July 12-18, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
THE NEWSPAPER OF FLUSHING, AUBURNDALE, KEW GARDENS HILLS & FRESH MEADOWS
75 cents
GET THE LATEST NEWS EVERY DAY AT QNS.COM
Bumpy ride on Willets Point tour
Business owners in industrial Flushing area slam city reps over decades of neglect
BY JACOB KAYE
While a concrete
redevelopment plan has yet
to fall into place, property
owners, Department of
Transportation officials
and members of Community
Board 7 gathered in Willets
Point on July 8 to survey the
state of the streets and begin
planning for new roads in
the industrial park.
But with government
officials in front of them on
July 8, property owners took
the opportunity to air their
grievances.
“I don’t want to hear
a lot of PR stuff,” said
Irene Prestigiacomo, a
property owner in the Iron
Triangle. “I want to hear
actual facts.”
The city Department
of Transportation (DOT)
secured $17 million
in funding for road
improvements in the
crumbling industrial
neighborhood in the most
recent capital budget.
“The roads need to be
addressed,” said Nicole
Garcia, the DOT’s Queens
borough commissioner.
When property owners
expressed concern that the
money may get caught up in
planning and never result
in shovels in the ground,
Garcia reassured them
it would.
“That $17 million
isn’t going anywhere,”
Garcia said.
Garcia, who’s visited
Willets Point several times
before, walked along Willets
Point Boulevard with
several property owners as
department officials took
pictures of the roads to take
back to their colleagues.
“There’s no place like
this in the city,” said Sam
Sambucci, the owner of
A & D Used Auto Parts
and Cars in Willets Point.
“We just need to have
accessible streets.”
Willets Point, located
between Flushing Creek and
Citi Field, is home to dozens
of auto shops and little else.
The area has been designated
for development for the
better part of a decade. In
that time, the streets have
crumbled and become
covered in potholes, making
them dangerous to drive on,
owners and workers in the
area say.
“Customers come in for
a part and end up having to
get a whole new underbody,”
said Andrea Cohen, a 30-year
property owner in Willets
Point. “You would never
know this is New York City.
It’s total neglect.”
Garcia said that the state
of the roads in Willets Point
makes it so that a quick fix
is not possible. Technical
surveyors, contractors and
time will be needed to make
the roads right again.
In addition to improving
the streets, business
owners and workers
asked Community Board
7 members present at the
meeting to help them get
street lights, road signs and
a sewage system.
“Wait, nobody has a
bathroom?” Community
Board 7 Vice Chairman
Chuck Apelian asked the
dozen property owners and
workers at the meeting.
“No,” they said
QUEENS DA RECOUNT ROLLS ON
in unison.
Business owner Tomer
Chazbani left the meeting
with a sense of reluctant
hope about the future of
Willets Point.
“I feel good but I’ve been
disappointed for 30 years,”
Chazbani said. “We’ll see
what happens.”
A worker sorting paper ballots on July 9 as the recount in the too-close-to-call Democratic
primary for Queens district attorney gets underway. For more information on the race between
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and public defender Tiffany Cabán, see Page 4.
Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
Vol. 28 No. 28 48 total pages
/QNS.COM
