Sign letter to support Western Queens Community Land Trust
Street Works has written a letter to support the Western Queens Community Land Trust’s important proposal to turn the former Dept. of Education building in LIC into the Queensboro People’s Space—a permanently affordable, community-owned hub for artists, cooperatives, food justice groups, and more. This is not a lease or a commitment—just a way to demonstrate public support. To join the effort:
Individuals and/or groups, please sign the letter if it resonates!
Please share this far and wide with folks you know who would be willing to sign.
To Whom It May Concern,
We are Queens artists, cultural organizations, and creative small businesses writing to express strong support for the Western Queens Community Land Trust (WQCLT) and their proposal to transform the publicly owned site at 44-36 Vernon Boulevard into the Queensboro People’s Space (QPS), a deeply affordable, community-run cultural and economic hub. Because this project is not just visionary. It is necessary.
Artists are a heartbeat of LIC and Queens’s diverse neighborhoods, often serving simultaneously as critical cultural organizers. But without intentional design, that heartbeat will stop. While LIC-Hunter’s Point is one of NYC’s fastest-growing areas — increasing in population by 198% from 2010–2020 — so, too, have average rents. Affordable space is disappearing at breakneck pace, and access to below-market rent is crucial to preventing further displacement of diverse small businesses, artists and cultural groups like ours.
If the final RFP is awarded to WQCLT, we would look into the possibility of taking 1,000-3,000 square feet in the building to provide artists space for: performance rehearsal and creative space, mutual aid meetings, mental wellness group meetings, a production material lending library for Queens, recording space, and more. It would be tremendously stabilizing for us all to operate in a building where we could count on affordable costs and a landlord who shares our values and vision for a just, diverse, and affordable Queens.
As our public lands in LIC and other parts of Queens continue to be privatized, while giving private developers tax breaks that do more harm than good, WQCLT offers a solution rooted in equity, affordability, and permanence. WQCLT will also preserve this city-owned property so that it becomes a deeply affordable community hub that directly benefits the public. Their plan reflects NYC’s stated priorities under OneNYC and CreateNYC. And they’ve built widespread support.
We look to WQCLT not only as an opportunity for affordable space for Queens’s incredible artists, but also as a model that, when proven, can be replicated across Queens and demonstrate collective leadership in urban planning that is just, vibrant, and imaginative.
Please support WQCLT and their vision for our community.
Sincerely,
[Our Names and/or Orgs]
