Working in Willets Point

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wants to sweep aside the junkyards, small factories and car-repair shops of Willets Point, Queens, to make room for office and residential development. Twenty landowners in the neighborhood are suing to stop his efforts. Below are five companies that operate in Willets Point, the oldest since 1933.

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NYT: Peel Sessions Under the B.Q.E.

For two years cyclists have gathered under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway for weekly “peel sessions,” pushing the limits of the evolving sport of fixed-gear freestyle.

There is no coasting on a fixed-gear bicycle. Because the single gear is mounted directly onto the back wheel, the pedals keep turning as long as the wheel does. And when the rider pedals backwards, the bike moves backwards. No brakes, either: riders use the force of their legs to stop the pedals and, thus, the bike.

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Citi Field: A Brooklyn Accent in Queens

With a facade reminiscent of Ebbets Field and a rotunda named for Jackie Robinson, Citi Field is opening with a nod to the past. But as with many of the ballparks built since the early 1990s, the nostalgia is surrounded by 21st-century amenities. | Related interactive graphic: Yankee Stadium

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A Fatal Police Shooting in Queens

In the early morning hours of Nov. 25, 2006, Sean Bell, a 23-year-old New York City man due to be married later that day, walked out of a Queens strip club, climbed into a gray Nissan Altima with two friends who had been celebrating with him – and died in a hail of 50 bullets fired by a group of five police officers.

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