Queens Residents To Protest Kew Gardens Jail Plan

KEW GARDENS, QUEENS — Two Kew Gardens residents are spearheading a Saturday protest of the city's plan to build a new jail there.

Locals will rally outside Queens Borough Hall Saturday afternoon in an effort to stop the city's review process for a new jail at 126-02 82nd Ave. in Kew Gardens, next to the Queens County Criminal Court.

The rally is an attempt to give locals a voice in the city's notoriously opaque process, according to Kew Gardens resident Eric Horn, who organized the protest with his wife, Nancy.

"Unless the community can speak for itself, they're just going to drive it down our throats," Horn told Patch. "This is a chance for the community to actually have our voice heard."

Mayor Bill de Blasio first met with Kew Gardens and Briarwood residents about the jail in a private meeting in March, when he promised attendees he would compensate the community for the jail's incursion, according to a recording obtained by Patch.

The Mayor's Office has come under fire for failing to engage the communities surrounding four proposed jails that would replace the detention facilities on Rikers Island. The lack of community input prompted Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. to ask the city to restart the process of developing the jail plans.

"We are deeply disturbed by the lack of meaningful local engagement on the borough-based jails project to date," Katz and Diaz Jr. wrote in a letter dated March 8.

A spokesman from the mayor's office told Patch that community meetings about a project typically happen during the city's land use review process, known as ULURP. That review kicked off on March 25.

But Horn said he wants the city to entirely cancel its plans for the Kew Gardens jail, arguing that a high-rise detention facility is detrimental to its surroundings and its inmates.

He also criticized the city's lack of substantive answers to community concerns, like a jail evacuation plan, and said the shortage of details in the proposal means costs could quickly skyrocket.

"They don't seem to have a really well-developed plan at all," Horn said.

The Kew Gardens jail protest is April 13 at 1 p.m. in front of Queens Borough Hall, at 120-55 Queens Boulevard.