The article, “Queens Triple Play: Willets West, Major League Soccer, and the National Tennis Center”, gives the readers a glimpse of the fate of Flushing Meadows Corona Park.  As the article points out, there are several pros and cons in regards to the construction of the “largest mall in Queens” on the Citifield parking lot, the Major League Soccer (MLS) stadium and the National Tennis Center. The construction of a large mall and new stadiums will attract more customers and fans to the neighborhood, which in turn will have a positive impact on local businesses such as restaurants and bars. In class, we previously discussed that Willets Point is not much of a residential area and lies on the outskirts of New York City. Also, as Prerana Reddy discussed in our visit to the QMA, Flushing Meadows Corona Park does not have as many employees as Central Park in Manhattan does. Therefore we can see that the Flushing Meadows Corona Park is not as well maintained as Central Park. Such differences occur due to the parks’ location. Central Park is located right in the middle of Manhattan while Flushing Meadows Corona Park lies on the outskirts of the city. In class, we previously discussed that the surrounding neighborhood of Willets Point is not much of a residential area either. So by building a stadium or a large mall in the area, the neighborhoods surrounding Flushing Meadows Corona park will get citywide attention. Local businesses will thrive and the neighborhood aesthetics will improve in order to attract a larger crowd to these huge centers of entertainment.

Although these benefits sound great, the use of public park space to build such huge complexes is detrimental to the lifestyle of the local neighborhoods’ residents. According to the article, the public space in Flushing Meadows Corona Park is the only open space where residents can come to participate and enjoy outside recreational activities. If this space is taken over by malls and sports centers, residents will not have the open park space to enjoy anymore. Also, the surrounding neighborhoods of Flushing, Corona and Elmhurst are already experiencing rapid population growth and the construction of such crowd attracting centers will only make the problem of overcrowding in homes and on the number 7 train line worse. Traffic will also be a huge contributor to the overcrowding issue. Although businesses such as restaurants and bars will thrive, small local businesses will be replaced by huge chain stores in the large shopping mall.

Also, it is interesting to note that the project to create more housing units in Willets Point was pushed back to as far as 2028 while the three projects (which is the construction of a large mall, MLS stadium and the National Tennis Center) will only take about four to five years to complete. It is easy to see that the focus right now is on the completion such extravagant projects (which may cause more harm to the local communities than actually benefitting them). Meanwhile the projects (such as the construction of housing) that will directly benefit the local communities have been put on hold. Although the construction of these major projects is not complete, we can pretty much predict the detrimental impact of these commercialized projects on Flushing Meadows Corona Park and the surrounding neighborhoods.