By Michael Ratliff

Joe Ardizzone is the last man living in Willets Point. And he wants it to remain that way.

Ardizzone, 77, was here when snakes slithered on the banks of the now scummy Flushing Creek. He was here when kids rode horses under what is now the Van Wyck Expressway. He remembers walking home from school through hip-high snow in cardboard-lined shoes.

The security guard still lives in the brick and stone house where he was born. It is the only building on the street with a shingled roof and Ardizzone has been the area’s sole resident for over a decade. He had hoped to live out his remaining years here in peace.

But the City has other plans. It is looking for a developer to raze the 62 acres of auto-shops and light industry that Ardizzone calls home. In its place would rise a convention center and 5,500 housing units.

The administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg argues that the contaminated landscape of Willets Point needs to change after decades of blight. Petroleum has trickled into the ground water. Thousands of cars rust away in scrap lots. Sidewalks and storm sewers are scarce. When it rains, the potholes fill with murky water that stands for weeks.

But the thought of relocation is devastating for a man whose entire life has been this house. Ardizzone has no kids and his childhood friends moved away long ago. His closest family is a pounce of feral cats that he feeds chopped beef twice daily.

“The average citizen doesn’t know what we’ve gone through,” he said. “And now we’ve got to start up all over again?”

The City would pay Ardizzone a still unspecified compensation for losing his home. But his father, an Italian bricklayer, taught him to fight for the old homestead. That’s what his dad did when he caught a man trying to unload dirt on their property.

“He tore off his shirt as he was yanking him out of the truck,” Ardizzone said with an admiring chuckle. “He was a strong guy, not only strong but he would fight. He didn’t give a damn. Feared no one.”

These days the younger Ardizzone fights from behind the wheel of his white 1990 Mercury Grand Marquis, which he drives through the rowboat-sized potholes enlisting men to defeat the City’s proposed $3 billion plan.

Ardizzone’s birth residence. The bottom floor is now a Hispanic deli.

So far, over 20 local business owners have gathered under the name of Willets Point United to try and upset the Economic Development Corporation’s redevelopment plan, which the City Council approved in November 2008. If they fail, some 1,800 workers will be out of a job and Ardizzone will have to find a new home.

The Corporation, on the other hand, believes that redevelopment will create 5,000 permanent jobs and another 18,000 during the construction period. The City controls almost 65 percent of land in Willets Point and is accepting proposals from developers. The Economic Development Corporation failed to comment on compensation for “seized” property after numerous phone calls and e-mails.

Ardizzone spends weekends and nights organizing after work in Bayside. He dresses carefully in a white-collared shirt with brown dress shoes and a matching belt before attending Community Board meetings. The get up is a sharp contrast to his standard green flannel shirt and white painter’s cap from Fodera Foods, a Willets Point staple. The conversation on redevelopment doesn’t stop at dinnertime, when Ardizzone orders his usual broiled fish and garlic knots with a glass of red at Raymond’s Pizzeria in Corona.

On a recent bright autumn Saturday, Ardizzone was doing the rounds again, reminding business owners of an upcoming meeting. He stopped by the St. John Enterprise, a general contracting firm, to have a chat with owner Ralph St. John.

“What the government is doing is blaming us for the conditions that are down here now,” said Ardizzone.

St. John agreed and expressed his dismay over the looming threat from the City.

“They think it’s a bad dream, that it’s not going to happen,” St. John said of local workers. “But guys like me and Joe, the [City] pisses all over us. I got almost 60 years of work and blood into this place…they keep sucking, sucking my blood.”

Ardizzone tightened during the rant. For a few quiet moments only garage dust filled the air. He released a deep breath, shrugged and brushed off his shirt.

“We are paying for the politicians to protect us, yet they are the ones doing this,” Ardizzone said firmly.

St. John shook his head and then Ardizzone’s hand.

Like his comrades in the struggle, Ardizzone feels that the City let the area slide into blight so that it could be snatched under eminent domain laws. Besides the haphazard roads, there are no septic sewers and contaminated storm water flows directly into the neighboring Flushing Bay.

City officials agree that the toxic runoff has an impact on the bay, though they blame waste from auto-repair work. The Economic Development Corporation’s plan includes construction of a new sanitary and storm sewer system. This would improve water quality in Flushing Bay, enrich soil conditions and eliminate flooding problems, according to the proposal. Local businesses have requested new sewers for decades.

Ardizzone and Willets Point United have submitted a petition to the New York Supreme Civil Court that reprimanded the Bloomberg Administration for passing an incomplete redevelopment plan. The scheme’s success hinges on a set of ramps to the Van Wyck Expressway that the Federal Highway Commission has yet to approve.

After leaving St. John’s place, Ardizzone ventured under the expressway right past ‘No Trespassing’ signs. He stood beneath where the ramps are supposed to fit and stared at the spaghetti of roads above.

“They have no place to put the ramps, these roads are already congested and packed,” he said. “There is no way.”

He continued down towards the bed of Flushing Creek to a spot he has frequented since learning to walk. Residents used to swim there during the summer when Ardizzone was small. Now the smell of sulfur makes eyes tear.

“This whole creek is full of human waste,” Ardizzone snorted. “You should see it at low tide.”

Ardizzone inspects Flushing Creek.

He has time, but not much, to figure out what he will do should his home vanish. The City has still not selected a developer for the project, although the capital budget of $424 million aimed to do so by 2009.

Ardizzone has thought about moving down to Florida near his sister if he loses the property. But he likes winters and is hesitant about the southern heat, moss and humidity.

“Why move to Florida? It is a giant f…… casket,” he said. “I’d rather have the four seasons.”

He’s resigned to the worst, yet remains philosophical.

“I’ll tell you my life, I think God was always there and has always helped me out even though I had rough times and all,” he said. “But if you don’t have rough times, how are you going to appreciate the good ones?”

(Top Image) Ardizzone patrols Willets Point in his Grandmarquis.