Hunter's Point Ruins

Global Geography » United States » New York » Queens » Hunter's Point Ruins

Hunter's Point was once a low income industrial neighborhood on the waterfront of the East River in Queens. On November 8th, 2010 riots triggered a raging inferno that swelled to demolish six square blocks of the neighborhood, nearly all of the property in its entirety. Everything south of the Highway 25 off of the Queensboro bridge, south to Interstate-495 is an absolute ruin. The fires burned so hot that cars rest as molten heaps of warped slag on roadside, blackened remnants of tires fused to cracked pavement. Buildings are little more than skeletal walls of concrete, brick or shattered glass with few intact roofs.

Some considerably larger buildings bristle up from the smaller-scale fire damaged surroundings, most notably on the east side, also the least damaged by the flames. The Queens Borough Public Library has its entire western facade melted by the fire, windows on that side shattered and police tape covering entrances. Its tall structure is visible from everywhere in the ruins of Hunter's Point.

This entire neighborhood is surrounded by a wall of fifteen foot high chain link fencing, with fence gates covering road entrances, chained closed and padlocked shut. Some intrepid explorers or vagrants have cut holes in the fencing, however, leaving secluded points of access on the fringes of the ruins. No one is supposed to be here, however, and police patrol the outskirts, keeping an eye out for trespassers.

Currently, Hunter's Point is in a state of construction and during daylight hours, occupied with construction workers and light security.