Late at night
on August 23, 2019, the New York City Department of Transportation provided
wear-and-tear repaving of a 20-foot-wide center portion of Willets Point
Boulevard, between approximately Northern Boulevard and 127th Street.
The
affected roadway – which fronts scores of businesses, many of which are
featured in our “Willets Point: Open For Business” video (2017) – had fallen
into severe dilapidation due to the City’s deliberate neglect over several decades.
This
wear-and-tear repaving comes 3 months after Willets Point United sent a formal petition to NYCDOT Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia signed by 50 business and property
owners, pleading again for repaving; more than 6 years after Queens Community
Board 7 declared that “road wear and tear rehabilitation must be implemented now
for the remaining [Willets Point] Phase 2 property owners,” as a condition of
CB7’s 2013 approval of special permits sought by Queens Development Group to
enable its scandalous proposed shopping mall on nearby public parkland; and
decades after Willets Point business and property owners began to complain
about the horrendous street conditions created and perpetuated here by successive
City administrations.
Credit for the
wear-and-tear repaving is due to former NYS Senator Tony Avella, who always demanded that the City provide road repair services at Willets Point, and hosted our “Willets Point: Open For Business” news conference in 2017; Irene Prestigiacomo, who walked door-to-door
to collect petition signatures over several days; Sam Sambucci, who has pressed
the need for street repair at CB7 committee meetings and annual budget
hearings; CB7 Chair Eugene Kelty, Vice Chair Chuck Apelian and District Manager
Marilyn McAndrews, who arranged and attended an on-site Willets Point visit with NYCDOT; and NYCDOT Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia and Queens Borough Planner
Andrew Arcese. We must also note the mysterious lack of help from City Council member Francisco Moya, NYS Senator Jessica Ramos,
and Queens Borough President Melinda Katz – each of whom has rejected our
requests to meet to discuss circumstances at Willets Point.
Although we are
thankful that NYCDOT has provided wear-and-tear repaving of Willets Point
Boulevard, we must note that it does not substitute for a long-lasting,
comprehensive overhaul of our streets and sidewalks, which NYCDOT claims will
be funded by $17 million in the City’s budget – work which we still expect
NYCDOT to implement as soon as possible.
Moreover, as of
this writing, NYCDOT has not repaved 127th Street between 34th Avenue and
Willets Point Boulevard, surely one of the most notorious dilapidated roads in
New York City.
And finally, any
repaving by NYCDOT does nothing to re-open Willets Point streets which the New
York City Economic Development Corporation has unnecessarily closed, and which
we have requested be reopened. In particular, 37th Avenue provides a unique,
direct connection between 126th Street and Willets Point Boulevard, and should
be open.
Case in point: EMS
recently required 15 minutes to respond to an emergency on Willets Point
Boulevard – and actually remarked that they would have arrived significantly sooner, except
for the many closed streets preventing access. (In 2008, the EMS response time to
Willets Point was 6 minutes and 16 seconds – roughly 9 minutes less than the recent
response that is complicated by multiple street closures.)
Any
neighborhood has a right to rapid and timely EMS response, which is prevented
now at Willets Point by NYCEDC’s needless closure of streets, particularly 37th
Avenue. We hope that NYCEDC will follow NYCDOT’s lead and provide what we are
requesting at Willets Point.
[End.]
