Overview of Key Project Ideas:

We are currently working on the white paper and have equally divided the work. Wilian is in charge of the introduction and research methods. Claudia and I are in charge of organizing the research. Erica is in charge of the political context and Brian is in charge of the policy recommendations and conclusion. For our white paper, we are going to argue in support of rezoning. We are aware that there are many drawbacks of rezoning but as pointed out by the Flushing community members, not rezoning would be more detrimental and would bring about less benefits than if they were not support rezoning.

Updates on Current Progress:

During the research process, we have found that while many are not supportive of rezoning because of the lack of affordable housing units, the danger of displacement and harassment due to a rise in land values, and the lack of community member input, the Flushing community members have come to the consensus that while they are not totally supportive of all aspects of the rezoning, it is better to have rezoning. From the census data collected, we have found that the area median income is around fifty thousand dollars per year. However, the cheapest MIH option is for affordable housing units that cost 40% AMI. This amounts to approximately thirty-one thousand dollars. Even with this option, a portion of Flushing community members will still not be able to afford these residential units because according to the data from 2014, about 47.6% of the households in Flushing have an income less than thirty thousand dollars. From this, one would probably wonder why the residents support rezoning. This may be befuddling but upon further consideration, one will better understand why so many people support the rezoning. If the residents were to vote no on rezoning, there would be no affordable housing units at all. All of the residential units would be sold at market price, which would not benefit the residents in any way. In addition, we are planning to look into the amount of green space in the area as well as the pricing on the housing units in Sky View Mall as a comparison. We are planning to determine how much green space is available to the residents, if possible, because according to some of the residents, there is not enough green space for the people in Flushing. Although there is Flushing Meadows Park, it is rather inaccessible for some people. This was one of the reasons mentioned in support of rezoning at the town hall meeting, as one of the requirements of the rezoning process is the establishment of green space.

We have also found the draft scope, which includes the goals of the rezoning. The draft scope, in addition to containing all of the project goals, delineates some possible effects of rezoning that need to be further assessed. These include business and residential displacement, material hazards, the generation of building shadows, and interference with traffic operation and mobility. In addition to the draft scope, we have found the NYC Department of City Planning website to be extremely helpful as it includes the powerpoint presentations from various meetings and a general overview of the rezoning plan. I found this to be useful in helping me figure out what the rezoning project actually encompasses.

Some of the readings we will possibly incorporate include: “Communities Develop: The Question is, How?” “The Real Estate Capital of the World”, “Planning and the Narrative of Threat”, and “The Armature for Development.” These readings will be important in setting up the background or foundation for our white paper.

Interesting Findings:

According to an article I found online, Jung Rae, one of the members of MinKwon said that Flushing residents earn an average of thirty-nine thousand dollars yearly but based on census data, the median income earned by residents in Flushing is approximately fifty-two thousand dollars per year. Perhaps this discrepancy is due to a difference in the areas, as social explorer does not provide information on solely the area involved in the rezoning project. Rather is provides data on a bigger land area. Using census data from social explorer, I have also found that there has been a general increase in the percentage of households that earn less than thirty thousand dollars per year.

Challenges Encountered:

It was rather difficult to find out more information about Sky View Mall. More importantly, Jung Rae still has not provided a response and thus we do not have access to the surveys he mentioned during the last town hall meeting. This data would have been a valuable addition to our white paper, unfortunately, it seems that we will not be able to draw from the survey data. Erica made several calls to Jung Rae in addition to writing an email but those attempts proved to be fruitless. Another problem is that social explorer does not provide data for the year of 2015 and so that is not included in some of the graphs we generated for our research findings.

Remaining Tasks:

We are currently working on our white paper and we will need to work on our project deliverables. We will continue to reach out to Jung Rae in hopes of obtaining a response so that we may include the information from the surveys they conducted. We have not made much progress on the deliverable yet as we have been preoccupied with the white paper. We are also planning to look at the policy recommendations made by the Bronx Coalition for Community Vision, as Professor Caldwell suggested, in order to draw inspiration for our own policy recommendations. The notes that we took during the town hall meetings will also be incorporated into our white paper.

Group Dynamics:

All of our group members have an assigned task and are working to write the white paper. We are also communicating through use of a group chat to clear up any misconceptions or things that we have difficulty understanding. Through the group chat we also share any sources that we come across that may be useful for other group members.