Queensbridge Houses tenants fear walking tour will bring stream of gawkers

COURTESY BISHOP MITCHELL TAYLOR Bishop Mitchell Taylor wants Saturday’s walking tour through Queensbridge Houses, the largest NYCHA development in the city, to spark a positive change in the community.

An out-of-the-ordinary walking tour that will lead up to 100 tourists to the city’s largest public housing complex has riled residents who fear a stream of rubberneckers.

The free two-hour tour of the 26-building Queensbridge Houses this Saturday includes visits to the sites of several fatal shootings, the buildings themselves and the homes of famed former residents like the rapper Nas.

Organizers are also seeking police clearance to view the complex from the roof of one of the six-story buildings.

“We live like anybody else,” said Margaret Barnes, 71, a resident of the NYCHA housing complex for two decades. “There’s trouble in the world all over. We’re a normal community with just a few problems like anyone else.”

Jane’s Walk NYC, a citywide initiative under the Municipal Art Society that typically hosts less invasive tours across public spaces like Brooklyn Bridge Park, organized the weekend excursion alongside tour guide Mitchell Taylor.

Municipal Art Society spokeswoman Mary Rowe insisted the tour would not interfere with residents’ daily lives — and could even lead to discussions between them and tourists.

“Lots of passersby will wonder what’s going on and they’ll join along,” she said. “People engage. They’re curious.”

Bryan Pace/for New York Daily News The 26-building Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City will be the site of a walking tour this Saturday, which is expected to draw up to 100 people.

Taylor, a bishop at the Center of Hope International church in Long Island City, said he hopes the tour will help people see the crime-ridden development in a new light.

“Most people will not walk into Queensbridge because they don’t feel safe,” said the former Queensbridge resident who now lives in a two-family home nearby. “But if they’re led, it’s a horse of another color. Change has to happen and it has to begin from within. It’s not about changing a community from the outside in but the inside out.”

But despite Taylor’s familiar presence at Queensbridge, some residents feared the tour would breach their privacy by bringing unfamiliar faces to their halls and backyards.

“It’s weird,” said Emily Nunez, 20, who moved in last year. “If I saw a lot of people walking around, I would think something’s going on, something’s not right.”

“It’s an invasion,” added another 35-year tenant, who didn’t want to be named. “One hundred of us can’t go into their neighborhoods and do that. They’d call the cops.”

mchan@nydailynews.com

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