Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The last resident of Willets Point

When Ardizzone was a child, Willets Point was still mostly farmland, and his family kept chickens and goats on their property. The World's Fair in 1939-40 gradually started to change all of that, and by the 1960s and '70s, the chops shops and warehouses had taken over.

The rest of the families that made up the neighborhood eventually moved out, but Ardizzone stayed, living in the rooms that he grew up in, above a coffee shop.

"Where would I go?" he asks. "My sister is always trying to get me to move out, but I like it here. It's quiet in the evenings, and there is always somebody to talk to."


Mayor of Willets Point: The last man standing

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the Commissar is still studying at Zimbabwe University under the kindly professor Mugabe?

Both eminent domain and the Commissar are about to be defeated, big time at Willets Point.

Anonymous said...

chickens and goats?? before 1939 WP was a landfilled ash dump and trash dump,

History tells of a 100 foot high pile of ash dubed Mount Corona.. this guy is so full of it.

Anonymous said...

#2, that was in the current site of Flushing Meadows Park, not in Willet's Point.

I think your full of some tangy flavored John Liu Semen.