14
QUEENS WEEKLY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019
Willets
struggle, Sinchi is
trying to reconvene the
Sunshine Cooperative,
a group of 45 mechanics
and auto-body shops
in Willets Point, who
negotiated with the city
for subsidies in 2014
after it took over their
properties in order to
develop Willets Point.
“We are the
survivors,” said Sinchi.
Sinchi’s new goal
is putting pressure
on the city to open
several streets, which
functioned as access
points for a large section
of chop shops in the Iron
Triangle. Sinchi gathered
a group of five auto shop
owners on Saturday,
Sept. 1, to discuss their
strategy for reopening
a stretch of Willets
Point Boulevard and
several other adjoining
streets that he says are
choking off their f low of
customers and cutting
into their bottom line.
In early July, the New
York City Department
of Housing and
Preservation blocked off
Willets Point Boulevard,
36th, 37th and 38th
avenues as part of its
overarching Willets
Point Development Plan.
On Saturday, the shop
owners met with Robert
LoScalzo, an advocate
and documentary
filmmaker who has been
reporting on the plight
of the Iron Triangle shop
owners for years.
“The travesty here
runs so deep and long. It’s
hard to even summarize
it in a few sentences,”
LoScalzo said.
Spencer Flores
said he lost $45,000
in moving to Willets
Point from the failed
Bronx warehouse.
“Well now, OK I’m
fine. And then they
close the city gate,” said
Flores. “Customers don’t
come every day. They
come one time a week or
maybe every other day.”
LoScalzo gave the
group advice on which
politicians to target and
how to get the attention of
local civic organizations.
The group agreed that
they would show up to
the next Community
Board 7 committee
meeting on the Willets
Point Redevelopment
on Sep. 18 and contact
state Senator Jessica
Ramos and Councilman
Francisco Moya to
advocate on their behalf.
This plan to gather
political support is not
without its skeptics
though. Another Iron
Triangle shop owner
Irene Prestigiacomo said
that she and other allied
shop owners have been
reaching out to the offices
of Ramos and Moya since
May in order to enlist
their support for paving
the roads, without being
able to get them to agree
to a meeting.
Read more at QNS.
com.
Reach reporter Max
Parrott by email at
m p a r r o t t @
s c h n e p s m e d i a .
com or by phone at
(718) 260-2507.
Continued from Page 1
Battle
HPD was a no-show
after a recent request
for the city agency by
the courts to reinspect
her 99th Street and 64th
Avenue apartment, to
which Moskowitz was told
HPD did not receive any
form of notification from
the courts.
“For my mom to pick up
at 83, it’s not right and it’s
not legal,” Moskowitz said.
“My mom lives in daily
fear the landlord has
compromised her health.”
In 2017, a recently
repaired piece of drywall
above the toilet in the
apartment fell, fortunately
not causing any injury,
according to Moskowitz.
Moskowitz also says
the landlord has not been
providing receipts that his
mothers rent has been paid
and claims she is behind
on payments.
Recently, the mother-son
team have filed a Freedom
of Information request
with the city Department
of Finance seeking tax
records on the property. A
2013 letter from the DOF
looking to verify that the
residence was the Weber’s
primary address in order
to continue providing
a tax abatement went
unanswered by the owners.
Since August 2018,
Arlene’s apartment has
racked up 24 violations on
the HPD website mostly
pertaining to the state of
the walls pests among other
defective features.
Attempts to reach
the landlord were
unsuccessful.
Reach reporter Mark
Hallum by email at
mhallum@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718)
260–4564.
Continued from Page 1
Some of the damage in the Moskowitz’s Rego Park
apartment. Photo by Howie Moskowitz/Inset via Google Maps
link
