Closing Bell: Scouting New York Heads to Willets Point

Scouting New York toured Willets Point recently, an area he calls “one of the most surreal places I’ve ever been to in New York City.” He shares a little bit of history, and a whole lot of photographs of the Iron Triangle, which has been in the area since 1931. He also stumbles upon the Iron Triangle’s single residence (pictured), a home occupied by Joseph Ardizzone since his birth in 1932. Of course, we all know what’s slated to happen in Willets Point. Here is Scouting New York’s take on it:

As I was walking around taking pictures, repair shop guys kept laughing and asking me, “Why are you taking pictures this dump?” They seemed astonished that anyone would care to photograph what could be the ugliest neighborhood in New York.

I’m fascinated by organic neighborhoods that somehow manage to survive despite the gentrification of the city, and I’m not sure there’s a better example of this than Willets Point. Run-down, polluted, forgotten, and undervaluing its land, a place like Willets Point is the complete antithesis of everything New York has become today. And so the bulldozers will inevitably come in, and bland apartment buildings will go up, and a new world will be created in the most inorganic way possible.

I’m not saying it’s a reason to save it. It’s just too bad that the alternative sorta sucks too.

Visiting the Apocalypse (in Queens) [Scouting New York]

Photo by nycscout