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Javits Center May Move to Queens

Dateline: December 2014

It's not like NYC and it's progressive Mayor de Blasio don't have more important things these days to work on, but the Javits Convention Center is back on the bargaining table once again.

 

A few years ago the Javits Center was expanded to include brand new exhibit halls as well as refurbishments to the original building. Unlike the days of old when commerce was grand, there are few shows that can fill the building any longer - like at most convention centers.

 

Shortly after the renovations were completed it was announced during the Mayor Blumberg administration that they were looking to see about knocking down the multi million dollar center and relocate it to Queens.

 

The plan sat for a while and then was shot down and shelved. That is until our new Mayor Bill de Blasio took up the gauntlet. This is the man who wants to ban the horse and carriages from Central Park!

 

The original plan called to build a new convention center in Jamaica, Queens nearby the airport. The new plan calls to scrap Jamaica and build in Sunnyside, Queens. I am very familiar with Sunnyside - it was where I got my first apartment. It was also known as gang city - very unsavory and unsafe. Fast forward to 2014 and the area is gentrified and the administration feels ready for a new shiny convention center.

 

Making a convention center six miles from New York City doesn't seem to be a brilliant idea by any stretch of the imagination. if nothing else, people like to come into the CITY -- not the outskirts.

 

Apparently there are some real estate developers set to prosper and appeasing Mayor de Blasio's quest for affordable housing by tearing down the old Javits Center and building apartments. Yea, because that's the vacuumous area where you want to live. And, between you and I, some of the new housing the Mayor is responsible for has rents upwards of thousands of dollars a month. This is affordable to whom?

 

I am a life long NY'er and have been through the worst of times with horrible Mayors and high crime and then the resurgence of the city with Guliani and Blumberg. This new crazy idea is typical of a Mayor out of touch and a city council who thinks if you build it - they will come. No one's going to hold a trade show in Sunnyside. Sorry.