Gas service restored at Bland Houses in Flushing
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JULY 31-AUG. 6, 2020 5
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
After six months without gas service,
residents at Bland Houses in
Flushing are once again receiving
working gas in their apartments.
The restoration comes after Congresswoman
Grace Meng, Senator
John Liu, Assemblyman Ron Kim and
Councilman Peter Koo sent a letter to
the heads of the New York City Housing
Authority (NYCHA), New York
City Department of Buildings (DOB)
and Con Edison calling for the broken
gas lines to be immediately repaired
for impacted residents.
“This is good, if belated, news for
the tenants living without gas these
past five to six months, and I am glad
that the concerns we expressed as
elected officials helped make the difference,”
Kim said. “Being forced to
go without use of your stove during
the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic
is unacceptable, and I hope the gas is
restored for the remaining affected
residents shortly.”
On July 23, service was returned to
the 10 apartments at 133-50 Roosevelt
Ave.— which lost gas in February —
and 10 units at 133-40 Roosevelt Ave.
— which lost gas in March.
Residents in those apartments
were unable to cook or use their stoves
during the height of the coronavirus
outbreak in New York, and throughout
most of the summer months.
Meng had personally spoken with
NYCHA Chair and CEO Gregory Russ
about the issue. She explained the toll
the outage had taken on residents,
and emphasized the urgent need for
restoring gas as soon as possible.
“These repairs are long overdue
and should not have taken this long.
But I thank NYCHA for following
through and finally fixing the problem,”
Meng said. “I also thank Chair
and CEO Russ for speaking with me
about the outage, and being responsive
to my concerns for constituents
who reside in these buildings. I hope
that there will be no further service
interruptions, and that any future
repairs do not take many months to
fix.”
Liu said that their neighbors and
constituents at Bland Houses deserve
better than the inordinate delays
and treatment they have suffered for
far too long during the stay-at-home
health crisis.
“It’s good to see at long last progress
is being made to restore this
vital service,” Liu said. “Kudos and
thanks to Congress member Meng
for lighting the fire under NYCHA so
that these residents can finally light
the fire on their stoves once again.”
Meanwhile, Koo said NYCHA
needs to do more to make sure the gas
outages don’t happen again.
“If a private landlord left its tenants
without gas for months during
the pandemic, they would be held to
account,” Koo said. “And when infrastructure
does need repairs, it needs
to be fixed with far greater urgency.
Many thanks to Congresswoman
Meng and my colleagues in government
for drawing attention to this serious
issue.”
Reach reporter Carlotta Mohamed
by e-mail at cmohamed@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718) 260–4526.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
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