Protest, Bloggers Keep Heat on Willets Point Plan

NY Metro reports a City Hall protest of the Willets Point redevelopment plan yesterday at which attendees "banged pots and pans." Brad Lander of the Pratt Center for Community Development told Metro the plan "seems to be killing 1,500 non-Wall Street jobs for an outdated vanity project that’s not going to happen."

No Land Grab comments: "From one land grab to another: 'An outdated vanity project' never makes sense... especially when it's 'not going to happen.'"

Queens Crap is displeased to learn that State Senator Serphin Maltese signed a letter supporting the project. (Other signatories include Queens Beep Helen Marshall, representatives of Con Edison, the LeFrak City Merchants Association, the Regional Alliance for Small Contractors, and several unions.)

"To summarize," says QC, "Serf, a 'property-rights Republican'... signed a letter in favor of eminent domain abuse at Willets Point as payback for the campaign cash Bloomberg dumped into the state Republican party's coffers."

QC directs our attention to similar sentiments at the Juniper Park Civic Association website, and notes that the challenger for Maltese's seat, Joseph Addabbo, signed a letter opposing the redevelopment plan.

Comments are contentious. "Framing it as an Eminent Domain issue is disingenuous," says one, "as most landowners are negotiating fairly and receiving fair prices." "Idiot," responds another, "the very mention of eminent domain by the city makes the property unsellable so that the ONLY buyer they could possibly sell to is the city." Some refer to a pro-redevelopment poster as "the dude that EDC [the New York City Economic Development Corporation ] sent here."