The relationship between capital and labor has influenced the development of New York City. With wealth came better living conditions, and greater influence in the development of the city. Real estate development, or lack of development, has been a result of shifts in capital. The city has always tried to accommodate the wealthy to stay in the city because they are a major source of the city’s income. That has at the cost of the low-income workers in the city. Labor laws and unions, which protect the workers, have been torn down to keep the wealthy in the city. The real estate industry even used dirty tricks to influence people to leave their homes in order to sell it at a higher price. Public space, such as Central Park, was planned for the wealthy people in the area.

My group is working on the rezoning of Flushing West and one of the concerns that we saw was the development of the land along the Flushing Creek. That land is currently undeveloped and it is of high value. The Flushing-Willets Point-Corona Local Development Corporation is in charge of planning the development of that land. From this reading I can understand why the community would be worried about what the LDC will do with the land. It can be a very attractive location for business, but it wouldn’t help the Flushing West community if the businesses that moved there were global companies that only gave low wages. There would be no point in spending tax money on cleaning the Creek if the businesses that moved in created dead-end jobs.

Discussion Questions: How can we promote quality of life changes rather than changes for growth?