May 11, 2009
Stephen Stirling 
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Iron Triangle Tracker
Monday
Last week, as Community Board 7 gave its blessing to move five of his fellow Willets Point landowners to College Point, Joe Ardizzone sat silently and watched.
For the work-worn resident of Willets Point — the only person who still lives in the industrial business community — the board’s monthly ritual is nothing new.
For the better part of the last two years, Ardizzone has been a fixture at community board meetings, press conferences, rallies and anything else involving Willets Point. And in speaking to him, one might call him a glutton for punishment.
“They say this is a democracy,” he said, as he calmly left the meeting, clad in a ruffled wool sweater. “I used to believe that.”
Ardizzone said he has grown weary of fighting the city’s plan to transform his home into a large residential and commercial community, a battle he said has dealt him a heavy financial toll.
“I’ve been there for so long, it’s all I know,” he said. “And it’s all diminishing returns for me at this point. I really have nothing left.”
The 76-year-old has lived at 126-96 Willets Point Blvd. for decades, residing in an apartment above the bar and restaurant Master’s Express Deli — which he rents to Marcos Neira, the President of the Willets Point Defense Committee.
Though he plans to continue to fight for his land on principle, he said he struggles philosophically with the costs he incurs being an active member of groups like Willets Point United Against Eminent Domain and the Willets Point Defense Committee.
“All it’s doing is costing more and more and more. They say we need more money for lawyers and for this and that,” he said. “I pay for them to protect the land I already own. The land I have the right to own by living in this country. I just don’t understand what the city of New York is doing.”
“Shame on this country,” Ardizzone added before exiting the Union Plaza Care Center in Flushing, where the CB 7 meeting was held. “I feel like an American Indian.”
