Growth machine conflicts and neoliberal gentrification in Long Island City, New York

• In Event: 2429 - Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Rountable 9

Abstract

As a result of government sponsored plans and rezonings, Long Island City, New York has emerged as one of the fasted growing neighborhoods in the United States. Long Island City’s redeveloping waterfront is a tale of two cities where Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing complex in the United States forms an oasis of housing affordability in a sea of ongoing luxury high rise development and gentrification. As a result of transformations that have occurred and are in the process of becoming, Long Island City contains many of the major urban issues, themes and conflicts facing global cities today. Building on Asa Briggs notion that some urban places become “shock cities” characterized by “spectacular growth and technological progress amid deep concerns about economic, political and social problems,” this work will frame and explore Long Island City as a paradigmatic “shock community” (Hutter, 2016). Recently, New York Times writer Cory Kilgannon, has elaborated on this idea by claiming that Long Island City is a tale of two cites that has emerged as a national symbol of “the social and economic tensions coursing through American society- a widening income gap, a lack of access to high-paying jobs for many minorities and a technology sector struggling to diversify”  Given such developments and contradictions, Long Island City is a strategically situated place to explore growth machine conflicts with a focus on how assorted community-based, anti-growth coalitions struggle against government backed plans, policies and projects that promote gentrification, privatization and displacement.

Authors

• Steven Lang, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY

• Julia H. Rothenberg, CUNY Queensborough Community College