Just a six minute walk from Jamaica’s Van Wyck stop off the E train in Queens, sits one of the largest Shia Muslim centers in New York City.

Last year the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation had to be closed down due to COVID-19. The community was not able to congregate during the holy month of Ramadan. 

But the center  has reopened with limited capacity so devotees can attend sermons, pray as a congregation and break their fasts together, all while following pandemic precautions.

People entering the building before the start of congregational prayers. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, New York City. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 30, 2021

Allama Abid Bilgrami, a Shia religious scholar narrates the tragedy of Karbala, a  very significant event for Shia Muslims.  Their third Imam and grandson of Prophet Muhammad was killed in battle along with many members of his family. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, New York City. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 14, 2021

Ali Raza and his grandson, Ali Hassan Naqvi pick up a block of clay “Turbah”. During prayers Shia Muslims prostrate upon earth (clay) or anything that grows on earth such as grass or wood (except for minerals). Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, New York City. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 14, 2021

Blocks of wood and a clay disc called a “Turbah” were set up by a child who is sitting nearby. During prayers Shia Muslims prostrate upon earth (clay) or anything that grows on earth such as grass or wood (except for minerals). Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 14, 2021

Waqar Ali cries while he listens to the tragic events of Karbala. The atmosphere of the entire congregation becomes somber. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 15, 2021

Azazhar Hasnain performs the obligatory Ablution “Wudu” (washing of the arms and the face) before performing a prayer. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 15, 2021

Sheikh Fadhel Al-Sahlani leads the prayer before breaking fast. Following precautions to prevent COVID-19 the congregation is praying with gaps between each person; under normal circumstances it is obligatory for people in the rows to stand almost shoulder to shoulder. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 18, 2021

Shabbir Husain Musliwala prostrates on “Turbah” while he performs Salah. During prayers Shia Muslims prostrate upon earth (clay) or anything that grows on earth such as grass or wood (except for minerals). To prevent the possible spread of COVID-19 people wear masks inside the prayer hall. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 14, 2021

Congregational prayers are performed in limited capacity following COVID-19 preventive measures. The marks on the carpet guide people where to stand during the prayer. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 15, 2021

A man reads a chapter of the Quran before the start of congregational prayer. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 14, 2021

Abdel Krem (seated), and Aslam Ajani put rice and gravy into takeout containers. After prayers are completed, volunteers will distribute a meal of salad, rice with gravy, soup, and dates to the congregation so they can break their fasts. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 14, 2021

A man breaks his fast. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 14, 2021

After the end of congregational prayers, people leave the main prayer hall for the basement where they will receive a meal to break their day-long fasts. Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, Jamaica, Queens, NY. Photo by Hassan Abbas. April 18, 2021

The post Reopening for Ramadan appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Theresa laid the small bouquet sunflowers in front of a portrait of La Trace on a bench at the Forest Park bandshell alongside photos of almost 200 victims of Covid-19. The bereaved filled the remaining benches to begin a day that would draw an estimated 500 participants and be broadcasted by Queens Public Television. An approximate 2,000 viewers watched the event on YouTube, Facebook and QPTV.

“Things like this matter, how we live our lives after they’re gone matters,” said Theresa, who declined to give her last name.

As a day of ceremonies began there were all the tell-tale signs of a funeral—scattered sobs and consoling speeches. A collection of politicians, faith leaders, poets, and singers took the stage to begin the 1 p.m. multi-lingual, interfaith ceremony.

The ceremony concluded with an invitation for the bereaved to find their loved ones among the 16 rows  filled with the portraits of Queens residents who lost their lives in the epicenter of the epicenter. All were drawn in front of a yellow heart, the color representing Covid. A curtain of yellow hearts, the backdrop of the bandshell, listed names of 700 victims from all over the world.

EmmLynn Taylor sits with the portrait of her late husband Jules Taylor Jr.. Photo by Annie Burky

EmmLynn Taylor brought a vase filled with flowers and a laminated two-page obituary to place alongside the portrait of her husband, Jules Taylor Jr.  “Monday will be the one-year anniversary,” Taylor said. “They said the firsts are the worst. I think today will be a bridge to year two.”

EmyLou Rodriguez had this in mind when planning the event. She lost both her parents within two weeks of each other. Antonio B. Solomon and Estelita Solomon immigrated from the Philippines separately and fell in love in New York. “Tony” was a U.S. Navy Veteran and was often overseas. “Estie” was a retired nurse. At the time of contracting Covid they lived in Queens Village. Estie was 72-years-old, Tony was 71.  Both passed with the company of nurses. Their funerals were truncated, family members unable to hug.

Rodriguez, a 43-year-old senior grants specialist for NYU Langone Health, couldn’t speak about their deaths but found comfort in Facebook groups where quarantined mourners created a Covid-loss community. Within one of these chats, the idea for a vigil was born, volunteers were recruited and donations were solicited.

“When I saw other people experiencing the same thing I think that’s what gave me the strength to share my parents’ story,” said Rodriguez, a co-chair of the Queens Covid Remembrance Day committee. “When I realized how much it helped me to tell their story I wanted to give others the opportunity to do the same.”

Catherine Solomon, sister to Co-Chair EmyLou Rodriguez, speaks about their late parents Antonio B. Solomon and Estelita Solomon during the Floral Hearts Ceremony. Photo by Annie Burky

For the 4 p.m. floral hearts ceremony families once again took their seats. In a procession down the center aisle, artist Kristina Libby, along with three speakers who lost family to Covid, carried flowers and photos of the deceased Under the bandshell, Libby placed a floral art piece including a heart-shaped funeral wreath.

“What this is about is making space so that everyone who has lost someone or something has a space to tell their story,” Libby said.

When day gave way to night at 7 p.m., candles were distributed, performers sang uplifting ballads and Rodriguez read a letter her father wrote to her mother sometime during their 43 years of marriage.

“ ‘Well, honey, my love, I’ll be waiting for your much awaited response. Take care of yourself and the kids and your mom. My warm embrace and hot kisses,’ ” Rodriguez said. “I extend the same wishes to you all. While they wait our return I would like you to heed their message—take good care of yourself, your kids, your parents.”

The post Queens residents mourn at Covid vigil appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

At a point into the work I was close to giving-up, not because I wasn’t enjoying the shots but getting it focused wasn’t easy to set, especially when you are not at liberty to move things around in your apartment for the camera to sit on.

For a clearer picture of my methodology in this limited space I stay in an Airbnb shared apartment with just a bed space for myself. I converted the dimensional bed to a seat in the day and then stretch-it-out at night. I rested my camera at the edge of the window close to the bed which made it impossible to go behind the camera for focus setting before the shot.

I climb out the window into the small backyard to view the monitor on the camera in order to focus. This is very risky because I have the camera  on the window frame and fear it will fall on the ground.

To steady the camera, I’ve moved out books and put the camera on the shelf, turned the bucket up-down, braced up the camera lens with a crate and tried numerous types of crazy things to improvise a tripod.

All those formed the fun part of this project work, with class critiques and feedback I’m encouraged to keep on  experimenting with self-portraiture.

These photographs and captions are akin to a daily diary.

Not used to cutting my nails by myself they are growing too long but the salons are closed and since I was a child, I’ve been afraid to cut them myself. April 11th, 2020. Photo by Dayo Paul

I have added weight, I need not feel it, but can see it on my leg. April, 18th, 2020. Photo by Dayo Paul

I watch online to know how to cook in New York. April, 14th 2020. Photo by Dayo Paul

I barely had a sound sleep lately. Maybe it’s because of my study assignments, but I realise the frequent blaring of sirens in the neighbourhood is enough to scare away a sound sleep even if you use a sleeping tablet. April, 18th 2020. Photo by Dayo Paul

I stretch my back more these days. Sitting for three/five hours for online classes every day is telling on my waistline. Also, on my eyes. April, 18th 2020. Photo by Dayo Paul

Combing and self-crushing love. April, 18th 2020. Photo by Dayo Paul

Green is a common colour around me, but it is not my best colour. April, 18th 2020. Photo by Dayo Paul

Maybe sometimes it’s okay to just take pictures and see more of you. April, 18th 2020. Photo by Dayo Paul

Peace out till Covid-19 is over. April, 10th 2020. Photo by Dayo Paul

This is a project of Lori Grinker’s NYU graduate photojournalism class.

The post In an Airbnb Room During Lockdown in Jamaica, Queens appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Tensions are running high in Glendale, Queens, as the city moves forward with opening a homeless shelter at 78-16 Cooper Avenue.

Last month the Glendale-Middle Village Coalition, a local group created to fight the shelter, sued the city. According to the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), the shelter will occupy 200 single men and intends to open early 2020.

“You know, you put a building with 200 people, in the middle of that community, that’s like essentially like putting an entire block of people,” said Ryan Kelley, the communications director of City Councilman Bob Holden of District 30 and opposer of the shelter.

At an October 7 meeting between community members, DHS, Community Board 5, and Westhab, the organization that will run the shelter, residents aggressively yelled out of anger, one woman threatening to “burn the place down” if the shelter arises.

Elfrida Sauldinka, a resident of the area for over 50 years, attended the shelter meeting.

“Neighborhoods are changing, but this, this here is, it’s not fair. There’s problems with a lot of homeless shelters, so why not fix up the ones they have?” said Sauldinka.

“People should be allowed to, to make a decisions here, you know, they live here.”

The post Tensions Run High in Glendale, Queens Over Planned Homeless Shelter appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Amy Tang hasn’t seen her son for weeks. 

“Everyone is working day and night, day and night,” said the co-owner of Union Wine & Liquor, in Flushing. “My business partner Karen hasn’t seen her daughter for weeks. And we also have a store to run, this is what we’ve invested all our money on.”

Since August, Tang, along with about 150 other Queens liquor store owners, has gone door-to-door, urging local politicians and other store owners to reject the liquor application of a potential 30,000-square-foot mega liquor store in College Point.

“This for sure would be a category five disaster for local wine and liquor merchants for not only Queens but the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and local Nassau county,” said Michael Correra, the executive director of Metropolitan Package Store Association (Metro PSA) and owner of Michael Towne Wines and Spirits. 

Dozens of liquor store owners, sales representatives and their families met at the East Sheraton Hotel in Flushing yesterday. Standing In front of them, Assemblyman Ron Kim of the 40th District, led the group in a chant, shouting “no to total.”  Participants held up different signs that read “mega stores kill neighborhood businesses,” “UFCW Local 2D,” and “#TotalMonopoly” with a picture of Rich Uncle Pennybags, the mascot of the board game Monopoly.

Assemblyman Ron Kim of the 40th District, defends Queens liquor business owners, pictured behind him. Kim said at first he saw no wrong in Trone’s liquor application, but after realizing who she was associated with, immediately rescinded his support. Photo by Maureen Mullarkey

“We’re all gathered here because we’re so worried, like bye mom and pop, hello Wal-Mart of liquor,” said Tang.

Total Wine & More, dubbed the “Wal-Mart” of liquor stores, is the country‘s largest independent retailer of fine wine and has 199 superstores across 23 states. Last month, Michelle Trone, the daughter of Maryland Congressman David Trone who owns the national brand, filed the application for 30-02 Whitestone Expressway, the former site of a Toys ‘R’ Us.

“Total Wine is a monopoly,” said Tom Baffer, spokesperson for liquor sales representatives in the area. “Total Wine is here to destroy pricing. They have the stores they have the manpower, they have the dollar to do it.” 

At the rally hosted by the Metropolitan Package Store Association on Monday in Flushing, Queens, these pre-written letters were given to local store owners. The letter opposes MCT Fine Wine & Spirits LLC and is intended to be sent to the New York State Liquor Authority. Photo by Maureen Mullarkey

Two years ago, Total Wine opened up a location in Westbury. According to the Metropolitan Package Store Association, in the two years the Westbury location has existed, 63 smaller stores in the area have closed. 

Queens businesses have already been affected.

“My business has already dropped down 30 percent. And that’s just nearby. I don’t have any more holiday sales,” said Tang, who has owned her business for five years. “I don’t have anymore case buying because no one will come to my store now, because they will drive to Westbury and spend 30 minutes driving down and buy a bunch of their stuff for the holidays.”

Trone applied for the license under her own entity, MCT Fine Wine & Spirits LLC. But opposers believe it is a scheme to get around New York State’s law that prohibits store owners from operating more than one store.

“It’s disgusting, what they’re doing. Using his daughter as a pawn? “ said Baffer, in reference to David Trone. “What kind of father does that? You don’t do that.“

The potential location of Michelle Trone’s Total Wine & More store. The 30,000 square foot space once was the location of a Toys R US, which closed down two years ago. Adjacent to the store is a Party City and College Point Multiplex Cinemas. Photo by Maureen Mullarkey

Kim also expressed his thoughts on the deceit. Several politicians had signed a letter in support of Trone, believing she was an independent, small business owner. Kim has rescinded his support.

“I was presented with this by someone had some to me and said it was an MWBE (Minority/ Women Business Entrepreneurs) owned small business owner that was trying to get a license,” said Kim. “So I had no reason to doubt that story. But the moment that I came back to my community and started reading about who this person is, I realized that this is not a small business.”

The New York State Liquor Authority is expected to make a decision in November. 

Until then, local business owners will plan to continue building an opposition to Trone’s approval.

“For a long time until the hearing, none of us are going to be sleeping. We all call each other to consul, to comfort. The four closest liquor store owners around me and they call me more than my husband calls me,” said Tang. “ We are a small family coming together to fight a big family. We will not allow our life savings, our livelihood to be taken.”

The post Queens Business Owners Rally Against Proposed Mega Liquor Store appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

It was 12:45 a.m. Sunday and Darryl Kelly’s nine-hour shift at a Walgreens in Flushing, Queens had just ended. His backpack was stuffed with his work vest, battery pack and snacks that he will munch on as he makes his way to Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Now, he sat in a McDonald’s a block away peering out the window to watch for his bus to Jamaica Station. If he misses the 1 a.m. Q25, the next one won’t arrive for another 30 minutes—and that’s only the first leg of the journey. From there he must transfer to the J train to Broadway Junction, then take the A train to Nostrand Avenue. When he gets off, he still has a 10-minute walk to his doorstep.

Kelly, 34, makes this 2-hour trip twice every weekend.

“Honestly, I hate my voyage, I wouldn’t mind working so far from home if I had a reliable transit service to get me home in a timely manner,” Kelly said. “When I finally make it to the J train at Jamaica, I have to take a shuttle bus to the A train, I just be wanting to get home.”

For many New Yorkers who work after the MTA’s peak hours of 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., it’s a hassle to get home. Trains and buses slow down their service, with the former making only local stops and the latter running 30 minutes apart at best.

“When it is so late at nights you have to be precise in all transit decisions you make,” Kelly said. “One false judgment of time and missing your bus or connection could mean another hour of travel or getting home later.”

According to MTA data, ridership is at its lowest from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. — and that’s when the transit authority uses the time for station and track maintenance.

With the subway system in need of repair, the only way to improve the system is to shut down major portions of it. MTA president Andy Byford has called for a sweeping $40 billion plan to install modern signals on several lines, meaning stations will be closed on most nights and weekends for the next two and a half years.

In light of this, Kelly, who is a manager at Walgreens, said he’s asked his bosses about working closer to home. But he is also at the disposal of his company, and where he is needed is where he has to go.

“I know that not a lot of people ride the trains and buses at night or what MTA officials might consider peak times, but some of us still do,” Kelly said. “We have to get home just like everyone during the day.”

“An Uber or Lyft would cost me like over $30  to get from Queens to Brooklyn,” he added, noting that he lives too far away to take a for-hire vehicle to his doorsteps. “That’s a part of my budget I can’t add as an expense. I’m stuck with the MTA.”

According to the MTA, workers have started to upgrade signals on the Queens Boulevard line from Rockefeller Center in Manhattan to Kew Gardens in Queens. The F train in Brooklyn and the 8th Avenue line in Manhattan are next.

“During station closings on nights and weekends, riders could have other options like extra buses,” said an MTA spokesperson in an email. “Because the system is so large and interconnected, there are often alternate subway lines nearby.”

This is not always the case in far-flung corners of the city.

For straphanger Angie DeJesus, the late-night commute from where she works in Jamaica, Queens to her Lower East Side apartment is already a struggle. She must wait for buses and a train that never arrives on time. DeJesus lives where New Yorkers call her area a transit desert. No trains run close by and limited bus service.

DeJesus 25, who works at a Blink Fitness until close at 11pm,

“I want to move to an area that’s like closer to more shops and trains and like closer to a hub,” DeJesus said. “But that cost money. It’s already expensive in this city, so I live where I can afford too. Just sucks that a city works against the lesser man.”

Joe Cutrufo, a spokesman for the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, which fights to improve public transit, said the city must provide alternatives to trains if they plan to shut down subway lines for night repairs.

“[One option is to] have dedicated bus lanes whose sole purpose is to bus transit riders from point A to B,” he said. “Especially at nights when there is no traffic, utilize bus services to pick up the slack where subways might be closed of going through repairs.”

She bounced around from workforce programs looking for a job. She took the first one that looked past her record and hired her.

DeJesus, who plead guilty to burglary charges in 2015 and served three years for the crime, said she is very thankful for the job she has. Without late night busses and subways, she’d lose the gig and her sense of independence.

“I know that the entire transit system is old, and they need repairs, but they have to be considerate of everyone riding the trains and all hours of the day,” she said. “This is supposed to be the city that never sleeps right, then our subway shouldn’t sleep either.”

The post Slow trains and delays make late night commutes an awful ride home appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Entwined in a four-foot-high pile of trash facing the Upper East Side sat a deformed delivery box with undeterminable stains, gaping holes, and an Amazon logo frowning at Long Island City.

After only three months, Amazon backed out of their highly-anticipated deal to build a new headquarters, dubbed HQ2, in Long Island City. While many are crediting local politicians for the company’s decision, it was the blue-collar New Yorkers who joined calloused hands and tired voices to put a pause on the sweep of rampant gentrification in their backyard.

During a celebratory rally today the echoes of “G-T-F-O Amazon has got to go” overtook the reverberations of luxury building construction at Gantry Plaza State Park in Queens. With Manhattan’s lights illuminating behind him, Queens Anti-Gentrification Project organizer Michael Forest congratulated fellow organizers on their success.

“It’s a cold night, but it’s a strong night because we defeated Amazon,” he said. “We’re here tonight to say smash tech capitalism and we’re going to fight back against that, not just Amazon.”

Forest explained that HQ2 would have caused significantly more harm than good to New Yorkers. Other activists and grassroots organizations felt the same.

“It would have brought a lot of high-paid tech workers into the neighborhood and it would’ve made everything go up, from rent prices to just goods, services and things like that,” he said. It generally would have been bad for everybody.”

At the rally, there were at least 10 organizations present and there have been at least two dozen organizations and hundreds of individuals attempting to drown out the noise of a multi-billion-dollar company since November.

When Amazon announced its plans Nov. 13 for the 4-million-square-foot landscape of HQ2, it promised 25,000 full-time jobs with an average wage of $150,000, a technology startup incubator, space for public school, and investments in infrastructure. Assuming the company was successful in their promises, New York politicians also offered Amazon nearly $3 billion in subsidies, a move that only intensified activists’ fight against the deal.

There have been more than a dozen protests and rallies since the deal was announced with hundreds of New Yorkers flocking from one demonstration to the next. Elmhurst resident James Mongeluzo, 30, explained that although Amazon’s promises were filled with vague statements, they were also filled with the fuel he and others needed to have their concerns heard. He has attended numerous events over the past few months to share as much information as he can about the fine print of Amazon’s deal.

James Mongeluzo, 30, has spent his entire life in New York and wants Amazon and other large companies to know that despite their promises, they will not be welcomed to New York City unless they provide opportunities for working class residents. Photo by Maggie Garred.

“They say the jobs were going to be an average of $150,000. That seems like it could be true, but average is not really a meaningful number. You really need the median, you need to know what the mode is,” he explained. “How many people are getting the jobs at the $30,000 level? How many are getting it at the $2 million level? If you just have a few people making millions that can skew the average heavily.”

Despite the company’s statement that 70 percent of New Yorker’s approved of their plans, these numbers, as well as the vast housing issues, such as the lack of affordability and regulation and increasing homelessness, only watered the growing contempt for Amazon’s deal.

“I don’t meet many people that believe that poll,” Forest said. “Most people I talk to say they oppose it. If that was truly the poll numbers then I don’t think they would have pulled out.”

The poll cited in Amazon’s statement was conducted by Siena College Research Institute. Despite there being more than 4.6 million active registered voters in New York City alone, the poll was only conducted in English to 778 registered voters in the entire state with the sampling limited to the youngest male in the house.

Sabrina Rich, 21, senior at The City University of New York, is part of a student-run organizations that has tirelessly fought against Amazon’s deal with New York City since it was announced last November. Photo by Maggie Garrad.

Middle Village resident Sabrina Rich, 21, a senior sociology and political science major at the City University of New York, said there was nothing that could have changed her mind about the deal.

“I don’t think big companies as big as Amazon with CEOs as rich as Jeff Bezos should exist in the first place,” she said. “We should be having adequate schools and things without Amazon coming here. That should be coming from the government.”

Rich and other activists have marched into the Amazon bookstore on 34th Street. They have dropped banners and provided testimony at city council meetings. They have created pamphlets, websites and ads. Now, they say, they will continue their fight onto other deals gone bad in New York City. Next on their list is fighting rezoning plans in Sunnyside and Willets Point that would allow luxury apartments to be built in working class communities.

“We called out attention to [Amazon’s] ICE partnership, the way they treat their workers. Amazon cares a lot about their image and I think it was the organizers who were doing that work and putting it out there,” Rich said. “I think that people are really starting to see the power of the people and what happens when people from across communities come together to fight something.”  

The post New Yorkers celebrate Amazon backing out of LIC deal appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

The post MTA Fare Hikes: The End of the Line appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

About a hundred Queens residents stood near the proposed location of Amazon’s new headquarters in Long Island City in the pouring rain yesterday and chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, Amazon has got to go” as they protested multiple aspects of the company’s move to New York. 

Zachary Lerner, Labor Director for New York Communities for Change, said that his greatest concern was the city’s subsidies to Amazon. He believes city dollars should go towards helping New York’s homeless population, as well as working to increase affordable housing, repair the subway system, and better education throughout the city.

“We’re here today because we’re saying no to Amazon receiving $3  billion in subsidies to move to a place where they already plan to come all along, especially when we see problems in housing,” he said. 

Others, including Dannelly Rodreguiz, were more concerned about the conditions that Amazon workers face.

“Amazon is not friendly to the working class at all,” said Rodriguez, a member of Queens Democratic Socialist of America and a student CUNY School of Law, said. “Here their jobs may be $15 an hour, but that’s not gonna suffice if the price of living is gonna be jacked up from such an influx of high incomes coming into New York City.”

Life has not been easy for many Amazon workers who have been fighting for better treatment and benefits. The company recently raised the minimum wage to $15. However, it reduced bonuses and abilities to invest in stock, which makes some believe that the raised wage will only hurt workers. 

Dannelly Rodriguez, a member of Queens Democratic Socialist of America and student CUNY School of Law, protested Amazon’s planned arrival.
Photo by Julia Lee

Meanwhile, other protestors were worried that by moving into the Long Island City area, Amazon would price out and displace residents.

“He (Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon) has the resources and should actually be demanded to pay to come and relocate to wherever he may be setting up this business because he’s going to displace hundreds of thousands of people,” said Rachel LaForest, Queens resident and labor organizer. 

Though LaForest does not want Amazon to come at all, she said if they do, she wants to see corporate practices changed.

“I would love to see them agree to neutrality so that their workers can be organized,” she said. “Rather than taking the subsidy, they should offer them the money they would’ve been offered by the city to ensure that some truly affordable housing can be erected in the neighborhoods where their headquarters are going to be.” 

Rachel LaForest, Queens resident and labor organizer, protested the displacement Amazon would bring.
Photo by Julia Lee

Amazon supporter Michael Klett, a Long Island City resident, didn’t share these concerns. Instead, he thought Amazon’s arrival would only help the area.

Among the protesters was a supporter of Amazon’s arrival who held up a sign that read, ‘Welcome Amazon.’

“I think this is gonna bring a lot of economic opportunity,” Michael Klett, a Long Island City resident said. “I feel like New York’s never been one to back down from a challenge and this presents a challenge and it’s an opportunity.”

Klett said he believes Amazon benefits not only tech people, but  the thousands of people that work in the nearby restaurants nearby, local shops, and businesses.   

But the protesters worry that Amazon’s arrival will not give jobs to local residents and that the surrounding communities will be hurt rather than benefitted.

The post Queens protesters say “no” to Amazon appeared first on Pavement Pieces.