Flushing BID to expand its services
Presents CB 7 with new map extending its outreach to better serve businesses & visitors
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
After serving the
community for 16 years, the
Downtown Flushing Transit
Hub Business Improvement
District (Flushing BID)
is looking to expand its
services to further enhance
quality-of-life in the
Flushing community.
Community Board 7
members on Monday night
approved the Flushing
BID’s outlined expansion
proposal detailing planning
and outreach initiatives, a
neighborhood needs survey,
and addressing issues such
as sanitation and mitigation
of pedestrian/vehicular
traffic in the densely
populated neighborhood.
“We’ve been working on
this project for over four or
five years and we’re very
excited and ready to move
forward,” said Flushing BID
Manager Dian Yu.
The Flushing BID was
formed in September 2003 by
property owners, businesses,
residents and community
leaders with a stake in
the downtown Flushing
community. The BID provides
supplemental services that
the city can’t afford, such as
sanitation and maintenance,
public safety and visitor
services, marketing and
promotional programs,
capital improvements and
beautification for the area.
In Flushing, the services
have included the cleanup
of downtown Flushing,
providing holiday lighting,
public education, the
rebranding and marketing
of downtown Flushing as a
destination of choice.
Included in the district
are Main Street (from
Northern Boulevard to
Sanford Avenue); Roosevelt
Avenue (from Prince Street
to Union Street); 39th
Avenue (from College Point
Boulevard to Main Street);
40th Road (from Prince Street
to Main Street); and Kissena
Boulevard (from 41st Avenue
to Sanford Avenue).
Following the expansion,
the BID will cover the
additional areas of Main
Street (from Northern
Boulevard to Franklin
A map showing the current Flushing BID coverage area and the proposed expansion area.
Avenue); Union Street (from
37th Avenue to Roosevelt
Avenue); 37th Avenue
(from Main Street to
Union Street); 38th Avenue
(from Main Street to 138th
Street); and 39th Avenue to
Union Street.
The expansion
includes three phases:
planning, outreach and a
legislative process.
In August 2014, a
Steering Committee was
formed that includes the
current BID directors,
followed by an established
mission statement and
a neighborhood needs
assessment survey that was
conducted in March 2015.
The Flushing BID began
direct outreach in the
expansion area to all local
stakeholders in 2016 from
July to September, said
Chen. In June 2018, a town
hall public meeting was held
to introduce the expansion
to the community.
Following the results
of the neighborhood needs
survey, the BID received
comments from commercial
tenants, property owners
and residents from the
expansion area on vehicular
and pedestrian traffic.
“To address the traffic
issue, the Flushing BID
is planning to implement
pedestrian traffic
Courtesy of Flushing BID
management,” said Chen.
“The second issue of concern
is sanitation and the third is
security. For the past two
years, we have received the
NYC Neighborhood SBS 360
grant with a total budget of
$750,000. This grant allows
us to provide services in the
big expansion area.”
After the expansion, the
total budget will be $1M
which includes $810,000
allocated to community
service which includes
supplemental sanitation
services, pedestrian traffic
management, marketing and
beautification, said Chen.
“Our goal is to hire
retired police officers maybe
multiple officers to manage
the pedestrian traffic
problem,” said Yu. “We’re
hoping they can manage the
pedestrian traffic flow and
mitigate the vehicle traffic
in downtown Flushing.”
In regards to Sanitation,
Yu said crews have been
working from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(a total of 20,000 hours) to
clean up the community, and
they’re looking to implement
different strategies such as
establishing a night shift to
continue cleanup efforts.
“There’s definitely room
for improvement. Our
goal is to keep it as clean
as possible. Downtown
Flushing is still very busy
from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” said
Yu. “We have over 23 bus
lines and passengers from
the No. 7 train. Since there
are no garbage cans at the
train station, passengers
are going to dump their
garbage in our baskets.”
Following broad based
support and approval from
the Community Board,
the expansion is now in
the legislative process,
according to Zach Owens,
program manager of
Neighborhood Development
from NYC SBS.
“Approval for the
expansion will go to the
borough president and they
will have 30 days to provide
an opinion and that will be
sent to the City Planning
Commission to produce
a report which will then
be sent to City Council
for a dock or approval,”
said Owens.
Lastly, there will be two
hearings, the first, will be
setting the final vote for the
BID, then a letter will be
mailed to every constituent
within the current BID and
expanded BID giving them
an opportunity to object to
the formation of the BID
expansion.
If 51 percent of the
property owners reject the
formation of the BID, there
will be no expansion.
Reach reporter Carlotta
Mohamed by email at
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at
(718) 260–4526.
BAYSIDE TIMES (USPS#025088) is published weekly by Queens CNG LLC, 41-02 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY.11361, (718) 229-0300. The entire contents of this publication are copyright 2018. All rights reserved. The newspaper will
not be liable for errors appearing in any advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Bayside Times C/O Queens CNG
LLC. 41-02 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, N.Y. 11361.
2 TIMESLEDGER, JUNE 21-27, 2019 QNS.COM
/QNS.COM
link