of Washington Heights" said La Fuente Executive Director Lucia Gomez. "The Port Authority and its developers need to provide the community with a transparent plan that will serve to meet the needs of this vibrant neighborhood in New York City."

 

"As a resident of Washington Heights, I worry about when developers and other entities start making decisions that leave people out of the equation" said La Fuente's New York Civic Participation Project Member Jose Rodriguez. "After all of the construction is done, we will be the ones left to deal with the repercussion.  This is why we as a community demand an open dialogue with the port authority and their developers".

 

"As someone who represents hundreds of small business owners in the community and beyond, it is deeply unsettling that private contractors from outside our community would seek to fray the fabric of our community with their corporate chain stores," said Ramon Murphy, President of the Bodega Association of the United States. "This is the same type of development that prices our small business owners out of middle income communities, and that they and the Port Authority offer no concessions is unacceptable."

 

Representatives from NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer's Office, Make the Road, NY Communities for Change, and the Washington Heights-Inwood Chamber of Commerce were also in attendance.