Christine Quinn Betrays Community on Chelsea Market Expansion

Council Zoning Committee Approves Chelsea Market Expansion Over Community Opposition

Excerpts from NY1 :

The City Council Zoning subcommittee approved Thursday a plan to expand Chelsea Market, which would add 290,000-square-feet of office space to the former Nabisco factory located next to the High Line in Manhattan.

"This is an outright betrayal by Chris Quinn of her community, someone that I used to work with," said Michael McKee, a Chelsea resident. "Where is that Chris Quinn ? Who is she now ?"

Some have privately questioned whether the Speaker would have approved the expansion if she had to run for re-election in Chelsea next year. Instead, term limits are forcing her out of the council seat, and she is laying the groundwork for a likely run for mayor.

The full City Council is expected to approve the expansion at its meeting on Tuesday.

Christine Quinn No Show At Chelsea Market Hearing

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was absent from a City Council Hearing about the zone-busting real estate development expansion project for Chelsea Market by its owner, Jamestown Properties. Speaker Quinn's decision to blow off the hearing angered some of her core supporters.

“It’s her council district. She was elected from a district, even though she’s now got citywide ambitions, and she should be here to hear testimony about a project that’s going to destroy her community,” Michael McKee told The Wall Street Journal. Mr. McKee once worked with Speaker Quinn back in 1989, when she was an organizer with the Housing Justice Campaign.

“She was a great community organizer. She was one of the best I’ve ever met,” Mr. McKee added, “but I don’t know where that Chris Quinn is.”

Also from The Wall Street Journal :

Quinn spokesman Justin Goodman said the speaker doesn’t always appear at hearings, even for projects in her own district. The spokesman noted that she also missed a hearing last year on the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital.