— Shea Stadium Doomsday Clock —


by Kingman on May 7 at 7:57PM

Willets_Openingday_2008We’ve been tracking the development plans for Willets Point for some time.

The Willets Point Industry and Realty Association has its own blog.

We just got an e-mail about a new site called DevelopWilletsPoint.com. According to their mission statement:

 This is your source for the latest information on the City of New York's proposal to develop the Willets Point neighborhood. For those of you who live in the city, remember to contact your council member and let them know you support the development!

Don’t know who the author is but the site is obviously pro–Willets Point development, with a little focus on Citi Field. Meanwhile, this blog is pro-Shea Stadium, with a little focus on Willets Point. In any event, it’s good to get both sides of the action. Check out DevelopWilletsPoint.com and let us know what you think.

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Willets_planHad a rough week so excuse the lack of updates. A few Iron Triangle updates:

One Wednesday, The Committee to Save Willets Point announced it was splitting from ACORN, a housing advocacy group that had been working with them to fight the city’s plans for Willets Point.

According to the NY Daily News, Arturo Olaya. the committee’s president said he and his members “became furious this month during a meeting with Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber. At that meeting, Olaya said, ACORN threatened to break off negotiations if the city did not promise to make 60% of the project's units affordable.

"They were always trying to put words in our mouths," Olaya said, adding that his members' main concern is to have their businesses relocated.”

Here is a press release I received from the Willets Point Industry & Realty Association that was published earlier this week:

 

WILLETS POINT INDUSTRY AND REALTY ASSOCIATION GAINS SUPPORT FROM NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS AND SENDS A MESSAGE TO THE BLOOMBERG ADMINISTRATION: "WE'RE GETTING STRONGER AND NOT BACKING DOWN"

 

(New York, NY) April 28, 2008 – A letter to Deputy Mayor Robert C. Lieber from New York City Council Member Hiram Monserrate along with 28 of his City Council colleagues appears full-page in today's New York Daily News.  The letter denounces the New York City Economic Development Corporation's certification of the Willets Point redevelopment plan, calling it "deeply flawed" and stating "that without significant modifications we will strongly oppose it, leaving no chance of it moving forward." The architect of the letter was Council Member Monserrate whose district includes Willets Point.

 

The letter is signed by 29 of the City Council's 51 members and states: "We adamantly oppose moving forward with the current redevelopment plan for Willets Point.  The plan is deeply flawed and the opportunity for public consideration has been dangerously absent. We disagree with your decision to pursue ULURP certification for this project. As elected officials, we urge you to reconsider this plan and to engage in a more accessible and transparent process."

 

In response to the Bloomberg Administration's behind-the-scenes attempt to pressure Council Members to back down from their opposition to the Willets Point plan, Councilman Monserrate wrote to his Council colleagues in a letter dated April 23, 2008: "As the plan currently stands, the concerns raised are too significant to ignore. This Council has rightfully championed the need to protect workers' rights, ensure fair wages, and affordable housing and the appropriate use of eminent domain.  Now more than ever, our institution needs to remain strong and resolute to provide a reasonable counterbalance to this flawed proposal."

 

The Council Members who oppose the Willets Point plan are concerned by the decision to pursue the ULURP certification—the re-zoning and condemnation—for this project without community support or the identification of the developer. "The fact that more than half of the Council Members are on our side should be a clear indication to the administration that their plan to strong-arm their way through the City Council and the ULURP process is not going to work," said Jerry Antonacci, WPIRA Spokesman. Mr. Antonacci noted that the list of opposition is growing.

 

None of the approximately 260 businesses or 150 land owners in Willets Point have been offered a viable option for relocation and point out the EDC's ongoing attempt to portray them as uncooperative so they can justify the use of eminent domain. Additionally, WPIRA members say that the EDC has been using scare tactics to coerce business owners into selling their properties at substantially lower values than they are worth, implying that the use of eminent domain is inevitable. WPIRA points out that if the City wanted to negotiate in good faith, they would take away the threat of using eminent domain.

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[May 5, 2008 6:28 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Bobster said

I was watching a re-run of "Sanford and Son" today, and it struck me that Fred Sanford would have felt right at home in the Iron Triangle!




CitiField1_longview_OpeningDay08An update on the Iron Triangle development efforts:

On Monday, the plan to rebuild Willets Point (across from the new Citi Field) entered the Uniform Land Use Review Process.

What does that mean? According to the Gotham Gazette at this stage the plan: “would go before community boards, the Queens borough president’s office, the City Planning Commission and eventually the City Council.”

However, this week Councilmember Hiram Monserrate and 28 other councilmen published a letter which essentially condemns the plan unless their longstanding complaints and questions about the project are addressed.

According to the Village Voice, Monserrate wrote the plan has “no chance of surviving the public review process…

The plan provides no guarantees that the displaced workers and small businesses will be treated fairly or compensated with meaningful benefits to the surrounding communities such as housing affordable to the average family.”

The the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, which represents all the businesses in the Iron Triangle, has also filed a lawsuit against the city.






I missed this e-mail yesterday. There was an organized protest by The Willets Point Industry and Realty Association today, April 9. Here are the details. it's an interesting story being lost in the Citi Field hoopla:

The Willets Point Industry and Realty Association (WPIRA), a group of the 10 largest business and land owners in Willets Point, Queens will hold a press conference and rally on the steps of New York City Hall on April 9, 2008 at 11 am, demanding that the City provide the area with basic vital infrastructure including streets, gutters, storm sewers, fire hydrants, snow removal, trash removal and sanitary sewers. WPIRA will be joined by members of the New York City Council.

 

WPIRA says the City of New York has for many years been waging a campaign of malicious and purposeful neglect to create and perpetuate an eyesore by depriving Willets Point of the services that it vitally needs for the eventual justification of the use of Eminent Domain. A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT WILL BE MADE BY WPIRA REGARDING THE CITY'S LACK OF SERVICES AND INTENDED USE OF EMINENT DOMAIN.

 

WPIRA has been running a series of ads in the New York Daily News and Queens Chronicle to bring attention to this issue. An Open Letter to Mayor Bloomberg appeared in the April 5th edition of the papers and an appeal by the workers of Willets Point appeared in the Daily News on April 6 and 7. Other ads will follow.

 

I will provide additional details below. All 10 business and land owners will be at the press conference tomorrow and available for interviews.

Best,

 

Patricia

 

The City of New York is proposing to rezone Willets Point, condemn it and evict the existing businesses through the use of eminent domain and replace them with 1.7 million feet of retail space, 500,000 square feet of office space, a hotel, 5,500 residential housing units and a convention center in the neighborhood that is currently zoned for heavy industry. To make this proposal a reality, the City must first acquire the 60 acres of privately owned land at Willets Point. WPIRA maintains that the City of New York has planned to rezone and redevelop for many years and has been waging a campaign of intentional neglect to create and perpetuate an eyesore for the eventual justification of the use of Eminent Domain.

 

The members of WPIRA believe that the area would be revitalized if the City spent a fraction of the capital required for redevelopment and invested in infrastructure for the area. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) conducted a study of the area in 1991 that suggested exactly that. "If the City provided the infrastructure and services that we are entitled to and in fact, are paying for, the area would be revitalized," said Dan Feinstein, President of Feinstein Iron Works, Inc., a member of WPIRA.  The estimated cost of redeveloping the area is upwards of three billion dollars. That estimate is expected to skyrocket given the credit crisis and increasing construction costs. "Our schools and emergency first responders are facing more budget cuts and the Mayor wants to hand a blank check of New York City's hard earned taxpayers dollars to a private developer?" said Feinstein. That is outrageous, unacceptable and we're not going to stand for it."

WPIRA members point out that the project's price tag is just one of the many obstacles the EDC faces as the City moves forward to prepare to certify the ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure) to rezone Willets Point. The City issued an RFP in November 2004 but has not released results of their environmental impact analysis of the area in question nor has it presented a detailed plan for the redevelopment of the area and/or identified a developer.  These usually precede the ULURP process so that the City Council can maintain control over the final outcome.  WPIRA charges EDC wants a free hand to negotiate with a developer, unencumbered by the City Council.

 

Additionally, the Unions want a hand in the eventual development and a guarantee of Union jobs for all the temporary and permanent jobs to be created by the project.  Housing Advocates want a commitment on the amount and affordability of housing for the low to middle income families.

 

"Despite the numerous and obvious obstacles, it appears that the EDC believes it doesn't have to follow any rules and it can muscle its way through the City Council and the ULURP; and the Union and Housing advocates can be appeased by promises that future administrations will have to fulfill," said Thomas Mina, Vice President of T. Mina Supply Inc. "We have received feedback from City Council members and seen the false statements in the news by the EDC that prove our fear that the EDC is attempting to portray us as uncooperative and "money hungry" so they can justify the use of eminent domain at the end of the ULURP process," said Mina.

 

"The EDC is not being truthful with the City Council, the businesses at Willets Point or the public. If the City wanted to deal openly and fairly, they would have released the results of property appraisals that were completed last year by Cushman and Wakefield," said Anthony Fodera, President of Fodera Foods Inc. Not one of the 10 business and land owners of WPIRA have been provided with viable options for relocation of their businesses, despite numerous public statements to the contrary by the EDC and Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall.

 

The WPIRA points out the EDC's abysmal track record of completing re-development projects and abusive threats of Eminent Domain. "The EDC has yet to prove that it can coordinate between the community and developers to bring a project to successful completion," said Anthony Fodera. "Just look at Municipal Lot 1 project in Flushing, Queens. That project has been stalled for years due to the developer's inability to fulfill the community benefits package it once promised. Why should we think the EDC can do any better in Willets Point?"

 

 

The Willets Point Industry and Realty Association (WPIRA)

The Willets Point Industry and Realty Association (WPIRA) is dedicated to the development, improvement and growth of the Willets Point area by the businesses that reside there, and not by development schemes in which eminent domain is used to forcibly evict and raze those businesses. A. Fodera & Son, Inc., Bono Sawdust Supply Co., Inc., Crown Container Co., Inc., Feinstein Iron Works, Inc., House of Spices (India), Inc., Parts Authority, Inc., QC Iron Works Inc., Sambucci Bros. Inc, T. Mina Supply, Inc., Tully Environmental, Inc., Tully Construction Co., Inc. www.WPIRA.com







FitzgeraldLike everyone who went to high school in the 20th century, I read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” many times.


It became one of my favorite books, only after I learned that the “Valley of Ashes” was the future site of Shea Stadium and the Iron Triangle.

I’ve been meaning to write a Loge13 post about The Great Gatsby and Shea, then the Bobster sent these photos. Gotta love the Bobster.

I found a very interesting photo from 1930 on the New York Public Library's site.  You can plainly see what used to occupy the site of Shea Stadium - nothing, actually. 

Flushing bay

The point where Willets Pt. Blvd. meets Roosevelt Ave. is where Shea's parking lot begins in the Google Earth image, obviously taken before Citi Field construction began. 

Shea today

Just on the other side of Roosevelt Ave. is what Scott Fitzgerald called the "valley of ashes" in his book "The Great Gatsby."  It was a trash dump with a mound of ashes so high it was nicknamed Mount Corona.  About five years after this picture was taken, the dump was cleared and the 1939-40 World's Fair was built. 

Willets_old

Willets_now

Thanks Bobster!

 

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[February 10, 2008 8:38 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Kieran said

Thanks alot for that! I'm going to start reading that tomorrow and this will make it alot better.




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