Tonight - Wednesday, August 20th at 5pm sharp - Councilman Hiram Monserrate will lead a press conference and protest against eminent domain at 36th Avenue and 126th Street. A pre-game truck rally will follow. Please come out to support the businesses and landowners of Willets Point.
10 comments:
I find it suspicious that Mayor Mike, and not members of the machine and the community board, who are the real culprits, are depicted in the cartoons.
I got a feeling that this has boiled down to a dispute not between the community and machine, but different factions of the same machine:
Affordable housing (whatever the hell that is) for Hispanics and luxory housing (whatever the hell that is) for Asians.
So once again, important issues like eminent domain and overdevelopment gradually get lost.
Like voting in November, there will be two options, neither which addresses the real issues.
I'm staying on the sidelines, exactly where the machine put me.
The "Willets Point" (*) controversy is predictably focusing on politics and economics. Little attention is being paid to the geographic setting which is sensitive and fascinating. The new stadium hovers to the west. To the north is the refurbished Flushing bayfront
(uncomfortably isolated by roads) with Flushing Creek on the east (and Flushing's burgeoning Chinatown just beyond that). To the south are Flushing Meadow Park and transit facilities.
Any major development must mesh with its surroundings and these are very special surroundings. This project is about much more than redevelopment and eminent domain.
* Those that labeled the project "Willets Point" are compounding geographic ignorance. A point of land juts into the water; it's not in a bay mouth! Willets Point is the original name of Fort Totten. The present "Willets Point"
is a corrupted abbreviation of Willets Point Blvd, a road that once ran from the bottom of Flushing Bay to Fort Totten until interrupted by expressways.
The Municipal Art Society (mas.org)
is sponsoring a walking tour of "Willets Point" on 11/9/08.
Jack Eichenbaum
Yes, this is about much more than redevelopment and eminent domain. It's about whether our of our preservationist 'experts' can charge for a tour there in the future.
Which breed will you tout this time?
Nothing like the preservation leadership from Queens staying focused and on top of the important arguements.
Empty suits propped up by the bayonettes of boro hall...
Hi Terri!
way to go miles.. stick your head in the sand and maybe everyone will go away..nice devotion to the cause
jack hope MAS has big liability insurance policy..
walking people through that place is bound to result in a spread of malaria, diphtheria and typhiod not to mention tetnis and potential exposure to toxic sludge.
jack. with MAS be handing out bio hazard suits for their walk thru of willets point?
walking people through that place is bound to result in a spread of malaria, diphtheria and typhiod not to mention tetnis and potential exposure to toxic sludge.
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But don't you see - like the Opium dens of Chinatown a century ago, its EXOTIC!
Even the jaded MAS types need to go to the zoo and see all those hybrids and cross mixed breeds out there. Besides, even they are curious where 'staff' lives.
Better then bird watching in Central Park.
Watch out for the hyphens!
i wonder if councilman hiram has a permit for this public disturbance
"walking people through that place is bound to result in a spread of malaria, diphtheria and typhiod not to mention tetnis and potential exposure to toxic sludge."
Wonderful class actions against a government that soft soaped inspections.
I KNOW THIS FIRST HAND. Inspections are 'sent low' by non'targets' but 'hit high' on others. WP was always a joke. Inspections are a formality and from what I know of the early stages of condemning, THAT place should be. Everyone nows it. The diffrent thing about it is that slubs talk about the whole thing as done.
They did everything in their power to accumulate 'BLIGHT'
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