To New York City Council, the Department of City Planning, and Developers involved in the OneLIC Neighborhood Plan:
Our Call
As the City Council prepares for its final vote on the proposed OneLIC Neighborhood Plan, we, the artists, cultural workers, and residents of Long Island City, call on city agencies and developers to formally include and protect arts and culture in the plan.
LIC has a Naturally Occurring Cultural District (NOCD); a cultural area that develops organically from the community itself. We must be acknowledged as such. Arts and culture are not just amenities — they are the heart of Long Island City’s identity, its economic engine, and its connection to the most diverse borough in the world.
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Background
For over 18 months, the local arts and culture community has participated diligently throughout the ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure) process — attending hearings, submitting testimony, and engaging in visioning sessions both virtually and in person.
Despite this extensive participation, the current OneLIC Plan contains no protections, incentives, or policy commitments for arts and culture. This omission disregards the essential role that creative communities have played in shaping LIC’s history, economy, and sense of place.
Long Island City’s artistic and industrial roots are what made it a model of innovation and vibrancy. Artists and makers transformed industrial spaces into hubs of creativity and community — only to face displacement when rezoning and luxury development followed. This pattern has repeated across New York City, eroding cultural ecosystems that took decades to build.
We cannot allow it to happen again.
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Why It Matters
- Arts and culture is an economic engine (it comprises 13% of the City’s economic output but receives only 0.2% of the budget), drives tourism (30% increase in tourism spending tied to arts and culture over the past decade), and anchors local economic vitality by driving street traffic to restaurants and small businesses (every $1 invested in NYC’s cultural institutions yields ~$8 in economic activity) [Reference: Cultural Institutions Group NYC].
- NYC experienced a 26.5% increase in arts and culture jobs over the past decade (compared to 2.6% statewide) and a 16% increase in the resident artist population, and more than 293,000 New Yorkers are employed in creative and cultural industries, earning $30.4 billion in annual wages; yet 36% of creative workers are self-employed, with many employed part-time or intermittently, and the state’s arts grant budget has declined by 35.6% over the past 15 years [References: Center for an Urban Future, and NYC Comptroller].
- As a NOCD, over 100 artist studios and organizations currently operate within the OneLIC zoning area, serving LIC year-round through education, wellness, and cultural programs. Dozens more border and contribute to the overall character of the zoning area, making our entire local sector vulnerable to negative impact [see the live interactive map here].
- Arts and cultural organizations have partnerships with 82% of NYC public schools, and data show that culture improves mental health, provides youth with enriching engagement, and brings people together to create lively safe neighborhoods [Reference: New Yorkers for Culture & Arts].
- Arts and culture are essential to community identity, tourism, education, and neighborhood cohesion. They transform public spaces, inspire innovation, and build bridges between neighborhoods and cultures.
- Without structural support in the rezoning, the arts in LIC are at risk of disappearing, threatening thousands of livelihoods, the vibrancy of our community, and strength of our economy.
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Our Demand
We call on the City of New York and the OneLIC developers to adopt the following measures, consistent with Queens Community Board 2’s recommendations and subsequent approval by the Borough President and City Planning Commission:
1. Provide incentives for the creation and maintenance of free and permanently affordable arts and culture spaces.
2. Contribute to an LIC Arts Fund to support local public programming and public art projects.
3. Strengthen partnerships among developers, city agencies, and the arts community to ensure long-term, sustainable investment in culture, including arts and culture representation in the recommended Community Oversight Committee.
Recommendations like these, designed to invest in and preserve the artistic and cultural heritage of NYC neighborhoods, have precedent. For example, the Gowanus Neighborhood Plan included the creation of affordable artist studios and a fund through a Community Benefits Agreement, a $450 million investment by NYC in neighborhood improvements, and support for artists and other programs [References: Gowanus Arts and Gowanus Oversight Taskforce]. The rezoning in Inwood that led to the People’s Theatre: Centro Cultural Inmigrante, originated in alignment with the City’s CreateNYC cultural plan to provide stable funding to anchor cultural organizations in underserved communities to strengthen the non-profit cultural sector through more equitable funding. [Reference: Page 32, Inwood Points of Agreement] These are success stories that must be adapted in Long Island City.
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Our Vision
Long Island City has historically been a place of creation — from industrial innovation to artistic exploration. LIC has a naturally occurring cultural district (NOCD). The city now has the opportunity to honor this legacy and ensure an equitable, creative future by integrating Arts and Culture into the very foundation of the OneLIC Plan.
A One LIC -- a plan for a unified neighborhood-- simply cannot leave out Arts and Culture.
It starts with the arts!