If you’d like to participate in the Willets Point hearing, here are the details:

City Planning Commission
Wednesday August 13th
*NYU *Tishman Auditorium in Vanderbilt Hall
(south side of Washington Square South (West 4th Street), just east of
MacDougal Street).

The hearing should begin about 12 noon and each speaker will have 3 minutes

More information here:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/subcats/cpc_notice.shtml

“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.)

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.

Merry Christmas! To celebrate, here’s some Jew stuff for you.

Most of you are probably familiar with the saga of the Trylon Theater, the Rego Park landmark that was denied acknowledgment of such by the Landmarks Preservation Commission before being turned into a Bukharian community center. The Bukharian group wasted no time altering the marquee, putting up a hideous, hideous sign entirely in Cyrillic.

Well, a tipster points out that after a coordinated campaign of complaints to Melinda Katz, the marquee now includes the words “COMMUNITY CENTER,” en anglais. Also, precariously perched atop the marquee are the words “OHR NATAN,” which aren’t really English, but hey, they’re closer than the rest.

There’s probably some Christmas lesson to be learned here, about Jews and America and immigration and assimilation and bigotry and stubbornness and the Minuteman Project and the effects of community activism and probably not Jesus, but maybe we can work him in somehow. But whatever; draw your own conclusions. Ho ho ho!

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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Left-wing sources inform me that the controversial Petraeus-hataz at MoveOn.org have organized a series of rallies tonight to encourage Congress to override Bush’s veto of the childrens’ health-care bill, a proposal so far left that creepy party-line Republican Orrin Hatch co-wrote it. One of them, believe it or not, is in Forest Hills in the “small Park below 71st and Continental,” which I guess means MacDonald Park. It’s at 6 p.m., so if you want to be an activist but don’t feel like venturing particularly far from home, here’s your opportunity. Come ready to scream lots and lots. Check out the event page to register.

It’s “Rego Hills,” according to Republican mailer I found in the vestibule of my building. The oversized postcard comes from the Forest Park PAC on Dartmouth Street and encourages recipients to vote for a slate of candidates in this coming Tuesday’s Republican primary. It also kindly requests that you “please take this card into the voting booth with you,” which I thought was illegal, but it’s the Republicans, so who’s counting?

Anyway, the mailer is intended for GOP voters, the front and back both declare, in “Middle Village, Glendale, Forest Hills, Rego Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens.” What is Rego Hills? The fuzzy-bordered area around 67th Avenue and Queens Boulevard? The netherworld surrounding NOVO 64? The long stretch of Yellowstone where everything on the supposed Rego Park side is named Forest Hills something-or-other? All I know for sure is that googling it nets a big six results, every single one of which has something to do with Republicans. Oh, I know! It’s some Californiaesque conspiracy to split the vote and finally win something!

According to the always-informative Visionary over at the Queens Boulevard Restoration Group, for the past few weeks

city agencies have blitzed the Continental Av street vendors with summonses for everything from unsanitary conditions of the fruit stand, including holding produce in an unrefrigerated truck, to the halal guy dumping his grease down catch basins near Queens Blvd; to expired permits, to over-limit sidewalk occupation.

Vis believes this to be a great example of civic responsibility by concerned citizens in action. But being pro-street vendor, I’ve got a very different take. This sudden, intensive series of summonses strikes me as a calculated campaign of harassment from up high. Melinda Katz and the local bigs are on record as being anti-vendor, and using the long arm of the bureaucracy is an old political trick that would be an efficient technique to financially pressure delicious, sweet pralines to get the hell off Continental.

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