By The Times/Ledger
The curtain has come down on the planned multiplex cinema in Springfield Gardens. For the foreseeable future there will be no movie theater in southeast Queens. In essence, Regal Cinemas has decided that building the theater is not worth the hassle of dealing with former Assemblywoman Cynthia Jenkins and her band of obstructionists.
Jenkins and Co. win. You lose. But even for Jenkins, this is a Pyrrhic victory. This property will now be sold to Home Depot. If Jenkins though a cinema would create congestion, wait until she sees the traffic created by this giant box store. Just ask the people in Flushing how the Home Depot there has changed life along College Point Boulevard. And unlike the cinema, Home Depot is open 24-hours, seven days a week. Nice work, Cynthia.
The theater owners said they are pulling out because of concerns about possible soil contamination. Maybe. But keep in mind that the College Point Multiplex, built in the corporate park, was also built on grounds that once belonged to the Flushing Airport. How clean do you suppose that soil was? And who cares? The patrons are not coming there to plant corn, they are coming to see a movie and it is hard to imagine that possible contaminants in the soil beneath this theater are putting anyone
