OTDA WANTS TO STAY! — PEF Division 192 Counsel Leader Marion Fox leads hundreds of protestors at a rally at Gertz Plaza in Jamaica, Queens to stop the relocation of 200 workers from the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance to Manhattan in mid-November. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall (center) and PEF Region 11 Coordinator Jemma Marie-Hanson (far right) also rallied.
Photo by Richard Dillard
Community would suffer with relocation of state workers
PEF rallies to save longtime Jamaica neighbor
By DENYCE DUNCAN LACY
Hundreds of PEF members were joined by elected officials, church and business leaders, advocates and other supporters at a rally in Jamaica, Queens in mid-November, to stop any plans to move employees of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) in Jamaica, Queens to lower Manhattan.
Members also protested the plans to relocate employees of the state Department of Health and the Office of Children and Family Services from the same Queens neighborhood to Manhattan.
State workers at Gertz Plaza were notified earlier this year the state was planning to transfer them from the Jamaica Center site to assist in the revitalization efforts for lower Manhattan. In total, approximately 300 state workers would be relocated out of the Queens community.
“This is not the first time that businesses have been relocated to Manhattan at the expense of Queens,” said Jemma Marie-Hanson, PEF Region 11 Coordinator. “Lower Manhattan can revive its economy without taking fists full of dollars from Jamaica. By taking these jobs, the state is taking services and businesses out of this community. There must be another and better way to ensure that both communities continue to see progress.”
OTDA recharged Jamaica
OTDA opened its doors in the Queens community in 1985 as part of the state’s decentralization efforts to bring government services and employment to economically distressed areas.
Since then, the workers of the state agency have contributed to the financial growth of the revitalized Jamaica neighborhood and provided services to Queens and Long Island residents. OTDA has been a good neighbor by living, shopping and contributing to the overall success of the area’s redevelopment.
“The transfer of these services would only benefit lower Manhattan slightly compared to the damaging economic effect for Queens,” said Marion Fox, PEF Division 192 Council Leader and a disability analyst 2 who works for OTDA. “Neighborhood residents have used these services for almost two decades.”
Impairing the neighborhood
During this year’s State of the State address, Gov. George Pataki pledged to, “…develop a new job hub at Jamaica station,” which included stimulating job growth in Jamaica, as well as linking Jamaica with JFK Airport via AirTran. But workers, business leaders, ministers and vendors all say that a move this severe will hinder ongoing efforts to rebuild the Jamaica neighborhood.
“The impact on neighborhood businesses would also be significant,” Marie-Hanson said. “Without the morning and lunch-hour rushes, they too, will feel the effect of the move — and that’s not fair to small business owners who have weathered every storm the state has asked them to in order to revitalize this community.”
Officials back workers
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall noted, “Many of these longtime employees live in Queens. Relocating to downtown Manhattan will cause undue and unnecessary hardships for them. I support the revitalization of downtown Manhattan, but not at the expense of jobs that have helped to revitalize the community of Jamaica.”
“I am in strong support of PEF’s justifiable efforts to keep state jobs in Queens — specifically Jamaica,” said New York City Council Majority Whip Leroy Comrie. “It is totally unfair to have one part of the city compete against another. Jamaica OTDA came through for Manhattan residents after 9/11 and it serves the bulk of Queens and the Long Island applicants. It must be retained in Jamaica where it has worked effectively.”
“Relocating these jobs is the perfect example of the governor stealing from Peter to feed Paul,” said New York City Council Member James F. Gennaro. “Everyone here is working towards greater economic development in downtown Jamaica. Taking 200-plus jobs away from Jamaica would work directly against this goal.”
Doing more with less
As additional OTDA offices have been shut down or relocated, Fox said, the Queens office has seen a reduction of workers through attrition and a lack of replacements. Last year, more than 27,000 applications for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability were filed at this location, with more than 150 people each month from Queens and Long Island passing through the office doors seeking assistance.
The departure of the state workers and OTDA would also create an undue burden on some New Yorkers, particularly the disabled who rely on the proximity and convenience of OTDA in their neighborhood.
The
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