Council Candidate Dan Halloran, Senator Frank Padavan and City Council Member Tony Avella rally with concerned citizens in Queens NY to save historic Bowne Park
City Council Candidate Dan Halloran with Senator Frank Padavan, and outgoing City Council Member Tony Avella rally along with civic leaders and about a hundred area residents from the Broadway-Flushing area in Bowne Park to protest the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission’s denial of status as a Historic District for the area. This community’s roots reach back to the Dutch colonial era, and the denial of such status by the LPC’s is all the more inexplicable given that both the federal and New York state government agencies tasked with such designative powers have already recognized the historic character of the Broadway-Flushing area and granted it that designation.
Council Candidate Dan Halloran stated “Given the unanimous vote recognizing the status by Community Board 7 and the overwhelming support of the surrounding communities, their leaders on both sides of the aisle, and the self-evident historic nature of the Broadway-Flushing area, the LPC’s position is utterly indefensible. The City administration needs to revisit this determination immediately and reverse course.”
Halloran, who was born and raised here, and whose family has been a part of the civic life of the Flushing community for nearly a century, was quick to note that the redundant federal, state, and city designations illustrate a fundamental problem of “runaway bureaucracy” which costs the taxpayers at every turn. He also commented that the overdevelopment sought to be prevented by such designation not only affects the taxpayer directly, as tax assessments in New York City now carry with them comparative sale value increase component, but also diminishes the aesthetic and historic character of the community, which indirectly harms the residents in a host of other ways. He urges the community to continue to work with him and other leaders to press the City to review its policies, which have tended to overlook the needs of the outerboroughs, on the issues that affect them.
