The Northwestern corner of Queens along the shores of Flushing Bay, which comprises of the neighborhoods of Flushing, College Point, Willets Point, Corona and East Elmhurst, has undergone significant development and alteration over the past century. Formerly the site of the mountainous Corona Ash Dump brownfield, the region was cleared and landscaped in the late 1930s to establish the current Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (the second largest public park in New York City) in a campaign led by urban-planning megalomaniac Robert Moses. The purpose of the park’s establishment was, in his own words, to create a more scenic view and atmosphere in the previously deteriorating corner of Queens.
The park is infamous as being the site of the colossal failure that was the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, as well as its scenic beauty being in close proximity to the polluted, unkempt, neglected brownfield on the Willets Point peninsula.
Various development schemes are planned for the region to further economic gain/attention for the surrounding neighborhoods of Flushing and Corona, and eventually spill-over into neighboring communities such as College Point and Jackson Heights. These plans include a 1.4 million square foot shopping complex in the CitiField parking lot on the Willets Point peninsula, along with a 25,000-seat soccer stadium on the Northeastern-most corner of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, and an expansion of the National Tennis Center on the other side of the Park. These plans have been met with increasing opposition from business-owners, cultural groups and community leaders in the surrounding neighborhoods, especially Corona, on the grounds that the parklands are public and ought not to be exploited for seasonal use, denying neighboring regions of of their own various uses of the space.
