During high school summers, I would often take the 7 train to Mets-Willets Point. I would get off the train and walk across the board walk to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where I attended tennis camp. It is so easy to be unaware of my surroundings because I did not make the effort to be aware. I think what I mean by this is that I could tell that besides the tennis center and the Citi field stadium, the surrounding neighborhood seemed very run down. But, because all I was concerned about was getting to tennis camp on time, I never stopped myself to ask why there was such a disparity between the rest of the neighborhood and these two well known sports facilities.
As Fernanda Santos states in the article, there are “no sidewalks or lights to brighten its unpaved roads, no sewers, piped water or heat” in the area. In 2008, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg revealed a development plan to “improve” the area by populating it with “hotel(s), school(s) and convention center(s), homes, offices, parks and retail stores”. I think that Mayor Bloomberg had a similar mindset to high school me. He had a goal, a destination, to implement this development plan and improve the area, but, whether it was intentional or not, avoided asking questions that were difficult to answer early on. But in Mayor Bloomberg’s case, he did not have to bring up the difficult questions himself because the business owners in Willets Point spoke up for themselves.
I hate that in society, it always seems like the people with the money have all the power and control. I like to believe that money is not important and that it is a superficial and materialistic entity; however, people do need a certain amount of money to live. Therefore, money does carry power. In terms of getting people to move, immigrants often do not have a choice but to move in the end because they just do not have the money to stand up against the government. And both sides, the government and the immigrants, recognize this. I hate how money (which in this case basically equates to bribing) allows the government to continue to avoid solving the real problems including why this area is so run down and how can the community (together) work to improve it. It is much easier to just to avoid the real problem as a whole, and move the problem else where.
