Planning Commission Approves Willets Point Plan; Full Council Vote Up Next

The Bloomberg administration's plan to transform the industrial Willets Point section of Queens was approved by the City Council's planning committee. But, the Sun points out, "the council vote will be its biggest hurdle." The $3 billion to make way for a hotel, convention center, offices, and stores, is supposed to generate 5,300 jobs and billions in economic activity, but about 200 small business owners, who would be forced out, have been bitterly opposing the project, unhappy the city calls the area "neglected," when it's the city that neglected Willets Point. Those critics believe the plan will be quashed by the Council.

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By Jen Chung on September 25, 2008 10:13 AM

Comments [rss]

bsalamon

i live within a mile, if you walk through the park, there are other parts of main street as well - and forest hills, rego park, etc...

Basically its a way to gentrify the area. And quite frankly, without Willets Point, I would have a lot of problems with my car that would never get fixed, because they would be too expensive.

Maybe the city can help the current business owners improve the look of the area first, instead of pouring money into a plan that will, in the end, fail the citizens of the area

longacre

#4: Main Street is up a hill almost a mile away, and Chinese and Korean food isn't exactly baseball fare.

Spirit of 76

$3 billion for 5300 jobs? That's more than a half million per job. Why not just hand out that money? And something tells me those rosy employment projections probably won't be met anyway.

jibbly

Flushing Main Street is a short hop away. Better and cheaper than any crappy bar scene around ball parks.

spiritross

It would be nice if there were bars and restaurants adjacent to Shea instead of chop shops

bsalamon

why do they need to spend 3 billion dollars, when all they really need to do is pave the streets?

The are is no where near blighted. The city just wants to make money off of Citi Field. What they are doing is an abuse of power.