EDITORIAL
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.16 COM | JAN. 24-JAN. 30, 2020
READERS WRITE
Now that the city has decided
to finally, after many
decades, exempt owners of one-
and two-family residences from
any type of penalty due to their
sidewalks being uplifted or
damaged by city tree roots, it is
now time for this exemption to
be phased in across the entire
area for all buildings.
All property owners
throughout the city should be
given this right; they have to
still spend money to have their
sidewalks repaired, and that
creates a huge financial burden
on them.
The forestry division in each
borough needs to review their
procedures concerning this issue.
When tree roots begin to
uplift and damage sidewalks,
there is always an inherent hazard
created. Potential injuries
and property damage increase
substantially.
It should not have taken the
city all these years to finally
change the law regarding responsibility
of residential
owners of one- and two-family
homes for repairing tree damaged
sidewalks. But it’s not
enough. The exemption must
apply to all buildings throughout
the city.
John Amato
Fresh Meadows
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No sidewalk penalties for anyone!
The Train Daddy showed some respect for
Queens bus riders when he went into the belly
of the beast to answer questions from angry
Jackson Heights residents last week.
Yes, that was New York City Transit President
Andy Byford who stood right in the center of the
crowd as complaints about the MTA’s draft plan
of the Queens Bus Network Redesign ranged from
bus lines being completely wiped off the map to
bus stops being set farther apart, creating new
difficulties for seniors.
Byford explained that it was a draft plan and
his team would listen to the public comments
during 10 public workshops in the coming weeks
before finalizing anything on the redesign plan.
It seems as though Byford and his MTA planners
could be in for some very long confrontations
over this plan.
Perhaps one of them should have placed a
phone call to the bus driver’s union boss to solicit
his opinion of the plan.
“It ignores the transit needs of many parts
of the borough, especially transit deserts with
its emphasis on greater access to revitalized or
gentrified neighborhoods,” Amalgamated Transit
Local 1056 President Mark Henry said in a s
tatement from his Oakland Gardens
headquarters.
“Most commuters within the borough will
be challenging for the average Queens rider. It
appears that consultants who view Queens as a
car borough, not a necessary transit borough,
orchestrated this proposed bus redesign,” he
added.
Henry went on to say the redesign “attempts to
mask a money savings pitch” and that the routes
mean longer commutes as well as two- or threestep
transfers to connect to other bus lines, rail
or subways.
Byford and his team will be in for some very
challenging trips across the East River as they
come to Queens to hear the concerns of Queens
commuters over this draft plan. An MTA spokeswoman
called the redesign “a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to completely reimagine the borough’s
bus network, which hasn’t changed in a
century.”
You know what else has not changed in a century?
That Queens commuters have felt the city
was giving them the shaft when it came to mass
transit options for generations.
BIEBS IN QUEENS!
A Bellerose pizzeria got an unexpected visit from Justin Bieber last weekend in the singer’s quest for
gluten-free pizza. The pop-star visited Hi-Class Pizza and snapped a photo with owner Dominick Onesto.
Photo courtesy of Hi-Class Pizza
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