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Oct. 4-10, 2019 including KINGS COURIER & FLATBUSH LIFE
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Fatal FLOWER SOUR
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Local man drums up opposition to new trees, plants
BY ROSE ADAMS
He speaks against the
trees!
A longtime Dyker Heights
resident is going door-to-door
drumming up opposition to
a city scheme to plant fl owers
and trees throughout the
neighborhood, and has already
collected a whopping 135 signatures
for his petition demanding
the city back off its gardening
scheme.
“It’s more work for the homeowners
is how I see it,” said
John DeAngelo “People are going
to let their dogs go by and
do whatever.”
The Department of Environmental
Protection plans to
install rain gardens on hundreds
of sidewalks within an
area roughly bounded by 11th
Avenue, 61st Street, Bay Parkway,
and 81st Street, which are
made to absorb rainwater that
would otherwise spill into the
sewers and contaminate local
waterways during storms, according
to city planners.
The plan is to fi ll the gardens
with cheery perennials,
shrubbery, and trees, but the
cynical Dyker Heights resident
envisions pits overfl owing
with mud, garbage, and
pests, saying the neighborhood
would be better off with regular
old slabs of concrete.
“With the amount of rain
we get, all that the water’s going
to do is turn the dirt to
mud…I don’t think they’ll be
effective at all.”
Reps for the Department of
Environmental Protection rebutted
DeAngelo’s arguments
at a meeting of the Dyker
Heights Civic Association earlier
this month, saying the gardens
are designed to drain in
48 hours or less — meaning water
won’t be sitting long enough
to attract mosquitoes — and
claiming that city workers
will clean the enclosures once
a week. Residents can also opt
for a concrete variant rather
than a full garden, where rain
falls through grates and onto
a stone bed, soaking into the
soil.
But DeAngelo doesn’t want
to see anything new on his
block — plants, grates, or otherwise
— and the local offered
photos of poorly maintained
gardens throughout the city as
evidence the city will forget the
new infrastructure as soon as
it’s installed.
“You’ll clearly see that the
water sits there, which brings
mosquitoes” said DeAngelo,
referencing photos of rain gardens
throughout the city. “The
water is still going to sit there
underneath the grate.”
Many other residents have
warmed up to the rain gardens,
especially after city planners
explained at a meeting of
Community Board 10 that it
wouldn’t install the enclosures
in front of houses with handicapped
residents, which would
block them from their cars.
“There were some concerned
residents, but by the
end of the presentation they
seemed more receptive to the
proposal,” said Josephine
Beckmann, district manager
at Community Board 10.
The agency says it will begin
installing hundreds of the
gardens throughout the area
in 2022.
SHRINKING SIDEWALKS: John DeAngelo points to a line demarking the
edge of a future rain garden, which would leave only a few feet of space
for passersby. Photo by Trey Pentecost
Train strikes
woman in
Sheepshead Bay
BY ROSE ADAMS
A train fatally struck a
woman after she jumped
onto the tracks at Bay Parkway
Station in Bensonhurst
on Wednesday morning, police
confirmed.
The distressed woman
leapt in front of a northbound
D train as it entered
the station near 86th Street
shortly before 9 am, according
to authorities.
Witnesses, who described
the woman as middle-aged,
were horrified — describing
the gruesome scene as the
speeding train severed the
woman’s leg.
“Just saw them removed
the body four minutes ago,”
said one Citizen app user.
“It wasn’t a good sight.”
Emergency responders
rushed to the scene and pronounced
the woman dead at
9:20 am, and the investigation
remains ongoing, according
to police.
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