Streetsblog New York City

Astoria residents demanding a safer 21st Avenue. Image: indiejourno.com.

Over the last six weeks, Astoria residents have made a strong push for a safer 21st Avenue, a street plagued by speeding cut-through traffic. In response to requests for traffic calming, NYCDOT recently sent what one resident called a "cryptic letter" explaining only that the street would not be receiving speed humps. Although DOT is now studying additional measures, residents would like to see a stronger response from the agency.

Last December, Astorians held a rally asking the city to calm traffic on 21st Avenue. The seven blocks from 21st Street to 28th Street saw 36 car crashes and four deaths in just the last two years, according to the Queens Chronicle.

Rally organizer Helen Ho, the former vice-chair of Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee, identified the problem with the avenue: "A lot of folks use 21st Avenue as a speedy bypass for Ditmars Boulevard. It's a stretch of road that for six blocks has nothing. No stop lights. No stop signs. No traffic calming measures of any sort. Some of the intersections don't even have crosswalks."

The call for traffic calming was widespread, motivated by concern for the safety of senior citizens, one of whom was killed on 21st Avenue last year, and for students at the two schools in the area. According to rally organizers, more than 50 people showed up in the December rain to ask for safer streets. The effort also has the backing of local politicians -- including Council Member Peter Vallone, Assembly Member Michael Gianaris, and Democratic District Leader Costa Constantinides -- as well as Queens Community Board 1, which requested traffic calming measures from DOT.

In a letter back to the community board, DOT stated only that it could not install speed humps on 21st Avenue, because it's a bus route. No other solution was proposed.

A zoning change that would provide better bike parking options in new buildings is wending its way through the city's public review process, which means 59 community boards have a chance to vote on it. The Queens Gazette reports from the goings on at CB1, which encompasses Astoria and Long Island City:

"I see no purpose to this [zoning] text change," said Community Board 1 chairperson Vinicio Donato. Board 1 voted down the zoning amendment, 25 to 8 (one abstention). The bicycle parking proposal is being voted on citywide by all community boards. After the boards' vote, DCP will hold a public hearing in January and the City Council has the final vote.

There you have it. Even after hearing a City Planning presentation explaining how better bike parking options would reduce congestion, improve air quality, and boost public health, Donato -- who has chaired CB1 since 1975 -- claims not to see the point of providing secure places for people to put their bikes. His stance may carry no binding authority, but Donato's board is assumed to speak for the community at large.

Note that CB1's zoning and variance committee did approve the bike parking measure. The whole situation is reminiscent of the Vernon Boulevard bike lane discussion last summer. Back then, CB1 refused to put the measure to a vote in a general meeting, opting instead to send a letter of opposition to DOT and local electeds.

We've seen determined activism from the Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets Group gradually pay dividends in northern Manhattan's CB12. Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee has been just as active in western Queens. Will persistent local support for livable streets start to sway CB1?

Arturo Flores, a Queens musician who played Andean wind instruments, was struck and killed by a van this Tuesday while biking in Astoria. Reports of his death have appeared in a local message board, neighborhood blogs, and a Peruvian music blog. Conventional news coverage has not surfaced online, but a sparse account appeared in the print edition of the Daily News:

A bicyclist was struck and killed on a Queens street by a van early yesterday morning, police said.

The unidentified 35 year old man was hit on 23rd street in Astoria around 1 a.m. by a Dodge Caravan, said police.  The van's driver will not face charges.

The crash actually occurred at 23rd Avenue and 27th Street. Streetsblog has a request in to NYPD for more details on the circumstances of the crash.

Flores, 35, was born in Peru and often busked with Andean bands in the subway. One commenter on a local blog remembers his talents:

Arturo Flores, as a longtime member of the band Inca Son, played on some of the most prestigious stages in this country. He was a brilliant musician who could play the Andean flutes like nobody else I’ve ever heard. He did traditional tunes but could also improvise. He could even replicate complex rock melodies like "Stairway to Heaven" on the quena.

A wake was held for Flores last night. His death is the second stark reminder we've seen this month of how much traffic violence goes unreported in the press.

From Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee Chair Mike Heffron:

At the Queens Community Board 2 general meeting on Thursday, May 1, with no vote by board members, Chair Joe Conley delayed the board's input on the Department of Transportation's planned pedestrian and cyclist improvements to Vernon Boulevard, an important link in the proposed Queens East River Greenway. DOT can move forward with the Greenway plan with or without CB 2's approval.

The DOT plan [PDF] calls for removal of the majority of parking along the East River side of Vernon from 45th Ave to its termination at Main St. In place of parking the DOT plans to put down a painted bike lane in both directions, with painted buffers between the lanes and auto traffic. Also proposed are additional traffic calming improvements along Vernon and a pedestrian relief Green Street to be installed at Queensbridge Park. Two weeks prior the proposal was unveiled to CB 2's Land Use Committee, which voted unanimously in favor.

Read more...

Move over, biker babes. A presumably tongue-in-cheek article in the Observer heralds the "Californication of New York," thanks to the proliferation of automobiles in "young, lifestyle neighborhoods" like Williamsburg, Astoria and Inwood.

According to the piece, a growing number of suburban transplants see auto reliance as a comforting reminder of home.

"I didn't realize how much I missed the car until I had it here," said Lauren Robinson, a 25-year-old dietician with pixie-cut brown hair, a fetching dimple, and a bearded beau who was dutifully loading groceries into her Honda CR-V. The Honda was a relic of her youth in upstate New York, but she had recently brought it to the city after moving from car-hostile Manhattan to auto-friendly Brooklyn. She didn't really need the vehicle, and, theoretically, she could have grabbed a bus to Fairway. But, as she explained, "It's just so easy to jump in and drive somewhere."

"I don't think you need a car," she said, "but I think it's definitely a plus. And it definitely makes me feel more" -- she paused to search for the word -- "well, not like such a city person."

The article says the relative ease of keeping a car almost anywhere outside Lower Manhattan, due in part to auto-centric development and plentiful parking, makes the city a "drivers' paradise." It even gives a wink to that most heartwarming ritual of suburban youth: drunk driving.

Perhaps the real sign of the car culture apocalypse -- the hint that, when it comes to wheels at least, Williamsburg and Winnetka might not be so different after all -- is the sobriety check that cops have set up on Meeker Avenue, near one of the on-ramps to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway ... A floating barricade of police, batons and breath-a-lizers, just like back home!

And what of the costs, environmental or otherwise, of bringing a "four-wheeled friend" to the city?

"It just seems to me, if I stop driving my car, I don't think that's doing anything about the real issue," said Hans, a 31-year-old Williamsburg media guy (and musician, of course) with a receding, Jack Nicholson hairline and Chattanooga drawl, as he eyed his silver Elantra. "I know I'm contributing to it, but the end of the day, I obviously don't feel bad enough about it to not drive my car."

Photo: Love_is/Flickr