Letter to:

Mayor Bill DeBlasio
Chancellor Carmen Fariña
Benjamin M. Branham, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer - Economic Development Corporation
Kim Vaccari, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer - Economic Development Corporation
Alicia Glen, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development 

We, the residents of Long Island City, petition the Mayor, Economic Development Corporation (EDC), and the Department of Education Chancellor to include a new preK-8th grade school as part of the remaining phases of Hunter’s Point South housing development.

With the exploding residential developments in Hunter’s Point South, any planning that ignores the need for a new and adequate preK-8th grade school as part of the city-sponsored development, tremendously escalates the existent crisis in education and severe lack of seats in this section of Queens.

The development, built on city land and sponsored by the city and tax payers, includes units for middle income families to provide affordable housing, without regard for quality public education for the children of our policemen, firefighters, nurses and teachers close to their places of work. We feel that providing affordable housing in this area without securing public school seating for children as part of this large city sponsored project is a sign of negligence and poor urban planning by the previous administration.

We respectfully request that the Mayor and the EDC give significant advantage to those developers who include a preK-8th grade public school, with adequate amenities and much needed sports field, into their offered project designs, by providing the Department of Education with city land at Hunter’s Point South development. Their profitable contracts and tax breaks must include basic public school infrastructure to support the approximately 20,000 new residents to this area. 

cc:

President and CEO of NYC School Construction Authority Lorraine Grillo