We do not believe that rezoning this area of our small-scale neighborhood is in the best interest of anyone except the people making a profit from the proposed change in land use.

We already have a thriving senior center where seniors live at HANAC, a daycare next to ps85, and after school activities hosted in that building. We don't need a private version of these good things.

Our public services are already stretched to the breaking point. Con Edison's 100 year old grid-- and our ancient sewer system-- can barely keep up with our current population. Our quiet streets already have cars double parked as commuters leave their cars here before they hop on the subway. Astoria can't handle more high density buildings and the population boom they threaten.

In addition, areas nearby have already been rezoned beyond what the neighborhood has traditionally been. Looking to those projects, we see that developers frequently over build, and though slapped with a fine by the city at large, they have no other consequences to stop them from destroying our land. Homeowners' basements have cracked and become unstable because of poor building practices in adjacent high rises between Ditmars and 23rd Avenue.

Hyper-locally, the property that Staples is on has had serious erosion issues in the past. The retaining wall they built between them and 32nd Street failed. That was when the hill backed onto a parking lot. A similar event happening when the hill backs onto a high rise is a true danger to all. 

Three new skyscrapers will not only block the view, they will block the sunlight. Will the developers refund those of us who have installed solar panels? Our backyards are full of figs, persimmons, grape arbors and apple trees. Will the developers feed us, when our gardens wilt?

When the migrating birds, whose paths are millennia old, crash into the buildings that are suddenly sprouting up, will they carefully lift them from the curb and give them a proper burial?

We care about the future, we care about each other and our quality of life.

What do the developers care about?

Our community doesn't want them. "The market" doesn't want them. It is an environmental disaster waiting to happen.

Keep Astoria short and to the point.

Just like us.