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August 11, 2008
WILLETS POINT: Imagining a Place Where Cheers Never End
The New York Times
by Sophia Hollander
Mr. Simon and Mr. McShane represent a new breed of Mets fans, people who have embraced the plans for a new stadium and are now working to help revitalize the surrounding neighborhood. They are using team blogs to publicize community meetings about the future of Willets Point and to update Mets fans on developments.
“If they can successfully build a neighborhood there that draws in people before and after games, but also has permanent residents, I feel like it would have a good effect on the whole area,” said Mr. McShane, who grew up near New Haven and frequented Fenway Park in Boston, where lively restaurants and bars surround the stadium. “That’s something that I always wanted to do for my favorite team.”
NoLandGrab: By "help revitalize the surrounding neighborhood," they mean "help get rid of those annoying businesses that belong to those property owners who've been ignored by the city and deprived of standard services like paved roads and sewers for decades." Mr McShane also represents the "new breed of Mets fan" who also happen to work for Bronx Councilman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who — big surprise — did not join 29 other Councilmembers in April in voicing opposition to the use of eminent domain in Willets Point.
If Mr. Simon and Mr. McShane are leaders in the grass-roots movement to revitalize Willets Points, diehard fans like Jim Conway are its foot soldiers. Mr. Conway, a crane operator, spoke on behalf of the plan last month at a hearing before the Queens borough president, Helen Marshall, saying that it would bring needed jobs to the area. But he admitted later that he had more on his mind than economic interests.
“In Shea, it’s very depressing,” Mr. Conway said as he prepared for his annual pilgrimage to watch the Mets play in Chicago. “You’re embarrassed to ask people from out of town to go with you. There’s no place where you can celebrate being a baseball fan. You don’t feel proud.”
NLG: Mr. Conway is most likely a member of a union whose rules mandated his attendance at the hearing, and whose "needed jobs" would come at the expense of some of the nearly 2,000 jobs that already exist in Willets Point.
And we thought one celebrated "being a baseball fan" inside the stadium. What would make us proud is a government that didn't abuse eminent domain for the benefit of wealthy real estate developers.
Queens Crap offers some additional perspective: Tweeder starts pro-eminent domain abuse website
Posted by eric at August 11, 2008 10:20 AM