Beware, this is about to change. Soon, our streets will be choked with strangers, noise and pollution. Crime will rise sharply, and slums could replace neat tree lined blocks of modest homes. Why is this happening? Because rich, powerful men have bought themselves a new mayor and a new governor who are in turn tossing their supporters a piece of meat - US! Tough, hard-hearted men are gathering like voracious wolves to the scent of blood, about to tear us apart. Snarling and snapping at each other then lunging for their share of the feast. More and more keep coming, stomachs gnawing, tongues dripping spittle. Who are these men the politicians have loosed on us? Speculators and billionaire developers, self made ruthless men who scratch their money from the world with their bare hands. These are not gentleman, but worshipers of golden idols, pharaohs of the New World. To them, you are dirt to be swept out of the way.
What is the plan for our community? No plan! Every developer builds whatever and wherever they feel like. Zoning restrictions have been relaxed and laws bent in the service of wealth and power. So now the law of the jungle is the prevailing law. Their is no central planning of any sort - our community board has abrogated their responsibility and seems to have followed the politicians into the pockets of these men. Absurd proposals abound; each proposal more ridiculous then the one before it. For instance, the developers are going to build a parking lot, as far as I can tell, it will rival the lot at Shea stadium. But, there are no entrances or exits except through residential neighborhoods. Metropolitan Avenue is a narrow causeway, only one lane east or west. If one car makes a left turn, everyone in line - a line some times stretching for miles - waits for oncoming traffic to thin out so the car can turn. As often happens, two cars are making left turns to go north and south, traffic backs up, neither can turn and the result is gridlock. Buses on Metropolitan stop in the middle of the street to discharge their passengers, everyone must wait, and again, gridlock. Thousands of cars going in and out of the proposed mall, are expected to jam into this traffic. If they stacked the cars ten high, it's still an impossible scheme. The city's answer to this. Pull out the traffic meters and have no parking on the Avenue. This will with one stroke bankrupt all the small stores. To assuage them the City will relax the zoning and allow large scale development of Metropolitan Ave. In theory, this enables the Metropolitan property owners to bail out by selling to big chain stores. Without parking meters, where will their patrons park? In your driveway, on your lawn, in front of fire hydrants, double park, triple park. And where do they propose to put all those tractor trailers delivering to all these big stores. Got me! The answer is that Metropolitan will never have two lanes open each way, not ever. It is not unusual to wait for several lights in order to pass the Woodhaven at Metropolitan intersection. Now, you will need to bring your camping equipment. The state of New York is going to close the Woodhaven Blvd. bridge between Metropolitan and Union Turnpike for the next three years. Regardless of which way traffic turns to detour, it must travel on - you guessed it - Metropolitan Avenue, that is, if you don't expire first of extreme old age. Waiting time will literally be measured in portions of the day, such as, I spent half a day going 5 blocks. On top of all this, Home Depot says, they're going to break ground in early spring. That's 4 months from now. Total chaos is only 4 months away. Madness! Shear madness!
You have three, and only three choices:
- Call the moving van.
- Do nothing.
- Fight.
Let's look at the three options in more detail.
If you decide to move, then I suggest, you put down this news letter right now, go to the phone and make the call. Get out as quickly as possible for your sake and ours. For yours, because you'll never get a better price then right now, for our sake because the new owner will probably decide to fight - else why bother to move here. So the community loses a shirker and gains a soldier.
The Do Nothing crowd. This will be the largest group. It is hard to understand how a person can work and slave to keep a home and then not lift a finger to save it in a time of crises. Signing some petition does not absolve one of responsibility. When did anyone ever give you something for nothing. You worked for everything you have. Then stick to methods you understand. Work hard, and sweat hard to fight the developers, the politicians, and anyone else who threatens your home. Rely on yourself instead of others. I work at beating them. Put my shoulder to the grind stone, work unrelenting until the work is finished. It is others who have resolved to do the same that I am searching for. You have families to feed and lives to lead. No one expects you to dedicate your life to this, but do something! Anything! An hour a week to stave off the moving van seems to me reasonable and prudent. Be not weary of doing right. If several hundred people are willing to work hard to save this community, then it will be saved, and we can go back to our homes and all just do nothing. Regardless of the consequences, the majority of the do-nothing crowd will remain unmoved. If we act like sheep, we can expect to be treated like sheep, and must accept whatever injustices are heaped upon us. The strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Bah! Where not dirt to be pushed around. We're free men and women of the republic. The sons and daughters of liberty. Thousands have given their lives so that we may have the luxury of considering our own fate. To do nothing is an insult to our heritage.
It's not easy to take on a powerful host of enemies: Governor, Mayor, local politicians, and only God knows how many wealthy developers. Let's survey the field. I think, the governor will stand back as soon as we seriously offer resistance. As governor, he is involved in national, and international politics. Statesmanship is required. From afar, this can be seen as a petty squabble. A statesman must stay above this. Someday, he may be called upon to arbitrate if two unmovable objects oppose each other. No doubt the governor will encourage the developers, but it will be only lip service uttered behind closed doors. Publicly, he will offer us no aid or no hindrance. Not so with the mayor. He is an authoritarian, an ex federal prosecutor under a conservative president. He will see us as public enemy number one as soon as we threaten his grand plan. His will be the hidden hand that moves all the machinery trying to grind us down. As for local politicians, we need them, but as slaves, not masters. The developers? their wealth and power taken in the aggregate are truly awesome. But, what if we did not have to face them all at the same time. Here a story from the ancients might be useful.
The Spartans, just as leery of power as we, were ruled by two kings. (Perhaps we should try that scheme. If we had two mayors, we could appeal to both, and have one for and the other against, canceling themselves out). The two kings could not agree on a common defense, so Leonidas took his own body guard, a force of 300 men, and marched off to meet an invading Persian force of 3,000,000 men. (They drank whole lakes dry, says Herodotus describing the scene). The odds were 10,000 to one. Leonidas stationed himself in the narrow pass at Thermopylae, directly in the path of the advancing host. For him, only as many Persians as could fit into the confined space existed. The rest were reduced to mere spectators. By using this tactic, the Spartans were able to fight back every attack. The Persians were getting ready to give up and go home when a sheep herder- for a handful of gold coins- showed them a goat trail that went around Leonidas.
One, and only one developer has declared that he will begin construction in 4 months - this because it is more difficult in court to halt existing construction then to stop a construction plan. No other developer is prepared to be this temerarious and commit themselves this early. In their haste to cut us off at the knees, Home Depot has narrowed the confines of the contest, reducing their own powerful allies to mere spectators. It boils down to Forest Hills verses Home Depot - an elite community against the elite vanguard of the developers. And I think we can beat this guy.
Let's go to the map that was clipped to this newsletter. The large red area should be at the bottom left. Willow lake to the right. St. John's Cemetery to the left. The heavy red band in the center is Austin Street. Metropolitan Avenue is in green as are sections of Woodhaven Blvd. and Continental Avenue. A solid yellow area is East of the Red, and a blue stripe West of the red (The blue stripe is the Woodhaven Blvd bridge that the city will close for the next 3 years). A number of yellow arrows are situated North and South of Metropolitan and a few are west of the red property. Yellow represents caution to areas in jeopardy of falling property values. The yellow arrows west of the Woodhaven bridge, point into the Glendale community, reflect the fact that more old factory buildings are located there. Since the buildings fall beyond our purview, we will discuss them no further.
The red areas in the lower left of the map are the properties that are in contention. This is the area where Home Depot plans to build, along with the other developers. The grey cross dividing the red area (perhaps some sublime symbolism is at work) is railroad property the city wants to sell or lease to the developers. The small square in the upper right section of the cross at Metropolitan Ave. is now in private hands, but it's best to be realistic, only a matter of price separates the property from the developers. So it is red as it should be. About now, you have fetched your tape measure to see if you're a safe distance away. This is foolish as we shall soon see.
First, we should notice the size of the area: a large chunk of property that can house many stores and parking lots.
Second, in order to reach the proposed stores, one must use Woodhaven Blvd or Metropolitan Avenue. Both now at saturation levels, as evidenced by the traffic jams in summer months when beach going crowds overload the bloated arteries causing gridlock. Any plan to dump high volumes of traffic from the proposed megastores onto these streets is pure insanity. The actual size of the proposed parking lot seems to be a military secret. Though the figure of 15,000 cars was originally proposed. This is roughly one quarter of Shea stadium's capacity. Shea is at the confluence of 4 major super highways, each six lanes wide, or 24 lanes of super highway, plus several wide avenues and city streets serve the facility. We have only city streets, what is missing are the super highways. which brings us to our next category.
Third, we must notice what is not there: an infrastructure to support the megastores both on the contended property and on Metropolitan Avenue. What has obviously happened is that the city, in its timorousness would not dare propose the necessary infrastructure prior to the shopping mall's actual construction. Now they push forward a rash and brazen developer to act as vanguard, hastening to start construction in order to muddy any legal challenges, and to absorb the shock of the community - a job which Home Depot has performed in the past. After the facility is built, then the city will build the infrastructure, but not without feigning some resistance. We are supposed to have traffic jams, and pollution and general chaos, so that after the shopping mall opens and causes chaos, we, the community, will demand the city build the infrastructure that should have been built in the first place. They will grudgingly oblige us - without worrying about law suits and community resistance which would have been the case had they tried to impose the large infrastructure upon us and still keep the coming super stores a secret. This is a very old political trick. First cause a problem and then solve it. Like a physician that damn near kills his patient only to cure the patient and thereby bolster his own professional reputation. In our case, the politicians will relive the very pressures they were the cause of, and come off looking like heros instead of goats.
It takes a lowlife, reprehensible click of politicians to play this trick on a prosperous community like Forest Hills. Our forefathers would have purchased a few barrels of pitch, gathered some old pillows and invited the politicians to a tar and feather feast. Then, they would have run these bums out of town on a rail. Instead of doing their job and finding us a situation that we are well suited for, like attracting an IBM or Intel or Motorola; companies that traffic in intellectual property and understand the effects of nature on their employees; who surround their facilities with lawns, gardens, trees and fountains; companies that pay handsome salaries so that everyone from top management to the blue collar employee could afford to own property in The Hills; and they could recruit a well educated, high quality work force from right here in The Hills. Instead, the politicians, for a hand full of gold coins, try to make us the schlock capitol of the universe. They betray us to robber barons and help the wretches breech our walls, loot, destroy and rape us. We must stand up as one united community and in stentorian voice proclaim, I FORBID.
For those of you with tape measure still in hand, we shall return to the map. Again, we apply reason to pierce the umbrage of secrecy. What will the infrastructure look like? Clearly, Metropolitan Avenue is too narrow an artery to pass the thick knots of traffic that must flow. Considering the number of chain stores that are on the way, it must be widened significantly to accommodate them. We must speculate that chicanery's afoot or else, why all the secrecy and deception. My hand trembles as I write the words: eminent domain. This is the city's power to seize private property. It is a police power. You get out, or the police put you out. Yes, you are paid for the property, but the city sets the price, not the free market. If the city were to play god and tamper with people's lives, all the property south of Metropolitan to Union turnpike could be condemned; a neighborhood of trim little homes on streets that are all one block in length. Some of the blocks contain only a few homes on each side of the street. They are a secluded enclave, situated off the beaten path. Once you take a hundred feet or so in order to widen the Avenue, not many homes will be left. And those that were would be squeezed in two directions by commercial development. So it is tempting for them to condemn all the homes and have that entire area zoned commercial. As cold blooded as it may sound, this is the most expedient plan and probably is sitting on the city's drawing board. These people did not bring this fate upon themselves. They are in the path of "progress".
In the Northern part of The Hills, the merchants of Austin street will inevitably clamor for a parking facility. They will unquestionably receive a municipal parking facility and relaxed zoning restrictions so they can compete with the Metropolitan Avenue merchants. I leave the reader to speculate on the shape the over commercialization of that neighborhood will take on. For now, it is sufficient to point out the course of events that must by necessity transpire. Except to notice with heavy heart that the most direct route between Metropolitan Ave and Austin Street is Continental Avenue cutting directly through the center of The Hills. An endless stream of smokey cars, squealing brakes, loud radios, drunken teenagers, criminals out looking for a score, moving through The Hills, up from Metropolitan in the South, out from the center at Continental, down from Austin in the North, coursing through our veins like a spreading cancer that will one day lay us low. My God, what have they done to us!
From the mansion to the workman's cottage, we are in common cause and must fight with a furry sufficient to throw back an onslaught that wrest us from our peaceful slumber. They have sowed the seeds of discontent and must now reap the whirlwind.
December 7, 1995
