Queens Councilmember blasts height, questions parking at site of proposed jail
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Councilmember Karen Koslowitz. Photo by John McCarten via City Council/Flickr
By David Brand
Kew Gardens Councilmember Karen Koslowitz denounced the height of the jail tower that the city plans to build in her district and questioned the jail’s impact on local traffic at a City Council hearing Thursday.
The marathon meeting of the Land Use Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses was the Council’s only public hearing on the unprecedented, multi-borough land use application to close Rikers Island jails and build four new detention towers in every borough but Staten Island by 2026.
The plan currently calls for each of the four proposed jails to have capacity for 1,150 detainees. The Queens jail would be constructed on the site of the Queens Detention Center, behind the Queens Criminal Courthouse, and would top out at 270 feet — too tall for Koslowitz’s taste.
“The height of this building is absolutely, absolutely, absolutely unacceptable to me,” Koslowitz said. “It cannot be that tall.”
She questioned why the proposed jail would reach 27 stories — down from an initial plan of 29 — in a community accustomed to the eight-story Queens Detention Center, also known as the Queens House of Detention. The old jail was vacated in 2002 in a cost-cutting measure and is used to detain defendants awaiting court proceedings.
“We are absolutely committed to working with you to reduce the height,” said Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice Deputy Director Dana Kaplan.
The plan to close Rikers Island jails and build four new detention facilities depends on the city’s ability to reduce the current detainee population from a current daily average of roughly 7,500 people. In May, MOCJ said it had revised its estimated jail population to 4,000 — down from an initial goal of 5,000 — based on state and city criminal justice reforms.
The proposed size and 1,150-bed capacity of the jails have not yet changed, however. Koslowitiz criticized the stagnant plan and said the city would inevitably fill the large jail with detainees.
“I’ve been around the block a few times and I know for sure that when this administration is gone in two years and a couple months — and I’ll be gone also — that they’re going to decide, if there’s extra room, to start putting people in there from all over,” Koslowitz said.
Her statement echoed a common refrain among progressive jail opponents like former Queens DA candidate Tiffany Cabán
“When you build cages, you fill them,” Cabán said often on the campaign trail.
Koslowitz also questioned the parking and traffic mitigation plans for the site, which would be located along congested Queens Boulevard.
A spokesperson for Koslowitz previously told the Eagle that she would not support the plan unless a 696-space municipal parking lot was completed before jail construction so that staff would not park on the street. Court personnel and visitors frequently park along residential streets of Kew Gardens and nearby Briarwood.
“I have to know what the traffic will be in Queens. I know what it is right now … and I don’t want to add to it,” Koslowitz said.
“I hope you sit down and consult with me because I’m living in Queens, in that area, not far, for 57 years,” Koslowitz told commissioners from MOCJ, the Department of Correction and the Department of Design and Construction. “I see it every day. I can go down to my office building and see the traffic on the highways and Queens Boulevard.”
MOCJ Deputy Director Dana Kaplan acknowledged that “traffic is a key concern” for local residents and said that the city is planning to build “parking for staff on site and public parking that should alleviate” the issue and ensure drivers are “not circling around the neighborhood.”
The jail plan has faced significant opposition in Kew Gardens. Community Board 9 voted unanimously to oppose the plan in May and Borough President Melinda Katz rejected the proposal in her advisory role.
Nevertheless, Queens councilmembers and council staff say many members of the Queens delegation will support the plan if Koslowitz does.
“They want to support those members who are sticking their necks out,” a staffer for a Queens councilmember told the Eagle Wednesday. “It’s not an easy to thing to stand up for.”
The City Council traditionally votes in lockstep with the local councilmember on land use issues, though there is no precedent for a multi-borough land use application like the jail plan.
Councilmember Daniel Dromm said he is “definitely supporting [Koslowitz’s] principled, moral stance" to support the Kew Gardens jail, despite "NIMBY pushback in her district.”
"I really admire her” for standing up, even though the plan is unpopular among her constituents, he added.
Councilmember Rory Lancman, whose district begins less than 100 yards from the Kew Gardens jail site, recalled his longtime support for the city’s plan to build the borough-based jails at the hearing.
“I can say how happy I am today to finally be at this point,” Lancman said.
He teed up Kaplan, from MOCJ, to negate any perceived dangers to the community.
Does the jail “pose any public safety threat to people living in the community, my constituents?” Lancman asked.
“No,” Kaplan responded.
