You know me, I’m always looking for a bargain and a good cause!

During the whole month of October, Transportation Alternatives is offering all Queens residents a special discount on membership, only $20!  (Minimum single membership is regularly $30.  ) In addition to the TA magazine Reclaim, new TA Queens Members also receive a limited edition “I bike Queens” t-shirt.  It’s easy to sign up, just go to https://transalt.org/support/join/queens. By increasing increasing membership in Queens, TA will improve its ability to advocate for transit, pedestrian and cycling improvements in our fair borough.

Since I’m still sidelined with the fractured foot, I feel so out of the loop! I’m very glad to encourage others to get on their bikes and get out and walk in Queens, especially in the crisp, brisk fall season. Enjoy!

Personal Ad

Seeking local sweetheart who is into long walks into the sunset, good health and giving to charity. Must be kind to their mother.

If this describes you, join the Queens Boulevard walk for the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” fundraiser, Sunday, October 19, 2008.

And while you’re at it, sign up yourself or a loved one for an automated mammogram reminder!

Even though it is “right next door,” we never go to the FoHi Library. After years of worry that my 1984 outstanding overdue book debt would still be on record and grown to a 6-digit figure, I finally got over my fear and got a new Queens Library Card this month with no problems! (Hmm, I guess I must have paid it..)

Soprano Marlena de la Mora, Tenor Benjamin Sloman, Pianist Inna Leytush

I was lucky enough to go back to the FoHi branch a second time this month to hear a 150th Birthday Tribute to Giacomo Puccini, composer of La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Tosca, among other classic operas, on Saturday, August 23rd.

This presentation featured Australian-born tenor Benjamin Sloman, and Texas-born soprano Marlena de la Mora, both now local residents. Mr. Sloman has performed internationally as a soloist in recitals and concerts in venues ranging from the Sydney Town Hall and Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia to One World Symphony in New York. Ms. de la Mora is a soprano at the Metropolitan Opera, and has performed with the NYC Opera tour of Madama Butterfly, and as a special guest soloist at various events, cruises and concerts.

Joining them was Russian-born pianist Inna Leytush, who has performed as a coach and accompanist for various vocalists in venues around the world, including Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, San Francisco Opera, Moscow State Philharmonic, and Funabashi Opera Society in Japan.

After starting out with a piece from Wagner (who is sometime linked to Puccini stylistically), the talented trio performed a lively assortment of arias from La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Turandot to the mostly blue-haired and balding crowd. Ms. de la Mora ended her set with Klange der Heimat from Die Fledermaus, and Mr. Sloman rounded it out with a “sing along” (more like a “mumble along”) to the much-loved Neapolitan song, Santa Lucia. Despite the basement atmosphere, the singers let loose and almost shook the plaster off the ceiling. They belted out the big notes and hit the high notes!

Brava!! Brava!!

I must say that a library basement, with folding chairs, linoleum floors, flourescent lighting and 7-foot ceilings is possibly the worst venue for opera singers, especially when singing Italian arias. Not only does it make some notes sound needlessly crass and harsh, the acoustics can easily blow out a hearing aid battery. But the performers were really good sports about it, and the crowd was very appreciative. I overheard that there were many opera aficianados in the audience, even a retired tenor who must’ve been about 90 years young.

There was also the expected bit of crankiness, too. Frankly, some of these seniors giggled and whipsered like fidgety junior high school kids! Settle down, people!

Maestra Leytush will return to the FoHi branch on October 30 to present a program celebrating operas based on the poetry of Alexander Pushkin. Enjoy the classic melodies of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Rimski-Korsakov as well as pieces from the opera, “Eugene Onegin,” with the talented vocalists Victoria Kurbatsaaya and Alexander Krinkov.

“Secretive and rich, a little scary
Queens Boulevard, tempting boulevard
Waiting there to swallow the unwary”

The Transportation Alternatives press conference on improving safety and creating a bike lane on Queens Boulevard, held Sunday, July 27, was short, sharp and to the point: there is no reason why Queens Boulevard must remain an infamous “Boulevard of Death.” I’d say at about 40 people, including City Council Member James Gennaro, came to support the Rahman family and TransAlt. And I wasn’t the only one who raised an eyebrow or nodded knowingly during the two small but screeching near-misses between cars that occurred during the event.

Asif Rahman’s ghost bike

The press conference took place at the spot where Asif Rahman was run over by a truck in February of this year. This area is directly across the boulevard from The Queens Place mall and the popular Georgia Diner, an area that is in great need of better accommodations for pedestrians and cyclists. You can watch an excellent short video of the press conference, and hear excerpts from Asif’s mother and sister. Note the sign for Forest Hills to the left of the microphones!!

Photo: Forest City

The event got widespread local coverage on The Daily News, amNY, metro, Fox5News and  NBC. I’ve also been following the whole bike lane issue the last couple of months in the local blogosphere and in the neighborhood papers, and I’ve noticed some consistent themes in the comments.

1. People who ride bicycles on NYC streets, especially those who actually use QB, are thrilled and excited.
2. People who know victims of car accidents (pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers) praise efforts to make major thoroughfares safer and calmer.
3. Nearly all the other comments say, “why bother? It’s only going to cost money, cause more accidents and not solve the problem. As long as bicyclists and pedestrians continue to ignore traffic rules and the right of way of cars, they’ll continue to be killed. The victims were too old, too slow or too foolish.”

The resignation, absolute certainty of failure, and blaming of the victim is so classic New York, it could have been written by a Norman Mailer. I once read that New Yorkers are experts at presenting opinion as fact, and it shows. The comment about bike lanes being the cause of more accidents really takes the cake. I’d like to see that data!

And, by the way, have you noticed that folks who post anti-bike comments, who rail against reckless, foolish and lawless pedestrians and cyclists, usually have screen names like “Ninety5rpm” or “race-car-driver?” Here’s a tip, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: those screen names aren’t exactly helping your cause. Next time, try posting as “ITurnSignals” or “Never-pass-on-the-right,” and I’ll take you a little more seriously.

The press conference

Transportation Alternative’s Deputy Director Noah Budnick (below) introduced the campaign to make Queens Boulevard a “complete street” - meaning a street with “human-friendly signal timing, bike lanes…streets that are sensitive to the needs of all road users.” Despite a welcome reduction in fatalities in recent years, approximately 100 bicyclists and pedestrians are struck on QB each year.

Asif’s mother, Lizi, and sister, Moumita, spoke very movingly. They described Asif’s love of bicycling, poetry and community involvement.  Before the crash, they had never really taken a look at Queens Boulevard. Once they saw the crash site and the rest of QB, they were astounded that no bicycle safety measures exist on the road. The historical lack of concern for bike safety on QB is shocking, and the pedestrian safety measures made in 2001 should not be the end of improvements. How many more people need to die on Queens Boulevard before changes are made, they asked.

    
Councilmember James F. Gennaro (D) (Fresh Meadows) represents the area where the Rahmans live, and has joined them every step of the way in this endeavor. He held up his bike helmet (see below) and said that he wears one whenever he bikes, but a helmet will do nothing to save you when you’re run over by a truck. As Lizi Rahman affirmed later, when her son’s body was found, “Asif’s head and face didn’t have a scratch,” painting a horrifying and sad image of what must have happened.

Councilmember Gennaro’s staff distributed a letter he wrote to the Bloomberg Administration, co-signed by Council Members John Liu and Eric Gioia, calling for a improved safety and a bicycle lane on Queens Boulevard.

Gennaro also echoed what others have said - Let’s face it. Cyclists will continue to use Queens Bouelvard. Bicyclists use QB for the same reasons cars do: it is the most direct way to get into Manhattan. Especially with current gas prices, popular concern about the environment, and improved bike lanes throughout the rest of the city, the number of recreational and commuter cyclists in Queens will only increase. Yet, despite it’s infamous moniker of “The Boulevard of Death”, Queens Boulevard was not included whatsoever in the Mayor’s 2006 3-year, 200-mile plan for safer bicycling in NYC

Queens Boulevard is, at some areas, twelve lanes wide, and is treated by many drivers as a highway. Similar thoroughfares in other boroughs (such as Eastern Parkway) have been improved and beautified. Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn has had a separated, protected off-street biking and walking lane since 1894. Even the Grand Concourse in the Bronx - possibly the second most dangerous road of its kind in NYC -  enjoyed years of car-free Sundays until 1996, and revived in 2006.

Ocean Parkway, arial view (www.nycbikemaps.com)

Ocean Parkway (www.nycbikemaps.com)

Shouldn’t a modern, cosmopolitan society in 2008 be motivated to make changes to a street called “The Boulevard of Death?”

“Queens Boulevard, ruthless boulevard
Destination for the stony-hearted
Queens Boulevard, lethal boulevard
Everyone’s forgotten how they started
Here on Queens Boulevard!”

Pardon my taking license with another Broadway musical, but I couldn’t resist.

(apologies to Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton.)

I got this from TAQC Chair Mike Heffron the other day and I’ve been lax in my duty to post it. I know that ForestHills72 already posted it, but I’ve been under the weather this week and sleeping a lot. Summertime illnesses are giant bummers!! Stay healthy, everyone, especially on the Big QB!

Transportation Alternatives along with CM Jim Gennaro’s office will be having a press conference to kick off our campaign for a Safer Queens Blvd. Here’s the info:

WHEN: Sunday 7/27 12pm
WHERE: Queens Blvd and 55th Rd at Asif Rahman’s Ghost Bike
WHY: To make Queens Blvd safer for pedestrians and cyclists

CM Jim Gennaro will be there, hopefully some other electeds too. We will be calling for a physically separated bike lane and pedestrian improvements along the length of Queens Blvd. Ped improvements include, but are not limited to, increasing pedestrian crossing times or even leading pedestrian intervals (LPI), mid block crossing and reducing turning conflicts between cars and people. I want to stress, this is not just for a bike lane, pedestrians still are struck with frequency along Queens Blvd and they need our help too.

Queens Blvd doesn’t actually run through Gennaro’s district but Asif Rahman, the young man who was struck and killed along Queens Blvd, was one of his constituents. He is responding to pleas from Lizi Rahman, Asif’s mother, to do something about Queens Blvd. And after all, this is not some little street in one neighborhood, this is Queens Blvd. Changes here will effect everyone in Queens for the better, whether or not it runs through ones neighborhood.

What we want more than anything is for people to come out to the press conference and start the campaign strong. The whole thing shouldn’t be more than an hour. I think it’s fair to say that it’s because of blogs like yours that this ball has gotten rolling so quickly. A small mention was made about revisiting Queens Blvd and that spark very quickly turned into a fire.

This is just a reminder that the Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee (TAQC)  will be holding its monthly meeting this evening at 6:30 PM at the Greater Astoria Historical Society, 35-20 Broadway, on the 4th floor of the Thomas M. Quinn & Sons Memorials and Funeral Home. Easy to get to from both the Steinway Street stop on the R, V lines and the Broadway stop on the N, W lines.

If you’re interested in bicycling around our great borough, and representin’ central Queens, this is the committe for you.

Thanks to comrade blogger, Forest Hills 72, for inquiring about the TA Queens Committee’s mission. Read the comments page to learn more about the inner workings and goals of the TAQC, and read my Forest Hills-Park Slope round-trip biking route.

There will be a packed agenda and lots to discuss, and lots of ways to get involved.  I also look forward to getting everyone’s opinion on a variety of topics. 

Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee advocates on behalf of cyclists, pedestrians, and mass transit users, in Queens.  They meet the 2nd Monday each month (unless otherwise noted) at the Greater Astoria Historical Society from 6:30p-8p.  All are welcome to join.

So Queens libraries are in for a $7 million budget cut, and that’s kind of disgraceful considering the Queens library system is already sorta embarrassing. Just think of how it’ll be when it has even less money. Y’know, when I moved to Forest Hills, the library on 71st was terrible, but then it closed for a major renovation. When it reopened–yep, still terrible. Seems to me like the kids’ offerings aren’t bad, but libraries aren’t just for kids. Can’t we piggyback on the NYPL like the Bronx and Staten Island do?

Anyway, like at least one other local blogger, I was asked to post a link to an online petition to stop the bleeding, and because I think libraries are a vital community resource, I’ve already done so, right there, earlier in this sentence.

The city’s annual school report cards are out, and though The New York Times’ spin is how surprisingly tough the grades were, here in Queens, things went a little more smoothly. PS 101 (in the Gardens) and PS 196 (on the parkway) got A’s, just like you expected. But which one is better? The graders are nice enough to settle the great elementary-school debate: Grand Central Parkway’s A is based on a score of 78.88, while School in the Gardens slides by with a 76.91. Eat that, Gardens!

The widely loathed Russell Sage Junior High got a C, whereas the not so widely loathed Forest Hills High made out with a B. Here’s one surprise: If you can, send your surly adolescent to Halsey Junior High, up by NOVO 64, instead of Sage. It scored a solid B.

Other area schools and how they scored after the jump.

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