All stories about "Queens West South"

Okay, so what are the odds on the Bloomberg Administration's massive $3 billion remake of Willets Point? Well, half the Queens City Council delegation is on record against it and there will probably be enough lawsuits filed to sustain a small law firm through 2015, at least, but that's getting ahead of the story. The clock officially starts today on the seventh-month land use process for both Willets Point and the controversial plan for Hunters Point (although the latter fight lacks hundreds of angry business owners that would be evicted). For the record, today is also the start of the public review on a rezoning proposal for the Rockaways, although that discussion will probably be low-key compared to the Willets Point and Hunters Point brawls. Call it the Queens Land Use Trifecta.
· Divisive Willets Point Plan Up for Review [Crain's]
· Rezoning proposal to protect the Rockaway Peninsula [NYDN]

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If anyone can handle more debate about another planned New York City megaproject, the huge (and, yes, very controversial) Hunters Point South (aka Queens West South) development has taken a small step forward. Broker/blogger Andrew Fine has gotten hold of a new "scoping" document for the project, which would rise on a Long Island City wasteland, and finds that it has gained more than an extra acre of parkland but has also gone from 6,500 to 6,650 units of housing (the definition of "affordable" in the plan has been the subject of bitter dispute). A school has also grown significantly. Fine writes that "it seems as if none" of the concerns raised by residents and others have been taken into consideration and that the plan "has simply gone from bad to even worse" by adding another building's worth of housing and expanding the school.
· Hunters Point South Plan Grows Denser, Yet Finds An Extra Acre Of Park [A Fine Blog]
· More Hating on Hunters Point South [Curbed]
· Hunters Point South Plan Called 'Archie Bunker Vision' [Curbed]

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[Photos courtesy of Nathan Kensinger Photography]

Anyone that's ever ventured to the far end of Hunters Point in Long Island City near at the mouth of Newtown Creek knows that it's a wasteland. It's the area that's was originally marketed as the site of the Olympic Village for the failed 2012 Olympics bid and has since been re-rebranded as Queens West South. It could someday have thousands of units of housing. In the meantime, it's still a scary wasteland. Photographer Nate Kensinger wandered in and has posted shots offering views of Manhattan across the river and Queens West to the north. He calls it, "an idyllic, private barbeque spot, with homemade swings and benches looking out across the water at Manhattan's midtown rush." Us, we'll take the bigger, better Water Taxi Beach and its new sand.
· Long Island City: Hunters Point South [Nathan Kensinger Photography]
· More Hating on Hunters Point South [Curbed]

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