Just hours before Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended the Mets home opener at the new Citi Field, workers and small business owners at the adjacent Willets Point site called for his administration to step up their relocation assistance efforts and stop the harassment of businesses.
Nearly 50 workers and some local elected officials rallied outside Citi Field on Monday, April 13, asking the city to treat them fairly, stop closing businesses and issuing violations and negotiate in good faith to help them find a new spot to do business.
“We are human beings, and we need to get treated as persons,” said Macros Neira, who has owned the Master Express Deli and Restaurant for the past 22 years and is now the President of the Willets Point Defense Committee, which represents 60 small businesses in the area.
This rally came more than a week after the group hosted a similar protest saying city agencies including the Department of Buildings and New York Police Department (NYPD) had been targeting businesses not cooperating with the city. The NYPD has said that it was responding to a rash of auto thefts in the area, but that did not suffice for those at the rally.
“This is more than just auto crime; this is harassment,” said Wayne Mahlke, Chief of Staff for State Senator Hiram Monserrate. “This is a violation of civil rights.”
Last November, after more than year of controversy surrounding the mega-development Willets Point project, the City Council approved the plans by a 42-2 margin, paving the way for $3 billion project that will make Willets Point the city’s next great neighborhood.
The development, which Bloomberg has made a centerpiece of his second-term agenda, would bring 1.7 million-square-feet of retail shops and restaurants, 500,000- square-feet of office space, 5,500 units of housing, a hotel, a school and a convention center to a site described by many as blighted and an eyesore.
While the city cut deals with many of the larger businesses to acquire more than half of the property at the approximately 60-acre site, it has not reached deals with many of the smaller property owners.
“We are legally prohibited from engaging in direct negotiations with businesses that are currently under lease with private landlords,” said a New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) spokesperson. “However, our relocation consultant, Cornerstone, is talking with every business in the area to keep them informed of our plans.”
However, some area workers and small business owners rejected that claim, and said all they want is a little assistance from the city.
“The only thing that we ask is relocation for the small businesses and compensation for our workers,” said Julia Sandoval, who is a single mother of three and has worked at Willets Point for the past 15 years.
