City Plans to Raze Willets Point Eyesore

Click to Toasted Oats for more on Willet’s Point
Ben Feinstein, owner of the Feinstein Iron Works, called the city action "an old story. We have been here for 35 years and the city attitude here has been that we are expendable. Im trying not to pay attention to this latest development."
Anne Fodera Rosengarten, an owner of House of Fodera, a food company in Willets Point, called the city plan "one difficult to make happen. We have no way to know if this will really happen. Its all hearsay at this point."
Threats to condemn Willets Point are nothing new. In September of 1995, the embattled Willets Point Business Association (WPBA) angrily fought the N.Y. Mets plan for construction of a $1 billion complex including a retractable-domed stadium.
"Robert Moses tried to do this more than 30 years ago for the Worlds Fair," Richard Musick, president of the group, said back in 1995.
Musick said that business people in Willets Point have had "a gun held to our heads. This is unconscionable and unconstitutional," he charged at the time.
The areas development has been hindered during the last 50 years because of a high water table that flows just three feet below the ground surface and limits the installation of adequate sewer, water and toilet systems. It has also resulted in potholed, filthy streets during dry weather and flooded roadways during snowy or rainy weather.