Yesterday, the 10 largest businesses and land owners in Willets Point, Queens, filed a suit against the City of New York and Mayor Bloomberg:
…seeking a court order requiring the City to provide basic vital infrastructure including repairs to streets and storm sewers, installation of sanitary sewers, street lights, street signs and other services that the City has withheld for over 40 years.
Check out their press release.
For over four decades, the businesses have begged the city to provide them with the basic municipal services their tax dollars were already paying for. Despite the poor condition of the area, the entrepreneurs have thrived in the only “heavy industrial” area left in the city.
Q: Why would a city purposefully neglect a prime real estate area and intentionally create blight?
A: The city has wanted to redevelop the 60 acres with new retail/condos/hotels/office space for years. But buying out over 200 businesses who have nowhere to relocate to could prove a little difficult.
“Ah ha! If we make Willets Point such an eyesore that everyone wants it gone, the businesses will be easy to condemn!”
The only thing we want gone are those potholes.
Read more in the New York Times.