Three individual lawsuits have been filed against the City’s plan to close the Rikers Island correctional complex and replace it with smaller jails in Queens, Bronx and Manhattan neighborhoods. In Chinatown, two groups have alleged that the city “routinely neglected community input, including Native Americans concerned about the possibility of large amounts of human remains in the area of the planned facility” as per the Daily News. They also claim the City violated its own land use procedure by switching the location of the new facility from 80 Centre St. to 124-125 White St. at the last minute and without community review. In the Bronx, as per The Real Deal, “The petition, filed by Diego Beekman Mutual Housing Association and Mott Haven resident Walter Nash, alleges the city conducted a 'rigged and rushed' environmental review to select a site for a jail the community did not want, in order to meet a deadline for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to close Rikers and build four new jails.” And here in Queens, Klein-Slowik, plaintiff's attorneys for the lawsuit against the owners of the Maspeth Holiday Inn Express, sued on behalf of the Community Preservation Coalition, a group of homeowners in Kew Gardens citing a flawed review process, something which was pointed out by Queens Community Board 9 last year when they voted it down. To top it all off, the City announced that the new jail construction will be funded by bonds, but there is no guarantee that they will sell.
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SERVING MIDDLE VILLAGE AND MASPETH SINCE 1938.