Too Valuable?

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

While developers and New York City officials talk “about” the proposed redevelopment of the Willets Point Industrial Park (also known as the Iron Triangle) in northern Queens, no one is talking “to” the more than 150 small-business owners who, for generations, have generated millions of dollars in tax revenue and employed thousands of blue-collar workers, many of whom have been newly arrived immigrants.


This 13-block peninsula is an area that has afforded opportunities to individuals to start up businesses and live the American dream.


Fear of having their family-owned businesses relocated because their property has been deemed “too valuable” by Mayor Bloomberg has gotten more than 150 area businesses in an uproar. Well, if the property is so valuable, why has the city of New York virtually ignored it for decades?


Where else in New York can you find a neighborhood so neglected by the city; without a sanitary sewer system in place and an inadequate storm system; where the streets have been neglected for the past 50 years; where there are inadequate sidewalks; where snow removal is nonexistent and parking virtually impossible?


Now the city is using its own neglect of Willets Point as an excuse to redevelop the area. Where else can the fate of an area be discussed among politicians and not among resident businesses?


In what appears to be a systematic eradication of a business district, the city has systematically withheld services from the Willets Point area for decades, which has led to the area’s infrastructural demise.


Yet, in this virtual battlefield, these mostly auto-related businesses have managed to pay taxes, employ thousands of people, pay off mortgages, and send their children to school. So what will happen to these businesses if the city exercises the new Supreme Court decision to seize land for economic development under eminent domain? In that case, Willets Point may be only the first New York City land area to be seized by the government. What will be next? Will the small businesses surrounding Yankee Stadium suffer from the same fate?


In what seems to be a token gesture, area businesses were offered the official New York City Economic Development Corporation’s Request for Expressions of Interest for development of Willets Point. But, in fact, no one except for maybe the largest developers could even think about participating in the area’s redevelopment plan.


The small businesses of the Willets Point area fulfill a need for local Queens residents by providing a place to recycle thousands of vehicles, providing thousands of jobs, and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in business.


We have been fighting for decades to maintain the inviolability of our area, our businesses, our employees, and our customers. All we ask is that the city provide us with the needed infrastructure so we may be able to continue to grow and thrive, allowing the Willets Point Industrial Park to come into the 21st century.


We ask that this black cloud known as uncertainty hanging over our heads, and continually being ignored and depressed, be removed. We do not intend to give up our businesses and livelihood without a fight. If necessary, we’ll take our fight to the streets and all the way to City Hall.



Mr. Musick is the former president of and a spokesman for the Willets Point Business Association.


The New York Sun

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