Bill de Blasio
April 19, By Hannah Wulkan
Mayor Bill de Blasio will be coming to Long Island City next week for a town hall meeting to address community concerns.
The town hall meeting will be held on April 27 at 7 p.m. at the Queens Vocational and Technical High School at 37-02 47th Avenue along with Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and State Senator Michael Gianaris.
Though the town hall will have no specific theme, the Mayor will answer questions from constituents on whatever topics they bring up, according to a spokeswoman for de Blasio.
The Mayor is making a visit to the area while there are three extremely controversial projects in the works.
The Sunnyside Yards feasibility study was released earlier this year, which showed that the project could bring up to 24,000 new residential units to the area.
The Brooklyn-Queens Connector, a $2.5 billion streetcar running along the waterfront from Astoria to Sunset Park, is also in the works, though internal documents released by Politico last week show that the project may not be financially viable.
Long Island City is also undergoing a rezoning effort that could bring even more development to the Queens Plaza area, which already has quite a few large developments in the works.
Van Bramer said he was glad the mayor was coming to the neighborhood to speak to residents.
“I’ve been working to get the Mayor to join me for a town hall meeting in our district and I’m pleased that he has accepted my invitation and the schedules allow for this important meeting to take place next Thursday at Queens Vocational High School,” Van Bramer said. “This will be a great opportunity for people in our neighborhoods to raise issues, voice concerns and share their vision for the future directly with the Mayor and his commissioners. This is an important moment for or community.”
The town hall will likely attract hundreds of constituents, according to de Blasio’s spokeswoman, so all hoping to attend are asked to RSVP to [email protected] or to 212-788-4282 by April 25.