Flushing Meadows Corona Park acts as one of the few open public recreational spaces for the growing populations of Elmhurst, Corona and Flushing. In the coming years three enormous building projects are planned; a 1.4 million square foot mall, expansion of the National Tennis Center and construction of a Major League Soccer (MLS) stadium in preparation for the founding of a NYC based team.

Although these projects seem all well and good, the greater ramifications may be decidedly negative. For instance, in terms of park space alone the projects would block off large swaths of land from public use. Claims that the projects would only deny 8.5 acres of land ring hollow, as new infrastructure to allow for additional car access would also need to be added. The mall would impact small businesses, traffic patterns might be disrupted and other, and some might say more vital, improvement projects might be put on hold indefinitely.

Studies have been conducted to understand the impact of these projects but none that examine their cumulative effect and that is the problem. Even if any of these individually might be beneficial, together they could fundamentally change the character of the nearby neighborhoods.