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QC01192017

FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 19, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11 First seeds of ‘QueensWay’ park may be planted in Glendale, F.H. BY ANTHONY GIUDICE agiudice@ridgewoodtimes.com/@A_ GiudiceReport As the debate rages on about what to do with the unused Rockaway Beach Branch Line of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), Th e Trust for Public Land is focusing its eff orts on turning the 3.5-mile stretch of railway into a beautiful park ranging from Rego Park to Ozone Park, called the QueensWay. Specifi cally, the organization is eyeing a half-mile section of the linear park straddling the Glendale/Forest Hills border to plant the park’s fi rst foothold. Th at section is named the “Metropolitan Hub” and runs along the tracks from Metropolitan Avenue down to Union Turnpike. For more than a half century, these LIRR tracks have lain abandoned as trees and undergrowth have begun to spring up, trash and litter has piled up, and drug and alcohol paraphernalia are strewn about. In 2011, the advocacy group Friends of the QueensWay was formed to see something better become of this land. Recently, the Friends of the QueensWay joined forces with Th e Trust for Public Land, a not-for-profi t organization dedicated to preserving open space and creating parks for people in and around cities. “Our essential goal is to have every resident of a city in the U.S. have a park, playground, trail or greenway within a 10-minute walk from home, and we are working toward that goal,” said Adrian Benepe, senior vice president and director of city park development at Th e Trust for Public Land. According to Benepe, New York City ranks seventh on the Parks Score — an assessment of the country’s 100 largest cities as to how well they provide parks to their residents — with 97 percent of New Yorkers living within a 10-minute walk to a park, playground, trail or greenway. “New York does very well, but there are still pockets of the city where they have very little park access,” Benepe added. “One of those pockets is down in Ozone Park where there are very few parks and we’re working to address that. Th e QueensWay would provide a major antidote to the park desert which is particularly bad in Ozone Park. Ozone Park, despite its name having ‘Park’ in it, has almost no parks.” In order to implement the QueensWay, Th e Trust for Public Land has broken the 3.5- mile, 47-acre space into six distinct sections. Th e not-for-profi t was funded to design a half mile of the route, and chose the “Metropolitan Hub” to be the fi rst to get designed. Th is would provide travelers an alternate and safe way into Forest Park, and students at the local schools would get an outdoor educational space. Th e Glendale ballfi elds would also benefi t from getting food concessions, batting cages and bleachers. Great rates like ours are always in season. 1.10% 7-Month CD APY1 $5,000 minimum deposit To qualify you must open a Flushing Bank Complete Checking Plus account. Get the complete access and control you desire with a competitive interest rate and banking on-the-go with our Flushing Bank Mobile2 app. For more information and to find out about our other great offers, visit your local Flushing Bank branch, call 800.581.2889 or visit www.FlushingBank.com. Small enough to know you. Large enough to help you. 1 New money only. APY effective December 23, 2016 Annual percentage yield assumes principal and interest remain on deposit for a full year at current rate. Minimum deposit balance of $5,000 is required. Funds cannot be transferred from an existing Flushing Bank account. Premature withdrawals may be subject to bank and IRS penalties. Rates and offer are subject to change without notice. A new Complete Checking Plus account with a $5,000 minimum initial deposit is required to receive the CD with the advertised rate. Certain fees and restrictions may apply. For new IRA and rollover accounts, the minimum deposit balance is $5,000. A new checking account is not required for IRA accounts. Speak with a Flushing Bank representative for more details. 2 Flushing Bank Mobile Banking is available to all Flushing Bank online banking users. Flushing Bank is a registered trademark


QC01192017
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