The reading “Queens Triple Play: Willets West, Major League Soccer, National Tennis Center” provides a detailed description of the upcoming plans for the area near Flushing Meadows Corona Park that are sure to have a major impact on the surrounding communities. After reading this article, I was shocked about the proposals that are currently being discussed. Being a resident of Flushing myself, I have gotten used to the outlook of the Willets Point area of Queens. I remember visiting Shea Stadium all the time with my family and I can’t imagine that area being as commercialized as the article indicates that its going to be.
According to the reading, a 1.4 million square foot acre mall is to be constructed on the parking lot of Citifield. This mall will be the largest in Queens. Furthermore, MLS wants to construct a 25, 000 seat soccer stadium across the #7 subway line. Lastly the National Tennis Center is proposing to add over 7,000 seats and luxurious suites and parking spaces.
There are some benefits to the these proposals. For example, the MLS is promising to rehabilitate existing soccer fields, wetlands and surrounding park areas. They also plan on contributing to the construction of new public soccer fields, cricket fields and volley ball courts. The soccer stadium will cater to the large hispanic communities in the areas which are an integral part of MLS’ fan base. Also, the Willets Point mall is sure to be one of the largest in Queens. These three proposals are sure to bring new visitors and residents to this area of Queens, and will surely allow Flushing to further prosper. However, in my opinion, despite the fact that I would enjoy having these developments so close to where I live, I believe that the cons to these plans greatly outweigh the cons.
According to the reading, about 1 acre of the Flushing Meadows parkland is to be alientated for the tennis center and about 7.5 acres is to be alienated for the soccer stadium. In my opinion, Flushing is already greatly lacking in parkland. In the past few years, there have been many new developments, especially in the Main Street area of Flushing. All these projects have been either new businesses or new residential developments. Flushing Meadows is one of the only “areas of green” that we Flushing residents have. I think that instead of focusing on commercializing the area, the government should focus on providing this area of Flushing/Corona with the public space and parkland that they supposedly should have (according to the public documents which falsely state that the Flushing Meadows Park should consist of 1225 acres of land – but in reality only about 346 acres are open to the public for public use). Instead of following the Strategic Framework that was discussed for Flushing, that was going to renaturalize water bodies and enhance green spaces, the developments are instead going to further demolish the public spaces available for residents.
Besides doing away with the grassland, these proposed projects are also going to have a detrimental impact on the lives of the residents. Although the new businesses that are going to be opened are going to provide jobs workers in the area, these business workers are going to be displaced for a good few years until the new businesses are actually constructed and opened. Furthermore, who’s to say that the residents in the surrounding communities are even able to afford such luxuries such as going to the tennis or soccer stadium or even to the mall? Instead on focusing on creating such things, I believe developers should focus more on the actual communities of Flushing, Elmhurst and Corona and focus on how to improve its existing conditions. For example, they could put more effort into improving the poor school systems in the those cities that often drives residents to send their children to schools elsewhere. They could also focus on creating more public spaces that would allow the residents to interact and further develop their sense of a community.
