After a somewhat fiery debate at Community Board 4’s February meeting regarding the ongoing Willets Point saga, Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) appeared at Tuesday’s session to discuss the project, as requested last month.
A number of Willets Point advocates also appeared, speaking harshly about Ferreras during the public forum portion of the meeting and emotionally about the project that has impacted hundreds of business owners.
However, Ferreras had left the meeting almost an hour before her critics could speak out against the proposed shopping mall, the subject of a new lawsuit filed by state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), activists and Willets Point business owners.
“She is here to put over her own views on this, and to frankly create the false impression that people should love this project,” Robert LoScalzo, a documentary filmmaker covering the Willets Point plan, said after the meeting. “The elephant in the room was the open question of why this community board did not get any say in evaluating or approving the actual mall on the parkland. The councilwoman came here tonight and discussed everything but that.”
Ferreras did not speak about the upset owners, the mall or the lawsuit, angering Ben Haber, a Willets Point advocate who spoke during the public forum.
“Are you aware that in regard to the 1.4 million-square-foot shopping mall, that you had no say? It was never part of [the Uniformed Land Use Procedure] and was snuck in through the back door,” Haber told the board. “How many people think [the mall] is a good idea? You were deprived by your City Council member of any say in the matter.”
One board member out of the nearly 30 present raised his hands in response to Haber’s question.
Many Willets Point owners have been upset with what they see as Ferreras’ hands-off approach in regards to the litigious project, but in a phone interview on Wednesday, she defended her actions, saying she has always been supportive of those impacted by the massive undertaking.
3 comments:
Why are pols allowed to leave meetings before the public gets a chance to voice their concerns/criticisms?
This woman should be booed down every time she appears in public from now on until she is forced to abdicate!
If she has no respect for her constituents then she deserves none in return!
Boo her down - do not let her speak - embarrass her at every turn!
The electeds leave the meetings because there is nothing the public can possibly say that is of interest to them. This shows their contempt for the very people who they are supposed to serve. Ferreras in particular made her deal with Bloomberg resulting in a mall the community doesn't want or need, and now she refuses to hear that she made a very big mistake.
This lady is a joke and disgrace for a councilwoman. How dare she leave the meeting early, what better thing does she have to do than be at that meeting for her community.??!! I guess she has better things to do like hang out with hoodlums in bike gangs.
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