City Council votes down Kingsbridge plan, draws ire from lawmakers
December 14, 2009 03:00PM
The Kingsbridge Armory
The New York City Council voted against the proposed Kingsbridge Armory development today, a $310 million project that would have refurbished the unoccupied building for use as a retail hub in the Bronx. Developer Related Companies had been tapped for the plan, but the council voted down the proposal 45-1. Although the failure to reach a living wage agreement with the developer had been a key issue in the weeks of debate leading up to the City Council vote, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn cited traffic issues as integral to the decision to vote against the project. "The Bronx community surrounding the armory is an area with significant traffic problems, and the impact this project will have cannot be underestimated," Quinn said. "Even after numerous discussions, there continues to be an immitigable traffic impact. We cannot approve a project that will bring more people to an already overcrowded area and cause further strain to this community." This is the first time that the council has voted against a major Bloomberg administration proposal, according NY1. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was disappointed with the outcome. "Today's vote against the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment project means the loss of a rare opportunity to bring thousands of jobs and more than $300 million in private investment to the Bronx," Bloomberg said. "From early in the planning process, we made clear we would never add mandatory wage requirements which would make the project unviable, and that was a line we were never going to cross." Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, expressed equal disappointment, referencing the jobs lost in the plan's defeat. "It should serve as a warning that excessive government mandates on private employers will ultimately cost the city a lot of jobs," Wylde said. "This is especially true in industries like retail, where margins are too slim to meet political expectations." Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, echoed the sentiment. "The City Council has consigned the Kingsbridge Armory to many more years -- and possibly decades -- as an abandoned eyesore," Anderson said. TRD
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Comments
Anonymous
This vote was an abomination. Thousands of jobs lost due to selfish, entrenched interests....
Comment #1 Posted By: Anonymous 12/14/09
Anonymous
I aint taken' no $9 dolla hour job. I am stayin on the welfare! F that ! - Precious' Mom
Comment #2 Posted By: Anonymous 12/14/09
Anonymous
Can you picture the bronx of your parents' generation turning down a major development because they want to city to make the developer make the tenants pay a certain amount to their employees? makes zero sense.
Comment #3 Posted By: Anonymous 12/14/09
Anonymous
This has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. 90% of the jobs would have been living wage anyways. Basically no retailers in NYC pay 100% "living wage". It would be impossible to guarantee even if Related were insane enough to agree to this demand. If they agreed, the project would have never been built anyways. No retailer will agree to arbitrary and permanent City Council-mandated wage minimums.
Comment #4 Posted By: Anonymous 12/14/09
Anonymous
I am not sure how some city council people look at themselves in mirror denying citizens these much needed jobs in this environment. I hope the residents of the bronx understand they have been sold out by a socialist agenda....
Comment #5 Posted By: Anonymous 12/14/09
Anonymous
Cut the welfare payments and see how quick they jump at $9/hr.
Comment #6 Posted By: Anonymous 12/14/09
Anonymous
and it was voted 45 against to 1. who was the 1? the other 45 need to kicked out as fast as the morons in Albany
Comment #7 Posted By: Anonymous 12/14/09
Anonymous
"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself..." "Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." Thomas Jefferson said both, and it was no more evident than today at the City Council vote over the Armory. This entire project was derailed by A FEW SPECIAL INTEREST, of which the majority don't even live here (mostly the UNIONS looking for new dues paying members to milk). The pols just sentenced more people to poverty because they couldn't get a living wage (i.e. Welfare 2.0, subsidized by private corprations) passed and then lacked the testicular fortitude to actually state they voted it down because of it! They voted it down for "environmental and transportation issues" WTF!! When did they discuss that!?! What a bunch of bums...
Comment #8 Posted By: Anonymous 12/14/09
Anonymous
That fat cow Quinn!!! When is someone going to kick her out of office? There's traffic everywhere! Manhattan there is traffic are they going to start closing down stores there? There's a hospital up the block, a train station down the block of the armory, there are stores and restaurants all over that area. These people don't live in the bronx, wouldn't come up to the bronx unless it's a photo op. Yet she denies people making money. Is she still upset that she's denied to legally munch carpet. Stupid Cow!
Comment #9 Posted By: Anonymous 12/14/09
Anonymous
No more slave wages so that fat cat developers can exploit and rape at bloombergs bequest!! Go to the upper east side if you are looking to enslave anyone!!
Comment #10 Posted By: Anonymous 12/15/09
Anonymous
Getting a job here would be a first step into getting a better job somewhere else. Is the Bronx still in America?
Comment #11 Posted By: Anonymous 12/15/09
Anonymous
Saves the neighbor hood mom an pop stores and shops. The Armory is a Monstrosity
Comment #12 Posted By: Anonymous 12/15/09
Anonymous
yes save the overpriced bodegas with no fresh food and the liquor stores. woowoo
Comment #13 Posted By: Anonymous 12/15/09
Anonymous
this is a shocking series of posts. how many of the people who had something to say here actually live in the bronx? well, i do live there and i can tell you that the bronx has been abused time and time again with lies from the bloomberg administration about projects leading to development and jobs... none of which has had any impact on the economy of the borough. how did the yankee stadium rape of parkland do at reviving the areas around it? and right around the corner from the armory is a water filtration project that was nothing more than a $3 billion scam that has destroyed parkland and benefitted no one, unless you think historic rises in water rates are a benefit. sorry folks, it's time we drew the line in the sand that we're not gonna take it anymore and the city council understood that. now we'll put together a proposal for the armory that will really work for the people who are paying the costs. before you people enter ill-informed and borderline racist posts about the bronx, come visit to find out what's really going on here
Comment #14 Posted By: Anonymous 12/15/09
Anonymous
To the individual who posted comment 14: I live in the Bronx and not to far from the Armory. I saw first hand the BS photo-op/staged protests with the protestors taking their cues from MW supermarket and from other groups. Guess what, it was all a big fraud!! The people who supported the project in the neighborhood where all people who worked who had no time to go to City Hall and stage protests!! I am not a fan of big developers, but I am SO not a fan of ignorance, fear mongering, and misinformation!
Comment #15 Posted By: Anonymous 12/16/09
Anonymous
To #14 still: Almost 3/4 of the jobs would have paid more than the living wage that was asked for, including 1000+ unionized workers, managers and assistant managers to run the stores, kiosks for small businesses to operate inside, and a whole hosts of other jobs that get paid a salary & union benefits, including janitors, security staff, and admin assistants. The problem is the off-the-cliff socialists were protecting their own interests, including financial. Let me ask you, those "mom&pop" shops that operate on a "cash-only" system, barely pay taxes and have zero credit, do they even pay their own employees a minimum wage? Oh wait, I know, THEY DON'T. Thanks for helping to condemn more people to "ignorance-based poverty"...
Comment #16 Posted By: Anonymous 12/16/09