Thursday, October 13, 2011

Civics 101 and Willets Point

In the Civic Corner from the Times Ledger News paper we get the following observations from Bob Harris about Willets Point from the Kissena Park Civic Association newsletter:

"Vice President Dr. Carsten Glaeser of the Kissena Park Civic wrote a page about a public hearing related to the city Economic Development Corp.’s plan to build a new city on the 65 acres of the Iron Triangle in Willets Point...Glaeser wrote of the current concerns of Bayside and Flushing residents of the “known quality-of-life issues that already exist in this town from noise and air pollution, overcrowding in the streets and schools, garbage, filth and stench generated in commercial downtown Flushing and the mother of all quality-of-life issues, vehicle and truck traffic and pollution ....”

These concerns of course cannot be seen apart from what the city has planned for nearby Willets Point-as the good doctor pointed out: "He wrote of the concerns about the independence and accuracy of the studies which support the proposed construction, which were made by residents who testified at the latest hearing. It seems our business-oriented City Hall, wants a rebuilt Willets Point."

Concerns about the accuracy of government evidence is well founded at any time, but especially in the case of Willets Point where we have uncovered gross negligence and fraud at the highest levels of EDC. Mr. Harris for his part sees the development as unneeded and unwanted-and decries the use of eminent domain: "When this project was first proposed years ago, this column was against the proposal of the government to use eminent domain to take private property in the Iron Triangle for use by private business corporations to “improve the area.”

What this tells us is that there is a great disconnect between the civic groups of Queens and their representatives-folks who are all too willing to sell out their own communities in the name of "development." Harris' Civic Corner, them serves as a civic virtue in reminding us of how suspicious the people of Queens are about Bloomberg's Willets Point White Elephant.