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Pistilli Offers To Buy Westway At UCCA Meeting
"We are all upset in this community. [Westway] is a festering sore," United Community Civic Association (UCCA) President Rose Marie Poveromo said at an emergency meeting held last week. "We're making some changes," Department of Homeless Services Assistant Commissioner for Government and Community Relations Carmine Rivetti said in reference to news released earlier in the day that the city would tighten the rules for overnight shelter. "Our goal is to not use the Westway." But that was way too little and much too late for the hundreds who came to the Augustana Lutheran Church basement at 69th Street and Ditmars Boulevard to tell of their grievances with the motel, located at 71-11 Astoria Blvd. One man complained of car break-ins and another, carrying a little boy, spoke of lewd exposures and public urination by homeless people staying at the Westway. Others complained of prostitution. "I live directly across the street," said one resident. "I see what they do." "I'm afraid to sit outside of my own property," said another homeowner. "We are putting families with children into the facility (Westway) now. It's a change from what [population] was there before," Rivetti said. Until August 29, adult homeless were living at the Westway. At that time, according to one resident, handwritten notes were placed in mailboxes telling of the change to overnight shelter for homeless families at Westway. "This is a community that deals with the airport, the power plants and Rikers Island," said Assemblymember Michael Gianaris. "The city is getting a sense that this facility is not something that belongs in a neighborhood that is so residential." "No community wants a homeless shelter," said Borough President Helen Marshall. But Marshall, who experienced the problems attendant on a hotel used as a homeless shelter in her own neighborhood, said, "We cannot have those kind of conditions exist in our community. I've lived through this." After one resident suggested the use of eminent domain to get rid of the motel, Poveromo read a letter from real estate developer Joseph Pistilli offering to buy it. "Pistilli Realty Group and members of the community agree that the Westway Motel cannot serve as a substitute for a homeless shelter," the letter said in part. City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. said when the Westway began to be used by Homeless Services more than a year ago, the situation was supposed to be temporary. Vallone acknowledged he initially thought the change from a permanent homeless population was "some progress", but affirmed the community does not want a homeless shelter at all. "I was O.K. with temporary people because I thought it was better," he said. "If that's not the case, we're going to continue to tell [the city] this is not the proper place. We will keep working together and we'll get this place shut down." Gianaris agreed, saying, "We'll do whatever we have to do [to shut it down]." State Senator George Onorato lent his support as well. "I'm in your corner. We're going to do everything in our power to shut that place down," he said. In the interim, Inspector Brian McCarthy, commanding officer of the 114th Police Precinct, said he would divert more police officers to the area in the evening when a bus brings overnight shelter residents to the motel. "We will come back on November 1 with answers to all of your questions," said Marshall, referring to the UCCA meeting next month. "A homeless hotel does have a tremendous impact on the community. We're going to gather information and sit down with the commissioner [Robert Hess] and when we come back we're going to come back with the commissioner. "We've heard your complaints and we've heard your concerns," said Rivetti. "We're going to be back here November 1." |
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