Joe Conley, Chair of Community Board 2
Aug. 8, 2014 By Christian Murray
The cost to rent an apartment in Western Queens has become so pricey that Community Board 2 is calling for the city to offer incentives to developers to build more affordable housing.
Community Board 2 Chairman Joe Conley has proposed four sections—scattered among Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City—that the city should look to rezone in order to increase the number of low and moderate income housing units.
The developers would, in essence, be offered the ability to build larger buildings in return for creating a greater number of below market-rate units.
The areas selected include a triangular section of Woodside—bound by Northern Boulevard, Broadway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway; an area in Sunnyside bordered by 37th Avenue and Northern Boulevard from 43rd Street to 48th Street; and a number of parcels adjacent to Queens Plaza.
Furthermore, Conley is suggesting that the city review the Queens Boulevard area on the border of Sunnyside/Woodside from Calvary Cemetery to 49th Street to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.
Other sites include building on top of the LIRR on Woodside Ave. between 63rd and 65th Streets—as well as on the Phipps site along the Sunnyside rail line.
Conley said that all the new development in the past decade in Long Island City—where there was no requirement for affordable housing in the zoning code—has created a “gold coast’ where over 10,000 new market rate units have been built with less than 1,000 affordable units.
This week, Modern Spaces, a Long Island City-based real estate firm, released it second quarter report that reported that the average cost to rent a luxury 1 bedroom apartment in Long Island City was about $3,200.
The Long Island City boom has also put pressure, Conley said, on rental prices in Sunnyside and Woodside, where rents have also skyrocketed.
For instance, the average asking price for a one bedroom in Sunnyside is somewhere between $1650 and $1,800, according to local real estate agents.
Conley said that the boom is forcing some people out of the district—since when their lease gets renewed the rent becomes too expensive.
Potential Rezoning Study Sites by Queens Post on Scribd
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61 Comments
Just hope the rents keep going up Baby!! Need that rental income to keep going up to meet rising costs!!
doc’s got it right! i am very happy that my property value keeps going up. that’s why people make that investment. if this was the other way around, we’d have a ghetto here with rampant crime.
ALL OF THESE GAY YUPPIE HIPSTER MOVING HERE MAKING RENT SKYROCKET AS WELL AS SUPERMARKET/DELI ITEMS FOOD COSTS AND COST OF LVING IN-GENERAL. GO WHEREVER YOU CAME FROM AND LEAVE US BE. YOU’RE FORCING US OUT OF OUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD AND TURNING IT INTO THE EPICENTER/PLETHORA OF GAYS AND GAY BARS. GET THE HELL OUT OF MY TOWN!!!!!!!
If you can’t afford to live here then don’t.
@ jesus is my back seat driver
“conley: typical liberal thinking, i cant afford it so the govt needs to help me. WAAAHHHHHHH!!!! Mommy make them lower the prices for me!!!! WAHHHHHHHHH!!!! Its not fair!!!!!!! WAHHHHHH!!!”
Thanks for giving voice to those who normally have none! I’ve often caught myself wondering what poor folk are thinking.
People on the community board are appointed by the city council person. They are there to work with the city council on local matters. Every so often they elect leaders. The leader pictured above has run unopposed for years and years and years because he devotes so much time to it no one else on the board thinks they can out do him. The problem is he can afford to devote so much time because–and this is what I have heard, I don’t have anything else to base this on–he has a no-show job with some real estate developer. The word is they pay him to smooth the way for their projects, to make sure there is no opposition.
I’ve seen him in action, he runs the meetings with an iron will. The board members follow him like puppies because they want his favor.
It is disgusting.
Who are the people on the community board and why do they have so much power?
More bickering on this discussion board than “The View” – too many hormones goin crazy I guess
@ssphm
Lol hardly. I’m enjoying my lot in life, which is more than I can say if you.
@ I Confess You can self-deport, which would save us all a lot of time and money locking you up and feeding you. And first, we would have to build a jail.
In any case, please go. Tell all your hipster friends that this is a hipster unfriendly neighborhood and that we are building a jail for all of you under the LIRR tracks.
You do know, of course, that you are now a member of the Bridge and Tunnel crowd, right? Can you bear the label? We’ve had to for most of our lives. You tend to develop a lopsided walk from carrying the chip on your shoulder, but we out here call that walk “cool.” Not “hip,” just “cool.”
Whats the matter anonymous, did I say something that hit too close to home? or did I step on your agenda? Too much truth? it hurts doesn’t it?
Ssphm,
You are a troll, no one cares what you think. Why do you think no one holds the door out acknowledges you, we have better things to do. Please go away as you’ve been promising for the longest time. Kthxbye.
Where is Dorothy Moorehead when you need her. We need some sanity here. Yo DoMo where you at? Your ‘hood needs you. Bring some clear level headed thinking to these imbeciles! If I hear Larry one more time I’m going to blow my head off. Thank you.
yeah, call me a hipster. I am 28 and can afford to rent a decent apt here. I like Apple and enjoy many things you people regard as hipster standards. I moved here I thought this place was pretty chill but then i get to this discussion board and these are some of the most hateful angry people posting. Sorry to see this side of the place I love and now call home.
in manattan theres a new building that has two entrances, one for the people who could “really” afford it and the other for the lucky ones who are there because of govt help.
Sure you can live in the best areas, but here you gotta use the “poor door”.
Mayor DeBlasio likes it apparently.
Story here…
http://www.npr.org/2014/07/30/336322608/new-york-skyscrapers-separate-poor-door-sparks-outrage
if you have a rent-stabilized apartment the landlords can only raise the rents allowed by law — you are entitled to either a 1 year lease or a 2 year lease and whatever the percentages are by law they have to follow — only if you live in a 2 family house can they raise the rent to whatever they want to —
@Ann I’m with you, but I am afraid that fight was lost years ago, and Conley gave us away. Blame him. He has held the community board in his thrall since day one.
The whole thing–including the story we are commenting on here–is a charade. The rich have taken over Queens and are ignoring the cries of the poor. They are too fascinated by their own riches to see or hear those they are stepping on.
That is how humanity is.
The idea of taller buildings in Sunnyside is horrible. The sop of including some affordable-rent apartments is just a scam for developers to build more gigantic buildings with high rents charged for most of the apartments.
The recent rezoning that now permits a 9-story building on 43rd St is horrible enough. NO to more of this. Sunnyside is a low-rise neighborhood. Let’s keep it that way.
Hey anonymous, how am I trying to troll stupid. You should be saying that about Larry and his ignorant views of what a ghetto is and him saying he’s better than people. moron.
That being said, in response to Larry, Yes…I know rough areas, I’ve worked in rough areas, I used to hang in projects..you know what? it’s about using common sense because if you walk ANYwhere at night..anything can happen.
These are YOUR fears Larry, you’re the chicken because you think people with low income want what you have. You’re the guy who dies first in a movie and the audience cheers.
Hey Dov/Ari:
Go back in your dark room until your mommy calls you for dinner.
Of course Dov Pincus is not my real name…wow what a genius to figure that out..does anyone leave their name and address here?…you call me a racist?..why do you take such exception to the name Dov Pincus? ..Would the name Rico Suarez be more appropriate? ..Who’s the fraud here?
Hey Hipsters Making Me Rich..
You are simply an Ass !!!
To generalize that the drunks in Sunnyside are
Salvadorean’s is just plain stupid and idiotic. I have lived in Sunnyside close to 30 years and trust me that drunks issue is spread out pretty nicely across all nationalities as are racist jerks like yourself.
Larry , you started a good debate here , but the ” hipsters are making me rich ” has a really good point . Change is as good as a rest as they say .
Hey Larry:
Can you write another comment. I don’t think you’ve expressed your opinion enough. Get a job!
Yours Truly,
Larryisanidiot
PS
And when was the last time any mother named their kid Larry? 1960?
Dov Pincus is not is real name. He is a liar, racist and fraud.
If the city wants landlords to keep rents down, will the city be willing to help out and bring property taxes down?
Basically, the city wants landlords to do something the city is unwilling to do themselves.
@larry, don’t bother even trying. Ruben is just trying to troll.
@ sunnysideposthatesme17 I bet you never stepped into a low income community I also bet you didn’t know Sunnyside already had a affordable housing starting from 45-49st let’s see you walking there at night and let’s see if you come out of there in one piece…Sunnyside is not only queens blvd/Skillman side
@ sunnysideposthatesme17 So you know everything right what kind of people live in low income communities just curious on your view? Oh and by the way I know I’m better then you
There is currently no program in the nyc government to offer housing to the middle class. There is either market rate or the various “affordable” housing programs. I personally have looked at the criteria for these housing lotteries all over the five boroughs and people like firemen and teachers don’t even come close to qualifying. We’re talking about people who are hourly workers at retail jobs or work inconsistently. Not that there is anything wrong with retail jobs but we are talking about a low income mostly uneducated population that currently reside in the bad areas of the city or in the projects. Until the city adjusts these housing lotteries to reflect the median income of all people who work in nyc these affordable housing programs will continue to drag down good established neighborhoods. Just wait until those two “affordable” buildings in lic are done on the water. You will see.
I hope people can see through these comments that the real problem with sunnyside isn’t the comments on this post , it’s the douchebags that think they are better than others.
And these comments prove my point.
For example. I will point out how rude the new tenants have been , how they don’t hold the doors for people or say thank you. Then you’ll have someone like Larry or any other of those Goobers above say that low income housing is “ghetto”. This is true ignorance and these are the people who have made Sunnyside what it is today, a souless veneer of a neighborhood.
They are all Bridge and Tunnel people now! The snobs have invaded, led by the mutant Conley. Even members of CB2 don’t know where he lives, who pays his check or what the hell he is doing making proclamations when they are not in session until September.
He is using his Executive Dysfunction! Lining his pockets is his reason for living, and he has sold the neighborhoods of CB2 in order to do it. Joe, don’t forget, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
If you are feeling, dissatisfied, it is because your soul has died.
conley: typical liberal thinking, i cant afford it so the govt needs to help me. WAAAHHHHHHH!!!! Mommy make them lower the prices for me!!!! WAHHHHHHHHH!!!! Its not fair!!!!!!! WAHHHHHH!!!!
When that loser sunnysideposthatesme63 finally leaves i will be there to lay out a red carpet for this glorius event. Hey Rubin, when is it? How many more years??
lets see, with hipsters we get:
– rising home values
– cool cafes and restaurants
– possible a Whole Foods (yeah man)
– An Apple Store
– A good cheese store – like the one on Bedford Av
– Book store – like “Word” in Greenpoint
– Less 99 cent stores
With affordable housing we get:
– Lower property values
– Even more El Salvadorean drunks lying on benches
– More crime
If its cheap you want, stay on the 7 and get off when you can afford it.
And I bet @dov that you think ghetto means a certain race which it does not you racist
Lol piece of pie good one I bet your the hipster doofus rooting for this lol @dov pincus go choke on it
“Careful now ” $1650 -1800 for a one bedroom , thats the going rate around here right now . I,m sure theres a few folks who have made comments here who are landlords and I,m pretty sure they dont give back the rent checks ( or cash ) at the end of the month and say , ah no thats too much .!
Its supply and demand , when those folks who cant afford manhattan take a so called 20 minute ride from grand central ( like all the ads say ) and are willing to pay that for a one bed , let them , anyone know any 6 family for sale , I want some of this action !!!!!!
Please do not remove my blog
I still want to know where Joe Conley, chairman of Community Board 2 resides.
Everyone here, including our esteemed editor, seem to forget that J Conley just spent the last twenty years of his life doing his wretched best to make this place into the Gold Coast.
Haven’t you been watching?
He is an avowed Con Artist of the Order of Sleaze. His job is to rob us all while telling pretty stories. I don’t know who is paying him, but he is well paid.
People complain when rent is too high, people complain when they want to build a low cost housing. Make up your mind people, you want rents to go up or down? When prices are you all complain it is due to hipsters, they pay so landlords increase, and now someone wants to make a building with lower rent, you complain. I agree that last thing we need is a “housing project” and I don’t think any of these “affordable housing” is anything but a ghetto housing project, so they should call it whatever it is. Simply put we want to preserve the neighborhood feel and just like the Co-Ops in our community, not those crappy corporate owned co-ops where they allow subletting, I am talking about real co-ops with more than %80 owner occupied apartments, we need a way to control who is moving in and out of our neighborhood, and nobody gives a damn so why should we, right? Anyway, just looking through some of these comments, I already see the neighborhood lost it’s sense of unity and just trying to pick a fight with random people on internet.
Let the market work. I still want to know what Joe Conley’s real job is.
Where does Joe Conley, chairman of Community Board 2 live?
NYC Public records Acris does not show him owning property owner in Woodside or Queens or for that matter in NYC.
Sounds to me like another property developer interested in buying on the cheap.
Which goes back to years of what is he doing on Community board as chairman.
@Larry…just looking at your command of the English language it would be fair to say you weren’t born here…I guess that now that you may have a piece of the pie you find it necessary to look down your nose at less fortunate people..I would also guess that “statistics” would indicate that people from your ethnic background commit a disproportionate amount of crime…Bigotry wears many hats
I could be misinterpreting information on the nyc hpd website, but it appears that a single cannot earn over 48,100 to occupy a studio apt an affordable program, and a family of 6 cannot earn more than 79,700 for a 3 br. If a single earns 50k, or just under 1000/wk, he is still not a high earner, but is out of the running. A combined salary of 89k is not a lot of money for a couple, but neither is 100k. And would lock out many skilled and professional couples. Perhaps the answer is to add children to to the mix.
If I want to move fifth Ave I’m not going to complain why is so expensive and protest on its unfair that I can’t live there or they should make it affordable come on now if I can’t afford it I’m going to even look in that area and if I do wanna live there I’ll just have to work harder to reach that goal….also it’s unfair for people who work hard to have a great place and live in a great neighborhood just to have someone next to them paying way less just because they can’t afford it
Don’t complain when crime goes up all I’m saying you can’t argue with statistics….exactly @seriously leave if can’t afford then it’s not the place for you that’s goes with anything this his world can’t afford it well to bad that’s life
Seriously, can you point me to where you are getting your source of information from to conclude that “teachers as well as other non-high paying professions & trades do not qualify for the ‘affordable’ units “?
I can tell you that a couple making a combined salary between 86k-89k would qualify for one of the affordable two bedrooms in a luxury building in Manhattan. Up to 100k for a family size of three and up to 112k for a family size of 4 for that same two bedroom.
Those salaries are pretty modest for the NYC area and fall within the range of moderate incomes needed to qualify for an affordable unit.
Sounds like they at least made good choices for which areas to develop. At least they’re not proposing skyscrapers in the Gardens — that one 9-story building on 43rd is enough.
But $1650-1800 for a 1br is absolutely laughable…don’t trust real estate agents, at all. When I was looking for an apartment not long ago, brokers all pretended they had never in their lives heard of anywhere in my price range. They were shocked! Impossible! Unthinkable! Meanwhile every night I was going to private viewings (no brokers!) of nice apartments in that price range.
Call it whatever, ‘affordable’ or ‘low income’ net result is the same. And I’ll bet that teachers as well as other non-high paying professions & trades do not qualify for the ‘affordable’ units. Also add anyone who has managed to scrape enough together to make ANY kind of purchase. They’re out, but it doesn’t mean you have lots of money. How nice to pay market rate for your studio or 1-2 bedroom apt, and your “affordable housing’ neighbor pays $500? Let Sunnyside continue to reap the benefits of the rental & condo boom in Long Island City, let those who don’t want to stay, go. There are other neighborhoods in Queens.
larry, again you are incorrect. You are incorrectly conflating buildings owned by New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) “projects” with the plan they are talking about here.
The developers would using these areas to build larger than typically allowed residential units which they would offer at market rates in return for setting aside a portion of those units for low to moderate income tenants.
Even new luxury buildings going up in Manhattan offer these units when they take advantage of low-cost development financing from NYC (vis a vis liberty bonds)
Ak nyc ummm I’m calling get as it is if you if you live under a rock and not see what “affordable housing” has done to other communities then you have no idea what’s going on buddy… you get what you pay for you can’t afford it then move they already have affordable housing out there it’s called project housing let me tell you this ak nyc what’s the the biggest reason people don’t move into projects? I’ll tell you it’s not the apartments or the price is the type of people it attracts time to wake up!!!!!!
“Affordable” is an entirely subjective term, depending on how much money you have. What’s affordable to a wealthy person is not affordable to you or me. What’s affordable to you or me is not affordable to someone on welfare.
Let’s call this what this really is: LOW INCOME housing.
larry, it is wrong to characterize the people living in these “affordable housing” units as ghetto.
The folks who are approved for these affordable housing units are actually gainfully employed and tax paying citizens. They just happen to work in careers that are not high-paying (i.e. teachers, artists, doormen, etc.).
And if Sunnyside does become the new Williamsburg, that’s actually a GOOD thing because it means that we will have more restaurants, shops, bars, etc.making the neighborhood more amenity filled.
I’m sorry but affordable housing are going to bring ghetto people here if you can’t afford to live here go somewhere else it’s simple stop trying to make Sunnyside the so called new Williamsburg people in this community have been around for years never complained about rent because they can afford !!! This proposal is going to bring the wrong type of people when crime goes up like robbery muggings or even murder you guys are going to think to your selfs but how did that happen?
Parking is indeed a problem Sunnyside / Woodside. I’ve been on the waiting list for an outdoor spot for over 12 years now in my building.
Outdoor parking spots rent for at least $150. Indoor spots go over $200+
The price hikes that are being mentioned here are inevitable. Sunnyside is still a GREAT area to live in and as folks get priced out of other areas, Sunnyside looks more and more like a better option.
Are landlords wrong to price vacant apartments to what the market will bear?
Sunnyside Post is only read by haters. You all sicken me. You certainly show your true colors here. Sunnyside will be a better place when you all these commenters leave for good. You can make room for kind, supportive people who are active in the community. Your unsavory grousing and insults bring down the level of discourse and make our area unneighborly. Why anyone would wear SunnysidePostHates me as a badge of honor is beyond me. Move away and criticize another neighborhood, or do something about it.
Ssposthates so what are you waiting for? Carry on.
The area has improved in perks but the quality of life has decrease. Robbery is at all times high. Parking is a nightmare. Etc..
How about no. I was priced out of long island city an settled in sunnyside. If you can’t afford it, you can’t live there. The government shouldn’t constantly step in… People don’t have to live in western queens to work in the city, look at everyone who lives in long island. Put them in eastern queens.
Where does this Joe Conley live? Put them next to him.
HAHAHHAAH, Oh man it is SO sweet to see this going on. I told you all first about the hipsters coming in and jacking up the prices back when Vantage was kicking out all the good folks. I love seeing the faces of all these angry hipsters coming in and out of my building, so miserable because they were too stupid to do some research and wanted to live in the next big thing.
They don’t even hold the door for the people who have lived in the building longer.That’s how angry they are. HAHAHHAHA. Oh…and you bet they will build a building by that place that they wanted to put into a warehouse. I bet you 50 bucks that’s gonna happen. Then all those people bitching about it not being a good spot because of traffic will be REALLY crying.
Man I can’t wait to get outta Sunnyside.
Rezoning = Built where there’s a dump, be more than would normally (using common sense) be allowed, build more than the transportation network and community can take and all of that in exchange for a small percentage of “affordable units”, read: lottery for a lucky few.
Please no. That’s an invitation for developers to make $$ on the shoulders of our community. CB2 needs new leadership, see the FDNY disaster.
1650-1800 for one bedroom in the roach infested area of Sunnyside is absurd. These landlords need to get Ebola and go the hell away.