Streetsblog New York City

Clarence sends over this photo of the newly car-free block of 37th Road between 73rd Street and 74th Street in Jackson Heights. Since this picture was taken, the asphalt on this block has been coated with an epoxy-and-gravel surface, and it looks like a two-way bike path will be striped on one side of the street.

The new plaza is part of a package to improve pedestrian safety, bike safety, transit effectiveness, and traffic flow in the commercial core of Jackson Heights, which DOT has been working on with neighborhood residents since the beginning of the year. You can track the changes and give DOT your comments through the online portal for the project.

Jackson Heights’ 78th Street Play Street, a summertime street closure won in last year’s best feel-good story of grassroots activism, has been expanded from two months of car-free space to three this year. If all goes well in September, when the school year has started, some sort of year-round street closure should be in the works for the kids of Jackson Heights.

“We’re on track to reforming the way that whole piece of street works,” said Donovan Finn, a member of the Jackson Heights Green Alliance. Both the Department of Transportation and City Council Member Daniel Dromm are “pretty solidly on board” with making some sort of big change in the next year or so should all go well this summer, Finn reported.

By extending the play street through September — last year, the block of 78th adjacent to Travers Park was closed 24/7 in July and August — neighborhood residents and city officials will be able to see how it works when school is in session. The private Garden School uses the street both to access its five-space parking garage and for loading and unloading school buses. “That’s actually the only use that faces the street,” said Finn.

DOT and Dromm specifically requested that the play street be extended into September in order to test out how the school would make a year-round closure work, whether full- or part-time.

We’ll see what happens in September, but so far the play street is again wildly popular in the open space-starved neighborhood. “Within 20 minutes of having it closed, there were kids out there running around,” said Finn. Once amenities like picnic tables, umbrellas, and astroturf are brought out, he said, residents will be able to use the new public space in even more ways.

A witness or witnesses reportedly told police that a red-light runner caused the collision that killed 82-year-old Margaret Choberka in Jackson Heights. No charges were filed. Photo: Daily News

At least one witness told police that a driver ran a red light before a collision last week that resulted in the death of a Jackson Heights pedestrian, according to reports.

In the early afternoon of March 21, Margaret Choberka, 82, was walking near her home at 32nd Ave. and 70th St. when the drivers of a Toyota minivan and a Mercedes SUV collided at the intersection. The Mercedes then struck Choberka, who suffered head trauma and died at the scene.

The account of the incident in YourNabe says: “A witness at the scene who declined to give his name said the Toyota had run through a red light at the intersection.” A Queens Gazette blotter item reads: “eyewitnesses told investigators the driver of the Toyota ran a red light.” No charges were filed.

From YourNabe:

Some nearby residents said they had lived in the area for many years and found that speeding had gotten much worse recently, especially from motorists attempting to outrun red lights.

“People come down this block at 50 miles an hour to beat that light,” said Anthony DiGesu, 49, referring to the traffic light at the intersection of 70th Street and 31st Avenue.

NYPD confirmed all other details of the collision, but told Streetsblog there was no mention of a driver running a red light in the incident report, that both drivers had “valid paperwork,” and that “no criminality was suspected.”

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The recommendations to improve pedestrian safety include widening crosswalks from 12 feet to 40 feet near the 74th Street-Broadway subway station. Image: NYCDOT

When large numbers of pedestrians, trucks and cars battle for limited space, you get a traffic mess. When that traffic mess is in one of the nation’s first high-density garden communities, which now is also one of the nation’s most diverse communities, you get Jackson Heights.

City transportation planners are taking another shot at untangling congestion in the commercial core of this Queens neighborhood, and on Saturday unveiled their recommendations to an audience of nearly 200. Afterward, local Council Member Dan Dromm voiced support for the plan.

Among the proposals topping the list:

• Converting one block of 37th Road and a small stretch of 73rd Street to pedestrian ways, which may accommodate vendors and bike parking for the neighborhood’s nearby transit hub.
• Create truck-unloading zones on commercial streets for several hours each morning, and metered parking fees that vary according to demand.
• Reverse traffic on 75th Street to allow southbound Q47 and Q49 bus service to shift to that street, providing quicker trips to a major transit hub.

The full set of recommendations, which you can browse through on the DOT site, includes many of the city’s sustainable transportation priorities: encouraging pedestrian, transit and bicycle use and creating open space where possible. And for motorists, planners say, traffic will move faster by reducing truck double-parking and trimming the number of left and right turns allowed.

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DOT's new interactive map of Jackson Heights, displaying the number of traffic crashes and pedestrian volumes at certain intersections.

NYC DOT’s Jackson Heights Transportation Study already has some of the snazziest online resources of any department project, but to get the full scoop on the changes due for the neighborhood, head over to one of the two public meetings being held tomorrow.

DOT says that the plan, developed at the request of neighborhood groups, will include improvements targeted at easing congestion, improving pedestrian and bike access, speeding bus service, making the streets safer, adding badly needed community space and tackling the thorny issues of parking and deliveries. The scope of that list suggests an exciting project.

Tomorrow’s meetings will offer a chance to sit down with DOT officials and other community members, work through the plans and offer feedback. The two sessions will be held from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at P.S. 69, 77-02 37th Avenue (between 77th and 78th Street).

DOT's new interactive map of Jackson Heights can display several layers of information, like the number of traffic crashes and pedestrian volumes at certain intersections.

Since 2009, the Department of Transportation has been engaged in a major study of Jackson Heights’ streets and sidewalks. At the request of community groups and with federal funding from Rep. Joe Crowley, DOT has been developing a plan to make the neighborhood safer, less congested, and more transit-accessible. After two years of research and community engagement, DOT will be presenting its first recommendations next Saturday, February 12.

In preparation for the release of those plans, DOT has also launched a first-of-its-kind data portal collecting all the information about the Jackson Heights Transportation Study. (The portal was developed by a division of OpenPlans, Streetsblog’s parent organization.) Everything from community board presentations to raw, block-by-block data about parking occupancy is in one place.

The portal includes a new interactive map of Jackson Heights. Presenting information like vehicle speeds, pedestrian volumes, traffic crashes and parking occupancy, the map helps visualize what happens on the neighborhood’s streets. You can see, for example, how rampant double-parking blocks buses along Broadway: On one block, there are an average of 32 percent more cars parked than there are spaces. According to DOT, even more features should be available after next Saturday.

What’s presented on the 12th could also be extremely exciting. At presentations to Community Boards 3 and 4 last June, DOT proposed classifying all neighborhood streets into four categories laid out in the department’s Street Design Manual.

• Through streets would be redesigned to move vehicular traffic more efficiently, without causing speeding.
• Transit streets would have bus lanes, curb extensions at bus stops and lights coordinated with the buses. 74th and 75th Streets are likely candidates.
• Slow streets would calm traffic with re-timed signals and traffic-calming treatments like neckdowns.
• Some streets could be pedestrianized, with furniture and greenery creating new public spaces.

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At 82nd Street and 35th Avenue in Queens, a traffic cone helps keep drivers aware before crossing the path of students and parents. Photo: Clarence Eckerson

While Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is out to tear up pedestrian refuges on a dangerous stretch of Fort Hamilton Parkway, over in Queens, local street safety experts are improvising their own traffic-calming measures. Streetfilms’ Clarence Eckerson took these pictures of crossing guards using cones as makeshift safety improvements outside two Jackson Heights schools.

The cones alert drivers and force them to take turns slower, functioning much like a neckdown or bulb-out at the street corner. The crossing guards break out the cones after school get dismissed, a tactic Clarence says he never saw until moving to Queens. He reports that the guards have their traffic-calming technique down to a science:

I’ve talked to two of the crossing guards. One told me, “We are not technically allowed to do it, but we do anyway because it really helps protect the kids and slow down the cars when they come down the street.”

I asked how she knows where to put it, and she said, “I’ve been doing this long enough to know how cars cut that corner really fast, without looking for kids. I look to see if there are any tire skid marks on the road or gravel and I always put the cone down outside any of those.”

Living on this block, it is amazing to see the difference this cone makes on turning speeds when it is out there for half an hour.

More pictures after the jump.

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Back in 2008, Jackson Heights residents banded together to win car-free Sundays on 78th Street, creating a new, temporary public space for children and families in one of NYC’s most park-starved neighborhoods. This year neighborhood activists aimed much higher: They wanted to make the street car-free 24-7 for the entire months of July and August.

As you’ll see, thanks to committed volunteers and strong leadership from District 25 Council Member Daniel Dromm, they overcame initial hesitation from the local community board’s transportation committee — which voted the idea down — to make it happen.

The fight was worth it, Dromm told us. “It was recognized just about two weeks ago in The Queens Tribune as being one of the best things about Queens – this play street,” he said. “So imagine if we hadn’t done it?” Indeed. We hope other electeds are in tune with their neighborhoods as much as Council Member Dromm.

All summer long, 78th Street was filled with a warm, family atmosphere, sometimes well after sundown. As for next year, there’s talk of possibly giving this car-free street even greater permanence.  Stay tuned.

The first 2010 installment of Summer Streets is tomorrow, and I can't think of a better way to get in the mood than to check in on this inspiring grassroots victory for livable streets in New York City.

These are pictures Clarence took last Friday at the 78th Street Play Street in Jackson Heights. The play street started out as a car-free experiment on summer Sundays in 2008, giving kids and families some more space to play and socialize in one of New York's most park-starved neighborhoods. As a candidate for City Council, Dan Dromm supported the play street, and in office he joined hundreds of constituents on a march to the local Community Board, helping to win a vote for making the street car-free seven days a week, all summer long.

This summer, the street has gradually gained popularity as a public space, and now it attracts up to 200 people at a time, according to Dudley Stewart, president of the Jackson Heights Green Alliance. High school students who help supervise activities for younger kids throughout the week estimate that over the course of a busy day, several hundred people come over and enjoy the street.

"In the evenings you can have 100 people," said Stewart. "People are there well after eight." Even after the play equipment is put away, he said, people will linger on the benches, toddlers will play on the astroturf, and kids will ride bikes up and down the street.

Have a look at more of Clarence's pictures after the jump. Wouldn't it be great if kids had free reign on the street all year round, and traffic never invaded this space again?

Last week, Jackson Heights residents won a summer-long car-free street, and it turns out that local activists have many more initiatives for a greener, more livable neighborhood in their sights.

The Jackson Heights Green Agenda [PDF] -- the product of a community planning process that drew on the expertise of hundreds of residents -- sets an ambitious, bottom-up roadmap for making New York's most diverse neighborhood more sustainable.

The goals outlined in the Green Agenda range from increased open space and green buildings to creating a hiring hall for day laborers in the neighborhood. It's also full of livable streets initiatives. The recommendations include turning streets and parking lots into pedestrian spaces, plazas, and parks. To reduce congestion, the plan calls for adding more Muni-meters to commercial streets and pricing them to increase turnover. To serve a neighborhood where 60 percent of households don't own a car, it envisions bike lanes on Roosevelt Avenue and better transit service.

The Green Agenda emerged from a year-long planning process led by Queens Community House, a set of community centers in the settlement house tradition; the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, and the Pratt Center for Community Development; along with a few other local organizations. Funding for the plan came from a state environmental justice grant.

The coalition held three half-day workshops, starting last November, each of which drew more than 100 people, where residents discussed the strengths and weaknesses of their neighborhood. "Portable workshops" brought the process to churches, adult education classes, and other groups already meeting. The outreach was multi-lingual, an absolute must in a neighborhood where many residents don't speak fluent English.

"We've all been really happy with the process," said Anna Dioguardi, the director of community organizing and development for Queens Community House. "It was definitely challenging to get the conversation started, especially when in many communities, even the word 'green' doesn't mean the same thing it does in English."

Local activists were encouraged by the extent of participation. Len Maniace, a volunteer with the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, praised the campaign's ability to fully include Spanish and Bengali-speakers. He feels a palpable change in the neighborhood. Instead of feeling resigned to living with the way the neighborhood looks and feels now, he said, residents now ask, "Why shouldn't I have a really nice looking neighborhood?"