Friday, October 9, 2009

Queens Chamber wants Islanders at Willets Point

Aw... a Long Island team owner/developer isn't getting the cooperation from Nassau County like he expected (the chick interviewed at the end of this clip should run for Queens Borough President instead)...




Sure enough, the borough that brought you Donald Manes and Bernie Madoff decided to step up to the plate...

From Newsday:

The early plans for Willets Point area, Friedman said, include a 400,000-square foot convention center that could, if Wang wanted, be turned into a new arena to house the Islanders.

"So the footprint is already there," he said. "There's also many of the things Charles Wang wanted in his Lighthouse project - hotels, family entertainment centers, restaurants. So it would be a wonderful, wonderful area for Charles Wang to bid on and build his Lighthouse project here in Queens."

Friedman believes a potential new home for the Islanders would fit perfectly as a centerpiece in the city's plans for the Willets Point area. The project is still in the early stages; Friedman said ground-breaking probably won't take place for another four or five years.


4 or 5 years? Heh... you get the feeling that the city doesn't know what the hell it wants to do at Willets Point because no developers can afford to take on the project? Hello, recession! Let's continue to humor ourselves...

From NBC:

The first place to officially throw its hat into the ring is Queens. The executive vice president of the borough's Chamber of Commerce is pitching Willets Point, right next to Citi Field, as the perfect location for the Islanders.

The problem is that there's no place for them to play. Queens has big plans to develop the area. They already plan to use eminent domain and vaguely Stalinist-sounding business relocation programs to clear the land so that they can build a variety of residential, commercial and public spaces. The arena is just gilding the lily. If that sounds familiar, it's probably because of the years-long Atlantic Yards boondoggle in Brooklyn which, for all its bold plans, will either fail or wind up using government intervention to hand choice real estate to a Russian oligarch at below market value.

There are already community groups lining up against the Willets Point project, but we'll just focus on the arena part of the equation since the plan is in motion with or without the Islanders playing a role. The city does not need another arena to play host to a sports team on 40-odd dates a year. Between Madison Square Garden, the two baseball stadiums, the arena and stadium at the Meadowlands, the Prudential Arena in Newark and the proposed Brooklyn arena, there's already too much competition for the non-sporting events that can actually keep these arenas from doing more than sucking down municipal money and staying empty. And that's before taking into account the zillions of other places for concerts, special events and the like in the metropolitan area.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't we finish paying for the billionaire's (Wilpon family) folly "Citi field" first? We need to bring in this loser of a Hockey team to Queens by spending 800M? Is Govt out of their freakin minds? Enough is enough! Nassau will be happy to rid themselfs of their arena team by razing it and building another Mall!!

Anonymous said...

As a resident of flushing I want to throw my full support behind this new stadium! Every day when I'm coming home from work I always thing about how there isn't enough traffic and how its a shame we have all these extra roads that no one ever uses. And think of all the wonderful jobs this is going to create in my community! Stadium jobs are way better then owing your own business providing services for cars that no one should drive ever because out public transportation is so great! I'm never crammed in the 7 train like a packed sardine.

Adolf Bloomhitler said...

As a resident of flushing I want to throw my full support behind this new stadium! Every day when I'm coming home from work I always thing about how there isn't enough traffic and how its a shame we have all these extra roads that no one ever uses. And think of all the wonderful jobs this is going to create in my community! Stadium jobs are way better then owing your own business providing services for cars that no one should drive ever because out public transportation is so great! I'm never crammed in the 7 train like a packed sardine.

Zat's vat I'm talking about! Zee, das iz a goot zitizen! Now behave!

Anonymous said...

Are Wellington Chen's China boys running out of money and steam at WP?

Or wasn't Shulman and her associates cut from the project to their liking?

TDC...too damn corrupt!

Sergey Kadinsky said...

Does Flushing Meadows really need another sports arena? It is already home to the US Open and the Mets.

Why can't our leaders put their imagination to use and make the under-used Aqueduct the future home of the Islanders? (or Jets for that matter?

Why not have the Islanders share Atlantic Yards with the Nets? This arrangement works at Madison Square Garden.

georgetheatheist said...

If you can't be an athlete, you can always be an athletic supporter.

Anonymous said...

George,
You are quite jocular today.

Gary the Agnostic said...

Someone in Bruce Ratner's office probably has just gotten an idea as well.

In any even, people don't care about the Islanders now. Will moving them closer to where the Rangers play change anything?

Taxpayer said...

Castro also seized the private property of Cuban citizens who he forced to leave (or face death or imprisonment).

He too then delivered that private property to his wealthy cronies for them to make extremely vast fortunes.

Hotels, office buildings, beachfront property was stolen and handed off to Castro's cronies.

Naturally, when Castro or his supporters deny receiving any money at all to steal private property, we are obliged to believe him because he has no reason to lie. None at all.

Hitler and his jackbooted thugs did the same thing by stealing private businesses, land and private personal property of the victims he killed.

Lenin, Stalin, and all those October heroes also believed in the theft of private property to enrich themselves and supporters.

In Zimbabwe, today, Robert Mugabe beggared a nation that once - just a short time ago - was the breadbasket of Africa.

Call the action whatever you want: eminent domain, removing blight, urban renewal - taking private property for transfer to other private persons so that they can make more profitable use of the property is a crime.

So, at least, let's eliminate one of the kingpins in this growing crime: the Commissar himself.

His fate and the fate of property owners everywhere is in your hands.

Use those hands to pull the switch on this dwarf pants-wetting Commissar.

Dump him like a stinking diaper on Nov. 3.

Anonymous said...

Not 1 hockey fan wants the Islanders in Queens. We are Rangers supporters. end of story. The fighting in the stands will be even worse if the Islanders played in Queens.

The only thing that should be built at Willets Point is a MLS stadium for a NYC MLS team.

Queens Crapper said...

No, the only thing that should be built at Willets Point is the infrastructure that has been withheld from those people for decades. Then they, as legal property owners, can do what they wish with the land under the new zoning.

Mortimer said...

For those motivated...


DEP Willets Point Infrastructure Plan

Speeder said...

Actually some of us are Islander fans..but being an Islander fan aint easy..they are the worst franchise in sports. I sure don't want them to leave New York but Willets Point is not the answer, at least not now. Move to Brooklyn for a decade or so then a new arena in Queens somewhere and I would be happy

Anonymous said...

Queens Chamber? More like chamber POT because it sounds like that's what they're smokin' (not that there's anything wrong with that). Flushing Meadows started as a garbage dump and Bloomturd won't be happy until it returns to that state!!!