April 10, 2008
Willets Point Locals Sue City Over Neglect
Last year Mayor Bloomberg announced a $3 billion plan to seize 61 acres of the Willets Point district next to the forthcoming Citi Field in Queens through eminent domain, raze it, and construct 5,500 units of housing, a hotel, convention center and over 2 million square feet of office space, restaurants and retail shops. But business owners in the target zone have been fighting it, saying their ‘hood, dubbed the Iron Triangle for its chop shops and scrap yards, just needs repair, not total eradication. Sound familiar?
On the heels of a letter-writing campaign and a protest at Shea Stadium’s opening day, the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association [WPIRA] has filed a lawsuit demanding the city fix the broken sidewalks, sewers, roads and other resume basic services like snow removal. Owners accuse the city of letting the area fall into disrepair in order to depress property values, call it ‘urban blight,’ and seize land through eminent domain.
At a City Hall rally yesterday, Anthony Fodera, president of Fodera Foods Inc., told the Times that he’s “been there for 35 years; I have yet to see them fill a pothole.” Also at the rally was local Councilman Hiram Monserrate, who pointed to photos like the one here and said, “Some of the photos you see behind me — you see floods, you wonder if this is New York City in 2008 or Baghdad after a few mortar rounds.” Opponents also say the proposal lacks sufficient affordable housing.
A spokesman for the city said that accusations of negligence were not “accurate,” and maintained that the city was unable to build a sewage system because the current businesses were in the way. The WPIRA contends that over 3,000 highly skilled workers in ironworking, construction, solid waste management, sewer parts, auto repair and service, and other manufacturing – including the largest distributor of Indian foods – will be out of work if the city goes through with the plan.
Renderings of the city's plans for the area courtesy of Beyer Blinder Belle, LLP and The New York City Economic Development Corporation; more details here. Photo: *Your Guide
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The city should leave them alone. They provide much needed edginess to the city.
Where else can you get that third world feeling? I thought the city was trying to retain manufacturing jobs?
Whenever the city wants to do something they wave the "affordable" housing flag. That's bullshit. Who would want to live in the flight path of an airport?
I've gotten a few car windows fixed there over the years. It's like a little bit of the third world right here in NYC.
At least in the first rendering it shows a plane taking off from LaGuardia. No one will want to live in the flight path that close to LaGuardia.
the notion that the city can seize your property so that it can give it to a for profit business is unamerican. The fact that it happens so often around here makes me wonder what country I'm actually living in. What happened to America and my right to life, liberty and property.
Not to mention that the place is essentially a toxic shithole. Are they going to drain the malodorous Flushing River and fill it with artesian water?
Is the mayor going for another swing and a miss?
"Not to mention that the place is essentially a toxic shithole"
My guess is the land is polluted from years for dumping engine oil into the soil. The amount of money to create a clean up will be extremely expensive.
I believe the the vision of our lords and masters for this city does not include manufacturing. It is to be a city where rich people live and play; the only other people who need to be around will be the servants, and they can probably be trucked in from New Jersey. Willetts Point affords yet another opportunity to create a Gold Coast, or rather one might say a Gold-paint Coast, for those who aren't rich enough to live in the big time, like Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and so on. There are huge amounts of money to be made constructing cheesy glitz.
Bloomberg has got to quit these land grabs.
I was reading about this the other day and did some research on eminent domain and found that in cases where towns and cities have tried to claim peoples property for developers to build condos and such have been unsuccessful because the Law is only there to obtain land for things such as public roads and parks not private residence. this will take many yrs. and the city will eventually just get over it or Bloomburg will leave office and it will die.
Bloomberg would seize his own mother's house by eminent domain if it meant one of his developer friends would make a few bucks.
The man is a disgrace. Absolute disgrace of a human being. Greedy, out of touch, underhanded rich asshole.
There have indeed been cases where private land -- even private residential properties -- were seized by government to turn it over to developers. It has happened and it's spawned a whole protest movement that I support wholeheartedly.
In fact, the first site that comes back in a Google search for "eminent domain abuse" already has this story on their "In the News" section:
http://www.castlecoalition.org/
I think we need to stop building shiny nice things on top of superfund sites.
Just repave the friggen place and leave it be.
I'm not saying the government hasn't tried I'm saying they haven't been very successful unless the area's buildings have been abandoned. This web site is about how to stop the city from abusing eminent domain and has a bunch of success stories i haven't been able to find one yet that has gone threw all of the appeals and has actually happened. just alot of them trying to
Unless it's being seized to be raised, decontaminated, and made into an eco buffer zone (which is what SHOULD have happened in the developmental "luxury" mess going on just across the water from WP), the city should leave those poor guys alone. Or, preferably, give them the infrastructure improvements they need.
Development and improving the lives of the wealthy always takes a back seat to the environment and improving the lives of the poor. In Queens and elsewhere. Surprise, surprise.
Er, I meant "takes a front seat."
This sort of thing cheese me off so badly I get mentally ruffled. . .
$%#&!
*Cheeses*!
I'll shut up now.
http://current.com/items/87589751_willets_point_behind_the_curbline
why is there no infratstructure in this part of the city? No sewers? wtf?
Uhh, how about this one Yellowfoot. Straight from the Supreme Court itself:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300783_pf.html
Protesters actually tried to get Justice Souter's vacation home seized by eminent domain after that decision.
http://www.calpropertyrights.com/pdf/1-21-06_AP_GroupSeeksSouterEviction.PDF
rtd2101, What developer friends are you talking about? You mean the ones that he lashed out at for contributing to everyone's campaign before the deadline? And, he calls his mother everyday.
Need to stop hatin'.
The place is a complete dump. I find it hard to believe that any of these guys are running an honest business that pays their fair share of taxes. On top of that, the workers operate in horrid conditions - to paint they just close the garage doors most of the way and go to town. They use paper masks, which doesn't do anything to protect against the paint fumes and there is no other ventilation than a slightly open door.
Many of these guys are not citizens and I've seen them just sleeping in customers cars at night.
If we could start with the facts here, it'd be nice. However Bloomberg seems to continually get on people's bad sides because he has trouble with that.
Makes as much sense as bulldozing a 2 block swath of Broad Street for new luxe condos because some specialists are suspected of insider trading.
The above sounds like issues for the EPA, INS, and NIOSH. But of course, eminent domain is another way to solve those problems too.
At least the people sleeping in cars are not being supported or paid for by tax payers dollars like the affordable housing shits that would occupy the condemned property.
They are working rather than moaning.
The mayor gets his way, clears the site, and then the mortgage crisis kills those housing developments. Then Wal-Mart moves in and residents repair their cars in its parking lot. The cycle of life continues...