Upcoming Events
Sign Our Petition and Survey
If you haven’t already, please sign our QPS petition demanding that city agencies and the Adam’s administration allow WQCLT to transform the DOE building into a lively, affordable space that benefits the community. Please sign on today and share widely!
And share your thoughts about the DCP-led “LIC Neighborhood Plan” in our independent planning survey.
Past Events
Sep 14, 2024: Queensboro People’s Space Block Sleepout and Potluck
More than 100 of our neighbors joined us for a sidewalk teach-in and potluck to break bread and learn about our community’s vision for the Department of Education (DoE) building – a massive public site that the City almost gave away to Amazon. Many of us stayed for a sleepout in a powerful action to stake our claim and demand that the City keep public land out of the hands of private developers – and support the WQCLT’s Queensboro People’s Space plan.
Our action was inspired by the two-week sleepout and hunger strike by community activist Suga Ray Marston last year to draw attention to the Queensboro People’s Space plan.
Heartfelt thanks to our beautiful community and all who made this action possible. And special thanks to Rude Mechanical Orchestra for the uplifting live music! And Mum’s Kitchen for providing gourmet brownies!
Read more about the Queensboro People’s Space, and sign our petition to win this site today!
June 1, 2024: Queensboro People’s Space Block Party
On June 1st, we hosted a rocking block party outside the city-owned Department of Education building on the former Amazon HQ site in LIC, Queens. This vibrant event demonstrated the deep need for affordable space in western Queens, and made it clear that we want a Community Land Trust to steward this massive publicly-owned building, not more luxury development. We are fighting to make the Queensboro People’s Space (QPS) a reality! On a beautiful sunny afternoon, hundreds of community members browsed and purchased goods from food vendors, artists, and local entrepreneurs, as well as community organizations sharing their important work. We had incredible music, dance, deejaying, and even a fashion show! There were too many performers, vendors and artists to list individually, but check them all out here. We are a diverse, powerful community!
Special shoutout to Suga Ray Marston and DJ Kodak for emceeing the performances and speakers: we could not have done this without you. And WQCLT was able to raise over $1,000 thanks to a raffle, made possible by our generous community donors: Long Island City Ballet, Queens Jiu Jitsu, Ora La Casa De Las Flores floral arranger, Yoga Agora studio , and the Queens Botanical Gardens: thank you to our local small businesses and public garden!
We’re also grateful to have political support from many of our local elected officials who were either present or sent representation at the block party: Julie Won, Zohran Mamdani, Kristen Gonzalez, and Nydia Velazquez.
This event was made possible, in part, with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant program, a program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature and administered by Flushing Town Hall.
March 23, 2024: Community-Led Town Hall in Long Island City
WQCLT organized a people’s town hall to discuss the impacts of the proposed OneLIC rezoning on the Long Island City waterfront. Participants learned about how past real-estate development and rezonings transformed the neighborhood, causing racialized displacement due to rising rents. Concerns were raised about the upcoming city-led development plan OneLIC, which many feared will only create more luxury towers with almost no affordability. Participants discussed what the community truly needs, providing feedback via an open mic, giving interviews, and writing their ideas on a community “bulletin board.”
May 27, 2023: Woodside Queens Festival
WQCLT co-sponsored Woodside on the Move’s Woodside Street Festival on May 27. Festival goers checked out the QPS building model, learned about CLTs, and got their own WQCLT T-shirts for a small donation. Our very own Memo Salazar and Suga Ray Marston spoke at the event. There were also performances by CLT board member Daniela Cardona (Rude Mechanical Orchestra) and CLT member Ernie Brooks (Tape Hiss).
March 7, 2023: Queens Community Land Act Town Hall
On March 7, we co-hosted the Queens CLA Town Hall with NYCCLI, the New Economy Project and Chhaya in Jackson Heights. We had a full house with a stellar line-up of Queens CLT superstars including our very own Memo Salazar and Jenny Dubnau, Jessica Balgobin (of Chhaya & Queens CLT), Lorenzo Brea & Shemika Jones (of Ravenswood CLT), and Alexis Smallwood Foote (of the Real Edgemere CLT). Many electeds also came out in support of the CLA including Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas (NYS Assemblymember, District 34), Shekar Krishnan (NYC Council Member, District 25), Isaac Blasenstein (from NYC CM Julie Won’s office, District 26), and Jumaane Williams (NYC Public Advocate). NYCCLI made an easy to use action page for people to send emails to their Council Members. So, please send one to your rep and feel free to share this link with your friends and networks: Take action!
If you missed the event, you can watch it all here: video
Feb 28th to March 14th, 2023: Suga Ray’s hunger strike and sleep out
From February 28th to March 14th, Suga Ray Marston staged a hunger strike and sleep out in front of the DoE building that we want to turn into the Queensboro People’s Space. Many WQCLT members visited Suga Ray over the two weeks, as did our City Council Member Julie Won, to express their support of the WQCLT plan to convert the 600,000+ square foot building into a community space for small businesses. On the last Sunday, he was joined by many musicians and friends to call on Mayor Adams to meet with the WQCLT.
You can read more about it here: Hellgate, Gothamist, Patch
Our co-chair Memo Salazar cut a short video about it that you can watch here:
May 14, 2022: Queensboro People’s Space Public Launch
On Saturday, May 14th at the DoE Building in LIC, we were joined by an incredible group of local Queens activists, non-profit organizations, small business leaders and city-wide CLT members who spoke in support of the Queensboro People’s Space.
We are immensely grateful to all who came and made the event such a success. Shout-out to New York City Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI) and land trust organizers from across the city who demonstrated there is a growing land justice movement. And much gratitude to our local NYC Council Members Julie Won, Shekar Krishnan and Tiffany Cabán who also spoke in support of our QPS project. We collaborated with the Street Vendor Project to give away dozens of free meals, heard fabulous freestyle from hip hop artist Eddie Krueger, and rallied the community around our collective vision for the Queensboro People’s Space.
Read more about the event in Patch.
Sept 18, 2021: Public Land in People’s Hands Community Festival
Thank you so much to the Justice For All Coalition, Ravenswood CLT, Connected Chef, Street Vendor Project, and Woodside on the Move as well as all of the amazing volunteers, musicians and artists who brought their energy, support and ideas to this celebration!
We gave away over 200 meals, had tons of insightful conversations and heard your vision for a collectively-owned and managed Department of Education building.
Jan 21, 2020: WQCLT First Public Meeting at Jacob Riis Center
It was great to have such an enthusiastic group of community members committed to a vision and structure of Western Queens that truly benefits us all!
We discussed the CLT’s vision for a community-led manufacturing, artists, and community space hub in the publicly-owned Department of Education building on the LIC waterfront. The meeting also featured an in depth presentation by professor James Defilippis’ grad students, who studied the DOE building for a semester.
We also shared other potential CLT sites in Western Queens, including residential units. Between the speakers, the questions, and the crowd, it couldn’t have been a more dynamic beginning to this endeavor.
