Let's Take Back St. George
A coalition of Staten Island residents, organizations, and artists are advocating for an Empire Outlets that provides for all.
Think back to your childhood. Where did you spend most of your time outside of school and family? Personally, I remember countless Kids on Stage rehearsals at Cromwell Center and Walker Park, our hard work culminating in grand productions at Snug Harbor’s Chapel and annual Borough Hall holiday performances. This free, city-funded program changed my life and saved me from isolated, boring summers. Kids growing up on Staten Island today don’t have these options. The organizations and programming are there, but we always come back to one issue: lack of space.
Since the September 2012 announcement of the NY Wheel, our borough is changing. Numerous high rises and luxury housing centers have sprung up overnight. Under our last administration, former Mayor Eric Adams aided Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks’ North Shore Action Plan. The plan sought development along two-miles of Staten Island’s waterfront in Stapleton, Tompkinsville, and St. George, all gilded with promises of fruitful economic investments that would finally level the playing field for Staten Island. With each new development, they proved to us that they do not understand who they are building for.
On June 16, 2025, New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and City Council held a public engagement forum at the empty Empire Outlets space. This meeting was advertised on June 4, 2025 via Councilwoman Hanks’ Facebook. With such short notice on a limited platform, civic groups scrambled to notify community members. I remember speaking to the Take Back St. George (TBSG) co-founder, Jenno Snyder, saying, “Are we really going to allow them to waste the space again? I can’t hear another 30 years of, ‘they should have put a grocery store there” (a common complaint of my neighbors).
We held a follow-up forum to the June 16th meeting on July 10 at Every Thing Goes Book Cafe. We were shocked at the response – over 60 people of all ages, backgrounds, and zip codes filled the bookstore, stooping on stairs and stools. In all of my years of organizing, it was the most beautiful display of community that I’ve seen. People finally felt heard and empowered. We discussed gaps in space access and our next steps: keep the conversation going to reach more people and create a survey to identify the top needs of the neighborhood. And with that, Take Back St. George was born.
Our second forum was held on Thursday, July 24 at Everything Goes Book Cafe, a crucial community hub on Staten Island’s north shore for over 20 years. People again voiced concerns about empty promises and uninformed development. We all agreed that we need community space – for art, for music, for children.
TBSG, along with over 100 artists, musicians, nonprofit leaders, and residents, attended NYCEDC’s second and final public engagement meeting which was held on September 25, 2025. The meeting consisted of more blank maps paired with post-it notes to place important community structures, like a waterfront park. They also had vision boards of other NYCEDC projects, such as SPARC Kipps Bay, where attendees were asked to vote for their choices through circle stickers. By October 2025, TBSG had demonstrated the community’s preference for our process, we had collected over 1,100 survey responses and were having regular conversations with the NYCEDC.
Our Progress
- Top 5 responses of our survey includes: (1) Music venue/performance space (2) Grocery store (3) Community operated farm & market (4) Local bars and restaurants (5) Teen/Youth Recreation Center for afterschool and weekend programming.
- Secured partnerships with Marker Park Radio, MarkerSpace NYC, St. George ThinkTank, and Forgotten Foods.
- October 2025: Made a formal request to NYCEDC for community-appointed Advisory Board
- November 2025: Made a formal request to NYCEDC to foster community space in the currently 70% vacant Empire Outlets, such as a rooftop garden.
What’s Next?
- Publish survey results
- Prepare in-depth collaborative proposal for the art/community space
- Continued collaboration with City Council and NYCEDC to make our proposal a reality
St. George and the wider North Shore community’s best chance to achieve our space needs are during the NYC Department of City Planning’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP), which has a public comment period. We will also have a chance to get public comments during the Environmental Impact Review (EIR), which is a process by which city agencies assess, disclose, and make plans to mitigate environmental impacts of development projects.
The city has funded projects of this caliber before. In December 2025, NYCEDC announced plans for MADE Bush Terminal, their newest public-private partnership (PPP) with Public Service, the creative studio of Public Records. It sparked many comments and criticisms from Island artists and musicians who have been advocating for a venue and art/music space for years. Many local institutions have proven they have the expertise and community reach to sustain a space like this.
The community has done its part; we’ve made our needs known and followed the City’s public input process. If they intend to deliver on promises of proactive development, appealing to residents instead of tourists, and moving away from past mistakes, then they must honor that through amplifying established organizations and finally give them a seat at the table. It’s time for NYCEDC and the City Council to invest in a plan that genuinely reflects the community’s priorities—not just on paper, but in action.
