As Queens natives, we take great pride in the fact that for over 75 years, JFK International Airport has been located in our borough, acting as the country’s gateway to the outside world. We have, however, felt more like the doormat than the gateway for far too many of those years.
JFK’s neighbors have suffered through decades of airplane noise over our houses and increasing traffic on our streets without receiving a fair share of the advantages brought about by an international gateway, like jobs and community investment.
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It is with great pleasure that we can now announce that the $19 billion JFK reconstruction project will eventually benefit individuals who have endured the hardships of airport hosting. We co-chair the JFK Redevelopment Neighborhood Advisory Council, which has made the community around the airport an active participant in the project rather than just a spectator.
Since the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey established the Community Advisory Council in October 2018, we have collaborated closely with the Port Authority and the private terminal developers to guarantee that our formerly marginalized communities are given equal access to economic opportunities.
The Community Advisory Council, which is made up of local elected officials, community board members, clergy, and leaders in the business and civic sectors, identified opportunities to maximize the historic investment being made at the airport for the benefit of local businesses and residents in the neighborhoods closest to JFK while minimizing the negative effects of construction on our communities.
They are no longer merely objectives. We can announce concrete accomplishments as we collaborate with our airport partners:
- Over 400 MWBE companies have received over $2 billion in contracts from JFK to far, with approximately $800 million going to Queens-based companies. We anticipate that these figures will rise as the airport will be under construction until 2028.
- The Aviation and Aeronautics Academy was established by the Port Authority and the terminal developers in partnership with York College. Over four years, more than 2,500 children in grades 1 through 12 will participate in STEM programs. Last autumn, the first 300 students came.
- Over 1,000 individuals were placed in construction positions at the airport and over 1,100 people in operations roles—nearly 600 of whom were Queens residents—as a consequence of our efforts to connect job seekers in the neighborhood with opportunities.
- Individuals with criminal justice records were able to find employment through a second-chance employment program. Hiring more than 60 workers in 2023 is essential to lowering the recidivism rate.
- We prepared the first group of local company owners to compete for opening eateries and retail stores in the new terminals by graduating them from the Institute of Concessions a few months ago.
- With the help of the Port Authority’s construction support facility, which will reduce the number of truck trips on local roadways by over 300,000, we were able to mitigate the negative effects of construction on our neighborhoods.
We have insisted that our neighborhoods must be included in a project worth close to $20 billion as co-chairs of the JFK Redevelopment Community Advisory Council. The goal here is to make sure that the communities that have traditionally been excluded from discussions are present at the table.
We have discussed a community-led vision at every stage of this project, and we are witnessing the fruits of those discussions materialize in the form of a brand-new, top-notch airport that will benefit our towns and the surrounding area. We urge everyone who is a part of our community growth to continue to be more involved, including our neighbors. We anticipate that the Community Advisory Council will become a national model for community involvement in economic growth initiatives that prioritize local and regional development.
