Flushing Commons, a five-acre development which would replace a parking lot in downtown Flushing, is opposed by many Korean small businesses nearby but supported by Chinese merchants farther away:
A builder from Manhattan and another from Flushing, whom the city chose in 2005, have pledged to spend $850 million on 600 new housing units, 420,000 square feet of commercial space, a Y and a park on the five-acre lot.The conflict over Flushing Commons highlights an interesting, long-standing dynamic between the two communities -- "a respectful but distant coexistence." A City Council subcommittee is scheduled to vote on the project at a public hearing today, and the full Council is expected to do so by the end of the month.
As with any other large project, opponents quickly rose up to criticize the scope of the plan. But the project, named Flushing Commons, has also revealed deeper tensions in the overwhelmingly Asian neighborhood, divisions that cut largely across lines of neighbors’ country of origin.
On one side are Chinese immigrants whose businesses lie largely out of sight of the planned construction zone and who have lined up behind the local developer, a compatriot named Michael Lee, of TDC Development and Construction. On the other side are Korean immigrants whose stores are clustered around the lot, bordered by Union Street, 138th Street and 37th and 39th Avenues.
