Calls for help went unheeded

At the June 18 Community Board 7 Willets Point subcommittee meeting, I sat and listened to how the NYC Economic Development Corporation was trying to sell the redevelopment “plan.” The plan is really just a concept at this point, since no developer has been selected. I was astounded at the blatant lies and avoidance of questions by the EDC.
For the past 25 years, I have called and written and pleaded with the city to provide Willets Point - where my family business is located - with basic services like sewers and sidewalks and trash removal. I was given assurances that the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) and New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) would fix the problems. They never did.
Now, I sit in these Community Board meetings and listen to the city say that Willets Point is blighted and needs to be torn down. I agree - it has been purposely neglected and that is why it looks blighted and the city and the former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman are responsible.
My business and land are not blighted or contaminated and the same is true for all of the businesses of the Willets Point Industry & Realty Association of which I am a member.
At the Community Board meeting, the members started fighting over what they wanted to build on my land. This is land that has been in my family for years and that I pay taxes on and it is being fought over already? I could not believe what I was witnessing.
I looked around the room as Evan Stavinsky, the lobbyist who was hired by the city, schmoozed with the board members trying to sway their thoughts and votes. I saw Claire Shulman, the woman who withheld basic services from Willets Point while she was Borough President, do the same.
I felt helpless and could not believe that these people did not care that we were being thrown off our land due to their long-standing neglect. They just want us out to preserve their legacy.
Facing the threat of losing your business and livelihood due to an eminent domain seizure is cruel. I have worked my entire life to build my nest egg and now it is going to be snatched away. No one at the Community Board meeting seemed to care about all the equity the city was trying to loot away from all the landowners by offering 50 cents on the dollar.
I thought about my father - how he fought in Germany to protect other people’s land. Now here I am fighting my city and country for the land my dad worked hard for to keep his American dream alive. My father died two years ago just as the city started its fifth attempt in 25 years to take our land.
It is too bad that my Dad is not alive to see what the government he fought for has become. I love Willets Point and want to stay where I am. I did nothing wrong but try to survive the neglect of the city for over 25 years. I feel like I was shot in the head by a doctor and now he wants to be the one to rehabilitate me.
This is wrong and un-American.
Jerry Antonacci is the President of Crown Container and a resident of Flushing