Streetsblog New York City

A bike corral was recently installed on 82nd Street in Jackson Heights. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Spring has sprung, and with it came a new on-street bike corral on 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, near Roosevelt Avenue. Clarence from Streetfilms sent over these great pictures. The corral, which replaces one car parking space, has seven racks (for 14 bikes) and two planters. It is maintained by the 82nd Street Partnership business improvement district and was supported by Queens Community Board 4 in a 32-2 vote in March.

Perhaps the most succinct summation comes from the minutes of CB 4′s full board meeting last month. The report from District Manager Christian Cassagnol noted that DOT and “the 82nd Street BID had installed the bike corral, which looked beautiful.”

The bike corral is maintained by the 82nd Street Partnership business improvement district. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Clarence snapped these shots of a new Slow Zone in East Elmhurst/Jackson Heights, where DOT is putting in 20 mph signage and street markings, including a wide striped median on 30th Avenue that reduces the number of lanes pedestrians must cross.

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We continue our series on City Council candidates with a Q&A with former New York Young Republican Club President Daniel Peterson, who’s running to represent District 22, covering Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway, and northern Jackson Heights. Yesterday we ran a Q&A with Democratic District Leader Costa Constantinides. There are two other candidates in this district. Antonio Meloni responded to Streetsblog’s questionnaire but did not provide answers for publication. Danielle De Stefano did not respond.

City Council District 22 candidate Daniel Peterson. Photo: Daniel Peterson/Facebook

Streetsblog: A proposal for a pedestrian plaza at 30th Avenue, 33rd Street and Newtown Avenue was defeated by opposition from Community Board 1 and Council Member Vallone. Do you think public plazas, like the ones installed in other neighborhoods throughout the city, provide a benefit to the community?

Daniel Peterson: I welcome proposals for additional public space in Astoria and throughout New York City. As councilman, I will listen to new proposals for areas of Astoria that can potentially be transformed into new public space. I will also make sure all the pros and cons are thoroughly vetted. The democratic process may not grant every proposal, but we should certainly look for alternative options that can improve our public space.

SB: Astoria Boulevard is slated to receive Select Bus Service improvements to speed bus travel. Could other parts of the neighborhood benefit from things like dedicated bus lanes?

DP: Other parts of Astoria would most certainly benefit from dedicated bus lanes. If 21st Street is an option, I would definitely look at such a proposal. The real question is: Can other parts support dedicated bus lanes? Unfortunately, Astoria’s street grid does not support many options for dedicating a section of road for a bus lane as our roads are just not wide enough. However, I am open to any improvements for our public transportation.

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Streetsblog continues our series on City Council candidates with a look at the race for District 22 in Queens, which covers Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway, and northern Jackson Heights. The seat has been held by Peter Vallone, Jr. since 2002; he is now running for Queens Borough President.

City Council District 22 candidate Costa Constantinides.

Two Democratic primary candidates – Democratic District Leader Costa Constantinides and anti-crime activist Antonio Meloni – are joined by a Republican candidate, former New York Young Republican Club President Daniel Peterson. Danielle De Stefano is also listed as a candidate by the New York State Board of Elections.

Streetsblog sent questionnaires to the campaigns to get a better understanding of where the candidates stand on transit, traffic safety, and transportation policy. We begin in alphabetical order with responses from Costa Constantinides and will run Daniel Peterson’s answers in a separate post. Antonio Meloni responded to Streetsblog’s questionnaire, but did not provide answers for publication. Danielle De Stefano did not respond.

Streetsblog: A proposal for a pedestrian plaza at 30th Avenue, 33rd Street and Newtown Avenue was defeated by opposition from Community Board 1 and Council Member Vallone. Do you think public plazas, like the ones installed in other neighborhoods throughout the city, provide a benefit to the community?

Costa Constantinides: Generally, I think that public plazas provide tangible benefits to their neighborhoods. With a few exceptions, many of the communities in western Queens don’t have park space within walking distance. Without shared public spaces where friends and neighbors can congregate, a community has no place to vent and breathe. As a Council member, I will work with the community to create more public spaces that meet the needs of both residents and small business owners.

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In front of an audience of about 60 residents at I.S. 145 last night, city representatives and advocates answered questions about traffic safety in Jackson Heights. The forum was held in the wake of the death of 11-year-old I.S. 145 student Miguel Torres, who was run over by a dump truck driver at Northern Boulevard and 80th Street while crossing with the light.

115th Precinct commanding officer Michael Michael A. Cody speaks at Tuesday night's forum. Photo: Stephen Miller

“It broke my heart when I had to see the mother on the corner of 80th Street, hysterical because she had lost her 11-year-old son,” Council Member Daniel Dromm said. “The urgency to have this kind of forum became even more apparent.”

Organized by Dromm, the Jackson Heights Green Alliance, and Transportation Alternatives, the forum featured the council member, DOT Queens Borough Deputy Commissioner Dalila Hall, TA’s Ya-Ting Liu, and Deputy Inspector Michael A. Cody, commanding officer of NYPD’s 115th Precinct.

“Speeding, unequivocally, is the number one cause of traffic deaths in New York City,” far outpacing distracted driving, alcohol and illegal drugs, Liu said as the meeting began.

Deputy Inspector Cody, who started at the 115th Precinct six weeks ago, said the precinct has issued 39 speeding tickets so far this year. That’s on par with last year, when it issued 177 speeding tickets — about one every other day. By comparison, the precinct issued 1,090 tickets for tinted windows in 2012.

The department’s current lack of attention to speeding stands in contrast with how Cody spoke about intoxicated drivers. “A lot of times when I was a young officer, DWI was not considered a fashionable arrest,” he said. “We’ve come a long way … it’s a key part of our crime-fighting strategy.”

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Maria Beria, Aileen Martinez, Sheena Mathew, Ronald Sinvil, Miguel Torres

In separate crashes in Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx, city motorists killed five pedestrians between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Four of the crashes, which took the lives of a child and three young mothers, were hit-and-runs.

At approximately 8:45 a.m. on December 28, 11-year-old Miguel Torres of Jackson Heights was crossing at Northern Boulevard and 80th Street, in the crosswalk and with the light, when he was hit by the driver of a dump truck.

Miguel was on his way to participate in a school field trip to Grand Central Terminal when he was killed. Olga Gonzalez, who witnessed the aftermath of the crash, told the Post: “It was so bad, when the ambulance guy came, he was crying … The car hit [Miguel] so hard his shoes came off. I just saw a little kid in the middle of the street, and I just started crying.”

The driver, who did not stop, was later located by police. To the dismay of Miguel’s grieving family, no criminal charges were filed. From DNAinfo:

“They’re just giving him summonses,” [Miguel's aunt Yolanda] Ardezzone said. “I think he should get more than summonses — jail time, so this won’t happen to another child.”

A spokeswoman for the NYPD said that although the police originally stated the child was involved in a hit-and-run, police were actually able to track down the driver at the scene.

“It appeared the driver was unaware they struck someone,” said the spokeswoman. No criminal charges had been filed by Sunday, but she said the case was still under investigation.

In New York State, a driver must know or have reason to know that he or she has caused injury in order to be charged for leaving the scene of a fatal crash. Even when police and prosecutors muster the will to bring charges — no sure thing by any means — an admission that the motorist “didn’t see” the victim serves as a reliable defense. From the Daily News:

A few hours after the incident, police found the driver of the 1988 truck in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He told police he didn’t know he had hit someone, tested negative for alcohol and had a valid driver’s license. Police said no criminal charges will be filed.

No charges, though according to the same Daily News story: “A police source said the truck’s rear wheels struck the boy, though a second source said the boy may have first been struck from the front end of the truck.”

If Queens District Attorney Richard Brown does indeed pursue a criminal case against Miguel Torres’s killer, it is a virtual lock that leaving the scene would be the top charge. Minus evidence of intoxication, a city motorist who kills a pedestrian or cyclist is practically guaranteed to escape charges for taking a life.

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All photos: Clarence Eckerson, Jr.

We interrupt our post-Sandy coverage to bring you these pictures from Halloween last night at the 78th Street Play Street in Jackson Heights. The Jackson Heights Green Alliance put on the event, “Trick or Treat in the Street,” and Streetfilms’ Clarence Eckerson sent over these photos. This is the kind of thing residents can do in the neighborhood after a successful grassroots campaign to permanently repurpose this block, which used to be a through street for motor vehicle traffic, as a public space.

On Thursday, Queens Community Board 3 voted to support a more sophisticated way to price on-street parking on commercial streets [PDF], supporting DOT’s proposal to bring the PARK Smart program to Jackson Heights.

PARK Smart can be the most effective traffic-reduction policy in DOT’s toolkit. In some NYC neighborhoods, drivers cruising for parking constitute nearly half of all traffic. PARK Smart adjusts meter rates and extends hours in an effort to align the price of parking with demand, which makes it easier for drivers to find a spot and cuts down on cruising and double parking. Jackson Heights will be the first neighborhood in Queens — and one of only three in the city — to participate in PARK Smart.

New PARK Smart reforms will extend parking meter hours in Jackson Heights to 10 p.m. Map: DOT

The program’s specifics vary in each neighborhood. In Jackson Heights, the PARK Smart pilot will adjust metering on blocks of 37th Avenue, 74th Street, 82nd Street, Broadway, Roosevelt Avenue, 37th Road and Roosevelt Avenue. Meters on 74th Street and Roosevelt Avenue had a one hour limit; under the new policy drivers will be able park for up to two hours. Along one block of 74th Street, meters that turned off at 7 p.m. are now extended until 10 p.m.

While the extension of meter hours will cut down on cruising in the evenings, the pricing in Jackson Heights is not going to change for stays under an hour, limiting the potential to improve parking availability and reduce traffic before 7 p.m.

For drivers who stay longer than 60 minutes, there are now two types of meters in the neighborhood. This is where the new pricing structure comes in. Meters on “progressive rate” streets will charge an increasing fee to discourage long-term parking and keep spaces available for shoppers on major commercial corridors. Meters on “value rate” streets will charge 50 cents for each additional 30 minutes after the first hour — the same rate as the first hour. If someone wants to park for two hours, a progressive rate meter would cost $4, while a value rate meter would cost half that.

The changes will be phased in over the winter, according to DOT, and the pilot is expected to last for about one year. It looks like this initial phase could produce data regarding the difference between “progressive” meters and “value” meters that may inform future PARK Smart phases in Jackson Heights.

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Photo: Clarence Eckerson, Jr.

Clarence snapped a photo of the construction sign at Northern Boulevard and 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, which earlier this week displayed the wrong speed limit. Motorists should no longer be under the impression that they should drive faster through the work zone.

We’d love to know what spurred the correction. Any guesses?

Marking Eid-ul-Fitr at Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights. Photo: office of Council Member Danny Dromm

Business owners in Jackson Heights have done more than just take over maintenance of the plaza on 37th Road. They’ve rechristened it “Diversity Plaza,” and they staged a community celebration that concluded on Monday to mark Eid-ul-Fitr, the breaking of fast at the end of Muslim holy month Ramadan. It seems the plaza was anything but empty that night. Eid Mubarak to all!

Photo: office of Council Member Danny Dromm