![]() ![]() “It’s like a flea market for car repair,’’ he said, “so you can comparison shop for a much cheaper price.”Īs Mr. “This is the mecca for car repair in New York,” said Naqib John, 22, a college student from Queens who had just negotiated for a replacement side-view mirror for his 2014 Toyota Camry: $75 cash. ![]() The customers leave their good shoes at home and go from shop to shop along Willets Point Boulevard for a bargain repair price. They rely on loyal customers who arrive with cash and hopefully some fluency in Spanish. ![]() The shops are a far cry from the scrubbed look of franchises like Jiffy Lube or Pep Boys. Mechanics in grease-smudged jumpsuits grab lunch and sometimes kick a soccer ball around crumpled cars and feral cats as airliners droop overhead bound for La Guardia. The few women who work here mostly sell food from carts and from the back of minivans, including homemade Latin dishes of oxtail stew, yucca, sweet plantains, and rice and beans. Juan Carlos Rodriguez and Yessenia Varela Willets Point is a part of our lives because practically, one wakes up and goes to Willets Point. Arturo Olaya 58, a Colombian immigrant who runs an auto upholstery shop inside of a repurposed shuttle bus parked on the street, said he would try his luck in Florida.Īs for the area itself, it will join other storied industrial hubs that have disappeared, including Printers Row, much of the garment district and the Meatpacking District, all of them in Manhattan. Roberto Bolañoz, 57, an Ecuadorean immigrant with 27 years repairing cars in Willets Point, has his eye on a spot in New Jersey. “When they close this place,” he said, “I’ll probably just buy and sell cars to make money.” He would pay two or three times that elsewhere, he said. Khan, who pays a manageable $2,500 a month for a shop the width of a one-car garage. Most are unsure where they would relocate to, including Mr. The owners enjoy cheaper than average rents here, along with a synergy with neighboring businesses that is difficult to replicate. The roughly 75 remaining shops are mostly on month-to-month leases on privately owned parcels. ![]()
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