Were one to seek an area rife with congestion and abysmal architecture, downtown Flushing would surely qualify as the winner. There seems to be no end to myopic public officials together with taxpayer-subsidized, fat-cat real estate developer friends seeking to turn Flushing into tomorrow’s overcrowded slums.
To the proposed Willets Point proposal comes the now so-called Flushing waterfront plan (“Developer lays out Flushing waterfront plan,” Flushing Times Oct. 27-Nov. 2). Small business owners need to have real concern about efforts to mislabel viable businesses as substandard so as to allow real estate interests to usurp their property, businesses and livelihood.
Lost in the latest “now you see it, now you don’t” charade is the unalterable fact that there are and will never be more than three major arteries to service the entire area. To wit, the Grand Central Parkway, the Van Wyck Expressway and Northern Boulevard — roadways already bursting at their seams.
If there is unused land along the Flushing River, rather than more ugly structures, a park with walking areas and benches would be in the public’s best interests. The residents of Queens deserve more than the mediocrity they are constantly being fed.
Benjamin M. Haber
Flushing
