The race to determine the future of Willets Point has officially begun, with Mayor Bloomberg and the Economic Development Corporation firing the starting gun.To Willets Point business owners, it felt more like standing in line before the firing squad.
Bloomberg visited the Queens Museum of Art Tuesday to announce the official “Master Plan” for the redevelopment before members of the press and a few local community groups. As well, several business owners from Willets Point showed up, all very interested in what Mayor Bloomberg had to say about the future of their business community.
“A little less than a mile from here is Willets Point, the bleakest part of Northern Queens, but also the area with the most promise,” Bloomberg said. “Willets Point was once used as an ash dump…but out of these ashes can rise New York City’s next great neighborhood.”
As he spoke, business owners, including Yaron Rosenthal of the Parts Authority, Anthony Fodera of Fodera Foods, and Daniel Sambucci of Sambucci Bros. Salvage Yard, listened attentively. They were there, Rosenthal said, to let the Mayor say his peace, because before now, they had not heard any compelling or revealing details of a plan the city claims has been in motion for more than a decade.“Imagine someone bringing a broker into your dining room, taking measurements of your home, all while you’re sitting there,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal and his fellow business owners were more than willing to hear the plan, but thought their treatment by the city had been anything but fair in recent years.
“There are no sewers,” Rosenthal said. “We’re the only area in New York City with no sewers. They say it’s blighted, but they caused the blight.”
Other business owners agreed, and were troubled by the actions of the city to announce this plan without bringing them in on the ground floor.
“They haven’t even talked to us about it, this is the first we’ve heard of it,” said Jerry Antonacci, of Crown Containers in Willets Point. “Nobody came to our office. We feel like we’ve been sentenced to death.”
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