tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26917953811573328322024-03-05T00:47:59.405-05:00Willets Point UnitedWillets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comBlogger681125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-77102707719406400032020-08-17T02:21:00.001-04:002020-08-17T02:27:06.835-04:00Into Oblivion<p><span style="font-size: medium;">We will always remember Claire Shulman's outright refusal to help Willets Point taxpayers to obtain basic municipal services that are available to every other City neighborhood. And, we'll remember her brazen illegal lobbying scheme, persuading the City Council to destroy our industrial business community and take all of our private property. We are proud of exposing her scheme, and of successfully demanding an Attorney General investigation that ultimately "validates years of complaints from Willets Point business owners [that] the Flushing Willets Point Corona LDC and specifically, its president, Claire Shulman, curried favor for a plan to take properties through eminent domain."<br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1266" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/w400-h356/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" width="400" /> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;">As President and CEO of the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation, an entity that she established, Shulman aggressively lobbied the City Council during 2007-2008 to approve controversial legislation intended to remove all of the existing private property owners and 250 industrial businesses from Willets Point, for redevelopment</span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;">Shulman conducted the lobbying for more than one year without filing any of the required public disclosures, until finally investigated by the City Clerk’s Lobbying Bureau – which levied against Shulman’s LDC a penalty of $59,090.00, the then-record, highest New York City lobbyist penalty ever paid.</span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;">Acting on a complaint by Willets Point property and business owners – that Shulman’s lobbying also contravened New York state Not-for-Profit Corporation Law § 1411, which prohibits all local development corporations from attempting to influence any legislation – the New York State Office of the Attorney General, under then-AGs Andrew Cuomo and his successor, Eric Schneiderman, investigated Shulman’s lobbying campaign over a three-year period. AG Schneiderman found that Shulman’s LDC indeed “flouted the law by lobbying elected officials, both directly and through third parties, to win approval of … favored projects”.</span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;">We find this sentiment apropos:</span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><i>"I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, there is something profoundly un-American about using the brute force of government to bully someone."</i> <span style="font-size: small;">– Rand Paul</span></span></a></span><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUBDNkCnjj4DWmFlZ9qmzxBqsBHFdTvHudx__Ts_ynR4YPrmzyP_eafS-ITDuXlMeDez0pu72aYJv_VqKvvMhyqceER_X35wtY0Ad4A1X9uY6Z_N32mwp_EFkmYYCE55DknVBfSMypTlj/s1266/Shulman_NYDN_120703.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><p></p>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-49716787218982064212020-08-06T11:36:00.000-04:002020-08-06T11:36:23.069-04:00J-Rod, It Won’t Be a Cakewalk
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So the Wilpons
want out of their New York Mets baseball team ownership.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It’s been
<a href="https://nypost.com/2020/05/29/alex-rodriguez-jennifer-lopez-taking-second-shot-at-buying-mets/" target="_blank">reported</a> that potential Mets purchasers include former Yankees player Alex
Rodriguez and entertainer Jennifer Lopez, who are also “researching how to
develop the ballpark and the area around it,” which includes Willets Point.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now also
getting into the act is Las Vegas Sands Corp., which is <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/07/31/casino-mogul-sheldon-adelson-vows-to-pay-staff-through-end-of-october/" target="_blank">contacting potential Mets purchasers</a> to discuss “a new casino [Sands] wants to build near Citi
Field,” according to its President and COO, Rob Goldstein.</span></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc__N0rXRZaxsLOGN3nxr10_R4BSAUka2HLszPKj45OXh8XXoL5ItSLreycDfIeHzu-Zbtt1kX2mSG-_yGWe2MWDtEjguWlsEyjxBkuLB8WCIcJdwGJ-i96c2abl_MMybFp_8zacmR_rGs/s281/front020513.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="251" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc__N0rXRZaxsLOGN3nxr10_R4BSAUka2HLszPKj45OXh8XXoL5ItSLreycDfIeHzu-Zbtt1kX2mSG-_yGWe2MWDtEjguWlsEyjxBkuLB8WCIcJdwGJ-i96c2abl_MMybFp_8zacmR_rGs/w201-h225/front020513.jpg" width="201" /></a></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Wilpons already
<a href="https://nypost.com/2013/02/05/mets-eye-casino-at-citi-to-help-offset-losses-suffered-in-bernie-madoff-scandal/" target="_blank">tried to site a casino</a> just west of Citi Field stadium, proposing it to the
Bloomberg administration in 2011 in tandem with developing a third of Willets
Point land, located east of Citi Field across 126th Street. <a href="http://www.queensledger.com/view/full_story/21635761/article-New-coalition-says-any-plans-for-a-Willets-Point-Casino-are-not-welcomed?instance=lead_story_left_column" target="_blank">Faced with opposition</a>,
in 2012 the Wilpons changed from proposing a casino outright, to instead proposing
a vague “entertainment and retail center”. Whatever they called it, it would
have been built on public parkland west of Citi Field – which is illegal,
because the state legislature has not approved alienating that land for
commercial use. Such were the 2015 and 2017 rulings of New York courts, which
enjoined the project.<br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Las Vegas Sands
Corp. acknowledges that they “cannot really do anything more until the
Government approves gaming” on the site. But given the tremendous financial
windfall that is at stake, we presume that interested developers will
aggressively lobby state elected officials for the necessary approvals, or are
doing so already.</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Meanwhile, even
though the Wilpons’ 2012 plans for one third of Willets Point land have fallen
through, and even though they have not presented any new plan for that area that
has been approved by the City in the three long years since the final Court of
Appeals ruling enjoined their previous project, Mayor Bill de Blasio inexplicably
continues to deem the Wilpons (with their partner, Related Companies) to be the
exclusive Willets Point developers.</span></span>
</div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">If the Mayor
honestly wanted to jumpstart Willets Point development, he could have cut loose
the Wilpons and Related Companies (doing business together as “Queens
Development Group”) during the past three years, then solicited competitive,
viable proposals from the worldwide development community. By not doing so, the
Wilpons now are able to leverage their designation as a Willets Point
developer, in negotiations with potential Mets buyers.</span></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Are the Wilpons
selling not just the Mets team, but some portion of their share in Queens
Development Group? How is it in the City’s interest, to allow the Wilpons and
Related Companies to determine whether a Mets buyer can get involved in Willets
Point development, instead of that buyer creating its own plan and proposing it
directly to the City? Do prospective buyers even understand the development
circumstances around Citi Field and Willets Point?</span></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Willets Point
redevelopment was initiated in 2007 by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg – an
elitist land grab of private property, enforced by the threat of eminent domain, to
be given to the “one percent” for them to exploit. The redevelopment would also
eradicate hundreds of small businesses, many owned and operated by Latinos and
other persons of color. Ironically, two Latinos are now apparently eager to
propel that project.</span></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We’re well aware
of the “star power” of Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez. They probably expect
nothing less than a very warm welcome in Queens, as new owners of the Mets and
co-investors in some glitzy Willets Point development. <u>But their celebrity will
not shield them from responsibility for destroying the livelihoods of Latinos
and other persons of color who depend on Willets Point for income, if their
Willets Point development intrudes on existing businesses and private
properties.</u></span></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In case they
haven’t noticed, the world climate has evolved in the 13 years since Bloomberg
began the elitist land grab here. Economic genocide by an elite class will no
longer be tolerated. Using eminent domain to take people’s private property in
order to give it to the elite “one percent” for them to exploit, is quickly
recognized as the outrage that it is. The people of Willets Point will continue
to defend <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WilletsPointOpenForBusiness" target="_blank">our businesses as well as our private property</a>, bolstered by the
world’s higher awareness and scrutiny of injustice.</span></span>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-32639895105294408172019-08-26T10:09:00.000-04:002019-08-26T10:15:02.836-04:00At Last, Wear-and-Tear Repaving<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkg4f2IY_NEwja8P4n7kElnIxQ3Lhyphenhyphen2mfjhqli2zFk9BAeETpcvn8Esi9lD-kxnPqVAqlbcYnMY5b-BSg6cRKflC_jjQBfwCioos2d6omtUnYKdaqGLIj-R1ODTJNio0eIpbcT0VHH5QJd/s1600/IMG_9029_REV800pix.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkg4f2IY_NEwja8P4n7kElnIxQ3Lhyphenhyphen2mfjhqli2zFk9BAeETpcvn8Esi9lD-kxnPqVAqlbcYnMY5b-BSg6cRKflC_jjQBfwCioos2d6omtUnYKdaqGLIj-R1ODTJNio0eIpbcT0VHH5QJd/s200/IMG_9029_REV800pix.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
affected roadway – which fronts scores of businesses, many of which are
featured in our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFNlWQqsups" target="_blank">“Willets Point: Open For Business” video</a> (2017) – had fallen
into severe dilapidation due to the City’s deliberate neglect over several decades.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This
wear-and-tear repaving comes <i>3 months after</i> <a href="https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/willets-businesses-repave-the-roads/article_37c123f5-dac9-5709-a9a6-462bb4b517d9.html" target="_blank">Willets Point United sent a formal petition to NYCDOT Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia</a> signed by 50 business and property
owners, pleading again for repaving; more than <i>6 years after</i> Queens Community
Board 7 declared that “road wear and tear rehabilitation must be implemented <u>now</u>
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
<i>decades after</i> Willets Point business and property owners began to complain
about the horrendous street conditions created and perpetuated here by successive
City administrations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Credit for the
wear-and-tear repaving is due to </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">former NYS Senator Tony Avella, who always demanded that the City provide road repair services at Willets Point, and hosted our </span><a href="http://www.queensledger.com/view/full_story/27460169/article-Willets-Point-shops---We-re-open-for-business-?" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" target="_blank">“Willets Point: Open For Business” news conference</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> in 2017; </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">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 <a href="https://qns.com/story/2019/07/09/willets-point-business-owners-blast-city-reps-on-walking-tour-over-years-of-neglect-at-industrial-area/" target="_blank">on-site Willets Point visit with NYCDOT</a>; and NYCDOT Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia and Queens Borough Planner
Andrew Arcese</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">. 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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Moreover, as of
this writing, NYCDOT has <u>not</u> repaved 127th Street between 34th Avenue and
Willets Point Boulevard, surely one of the most notorious dilapidated roads in
New York City.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">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.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-63680857215216816672019-07-06T14:06:00.001-04:002019-07-06T14:06:23.011-04:00DOT's Nicole Garcia Doesn't Respond to Petition for Street Repair<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On May 23, 2019, Willets Point United <a href="https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/willets-businesses-repave-the-roads/article_37c123f5-dac9-5709-a9a6-462bb4b517d9.html" target="_blank">sent its Petition</a> – requesting that the Department of Transportation provide urgently-needed street repair and maintenance services in Willets Point – to DOT Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia. The Petition, signed by fifty Willets Point businesses and property owners impacted by the severely deteriorated roadways, was accompanied by a cover letter from Willets Point United founding member Irene Prestigiacomo, who also requested a meeting with Commissioner Garcia.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfNmAo3JGwoZu9VjHWnQCK4NfPOvsc4FrvUOxSidZuIQjA84yehsYBaQvUm_EYYd1GurgxpUyOsGsTcRMBJMVvMRLOmKhZLb1TmpThWyikdlbxhh0TDAVzceizOXD4ewLMXHH26nLpoJQj/s1600/190523_WPU_PetitionCoverLetter_Redact.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1237" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfNmAo3JGwoZu9VjHWnQCK4NfPOvsc4FrvUOxSidZuIQjA84yehsYBaQvUm_EYYd1GurgxpUyOsGsTcRMBJMVvMRLOmKhZLb1TmpThWyikdlbxhh0TDAVzceizOXD4ewLMXHH26nLpoJQj/s400/190523_WPU_PetitionCoverLetter_Redact.jpg" width="308" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Postal Service return receipt shows that the Petition and cover letter were delivered to DOT on May 24, 2019.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqyCvBATLRqu04bmAdLH2Yc9IoFV3w2_CBbbvEwln80liJlXYelBw-0IWYzklmqz6W8-6h66awxGlXrIBozfSGUxTxF3_pJAHDdC8RncE74Q4g6fVFgy25GI10nOKT-Vc6TKsweZcGZOsO/s1600/190524_USPS_ReturnReceipt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="694" data-original-width="1091" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqyCvBATLRqu04bmAdLH2Yc9IoFV3w2_CBbbvEwln80liJlXYelBw-0IWYzklmqz6W8-6h66awxGlXrIBozfSGUxTxF3_pJAHDdC8RncE74Q4g6fVFgy25GI10nOKT-Vc6TKsweZcGZOsO/s320/190524_USPS_ReturnReceipt.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, in the six weeks since receiving the Petition and cover letter, DOT Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia has not responded to it.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFkZqTpiVbli9b1cfDPMAZEAPnX7aM1TYdpKtV0yR4kY9dOu1NCUGoHf5Xezqaf5unCwZCLoKPVC4jS1qjnjj4Q80dLKlH-TvqgndNdVwbdFmqdeIfFtg8nCE-GfyPZFOSU5EI-e5G3PH/s1600/NicoleGarcia_Crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="296" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFkZqTpiVbli9b1cfDPMAZEAPnX7aM1TYdpKtV0yR4kY9dOu1NCUGoHf5Xezqaf5unCwZCLoKPVC4jS1qjnjj4Q80dLKlH-TvqgndNdVwbdFmqdeIfFtg8nCE-GfyPZFOSU5EI-e5G3PH/s200/NicoleGarcia_Crop.jpg" width="150" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">DOT Queens Commissioner<br />Nicole Garcia hasn't responded to<br />Willets Point street repair petition.<br />Queens Chronicle photo<br />by Michael Gannon.</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, during that timeframe, DOT was able to replace all of its street signage along nearby 126th Street, to accommodate the New York Mets street renaming ceremony held on June 27 to honor former Mets player Tom Seaver. That ceremony followed DOT's complete repaving, earlier in May, of the seven block stretch of 126th Street that fronts Citi Field stadium.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DOT prioritized that ceremonial work for the Mets, while continuing to neglect severely cratered streets in the heart of Willets Point, that are the topic of the Petition.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-yGkcbGfRmEtZ1mgocQhNxXRokoygC7KBHfXPWlK4e_y9svZdA_RoxoCj_TnViZg0kN2lSVou8UbNR5FEnOC6u67JBAETS4h0k1wQOwJBf7WszKH24a2rovDa5B1g-BpZNffrK7duMiK/s1600/IMG_0283_B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-yGkcbGfRmEtZ1mgocQhNxXRokoygC7KBHfXPWlK4e_y9svZdA_RoxoCj_TnViZg0kN2lSVou8UbNR5FEnOC6u67JBAETS4h0k1wQOwJBf7WszKH24a2rovDa5B1g-BpZNffrK7duMiK/s320/IMG_0283_B.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Intersection of Willets Point Boulevard and 127th Street,<br />as neglected by DOT on Commissioner Garcia's watch.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Commissioner Garcia is supposedly a "public servant," whose first priority must be to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_service" target="_blank">"represent the interests of citizens"</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We submit that she isn't doing so, when she gives no response to our Petition for urgently-needed street repair while accomplishing ceremonial work for the New York Mets.</span></div>
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Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-27957663677445454822019-06-26T00:49:00.000-04:002019-06-26T00:49:10.652-04:00“Seaver Way” Tactics: City Council Throws Knuckleball<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The City Council is up to its old tricks again – giving just one day or less notice that it will hold a public hearing on Wednesday morning (June 26, 2019) regarding the New York Mets’ proposal to rename a seven-block stretch of 126th Street “Seaver Way,” for former Mets player Tom Seaver.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a textbook example of the Council discouraging and preventing public testimony at a hearing, by withholding adequate advance notice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Weeks ago, the Mets announced that they would hold a street renaming ceremony on June 27, 2019 – which they would be hard-pressed to do, without first obtaining City Council approval of the name change. Thus it stands to reason that powers-that-be have known that there would be a City Council hearing on the proposal prior to June 27, but they chose to publish no information about it until just one day before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which Council members are the sponsors of the Mets street renaming legislation?</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Francisco Moya<br /><i>District 21</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Peter Koo<br /><i>District 20</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Paul Vallone<br /><i>District 19</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Francisco Moya, Peter Koo and Paul Vallone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their bill – which reveals the absolute bare minimum about the proposal – would simply rename 126th Street “Seaver Way” and amend the City map accordingly. The bill does not even identify who “Seaver” is, or provide any rationale or justification for changing the existing street name.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And bizarrely, although the legislation specifically concerns a street that is under control of the New York City Department of Transportation, the Council did <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span> refer the bill to its <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/committees/transportation/" target="_blank">Committee on Transportation</a> (which “has jurisdiction over … transportation agencies and facilities, including the Department of Transportation”), but instead referred the bill to the <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/committees/parks-and-recreation/" target="_blank">Committee on Parks and Recreation</a> (which “has jurisdiction over New York City’s Department of Parks and Recreation”).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Council’s Committee on Parks and Recreation lacks jurisdiction over 126th <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Street</span>, and is not the proper committee to evaluate this proposed street name change. It is, however, conveniently chaired by one of the bill’s sponsors: Peter Koo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why is the City Council resorting to such shameful tactics to circumvent proper review and suppress public testimony about the 126th Street / Seaver Way renaming?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps Council members know that a Seaver street renaming is redundant and unnecessary, given that the Mets are also working on plans for a Tom Seaver statue at Citi Field – just as other teams throughout the country have traditionally erected statues to honor their special retired players. It may be unprecedented for a team to honor a player with both a larger-than-life statue, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">plus</span> a renamed public street fronting its stadium. In the case of Seaver, it must be asked: Why the redundancy? Isn’t a Tom Seaver statue enough, as other ballplayer statues are elsewhere?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps Council members know that the street whose name would be changed – 126th Street – is sandwiched right in between two of the City’s most ethnic neighborhoods: Flushing (with its dominant Asian population) and Corona (with its Latino majority). A public hearing held with good advance notice might draw contemporary residents of Flushing and Corona, who may prefer honoring individuals other than Seaver, a caucasian sports figure whose Queens career ended 36 years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whatever their reasons, by their handling of the proposed 126th Street / Seaver Way renaming, City Council powers-that-be have revealed their disdain for participation by the very public that they are sworn to represent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The name of a taxpayer-owned public street is at issue. Officials should have facilitated public participation in this matter, not shamefully suppressed it.</span></div>
Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-23339246193444884842019-06-25T20:42:00.001-04:002019-06-25T20:42:38.630-04:00DOT Gives Mets Brand New Roadbed, “Stolen” from Willets Point<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
On Thursday, June 27, 2019, the New York Mets will hold a ceremony to rename a portion of 126th Street “Seaver Way” – aided and abetted by the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT).</div>
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It’s no coincidence that DOT very recently repaved the seven-block stretch of 126th Street to be renamed “Seaver Way.” And DOT repaved it, even though the condition of that street beforehand did not require resurfacing.</div>
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Could it be any more obvious, that DOT repaved that street to beautify it for the photo op during the Mets’ street renaming ceremony? That's an unjustifiable expenditure of taxpayer funds.</div>
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But for Willets Point, the biggest insult is that DOT needlessly repaved 126th Street, while <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span> repairing the nearby, severely dilapidated streets in Willets Point, which property and business owners have pleaded with the City for decades to fix.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Willets Point Boulevard, approx. one block from<br />"Seaver Way," neglected by the City for decades. </i></span></td></tr>
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If these street conditions existed in any other neighborhood of the City, they would be deemed an emergency and repaired right away on that basis.</div>
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Irene Prestigiacomo, a Willets Point property owner who has implored the City to stop neglecting the crumbling Willets Point streets and the many businesses that operate there, sums up the sentiment: “Seaver was a good ballplayer, but it’s a shame that the street renamed for him had to be beautified by DOT on the backs of scores of taxpaying Willets Point property owners, businesses and workers, who have asked the City for street repaving for years, but been denied. As we see it, the Mets have stolen a brand new street for Seaver, that rightfully should have gone to Willets Point.”</div>
Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-73024596801546580622018-08-20T22:49:00.000-04:002018-08-20T23:40:45.043-04:00Task Force Excludes Expert Public Stakeholders<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
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Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Councilmember Francisco Moya are the co-chairs of the “Willets Point Task Force,” a cherry-picked group that is supposed to recommend potential uses for Willets Point land. The Task Force will hold its third closed-door meeting this Wednesday, August 22.</div>
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Katz and Moya are denying Willets Point United and all current Willets Point property or business owners the opportunity to attend any meeting of the Task Force – despite Queens Community Board 7’s recommendation that Katz and Moya consider allowing a Willets Point representative to attend. Even worse, Councilmember Moya’s office directly <i>lied to us</i> by telephone last Thursday, stating that <i>no</i> August meeting of the Task Force has been scheduled – when Queens Community Board 7 knew that the meeting is set for August 22.</div>
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Katz and Moya are shutting out not only Willets Point United, but also the press. We are aware that Borough Hall has rejected several reporters’ requests to observe Task Force meetings, and has been unwilling to provide even basic information regarding what land use options the Task Force is considering, or how it operates.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Members of the Willets Point Task Force include<br />Kelly Olshan of Queens Council on the Arts (in<br />red), </span></i><i style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Giovanna Reid (in black) and Marta Lebreton<br />(in beige) </span></i><i style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">of Queens Community Board 3.</span></i></td></tr>
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Per information furnished to Queens Community Board 7, the scheduled topic of the August 22 Task Force meeting is to “develop preliminary recommendations,” prior to the final September meeting which will “review final recommendations” to be sent to Mayor de Blasio.</div>
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In our view, Katz, Moya and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) are leading the Task Force to an outcome predetermined by them – and they are <i>using</i> public-sector Task Force members solely to create an illusion of community buy-in, not to solicit or seriously consider any creative Willets Point development ideas they may have. Given that Willets Point United has a wealth of knowledge about all that has happened with the proposed Willets Point development during the past ten years (and beyond), had we been allowed to participate on the Task Force we would have encouraged thorough consideration of <i>all</i> relevant issues and potential recommendations – not just the ones prioritized by Katz, Moya and NYCEDC. We believe it is for that reason, that Katz and Moya are deliberately excluding us (and in the case of Moya’s office, even lying to us).</div>
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While Katz and Moya are shutting us out of their meetings, they cannot stop us from informing Task Force members, via this writing, of issues we consider important, and recommendations we believe the Task Force should make to Mayor de Blasio regarding Willets Point. We hope that the more open-minded members of the Task Force (if any) will raise these issues during the Wednesday meeting as “preliminary recommendations” are formulated.</div>
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<span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;"><b>(1) Recommend that the City immediately repair and maintain streets, and furnish other missing municipal services, throughout the 38 acres of Willets Point that are located beyond the Phase One area, where scores of industrial businesses operate right now.</b></span></div>
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Willets Point property and business owners pay steep taxes, but receive virtually no City services in return. Most obviously, the City has refused to repair or maintain Willets Point roadways for decades, allowing them to fall into a state of severe dilapidation. This discourages customer access, hinders the potential for business success, and creates unsafe conditions that extend emergency response times with potential deadly consequences – none of which would be tolerated in any other business district in the City.</div>
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<a href="http://www.queensledger.com/view/full_story/27460169/article-Willets-Point-shops---We-re-open-for-business-?" style="font-family: helvetica;" target="_blank">Scores of industrial businesses operate today</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"> throughout the 38 acres of Willets Point that are located beyond the 23 acres of the Phase One area. See the Facebook page showing that they are “</span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WilletsPointOpenForBusiness/" style="font-family: helvetica;" target="_blank">Open For Business</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica";">” and the video that profiles a subset of 30 of them</span><span style="color: #801b80; font-family: "arial";"><span style="caret-color: rgb(128, 27, 128);">:</span></span><br />
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Many of these business are owned and/or operated by recent immigrants from a variety of countries around the world – exemplifying the positive “diversity” of the borough of Queens which Task Force co-chair Katz so often promotes.</div>
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Willets Point property and business owners have consistently requested that the City repair and maintain Willets Point roadways (at least, implement “wear-and-tear” paving). For the past several years, Queens Community Board 7 and the Queens Borough Board have included Willets Point street repair on their annual budget priority lists, stating in their fiscal year 2015 written reports that “This area has been neglected by the City of New York and needs a total capital reconstruction to include sidewalks, sewers, and street lighting.” Moreover, Queens Community Board 7 specified as a condition of its 2013 ULURP approval of a special permit sought by Queens Development Group for Willets Point property that “Road wear and tear rehabilitation <span style="text-decoration: underline;">must be implemented now</span> for the remaining [Willets Point] Phase 2 property owners.” (Queens Community Board 7 decision of May 13, 2013 concerning ULURP No. C 130222 ZSQ, as documented within City Planning Commission report; emphasis added.)</div>
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However, contrary to the wishes of the Community Board and the Borough Board, no street repair services have yet been provided in the 38 acres of Willets Point that are located beyond the 23 acres of the Phase One area.</div>
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The Task Force should recommend that the City immediately provide street repair and maintenance services, and any other municipal services that it is presently withholding from Willets Point.</div>
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<span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;"><b>(2) Recommend that the City exercise the contractual “call option” to take back two acres of property located in the heart of the Phase One area, which the Bloomberg administration gave to Queens Development Group (and which it still unnecessarily owns).</b></span></div>
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The Task Force should be considering the 17 acres of the Phase One area a blank canvas, where any proposal could be implemented – but right now, the canvas isn't blank. That’s because Queens Development Group owns two acres in the middle of Phase One, putting the City at the mercy of Queens Development Group to consent to any plan for the area. Fortunately, the City may exercise a contractual “call option” and take back those two acres to ensure maximum flexibility for the use of the Phase One land.</div>
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Our new video (below) and <a href="http://www.willetspoint.org/2018/07/video-de-blasio-administration-must.html" target="_blank">associated blog post</a> explain why it is essential for the City to reclaim these two acres, and to do so prior to the contractual deadline of December 20, 2018:<br />
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The <a href="http://www.queensledger.com/view/full_story/27592511/article-Group-calls-on-city-to-take-back-two-acres?" target="_blank"><i>Queens Ledger</i></a> and the <a href="http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/city-should-take-back-willets-land-activists/article_68560078-5438-5eaf-9737-082d85df95d6.html" target="_blank"><i>Queens Chronicle</i></a> have reported on our recommendation that the City reclaim the two acres from Queens Development Group.</div>
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The Task Force should recommend that the City exercise the contractual call option to reclaim the two acres from Queens Development Group, prior to the deadline.</div>
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<span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;"><b>(3) Recommend that the City reaffirm the Bloomberg administration’s promise to convene a special advisory committee to participate in and help to guide Willets Point developer selection.</b></span></div>
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The present work of the Task Force to produce recommendations regarding Willets Point, is <i>not</i> a substitute for later participation in selecting the project developer(s).</div>
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The Bloomberg administration had promised that a Willets Point Advisory Committee, whose members would include representatives of the involved community boards and other entities, would participate in and help to guide developer selection.</div>
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The Task Force should specify that the City is still obligated to form a Willets Point Advisory Committee to participate and help to guide developer selection for each and every phase of the project.</div>
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<span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;"><b>(4) Recommend that Phase One land must be remediated, regardless of the use that eventually occurs there.</b></span></div>
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The original, primary pretext for the City to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to take possession of Willets Point property, was to ensure that it would be properly remediated, to an extent that allegedly could not be achieved by individual private property owners.</div>
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As remediation was the objective and the promise, the Task Force should recommend that the Phase One site must undergo environmental remediation.</div>
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Consistent with the 2008 Willets Point development plan, the chosen developer(s) should bear all costs of remediation, in exchange for the privilege of developing the site.</div>
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In the event that no developer is willing to pay costs of remediation, then the City should remediate the land and pay the costs of doing so. Apparently funds are available: The Bloomberg administration had authorized a capital grant of $99 million to Queens Development Group, $40 million of which was to cover costs of remediation. Those funds can be diverted from Queens Development Group and used to pay an environmental firm to be hired by the City. Thereafter, terms with any developer should reflect the fact that the City, not the developer, paid the costs of remediation.</div>
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<span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;"><b>(5) Recommend that Phase One, and all other Willets Point land, revert to industrial/manufacturing/distribution uses.</b></span></div>
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Since rezoning Willets Point in 2008, the City has had <i>ten years</i> to implement its promised “next great neighborhood” throughout Willets Point – and has failed to do so. The truth is, that concept never was feasible, and never should have been pursued.</div>
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Willets Point is located directly under the flight path to LaGuardia Airport, at the closest point to the runway – thus susceptible to roaring jet engine noise all day long. It is also hemmed in and isolated by the Whitestone Expressway, Van Wyck Expressway and Grand Central Parkway. For those reasons, among many others, Willets Point is not desirable as a location of a neighborhood or housing, but is perfectly suitable as a location for an industrial park.</div>
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23 acres of Willets Point Phase One land are essentially vacant and dormant at this time. It is absolutely not too late for the City administration to decide to remediate those 23 acres, install necessary infrastructure, then revert that land to industrial/manufacturing/distribution uses together with the additional 38 acres beyond Phase One.</div>
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In fact, doing so would be consistent with the conclusions of a report prepared in 1991 for the predecessor of NYCEDC, the New York City Public Development Corporation, which found: “The lack of adequate infrastructure is the most obvious impediment to the success of Willets Point. … A few conclusions can be drawn about the development potential of Willets Point. (1) The area is most suitable for development by owner occupants, and (2) the area is most suitable for industry and industry-related commercial uses” (Urbitran Associates, Inc. in association with Richard Dattner Architects, “Willets Point Planning Study prepared for New York City Public Development Corporation,” October 1991, p. 4).</div>
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<span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;"><b>(6) Recommend that, in the event of any City acquisition of the 38 acres beyond the boundaries of Phase One, the City must exhaust every means of negotiation with private property owners, and fully compensate them for the value of their land and for relinquishing its significant development potential.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; text-decoration: underline;"><b>(7) Recommend that, in the event of any City acquisition of the 38 acres beyond the boundaries of Phase One, the City must provide relocation sites for existing businesses, in a manner agreeable to the businesses and for the purpose of ensuring their continued operation.</b></span></div>
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The City and NYCEDC must assume responsibility for actually providing acceptable relocation spaces for existing Willets Point businesses. No business should be expected to depart Willets Point, without the City and NYCEDC first securing a relocation site.</div>
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NYCEDC routinely misleads the public by claiming that it has “relocated” Willets Point businesses from the Phase One area. In truth, NYCEDC enticed businesses to vacate the Phase One area despite having nowhere to go, by offering paltry payouts for a limited time – after which a business would receive nothing, and be evicted. Faced with that choice, many businesses accepted the payout, and departed Willets Point. NYCEDC had no role in “relocating” them, anywhere, or in ensuring their future survival.</div>
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In fact, so insufficient were the City’s Willets Point relocation services and funds, that a group of Willets Point automotive businesses (the Sunrise Cooperative) sued the City. As part of a settlement, the City was compelled to provide greater funding, but even that proved inadequate, and the City did not relocate those businesses. Sunrise Cooperative <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/nyregion/auto-shop-owners-forced-out-of-willets-point-struggle-to-rebuild-in-the-bronx.html" target="_blank">declared bankruptcy in 2016</a>.</div>
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Businesses displaced from Willets Point in the future must be protected from similar fates.</div>
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In addition to the specific recommendations above, before the Task Force commits to any “vision” concerning Willets Point, we suggest that Task Force members acquaint themselves with the extraordinary traffic impacts that would result from the full build-out of Willets Point as intended in 2008 and analyzed in the Environmental Impact Statement.</div>
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At the City Planning Commission on August 13, 2008, Bernard Adler, former Commissioner of Traffic for the City of White Plains, testified: “I have never seen this level of unmitigated impact, in the forty years I’ve been practicing. … This is an unprecedented overload of the local roadway system.”<br />
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Michael O’Rourke, past President of the Metropolitan Section, Institute of Transportation Engineers, testified regarding significant traffic impacts on the Van Wyck Expressway, including spill-back onto the local highway network as well as local streets:<br />
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Beware of any claim by NYCEDC, that new Van Wyck Expressway access ramps will eliminate the severe traffic congestion caused by developing Willets Point. Regarding those proposed new access ramps, the <i>New York Times</i> declared that “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/nyregion/13willets.html" target="_blank">E-Mails Show State Officials’ Skepticism About Willets Point Project</a>” and published excerpts of emails written by officials including New York State Department of Transportation project manager Peter King: “‘If I were a betting man, I’d start dropping the odds regarding success for E.D.C. on this project,’ Mr. King said in an email to a state transportation analyst on May 11.”</div>
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Finally, we recommend that Task Force members understand who their fellow Task Force members are – especially the notorious Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation (FWPCLDC), represented on the Task Force by Terry Sun.</div>
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FWPCLDC is the organization that took direction from NYCEDC and illegally lobbied for approval of the Willets Point rezoning in 2008 – triggering a three-year investigation by the New York State Office of the Attorney General, which issued more than 30 subpoenas for testimony and documents to employees of FWPCLDC, The Parkside Group, Mayor’s Office, NYCEDC and other entities. The investigation concluded with <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/city-economic-agencies-admit-illegal-lobbying-support-willets-point-plan-article-1.1107377" target="_blank">formal findings of wrongdoing by FWPCLDC and NYCEDC</a>, the Attorney General proclaiming that they “flouted the law,” and requiring the corporate restructuring of NYCEDC, among other remedies.<br />
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FWPCLDC was, and still is, substantially funded by the New York Mets organization. The Mets owners also own Sterling Equities, which together with Related Companies comprise Queens Development Group – the entity which received two acres of Willets Point Phase One land from the Bloomberg administration, and which Mayor de Blasio is allowing to develop a separate six acres of Phase One land.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">Willets Point United will have much more to say about particular members of the Task Force, and its operation, at a future time.</span>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-40498799648127155302018-07-30T06:21:00.000-04:002018-07-30T06:21:19.522-04:00VIDEO: de Blasio Administration Must Take Back Two Acres from Queens Development Group<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A new video released by Willets Point United demands that the de Blasio administration act before a December 2018 contractual deadline, to protect taxpayers’ interests by reclaiming two acres of Willets Point property which the Bloomberg administration gave to Queens Development Group.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">In the video (below), Willets Point property owner Irene Prestigiacomo explains the give-away of the two acres to </span>Queens Development Group<span style="font-kerning: none;">; the comprehensive </span>development<span style="font-kerning: none;"> project which the property was supposed to facilitate; the court decision that effectively prevents that project from proceeding; the contractual provision that allows the City to take back the property under present circumstances; the lack of action by the de Blasio administration thus far to reclaim the property; and City officials’ fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers to do so before the deadline lapses.</span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ms. Prestigiacomo asks (06:38): <i>"As corrupt as this City sometimes can be, have we really reached the point where a developer can <u>keep</u> public property worth tens of millions, without delivering any of the project that was the basis for it to receive the property in the first place?"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">A developer that receives public property worth tens of millions of dollars to facilitate a project, should not be allowed to </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">keep</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> that property when the developer is unable to proceed with its project. That is especially so, when the City’s contract with the developer allows the City to take back the property under the circumstances.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">And yet, that is exactly what is occurring right now at Willets Point. As of this writing, Queens Development Group is keeping approximately two acres (90,500 square feet) of what used to be taxpayers’ property, even though Queens Development Group cannot implement the project that was the basis for it to be awarded that property.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">To stop this, </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">City officials must act before a contractual deadline of December 20, 2018</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> – presuming that the de Blasio administration hasn’t already somehow squandered the opportunity.</span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><b>Below are supplemental details, not mentioned in the video.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Significant Taxpayer Costs to Originally Obtain the Two Acres</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">Before the two acres were given to Queens Development Group, they were City property – and before that, they were owned by a private party who operated a business on the site.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">To acquire the two acres from the previous private owner, the City paid taxpayer funds of nearly $14 million, </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">plus</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> sweetened the deal by giving the prior owner other City-owned College Point Corporate Park property estimated to be worth between approximately $1.8 and $7.2 million, meaning that it cost the City as much as </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">$21 million dollars</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> to acquire the two acres of Willets Point land. Viewed differently, other Willets Point properties in the vicinity of the two acres have sold for a typical price of $400 per square foot – which if applied to the two acres, means they are worth </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">$36,200,000</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">.</span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rather than recouping the cost of acquiring the property as it had said it would, the Bloomberg administration <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/willets-point-land-shameful-steal-deal-mets-article-1.1096174" target="_blank">gave the two acres to Queens Development Group for $1</a> (one dollar).</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Willets Point "Iron Triangle," with the two acres owned<br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The City is able to rescind that sale during a limited timeframe, under special circumstances such as those in the aftermath of the NYS Court of Appeals <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/court-of-appeals/2017/54.html" target="_blank">decision</a> in <i>Avella v. City of New York</i>, which effectively prevents Queens Development Group's comprehensive development project from proceeding.</span></div>
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<b style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No Overlap Between the Two Acres and the New Six Acre Willets Point Project</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Recently, the de Blasio administration announced <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/082-18/mayor-de-blasio-borough-president-katz-council-member-moya-city-will-go-all" target="_blank">a new plan</a> to <span style="text-decoration: underline;">lease</span> six acres of Willets Point Phase One property to Queens Development Group, to become an affordable housing development with a school. Those six acres to be leased to Queens Development Group are physically separate from the two acres previously sold to Queens Development Group by the Bloomberg administration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Revoking the sale of the two acres to Queens Development Group does not prevent the separate, new, six acre affordable housing project from proceeding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unless the de Blasio administration has somehow squandered it, there is a window of opportunity to reclaim the two acres from Queens Development Group: The City must act before December 20, 2018, which is five years after the original date of sale.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Per the </span><i>First Amendment to Amended and Restated Purchase and Sale Agreement between the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Queens Development Group</i> dated December 20, 2013:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ҥ 17.3 <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Terms of Options</span>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In order to exercise the … Call Option …, the party or parties entitled to exercise the Option shall deliver a notice to the other party or parties prior to the … Call Option Outside Date”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The “Call Option Outside Date” is defined as five years after the date of the original sale, which in this case will be December 20, 2018.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Disclaimer: Willets Point United shall not be responsible if a different deadline date applies for any reason, and encourages the accountable City attorneys to independently calculate the correct Call Option deadline date pursuant to all applicable contract provisions.)</span></div>
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Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-54209458634086260742018-02-06T09:05:00.001-05:002018-02-06T10:01:32.067-05:00“New Plan,” “New Deal” – But No New Competitive Bid?<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
From the outset of the proposed Willet Point development, it has been understood that a developer would be selected via a <span style="text-decoration: underline;">competitive sealed proposal process</span>.</div>
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The City’s selection in 2012 of Queens Development Group (QDG) to develop phase one of Willets Point – to the exclusion of all other firms that submitted proposals – was predicated on QDG’s unique proposal that expanded the project to include a mega-mall on public parkland (leveraging a lease already held for said parkland by the Mets’ owners, who comprise half of QDG).</div>
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In the aftermath of the Court of Appeals decision which prevents QDG from implementing its proposal, Mayor de Blasio should have immediately availed himself of the opportunity afforded by the contract between QDG and the Economic Development Corporation (EDC), to rescind the sale of Willets Point property to QDG and cancel the contract award. Then, the City would have been free to issue a new request for proposals (RFP) to the entire present-day development community, for the “new” six-acre project which apparently is now the priority.</div>
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Instead, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">there has never been a competitive sealed proposal process</span> for development of six acres of Willets Point property stemming from the intersection of Willets Point Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue. Think of it: A reasonably-sized, six-acre project would likely attract a larger pool of developer proposals than did the 2012 RFP which encompassed the enormity of the Willet Point phase one site. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">There is absolutely no basis to think that QDG is the “best” developer for this six-acre site and configuration</span>, because the de Blasio administration did not implement any competitive sealed proposal process (although it should have done so).</div>
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In its article published on February 6, 2018, the <i>New York Times</i> repeatedly refers to the six-acre project as a “new plan” and “new deal.” We agree, but wonder why there was also not a “new” RFP and “new” competitive sealed proposal process to determine it.</div>
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Beyond the 2012 selection of QDG as developer, the subsequent decisions by the Deputy Mayor, EDC, the New York City Land Development Corporation and the Queens Borough Board to dispose of hundreds of millions’ worth of City-owned property to QDG, were all predicated upon QDG’s prior, now-defunct proposal which expanded the project to include a mega-mall on public parkland.</div>
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We encourage investigations by the public, the press, the Comptroller and enforcement agencies, regarding whether or not it is consistent with City policies and procedures for the City to designate QDG to implement a “new plan” without issuing any new RFP, and for the City to dispose of valuable public property to QDG pursuant to decisions that were wholly based upon a different, defunct plan.</div>
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We also recommend that the press ask these questions:</div>
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• What price is the de Blasio administration establishing, for the sale of Willets Point property to QDG? $1 (one dollar) per the Bloomberg administration, or a legitimate price that recoups the taxpayers’ cost of acquiring the property?</div>
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• The <i>New York Times</i> mentions that QDG will remediate Willets Point property by a certain date. Does that remediation refer to the six-acre section of Phase One, or to the entire 23 acres of Phase One? If the latter, why would QDG remediate that land, prior to any decision about what will be built there?</div>
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• Given that the Queens Borough Board is to evaluate and vote on the “business terms” of an award of development rights for the Willets Point project, and thus far the Borough Board has only voted on QDG’s prior development proposal which featured the mega-mall (which has been eliminated from the “new plan”), will the City seek a new approval of the Queens Borough Board for the changed iteration of the project?</div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica;">• During the January update meeting between Queens Community Board 7 (CB7), QDG, EDC and Mayor’s Office representatives, CB7 repeatedly lamented being excluded from ongoing discussions between the QDG, QDG and the Mayor’s Office about new plans for Willets Point. Thereafter, was CB7 involved in any such discussions, prior to the </span><i style="font-family: helvetica;">New York Times</i><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> publishing the new Willets Point plan on February 6, 2018? Or, was CB7 still excluded by QDG, EDC and the Mayor’s Office?</span><br />
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• Where is there an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) document that analyzes impacts of a six-acre development stemming from the intersection of Willets Point Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, with no new Van Wyck access ramps present? The 2013 Supplemental EIS analyzed a project configuration that <u>included</u> the mega-mall, with no new Van Wyck access ramps present during the initial phase.</div>
Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-70344930048881755092017-12-28T17:55:00.000-05:002017-12-28T17:55:20.835-05:00De Blasio Admin. Finalizing QDG Land Steal<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Through the Willets Point grapevine, we hear that the City is about to transfer ownership of 23 acres comprising the “Phase One” area of Willets Point, to Queens Development Group (“QDG”) – the joint venture of Sterling Equities (whose owners also own the New York Mets) and The Related Companies that the Bloomberg administration designated as the developer. This is the infamous give-away of 23 acres of valuable taxpayer property, which cost hundreds of millions of public dollars to acquire, to developers for the unjustified price of $1 (one dollar).</div>
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For the de Blasio administration to proceed with this sale at this time is outrageous and potentially illegal, for reasons summarized below.</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>First</b></span>, Bill de Blasio is squandering a golden opportunity to cancel the Bloomberg administration’s planned, unjustified give-away of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of taxpayer property to QDG for the price of $1 (one dollar), and instead to establish a legitimate price that is truly in the taxpayers’ interest.</div>
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At a typical cost of $400 per square foot, we estimate that the City spent roughly $400 million taxpayer dollars to acquire the one million square feet (23 acres) of Willets Point Phase One property, which the Bloomberg administration intended to gift to QDG for $1 (one dollar). However, the de Blasio administration is entitled to cancel the City’s contract with QDG, and to rescind the sale of two acres of Willets Point property already transferred to QDG for $1, due to the recent decision of the New York State Court of Appeals which found that QDG’s proposed “Willets West” mega-mall on parkland located west of Citi Field stadium cannot proceed as it lacks legislative approval. Per the project contract: “EDC has the option to require Developers to convey to EDC all Willets Point Development I site parcels which have been conveyed to Developers (the “Call Option”) if … there is a final determination in a Legal Proceeding which would prevent the Project from being developed” (First Amendment to Amended and Restated Purchase and Sale Agreement, § 17.2(i)).</div>
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The give-away of valuable City property to QDG is no less outrageous now than it was <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/willets-point-land-shameful-steal-deal-mets-article-1.1096174" target="_blank">when the Bloomberg administration arranged it back in 2012</a>. We had hoped that Mayor Bill de Blasio would have taken the opportunity presented by the recent Court of Appeals decision to rescind the sale, instead of going through with it.</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Second</b></span>, recall that the key reason that QDG was chosen to develop the Willets Point Phase One site, to the exclusion of several other developers that had submitted proposals, was that only QDG claimed to be able to expand the project by constructing its proposed “Willets West” mega-mall on public parkland located west of Citi Field stadium. If QDG is now unable to deliver that mega-mall on parkland, then the basis for choosing QDG as the developer in the first place no longer applies. Allowing QDG to develop the Willets Point Phase One property despite QDG being unable to deliver the Willets West mega-mall is to allow a “bait-and-switch” on the grandest of scales.</div>
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If QDG can’t build its Willets West mega-mall and must limit any development to the Willets Point Phase One land, then QDG is in the same category as the other developers that had originally proposed to develop only the Phase One land. In response to the City’s 2011 Request for Proposals to develop the Willets Point Phase One site, QDG never submitted a proposal that was limited to the boundaries of the Phase One site, and never competed against the other developers on that basis. So, there is no reason whatsoever to presume now that QDG is the best choice to develop only the Willets Point Phase One property.</div>
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If the initial phase of development is going to be limited to the Willets Point Phase One property, without expanding the project onto public parkland as QDG had proposed, then the City should issue a new, legitimate Request for Proposals for the Phase One site, and re-start the developer selection process, with no unwarranted special status given to QDG, Sterling Equities or The Related Companies.</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Third</b></span>, it appears that the de Blasio administration is on the verge of transferring ownership of <span style="text-decoration: underline;">all</span> lots that comprise the 23-acre Willets Point Phase One site to QDG for $1 (one dollar), on the basis of authorizations granted by then-Mayor Bloomberg and the Queens Borough Board during December 2013, pursuant to <a href="https://www.lawserver.com/law/state/new-york/ny-laws/ny_new_york_city_charter_new_york_city_charter_384" target="_blank">City Charter § 384(b)(4)</a>.</div>
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However, as Willets Point United has written to Mayor de Blasio and his legal counsel more than once, not all of the lots within the Willets Point Phase One area were City-owned as of December 2013. City Charter § 384(b)(4) only entitles the Mayor and Borough Board to transact on property that is City-owned. Therefore, any authorizations of sale granted by then-Mayor Bloomberg and the Queens Borough Board during December 2013 obviously only pertain to the lots that were already City-owned as of the dates of those authorizations.</div>
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Since the City acquired additional lots within the Willets Point Phase One area after December 2013, whose sale could not have been authorized pursuant to City Charter § 384(b)(4) during December 2013, new authorizations of Mayor de Blasio and the Queens Borough Board are necessary before all of the lots within the Phase One area may legally be transferred to QDG.</div>
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City Charter § 384(b)(4), which the City acknowledges pertains to its sales of Willets Point property, provides that the Mayor, with the approval of the local Borough Board, may sell property of the City “without competitive bidding” and “for such price as may be determined by the mayor to be in the public interest”.</div>
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Only Mayor Bill de Blasio, or his successors, can determine a price that is “in the public interest” for Willets Point lots acquired by the City after December 2013. Although the former Bloomberg administration established an outrageous price of $1 (one dollar), present Mayor de Blasio is obligated to set his own price that is truly “in the public interest” – and we will be watching to see what price he sets. We hope that Mayor (and former Public Advocate) de Blasio will recognize his fiduciary responsibility to City taxpayers, and determine a sale price for valuable Willets Point Phase One land that at least recoups all of the public funds spent to acquire it.</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Fourth</b></span>, Francisco Moya, who has been elected the new City Council representative of Willets Point and nearby neighborhoods, previously announced <a href="http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/moya-monserrate-spar-over-willets-pt/article_4d1c6758-4bd9-5ead-b97c-b7172354ed46.html" target="_blank">his own plan concerning Willets Point development</a>. Among other aspects, Moya intends to form an advisory council of neighborhood stakeholders, to evaluate and help to guide development decisions.</div>
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By unnecessarily selling property to QDG now, and locking in the choice of QDG and its development plan, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">before</span> Moya has even taken office or assembled his advisory council, Mayor de Blasio is continuing the same shameful disregard for community participation in decision-making that was exemplified by his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg.</div>
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No irreversible action, including property sale, should take place at Willets Point before Councilman-elect Moya’s advisory council is in full operation and has had ample opportunity to significantly participate in decision-making.</div>
Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-87064208051623927682017-06-06T13:11:00.001-04:002017-06-06T13:28:53.110-04:00Vindication by the State's Highest Court<span style="font-family: inherit;">Willets Point United is pleased that by its decision in favor of plaintiffs, the Court of Appeals has recognized what we have known all along – the plan devised by Sterling Equities, Related Companies and the Bloomberg administration to construct a “Willets West” mega-mall on public parkland is illegal. They, plus the City Planning Commission, have always parroted that the proposed mega-mall on parkland is “authorized by statute,” which today’s court decision confirms is utterly <u>false</u>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The contract between Queens Development Group (the joint venture of Sterling Equities and Related Companies) and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) specifically provides that “if there is a final determination in a Legal Proceeding which would prevent the Project from being developed,” NYCEDC may exercise a “call option” to take back the two acres of Willets Point Phase One property already given to QDG for $1 under the Bloomberg administration. Willets Point United urges Mayor de Blasio to immediately exercise this contractual call option, to ensure that QDG has no undeserved foothold in Willets Point property, and to ensure a completely clean slate regarding decision-making about Willets Point Phase One property – without the City beholden in any way to QDG.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With QDG, Sterling Equities and Related Companies out of the picture, is Governor Cuomo now on deck to attempt to acquire Willets Point property to expand his LaGuardia Airport project? Airport expansion was never discussed when the City Council approved Willets Point development in 2008 – and it seems as though the affordable housing that was highly touted at that time as the linchpin of any Willets Point development is no longer decision-makers’ priority.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In any event, Willets Point United salutes lead plaintiff State Senator Tony Avella, Queens Civic Congress, lawsuit organizer City Club of New York, Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates, all other plaintiffs including long-time Willets Point supporter Ben Haber, and especially the tireless work of attorney John Low-Beer, who prevailed against QDG and the City.</span></span>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-34324783638722132017-04-24T11:14:00.001-04:002017-04-24T12:07:18.484-04:00De Blasio Admin. and AG Fight for Mega-Mall on ParklandIn 2015, when Queens Development Group (QDG) announced its intention to appeal to the NYS Court of Appeals from the unanimous decision of the Appellate Division declaring that QDG cannot construct a “Willets West” mega-mall on Flushing Meadows Corona Park property without obtaining state legislative approval, Mayor de Blasio declined to join QDG’s appeal. De Blasio <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/willets-point-project-not-worth-fight-de-blasio-article-1.2332757" target="_blank">reportedly said</a> that the City dropped out of the legal battle because QDG’s plan does not focus on affordable housing, and that “We think we can do much better on that [Willets Point] site going forward.”<br />
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But de Blasio has done an about-face: At tomorrow’s oral argument at the NYS Court of Appeals, the City will be fighting tooth and nail in support of QDG’s plan to construct a 1.4 million foot commercial entertainment and retail center on the parkland property located west of Citi Field stadium, right at the doorstep of the Corona neighborhood. The City has submitted a full written legal brief supporting QDG, and will be sending attorney Michael Pastor to present arguments in open court in favor of the mega-mall on parkland.<br />
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This is the same mega-mall that Queens Community Board 3 <a href="http://awalkintheparknyc.blogspot.com/2013/05/cb-3-rejects-willets-point-project.html" target="_blank">opposed</a> in 2013, declaring that it “would change the character of the surrounding neighborhoods and impact the livelihoods of 250,000 residents and many small mom-and-pop businesses."<br />
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The de Blasio administration’s support for QDG’s mega-mall on public parkland has barely been reported by the press.<br />
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Last Tuesday, former City Councilman <a href="http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2017/16/willetspoint_2017_04_21_q.html" target="_blank">Hiram Monserrate held a news conference</a> on the steps of City Hall to highlight what he called the “tale of two de Blasio’s.” Monserrate called upon de Blasio to withdraw – again – from supporting QDG’s legal battle for the mega-mall on parkland.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzzwC7sSk_xqoTkMfg-2C9OgdnhIwysTv1BjFCmnPozEPvPqTGvuKZViBNhSaSsY0pq61NRd1MVSnU3LwtkAfFGFDA_cAMmIW9uB7cFEk3dIlHQPQLd27kbrlZLqwHP4MT_1vXFl4Erqw/s1600/willetspoint_2017_04_21_q01_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzzwC7sSk_xqoTkMfg-2C9OgdnhIwysTv1BjFCmnPozEPvPqTGvuKZViBNhSaSsY0pq61NRd1MVSnU3LwtkAfFGFDA_cAMmIW9uB7cFEk3dIlHQPQLd27kbrlZLqwHP4MT_1vXFl4Erqw/s320/willetspoint_2017_04_21_q01_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy Eli Valentin; from <i>TimesLedger</i>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>QDG is a 50/50 joint venture of Sterling Equities, whose owners also own the New York Mets baseball team, and Related Companies, a developer.<br />
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For its part, the Office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will also be arguing in court tomorrow in support of QDG’s mega-mall on parkland. What could motivate the AG’s Office to swoop in and support QDG in court? Interestingly, between 2014 (the year that the legal challenge of QDG’s mega-mall began) and 2016, Sterling Equities Associates, LLC and Sterling Mets, LP have contributed $70,000.00 to AG Schneiderman’s 2014 and 2018 election campaigns.<br />
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The oral argument will take place on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 in a session beginning at 12:00 noon, in the courthouse located at 111 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, White Plains, New York. The case is <i>Avella v. City of New York</i>.Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-43143380582002705952015-11-23T12:52:00.000-05:002015-11-23T12:52:02.742-05:00Court of Appeals Accommodates Former Chief Judge<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Willets Point United Inc. is disappointed, but not surprised, that today the Court of Appeals has decided to <u>grant</u> the developers' motion for leave to appeal the "Willets West" case to the Court of Appeals – especially in light of the fact that the developers are represented by attorney Judith Kaye, who is none other than the former Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. <a href="http://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/local/new-york/2015/10/14/chief-justice-nominees/73948332/" target="_blank">She also happens to head the search committee</a> for the new incoming Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, who will ultimately participate in deciding this case.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We expect Judith Kaye to recuse herself from personally arguing this case at the Court of Appeals. In any event, we are confident that the Court of Appeals will uphold the July, 2015 unanimous decision of all four Judges of the Appellate Division – which went as far as to state that "No reasonable reading of Administrative Code section 18-118 allows for the conclusion that the legislature in 1961 contemplated, much less gave permission for, a shopping mall, unrelated to the anticipated stadium, to be constructed in the Park."</span></div>
Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-81406101049901964952015-08-20T11:46:00.002-04:002015-08-20T12:02:35.916-04:00Mayor de Blasio: Think Beyond Sterling and Related<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">
The <i>New York Times</i> and <i>Crain's New York Business</i> are reporting that the de Blasio administration has refused to join the court appeal of developer QDG (a joint venture of Sterling Equities and Related) concerning the "Willets West" mega-mall on parkland west of Citi Field, which the Appellate Division First Department unanimously ruled <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">illegal</span> on July 2, 2015.</div>
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While Willets Point United is pleased that the City did not join QDG’s appeal, we find it disturbing that the de Blasio administration is still attempting to salvage any deal with Sterling and Related for affordable housing. Everyone should recall that when Sterling and Related first responded to the City's 2011 Request for Proposals for Willets Point, their plan included NO housing whatsoever. In fact, of all the developers that responded to that RFP, Sterling and Related displayed the <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">least</span> interest in constructing any housing.</div>
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By contrast, two other developers that responded would have constructed the housing – in one case, 100 percent of it affordable. Another developer featured a convention center.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><u><b>Silverstein Properties, Inc. and Taubman Centers, Inc.</b></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>(proposal dated September 9, 2011)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">•</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">100 percent affordable housing (400 units)</span></div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“A Model Sustainable Community”</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Restaurant Row</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Entertainment Corridor & Urban Room”</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Eco-Promenade</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>126th Street Retail</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Neighborhood Retail Street</div>
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<u style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><b>Macerich</b></u></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>(proposal dated September 9, 2011)</i></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUAXwYssoNRAAiROD-J6SJNcavPfCoGn40UKJlJzpeZX4Engm4gaMxpBuQnRnv4yibdb4tVMOQTF27Fk7-LhpelnZrGjn7oxevWMFDmmgBMm2N5H26cddNj0Bnp5BnkZ8mibmq5BoHXpeC/s1600/Macerich_1a_p19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUAXwYssoNRAAiROD-J6SJNcavPfCoGn40UKJlJzpeZX4Engm4gaMxpBuQnRnv4yibdb4tVMOQTF27Fk7-LhpelnZrGjn7oxevWMFDmmgBMm2N5H26cddNj0Bnp5BnkZ8mibmq5BoHXpeC/s400/Macerich_1a_p19.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">•</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">Housing</span></div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“A Model Green Community”</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Public Open Space</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Food & Beverage</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“A True Retail Destination”</div>
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<u style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><b>TDC Development and Construction Corp.</b></u></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>(proposal dated September 9, 2011)</i></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZjO6cEryGtkJG8f_BYXzk0znf8hKx4jVBi5AE-R2NZ6kkoB3PbZw_b-KKlrmjcN7F3U3t4xfjvWE6vKVN6Ok8WrJZ3AaJkMtGPHvQq-4tw5PH4-jjUUgp2Y4CImbLoEWGBsz45vz7hLQ/s1600/TDC_1a_Proposal_21_CropMore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDZjO6cEryGtkJG8f_BYXzk0znf8hKx4jVBi5AE-R2NZ6kkoB3PbZw_b-KKlrmjcN7F3U3t4xfjvWE6vKVN6Ok8WrJZ3AaJkMtGPHvQq-4tw5PH4-jjUUgp2Y4CImbLoEWGBsz45vz7hLQ/s400/TDC_1a_Proposal_21_CropMore.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">•</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">“World Trade Center Queens”</span></div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hotel</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Restaurant</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Trade Mart</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Convention Center</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Retail Complex</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Entertainment District</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Office Building</div>
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Neighborhood Park</div>
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</span> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><u>We think the de Blasio administration must not consider itself beholden in any way to the prior selection of QDG, Sterling and Related as developers here</u> – especially when, unlike other developers, affordable housing was not a priority at all for them. If Mayor de Blasio insists on pursuing affordable housing at WIllets Point, then his administration should issue a new Request for Proposals, for exactly that. Let's see what all of the developers in the world are capable of proposing, now in the year 2015. There should be no presumption in favor of QDG, Sterling and Related.</span><br />
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But as Willets Point United sees it, there is <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">no financially viable way</span> to construct the affordable housing that was touted as the centerpiece of this project. Setting aside all of the cheerleading that took place in 2008, when it came time to actually present financially viable plans to develop Willets Point within the boundaries envisioned in 2008 featuring affordable housing, no developer could do so. The City has admitted this. That being the case, we recommend that the City:</div>
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<b>(1)</b> Rescind the deal with QDG, Sterling and Related, and 'claw back' the 2 acres of Willets Point property already sold to QDG, as the city’s contract with QDG allows. There is no valid reason for QDG to own a tiny area within the Willets Point Phase One property, and QDG doing so only obstructs making the property available to others.</div>
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<b>(2)</b> Use the $99 million that has already been allocated as a grant to QDG to cover the cost of remediating Willets Point property, for the City to instead <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">directly</span> hire a firm to remediate Willets Point Phase One property, thereby accomplishing a major objective of the project and increasing the value of that property.</div>
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<b>(3)</b> Complete the installation of sewer lines throughout Willets Point, and begin providing the municipal services that have been denied to Willets Point for decades but which are routinely available everywhere else.</div>
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<b>(4)</b> Sell the Willets Point Phase One property – valued at more than $400 million – on the open market for commercial and industrial use, which was the original intent for the Willets Point area. Restore the zoning for those purposes. This would fully recoup the taxpayer funds already unwisely spent, and even provide a profit for the City.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">It is time to recognize the past 8 or so years as a very unproductive detour – a grand failed attempt to steer Willets Point away from the commercial and industrial use that it has always supported.</span>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-27701605059087170702015-07-02T15:27:00.002-04:002015-07-02T15:27:59.856-04:00WILLETS POINT CELEBRATES COURT VICTORY<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<i>Appellate Division deems Willets West mega-mall illegal;</i></div>
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<i>enjoins any construction</i></div>
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Today, the Appellate Division First Department issued its decision in the matter of <i>Avella v. City of New York</i>, the court case which challenged the proposed construction of a 1.4 million square foot “Willets West” mega-mall on 40+ acres of public parkland located west of Citi Field stadium, and the 23-acre “Phase One” development of Willets Point. The developer of that project – and co-defendant with the City – is Queens Development Group, which is comprised of Sterling Equities (whose owners also own the New York Mets) and Related.</div>
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The court issued a unanimous decision of all four judges, “declaring that construction of Willets West on City parkland without the authorization of the state legislature violates the public trust doctrine, and enjoining any further steps toward its construction.”</div>
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The decision is a victory for plaintiffs that include NYS Senator Tony Avella, City Club of New York, the Queens Civic Congress (which represents the interests of 100+ civic organizations throughout Queens), New York City Park Advocates, Roosevelt Avenue business owners and nearby residents, Willets Point property and business owners, and the sole resident of Willets Point.</div>
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“Since 2007, we have battled the City at all times over its plans for Willets Point, which expanded in 2012 against the community’s wishes to include the gigantic proposed ‘Willets West’ mall on public parkland,” said Gerald Antonacci, leader of Willets Point United. “Today the Appellate Division agrees with what we’ve said all along: The City and developers failed to follow lawful procedure and now as a result their whole project cannot proceed. If Queens residents knew as much as we do about the horrendous traffic gridlock and other negative impacts of this Willets West/Willets Point Phase One project, they would be celebrating this court victory together with us. Today’s court decision absolutely vindicates all of our efforts and strengthens our resolve to continue challenging and opposing bad development propositions for our area. We’re especially thankful to Senator Avella, who has always done right by his constituents, City Club of New York which spearheaded the lawsuit, and stellar attorney John Low-Beer.”</div>
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In their failed attempt to justify the Willets West mega-mall to the court, defendants had argued that the 1961 law authorizing the construction of Shea Stadium on the same site provided all the permission they need to construct the mall there, now. The Appellate Division specifically rejected that argument today, finding that the focus of the 1961 law “is on [Shea] stadium, and the stadium only. There is simply no basis to interpret the statute as authorizing the construction of another structure that has no natural connection to a stadium. … Thus, the Willets West project must be enjoined.”</div>
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Willets Point United <a href="http://www.willetspoint.org/2015/04/appellate-justices-skeptical-of-mega.html" target="_blank">has previously noted</a> that the Appellate Division seemed skeptical of the arguments made by defendants in court on April 15, 2015. Now we know that our reading of the tea leaves was correct.</div>
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The court’s decision comes just as the nation begins its Fourth of July holiday weekend. We’ll be back next week with more to say, and will respond to press queries that time.</div>
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Meanwhile, enjoy the Fourth of July holiday and all that it represents. We certainly will this year.</div>
Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-80627532896837750252015-06-02T11:18:00.000-04:002015-06-02T11:18:52.044-04:00Sunrise Co-op Press Conference<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/42TdS48ba3c?" width="400"></iframe><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: start;">Sunrise Cooperative, consisting of tenant businesses being evicted from Willets Point, Queens, calls upon Council Member Julissa Ferreras to not abandon Sunrise's effort to relocate to the Bronx, Mayor Bill de Blasio to intercede, and alleges a lack of diligence by the Urban Justice Center concerning the Bronx relocation site, at this press conference held on June 1, 2015 in Willets Point. In English and Spanish. Recording © 2015 LoScalzo Media Design LLC. Reproduction prohibited.</span></div>
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Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-76167986766632705322015-04-20T19:01:00.000-04:002015-04-20T19:22:26.615-04:00Appellate Justices Skeptical of Mega-Mall Legality<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
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The court case challenging the construction of the “Willets West” mega-mall on 40+ acres of parkland located west of Citi Field stadium – <i>Avella v. City of New York</i> – had its oral argument heard at the Appellate Division, First Department on April 15, 2015. A panel of four justices heard the case: Justices Angela M. Mazzarelli, Diane T. Renwick, Sallie Manzanet-Daniels and Darcel D. Clark.</div>
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State Senator Tony Avella, City Club of New York, Queens activist Ben Haber and members of Willets Point United were among the plaintiffs who attended the oral argument, held in the elegant courtroom at Madison Avenue and 25th Street which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Attorney John Low-Beer argued the case for plaintiffs, while defendants City of New York and Queens Development Group (“QDG”) were represented by attorneys Judith Kaye (who happens to be the former Chief Judge of the State of New York), Jonathan Frank and Michael Pastore.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yooperann/8212901704/</span></td></tr>
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Plaintiffs claim that for QDG to lawfully construct its “Willets West” mega-mall on parkland, QDG needs to obtain the consent of the state legislature to alienate the parkland at issue, and that QDG’s project must undergo the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (“ULURP”) which would involve all six community boards located around the parkland and culminate in a vote of the City Council. In response, defendants say that a 1961 law enacted by the legislature to allow the financing and construction of Shea Stadium provides all the authorization they need to construct the Willets West mega-mall – and that in any case, constructing the mega-mall is necessary so that the Willets Point property (located all the way on the other side of Citi Field) can be remediated and someday developed.</div>
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At issue is whether or not the 1961 law provides the necessary specific authorization to use the parkland for a shopping mall. Throughout his presentation in court, attorney Low-Beer focussed on the precise words and structure of that law, arguing that it has nothing to do with constructing a shopping mall. As if to bolster that point, one of the justices asked Low-Beer: “What is the <u>title</u> of that section?”</div>
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As the justice likely already knew, the title of that law is “Renting of stadium in Flushing Meadow park; exemption from down payment requirements” – which has nothing to do with constructing any mega-mall at the site. Moreover, attorney Low-Beer pointed out that the 1961 bill jacket, which repeatedly references the “stadium bill,” confirms that the legislature’s sole intent was to enable the construction of Shea Stadium. Low-Beer argued that the 1961 law does not provide the specific authorization for QDG to construct a “Willets West” mega-mall on the parkland.</div>
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Defendants’ attorney Jonathan Frank responded that constructing the mega-mall on parkland is now part-and-parcel of remediating and developing Willets Point, a project which Frank said has been “90 years in the making.” But one of the justices used those words to turn the tables on Frank’s argument, telling him: “If developing Willets Point was 90 years in the making, then in 1961 the legislature could have been very specific” when writing the 1961 law to permit any development of the parkland that would support the remediation and development of Willets Point. Implicit in the justice’s statement is that she does not think that the 1961 law provides the specific authorization required for the mega-mall, or for constructing anything on the parkland to (allegedly) promote remediation of Willets Point.</div>
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Still, attorney Frank insisted that the legislature was specific, in designating the parkland as a parking lot that may be used in various ways by a lessee. Again, a justice took exception with Frank’s conclusion, telling him that according to the 1961 law, the parking area is to be “for a stadium. Let’s not pretend that there isn’t a specific purpose for that parkland to support – parking, <u>for a stadium</u>. Shea stadium.”</div>
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Underpinning many of the justices’ comments and questions seemed to be the idea that they are being asked to bend their interpretation of the law so as not to scuttle QDG’s proposed development, which prioritizes construction of the “Willets West” mega-mall on parkland while relegating other supposed benefits of the project to future years with contractual escape clauses. As one justice put it: “This project might be perceived with some affection if it followed closely the 2008 approved plan. But now, the housing component is delayed until the year 2025 – and isn’t it true that the project contract allows QDG to pay $35 million, and not build any housing?”</div>
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The justices repeatedly questioned the $35 million “out” clause in the project contract, pointing out that in New York City “you can’t build for less than that,” and that the $35 million would be a lesser cost to QDG than building the housing – ultimately asking, “What assurance does this court have that the housing will ever come about?”</div>
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The justices also sought confirmation that the portion of the QDG project that features the “Willets West” mega-mall does not involve constructing any housing – asking “Is there any housing in Phase 1A?” and hearing the answer, “No.”</div>
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Attorney Judith Kaye, the former Chief Judge of the State of New York, argued that QDG partner Sterling Equities (owned by the owners of the Mets) “has invested its heart and soul” in the project, which she said is a unique opportunity to remediate and bring a vibrant community to Willets Point. “If you reverse this [decision of lower court Justice Manuel Mendez], we’re back to the dump” at Willets Point, Kaye urged. When interpreting the 1961 law in this case, “the challenge [of developing Willets Point] is to be taken into consideration,” Kaye told the four justices.</div>
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Willets Point United has <a href="http://www.willetspoint.org/2014/07/developer-hires-retired-top-judge-to.html" target="_blank">previously written</a> about what QDG hopes to gain by hiring the former Chief Judge of the State of New York as a defense attorney in this case. The tactic may have worked with Justice Mendez in the lower court, but seemed less effective at the Appellate Division. Attorney Low-Beer’s focus on the 1961 law, and the justices’ pointed questions concerning aspects of that law, made the remediation of Willets Point a side-show before attorney Kaye even began to speak. Once she did, she was hesitant, and seemed aware that her argument that the challenge of remediating Willets Point somehow requires the “Willets West” mega-mall was falling flat.</div>
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A justice asked plaintiffs’ attorney Low-Beer: “Is there some validity to their argument that constructing the ‘Willets West’ shopping mall would improve the economy of the area?” He replied, “whether it does or not, that is not the question before the court. They are required to follow the law. The state legislature must approve a specific use. They did not authorize a shopping mall.”</div>
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Low-Beer also pointed out that if the words within the 1961 statute which defendants are misinterpreting as allowing a shopping mall actually do allow a shopping mall, then <u>more than one shopping mall</u> can be built in Flushing Meadows Corona Park because the separate statute authorizing the National Tennis Center also contains the same words. It is inconceivable, argued Low-Beer, that the legislature has granted authorization for two shopping malls in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.</div>
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Outside the courthouse after the argument, Senator Avella told reporters: “I am continually shocked at the level of argument presented by the other side and the City. … The representative for the City of New York basically said that they don’t have to go through ULURP because of a lease arrangement. Well, City property, even if you’re leasing it out, does go through ULURP. And I’m shocked that Mayor de Blasio, who campaigned against Bloomberg policies in these type of situations, is defending this lawsuit. The Mayor should live up to his campaign promises, and say ‘this project must go through ULURP and must apply to the state legislature for approval of giving away parkland.’”</div>
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Also outside the courthouse, Queens activist Ben Haber remarked: “I think it was a bench that clearly understood there are legal questions that they have to deal with here. And they were not going to be influenced by Willets Point, which has nothing to do with this mega-mall. … Clearly they understood this extraneous argument of Willets Point [remediation] is irrelevant to the law concerning a mega-mall on parkland.”</div>
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Haber also summarized the two key legal issues at the heart of the case: “We do not allow local politicians to give up parkland. If you want to alienate parkland in New York state, you’ve got to get permission of the New York state legislature. They didn’t do that. And clearly, the parking field that we’re talking about is on parkland. It’s part of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. So that was one of the legal questions that was raised. The other question that was raised is that when they got the parking lot to begin with, we did not have ULURP as a law. Subsequently ULURP became the law. And under ULURP, if you want to change land use, you have to go through a proceeding before each community board that surrounds the affected area. They didn’t do that here. So the two questions for these judges to decide under the law: Did they violate the law by not getting park alienation? And secondly, did they violate the law by not going through ULURP?”</div>
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“You cannot build a mega-mall on parkland. And there’s a big difference between using a field for parking occasionally when there’s a ball game, [versus] 365 days a year, a 1.4 million square foot mega-shopping mall. It’s not the same thing.”</div>
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Attorney John Low-Beer said that it is “always fun” to argue a case at the Appellate Division, and when asked about his opponents’ arguments, said: “There’s an old saying of lawyers, that if the law is against you, pound the facts. If the facts are against you, pound the law. If both the facts and the law are against you, pound the table! Which is what they were doing here.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Plaintiffs' attorney John Low-Beer.</span></td></tr>
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A decision of the Appellate Division is likely within the next couple of months. Whichever side loses, is expected to attempt to take the case to the Court of Appeals in Albany.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Plaintiffs and Willets Point United members<br />Irene Prestigiacomo and Joseph Ardizzone.</span></td></tr>
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<i>The Appellate Division, First Department does not permit the use of recording devices. All quotations above of statements made during the oral argument are approximate, and are based upon notes taken by attendees during the argument.</i></div>
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Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-14822485560671684002015-03-25T18:55:00.000-04:002015-03-25T18:55:29.300-04:00Tenants Quietly Settle Lawsuit<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Willets Point United Inc. (“WPU”) congratulates the Sunrise Cooperative group of Willets Point tenant businesses, as they settled their lawsuit against Queens Development Group (“QDG”), the City, NYCEDC and NYCIDA two days ago. However, we find it odd that despite settling this lawsuit after a year of negotiating to do so, with the goal of Sunrise Cooperative to relocate its members to new workspace in the Bronx, no announcement of the settlement has been made by Sunrise, by its attorneys at the Urban Justice Center, by Council member Julissa Ferreras, by QDG, the City, or even the spin doctors at NYCEDC.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before the Lawsuit</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the waning days of the Bloomberg mayoral administration, NYCEDC offered each tenant business operating on City-owned Willets Point Phase One property a payout equal to 12 months of its rent, if the business would vacate the premises by November 30, 2013. If the business remained until January 31, 2014, the offered payout dropped to 6 months rent. Most of the tenant businesses accepted one or the other of the paltry payouts, and vacated the premises. Businesses who didn’t were evicted, regardless of relocation. That is why, with some exceptions, City-owned property within the Willets Point Phase One area has been substantially vacant since early 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of the businesses that vacated the area in 2013-2014 are members of the Sunrise Cooperative.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Event organized by the Sunrise Cooperative, August 2, 2013. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NYCEDC never missed an opportunity to publicly promote that it had retained the Cornerstone Group as a business relocation consultant, but Cornerstone failed to relocate the overwhelming majority of Willets Point businesses despite being paid $700,000 or more for its services (which is a different story for another time).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NYCEDC also announced another financial assistance program in 2013: A “Co-Relocation Fund” available only to groups of five of more eligible tenant businesses that operated on City-owned Willets Point Phase One property within a certain time period – provided that the five or more applicant businesses would relocate together to a common site. Under this program, the Co-Relocation Fund would pay up to $60,000 per business directly to the landlord of a relocation site, or to a seller of property to become a relocation site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Sunrise Cooperative presented itself as a group of businesses desiring to relocate together to a common site, such that each Sunrise member qualified for up to $60,000 of Co-Relocation Fund dollars. Sunrise submitted approximately 32 applications for Co-Relocation Fund dollars that were deemed eligible by NYCEDC – equating to approximately $1,920,000 available to pay costs of Sunrise members’ relocation.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Urban Justice Center</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Urban Justice Center and its attorney Harvey Epstein had long advocated for Willets Point tenant businesses. By 2013, Sunrise Cooperative had identified a vacant building in the Bronx, consisting of 80,000 square feet of ground floor space and an open yard of the building, as a possible relocation site for its members. However, the building interior would require costly renovation, infrastructure installation and subdivision of its space to become a suitable location where scores of automotive service businesses could operate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apparently, NYCEDC and Urban Justice Center recognized that if the Bronx space was to become viable, someone would have to manage the creation of architectural renovation plans and a budget for significant construction work, among many other tasks necessary to relocate the Sunrise Cooperative businesses to that space. So, on November 1, 2013, NYCEDC and Urban Justice Center entered into a contract, by which NYCEDC “agreed to provide Funding Recipient [Urban Justice Center], on a reimbursement basis, with up to seventy-five thousand Dollars ($75,000) for costs and expenses associated with co-relocation due diligence.” The funding amount was later increased to $150,000.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Urban Justice Center used those funds to pay itself, as well as an architect firm and a contractor firm that developed plans and estimates to upgrade the Bronx building as necessary for “use as an automotive repair garage for 50 shops.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Floor plans were produced that subdivide the interior space into 45 distinct work bays suitable for various types of automotive service businesses, with circulation space for customer automobiles and separate administration offices and restrooms.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Detail portion of Sunrise Cooperative's floor plan for</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The contractor has estimated the total cost of the necessary renovation work for the Bronx site to be <u><span style="color: red;">$7,427,987.28</span></u>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The available Co-Relocation Fund dollars do not come close to covering that cost.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lawsuit</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On February 4, 2014, petitioners Sunrise Cooperative and 33 of its members filed a lawsuit against developer QDG, Sterling Equities, Inc., The Related Companies, Inc., NYCEDC, NYCIDA and the City. Urban Justice Center provided all legal services representing petitioners in the case – while Urban Justice Center also remained under contract to NYCEDC and invoiced NYCEDC for, among other things, Urban Justice Center’s “project management of development” of the Bronx site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Upon filing the lawsuit, as far as we are aware, Sunrise Cooperative and Urban Justice Center published no press release and essentially told no one – just as they are now doing with the settlement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The lawsuit alleged that “the Developers and EDC’s relocation plan is in violation of the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 (“URA”),” that “there was no lawful relocation plan for current commercial tenants, as is required by federal law,” that “the relocation assistance has been ineffective” and that “only ten out of the approximately 110 businesses in Willets Point [Phase One], or only 9 percent, had been successfully relocated;” that the parkland where QDG intends to construct the “Willets West” mega-mall “cannot be redeveloped for non-parkland use without the express consent of the New York State Legislature” (a key argument also made in the separate lawsuit, Avella v. City of New York, which remains pending); that the 2013 City Council approval pertaining to the proposed Willets Point development is fatally flawed as it was made without knowledge that QDG “would receive over forty million dollars in tax abatements;” and that NYCIDA granted tax abatements of $42.6 million “without following its Uniform Tax Exemption Policy as it is required to do by law.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conventional wisdom has been that Sunrise Cooperative and Urban Justice Center filed the lawsuit not out of any actual desire to defend parkland, halt QDG’s development project or rescind NYCIDA’s $42.6 million tax credits to QDG – but instead, to provide leverage in negotiations with NYCEDC and QDG so that Sunrise could obtain the additional millions of dollars necessary to pay the estimated $7,427,987.28 cost to renovate the Bronx space, and facilitate the relocation of Sunrise members there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Sunrise Cooperative executed a lease agreement with the landlord of the Bronx site on February 15, 2014. The term of the lease is ten years (until January 31, 2024), with one five-year option to extend (until January 31, 2029).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The monthly rent for the entire Bronx space, which increases annually, begins at $73,333.33 per month.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NYCEDC has paid this rent on behalf of Sunrise Cooperative – $73,333.33 per month for the better part of the past year. NYCEDC is drawing from the Co-Relocation Fund to make these rent payments, and has likely already spent more than <u>$800,000</u> to pay rent for the Bronx site through the present time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NYCEDC also paid “Sunrise Cooperative’s, Inc.’s security deposit” in the amount of <u>$439,999.98</u> on March 6, 2014.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Totaling the rent and the security deposit, it seems that NYCEDC has already spent roughly <u>$1,240,000</u> on payments relating to the Bronx site – the lion’s share of the $1,920,000 in Co-Relocation Fund dollars for which Sunrise Cooperative businesses were eligible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, as NYCEDC continued to pay rent of $73,333.33 to the Bronx site landlord month after month during the past year, renovation work did not begin and the Sunrise Cooperative lawsuit was repeatedly adjourned. All that has been accomplished by NYCEDC’s expenditure of taxpayer dollars totaling roughly $1,240,000 (and counting) is to take the Bronx site property off the market and keep it open for use by Sunrise Cooperative members if they can renovate it and relocate there.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aftermath</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As quietly as they commenced their lawsuit, Sunrise Cooperative and Urban Justice Center settled it two days ago. Given the substantial commitment of taxpayer dollars to hold the Bronx relocation site until the lawsuit was resolved, the fact that Sunrise now requires many more millions of dollars to renovate the Bronx space for use, and that the lawsuit may have been settled in exchange for NYCEDC providing additional taxpayer money to further Sunrise Cooperative’s relocation to the Bronx site, the parties to the lawsuit should come clean and fully disclose to the public whatever agreement they may have reached.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As much as we’d like to see the successful relocation of Willets Point Phase One tenant businesses, we are skeptical about the appropriateness of the Bronx site leased by Sunrise Cooperative. Queens-based workers will incur a daily bridge toll of $15.00 to be at the Bronx site – roughly $360.00 per month. That’s an additional business cost beyond what they now have at Willets Point, and will increase their prices charged to customers. The proposed layout and configuration of the Bronx site – an indoor automotive marketplace with scores of businesses in separate bays along labyrinthine aisles – raises questions regarding whether customers will visit all of the shops, or mostly stick with the ones located near the entrance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We look forward to the answers to these and other questions. We also note that settlement of the Sunrise Cooperative lawsuit does not aid the Willets Point automotive business that are not members of the Sunrise Cooperative because they could not afford to pay the dues, were excluded from Sunrise Cooperative, or for any other reason. What will happen to the non-Sunrise businesses remains to be seen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, although the Sunrise Cooperative lawsuit has settled, the separate lawsuit challenging the QDG project – filed by State Senator Tony Avella, City Club of New York, Queens Civic Congress, New York City Park Advocates, residents, business owners and WPU members – remains pending, with oral argument scheduled for April 15, 2015 at the Appellate Division, First Department.</span>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-54365456336936789332014-11-11T13:11:00.001-05:002014-11-11T13:11:50.944-05:00Handout distributed at last night's CB7 meeting<p style=" margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;"><a title="View CB7 Handout 11-10-14 on Scribd" href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/246144210/CB7-Handout-11-10-14?secret_password=Zk3n14yN3clMprOZnNIN" style="text-decoration: underline;" >CB7 Handout 11-10-14</a></p><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/246144210/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" scrolling="no" id="doc_8627" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-40707379804516859042014-11-10T14:08:00.000-05:002014-11-10T14:09:21.434-05:00SENATOR AVELLA CALLS ON DEC TO DENY WASTEFUL DEVELOPER APPLICATION FOR TAX CREDITS<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">MONDAY, <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT650_com_zimbra_date" style="color: darkblue; cursor: pointer;">November 10, 2014</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">CONTACT: Heather K. Sager</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">SENATOR AVELLA CALLS ON DEC TO<br />DENY WASTEFUL DEVELOPER APPLICATION FOR TAX CREDITS</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">(QUEENS, NY) <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT651_com_zimbra_date" style="color: darkblue; cursor: pointer;">Today</span>, State Senator Tony Avella is calling on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to deny the Queens Development Group’s (QDG) application for Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) tax credits on its Willets Point Phase One property.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Approximately a year ago, QDG entered a contract with the NYC Economic Development Corporation which requires the QDG to clean up the property. As part of this agreement, the QDG received a capital grant commitment of taxpayer funds for $99 million, of which $40 million is intended to pay these cleanup costs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">However, it was not long after QDG applied to the Brownfield Program, to try to obtain <i>additional tax credits </i>to clean up the property.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) provides substantial tax credits to land developers to encourage the remediation and clean up of Brownfield sites. It was developed by the State in order to offset the costs of clean-up of the sites. An example of the amount of previous awards under the BCP is the $44 million awarded to the developers of the East River Plaza in Manhattan. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">After learning of QDG’s application, Senator Avella, along with advocacy group Willets Point United, immediately contacted the DEC to intervene. In a recent response letter, the DEC stated that the agency believes that, "The public interest is served by allowing these properties to participate in the BCP." The DEC also wrote in its response, "The fact that a property may be redeveloped without the incentives of the BCP does not preclude it from being eligible for the program."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">“The Queens Development Group has already been promised $40 million in taxpayer funds to offset the costs of cleaning up Willets Point Phase One. Now, the QDG is attempting to take advantage of the BCP tax credit program by trying to apply for millions in tax credits for costs that will already be paid from the taxpayer’s pocket. It’s absolutely disgraceful,” <b>said Senator Avella</b>. “The DEC’s response is alarming, as it completely disregards the fact that <u>the QDG is already required to clean up the site, and will already be receiving taxpayer funds to do so</u>. Wasting taxpayer money by giving funds to developers who are already receiving clean-up related capital grants is not the intention of the Brownfield Credit Program.”</span></div>
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Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-34963504355931943332014-10-31T17:58:00.001-04:002014-10-31T17:58:48.027-04:00Meeting at Department of State<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Albany, New York:</u> Members of Willets Point United Inc. (“WPU”) held a meeting with the New York State Committee on Open Government’s Executive Director, attorney Robert Freeman, and its Assistant Director, attorney Camille Jobin-Davis, at the Committee’s office.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Joseph Ardizzone (WPU), Robert Freeman, Esq. (Committee Executive Director),<br />Camille Jobin-Davis, Esq. (Committee Assistant Director) and Irene Prestigiacomo<br />(WPU) at the office of the NYS Committee on Open Government.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.dos.ny.gov/coog/index.html" target="_blank">Committee on Open Government</a> is a unit of the Department of State that oversees and advises the government, public, and news media on the Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”), Open Meetings Law and Personal Privacy Protection Law.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WPU routinely files FOIL requests with agencies involved in the proposed Willets Point development, seeking project records that would not otherwise be publicly disclosed – and has filed scores of such requests within the past several years. In pursuing our requests and associated appeals when access to records is denied, WPU has benefitted from the Committee’s advice and its written legal opinions regarding agencies’ obligations pursuant to FOIL, which records are available under FOIL, and many other crucial factors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The recent meeting between WPU and Committee members allowed a face-to-face exchange of ideas concerning certain pending FOIL requests. Moreover, the meeting provided an opportunity to discuss ways in which FOIL could be strengthened to benefit the public – all while acknowledging that this year marks the <a href="http://www.dos.ny.gov/coog/news/september14.html" target="_blank">40th Anniversary of FOIL’s enactment into law</a>. We were also very pleased to summarize for the Committee how WPU has leveraged FOIL over the years, obtaining records that have become the bases of many news reports and that have exposed corruption, among other results.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>FOIL resulted in the disclosure of contracts, financial documents and communications showing (among many other things) that NYCEDC funneled $450,000.00 to Claire Shulman’s local development corporation, and instructed it to lobby for legislation authorizing the proposed Willets Point development – in direct violation of state law, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/nyregion/economic-development-corporation-and-2-other-groups-admit-to-illegal-lobbying.html" target="_blank">as ultimately found by NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman</a>. That resulted in the dissolution and restructuring of NYCEDC to ensure that it stops violating the law – but no person has been held to account for any of the prior illegal activity. To the contrary, at least one NYCEDC official who – according to a city Law Department attorney – the Attorney General’s office was “trying to set up for a criminal prosecution” has <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span> actually been prosecuted.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXW3FKNiSv_j7L5-yfm2C7e2FytefCiIAmCGNNTJrw1N_8BCLqkCAl583bFn0-UW7trWhvfsL_d5YEXSIa-QVnBtkrDv4bOTgcapju6tpsV-9RpeDBRM6UIE6_XBR_twwsDJfEdIaLvt2q/s1600/Shulman_1000pix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXW3FKNiSv_j7L5-yfm2C7e2FytefCiIAmCGNNTJrw1N_8BCLqkCAl583bFn0-UW7trWhvfsL_d5YEXSIa-QVnBtkrDv4bOTgcapju6tpsV-9RpeDBRM6UIE6_XBR_twwsDJfEdIaLvt2q/s1600/Shulman_1000pix.jpg" height="357" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Article accessible online <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/city-economic-agencies-admit-illegal-lobbying-support-willets-point-plan-article-1.1107377">here</a>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In response to a FOIL request, <a href="http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2012/03/edc-suspiciously-violating-sunshine-law.html">NYCEDC refused to even disclose just the names of the developer firms</a> that had responded to the Request For Proposals pertaining to Phase One of Willets Point. At the time, the Committee’s Robert Freeman told the press: “I don’t see any conceivable basis for withholding these names.” (See <a href="http://www.willetspoint.org/2012/02/nycedcs-foil-response-access-denied.html">our prior blog article</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>FOIL unearthed records showing that <a href="http://nypost.com/2013/02/05/mets-eye-casino-at-citi-to-help-offset-losses-suffered-in-bernie-madoff-scandal/">Sterling Equities and Related Companies originally wanted to construct a gambling casino</a> on the parkland where they now say they will construct a mega-mall – even going as far as enlisting the Shinnecock Indian Nation to operate the casino. For all the public knows, Sterling and Related may still be pursuing their original, preferred intent to construct a gambling casino on the parkland. That would hardly be the first bait-and-switch in this development.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Article accessible online <a href="http://nypost.com/2013/02/05/mets-eye-casino-at-citi-to-help-offset-losses-suffered-in-bernie-madoff-scandal/">here</a>.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>FOIL obtained the contracts between NYCEDC and developers Sterling/Related, showing (among other things) that the Bloomberg administration <span style="text-decoration: underline;">reneged</span> on its assurance to recoup the cost of acquiring Willets Point Phase One property – $400+ million taxpayer dollars – and instead arranged to <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/willets-point-land-shameful-steal-deal-mets-article-1.1096174">gift</a></span><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/willets-point-land-shameful-steal-deal-mets-article-1.1096174"> the property to Sterling/Related for the price of $1</a> (one dollar). The same contracts show that housing at Willets Point – originally the most highly-touted component – is delayed until at least the year 2025, and that Sterling/Related may opt out of constructing housing by paying $35 million (a mere cost of doing business); and that if the city does not first construct expensive new access ramps to and from the Van Wyck Expressway, Sterling/Related will neither construct any housing nor pay any penalty.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Article accessible online <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/willets-point-land-shameful-steal-deal-mets-article-1.1096174">here</a>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>FOIL disclosed <a href="http://www.qchron.com/editions/western/willets-plans-show-a-lot-of-parking-lots/article_ad2ccea1-7b27-531b-b419-77def3e6730c.html">the approved schematic plans</a> for the entire Willets Point Phase One / Willets West mega-mall – plans which developers Sterling/Related still have not presented during any meeting with Queens Community Board 7, although they are required to do so, <a href="http://www.qchron.com/editions/western/willets-plans-show-a-lot-of-parking-lots/article_ad2ccea1-7b27-531b-b419-77def3e6730c.html">according to the board’s District Manager</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>FOIL yielded records showing that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/nyregion/13willets.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">NYSDOT officials were being pressured to approve inadequate plans to construct new Van Wyck access ramps</a> – based upon traffic data that differed suspiciously from data previously proffered to the New York City Council. Michael Bergmann, a NYSDOT structural engineer on the team that reviewed the City’s ramp application, wrote to the NYSDOT regional director and colleagues: “Unless the preparers of this report start accepting the idea that it is seriously flawed, we are going nowhere.” Peter King, a NYSDOT project manager, wrote: “If I were a betting man, I’d start dropping the odds regarding success for E.D.C. on this project,” and that a mistaken completion date of the year 2107 instead of 2017 “may have been closer to the truth than anyone realizes.” After WPU obtained these email records and traffic data, and after WPU’s traffic expert Brian Ketcham and its environmental attorney Michael Gerrard of Arnold & Porter intervened with NYSDOT and FHWA, NYCEDC withdrew its ramp application, resulting in a long delay while NYCEDC’s consultant reconsidered its traffic data. Neither Mr. Ketcham nor Mr. Gerrard is satisfied that the ramps have been properly evaluated, and to this day, the ramps remain an open and contentious issue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Without FOIL, it is unlikely that the public would have ever known any of the above-described facts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WPU is a staunch supporter of FOIL, and we wholeheartedly salute the work of the Committee on Open Government and its two mainstays, Robert Freeman and Camille Jobin-Davis, in helping to ensure that FOIL is properly implemented by agencies. In all our dealings with so many city and state agencies, we have seen none other that is as genuinely helpful and responsive as the Committee on Open Government. This is one place where we are pleased to see our tax dollars at work and used well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Emphasizing the importance of public records and open meetings, Mr. Freeman, the Committee’s Executive Director, is fond of quoting Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” As our meeting concluded, Mr. Freeman reminded us of that quotation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the same spirit, WPU vows to continue to leverage FOIL and other laws, to discredit, incriminate and fight our opponents.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Joseph Ardizzone (WPU) and Irene Prestigiacomo (WPU),<br />outside of the NYS Committee on Open Government.</span></td></tr>
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Ben Haber had a lengthy letter published in a Queens weekly, regarding the status of the lawsuit challenging the Willets West mall. The following week, another letter-writer agreed with Haber. Attached are both of the letters.<br />
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These were distributed at the Borough Board meeting this past Monday.<br />
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During its meeting on Sept. 8, Queens Community Board 7 adopted the attached resolution pertaining to parkland alienation, with minor<br />
corrections (mostly typo fixes) made before the vote. Manhattan CB6 had previously adopted a similar resolution.Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-1435975907810353822014-08-20T15:11:00.002-04:002014-08-20T16:01:48.562-04:00Willets West case dismissed; attorney issues official statement<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Justice Manuel Mendez, NYS Supreme Court, NY District, has issued his decision to <u>dismiss</u> the lawsuit brought by plaintiffs Sen. Tony Avella, City Club of New York, Queens Civic Congress and others, challenging the plan of Queens Development Group LLC to construct a 1.4 million square foot mega-mall on 40+ acres of Queens parkland.</span><br />
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Justice Manuel Mendez, who has</div>
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decided that the Willets West mega-mall</div>
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can be built on 40+ acres of Queens</div>
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parkland. <span style="color: #323333; font-family: Arial;">Photo by Rafael Fernández.</span></div>
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<i>Source: http://www.impactony.com/</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Justice Mendez concludes that the 1961 authorization to construct Shea Stadium also allows construction of the mega-mall on parkland.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Below is the official statement of John Low-Beer, attorney for plaintiffs, concerning the decision of Justice Manuel Mendez to dismiss the case:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">"Plaintiffs believe that the decision misunderstands the common law </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">doctrine that prohibits any nonpark use of parkland without the </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">specific and explicit approval of the State Legislature. The State </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">Legislature, when it passed the 1961 law permitting the construction of </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">Shea Stadium, did not intend to allow construction of a shopping mall. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">That law did not allow the construction of anything except a stadium </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">and related facilities on the site. Plaintiffs will appeal, and </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 14px;">believe that this decision will be reversed on appeal."</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/237336507/Initial-Willets-West-Court-Decision" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View Initial Willets West Court Decision on Scribd">Initial Willets West Court Decision</a></div>
<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_52991" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/237336507/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-1464255526067128252014-08-05T22:07:00.000-04:002014-08-05T22:07:19.449-04:00Avella starts petition to stop mallSen. Avella's online PETITION to prevent the Willets West mall is here:<br />
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<a href="http://www.nysenate.gov/webform/stop-illegal-taking-flushing-meadows-corona-park-stop-willets-west">Stop the illegal taking of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park</a><br />
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Press article:<br />
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<a href="http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2014/32/avellapetition_web_2014_08_05_q.html">Avella starts petition in bid to halt Willets Point mall</a>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2691795381157332832.post-76089829342517367182014-08-05T10:41:00.000-04:002014-08-05T10:41:10.176-04:00Op-Ed: City overlooks law in Willets Point projectThe following Op-Ed was published by attorney John Low-Beer and State Senator Tony Avella was published by the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/city-overlooks-law-willets-point-project-article-1.1889220#ixzz39WpwVHJH">Daily News</a>:<br />
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While the Willets West project, which would consist of a megamall with over 200 retail stores built directly adjacent to Citi Field, may be a developer’s idea of the best thing since sliced bread, the city cannot brazenly ignore the law in giving away 47 acres of parkland for this development.<br />
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Courts across the state have long recognized that cities and other governmental entities hold their parks in trust for the public, and cannot sell or lease these valuable resources without a specific law from the state Legislature authorizing such action. This rule is intended to ensure that parkland is not given over for private or commercial purposes without the consent of the people, as represented by their Legislature. No such law has been enacted here.<br />
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Listening to the spin from the city’s and the developers’ attorneys in State Supreme Court last week, including former New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye, it is abundantly clear that the city believes it has no obligation to follow the law or protect the parkland that belongs to current and future generations of Queens residents.<br />
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The developers and the city painted a beautiful picture of a new community in Willets Point; however, their focus is on the megamall to be built on parkland, not on the housing which must wait, they say, until 2026. Even then, they are under no enforceable obligation to build it, and if, as seems to be the case, it is not sufficiently profitable, they will not do so.<br />
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The developers and the city believe this new megamall will provide all the recreation necessary for Queens residents. While shopping may well be a national pastime on par with baseball, as they argued, it does not need government help, nor should it be allowed to displace a family’s ability to enjoy a simple game of tag, or even a ball game, free from commercialization in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.<br />
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The city’s actions here raise fundamental issues more important than just a shopping mall they have real ramifications in every corner of the five boroughs, especially for anyone concerned with the city’s democratic process, the commercialization of parkland and overdevelopment in our neighborhoods.<br />
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We live in a society of laws, and the ends no matter how desirable they may be cannot justify the means that bypassing the legally required consent of the people.<br />
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The city must be held accountable and the community must have its say. A more transparent process should commence promptly one that includes the residents and business owners of Queens, as well as all the affected Community Boards (not only those adjacent to Willets Point), the Planning Commission, the City Council, and ultimately, the state Legislature.<br />
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<i>State Sen. Tony Avella represents the 11th Senate District in Queens and John Low-Beer is the lead plaintiffs’ attorney fighting the Willets Point Development Project.</i>Willets Point Unitedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03283270864085054043noreply@blogger.com