FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com JANUARY 21, 2016 • The Queens Courier 3 Flushing homeowners, pols press city for historic status Photo courtesy of Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association Civic leaders and elected officials rallied on Jan. 16 to have much of Broadway-Flushing designated a historic district. By Alina Suriel asuriel@queenscourier.com/@alinangelica Some Flushing homeowners continue to urge the city to make history in their community. The Broadway Homeowners Association rallied on Jan. 16 to bring attention to their ongoing fight to have the city designate the neighborhood as a historic district. Although the area is already listed on the national and state historic registers, the group is seeking to be recognized as a city landmark to ensure maximum protection against new development. The homeowners have not previously had success in their attempts to get the neighborhood recognized by the commission, but they renewed efforts to landmark the neighborhood following a leadership change at the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) last year. State Senator Tony Avella and Assemblyman Edward Braunstein attended the rally, which took place in front of a home set to be demolished in the near future. Both have signed a recent letter to the commission requesting that the area be considered for landmark status and attended previous rallies held by the neighborhood group. Avella believed that the “timeless” character of Broadway-Flushing is worth preserving due to the recent trend of increasing citywide development. “Broadway-Flushing has a distinct aesthetic that the community has been passionately fighting to SEE WHICH LIC STREETS WILL BE RECONSTRUCTED IN MAYOR’S $29.6M PLAN By Angela Mat ua amatua@queenscourier.com @AngelaMatua Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Jan. 19 that he would be allocating $29.6 million for the Long Island City Reconstruction Project, which will include the complete reconstruction of several streets and a sewer line. During de Blasio’s Vision Zero press conference at Woodside’s Razi School, he also nnounced that 2015 was the safest year on record in New York City streets; traffic fatalities are down 22 percent and there were 66 fewer lives lost in 2015 than in 2013, before Vision Zero was launched. The reconstruction project, which will encompass a portion of the $115 million in capital funds he will allocate to expand Vision Zero, will include traffic calming measures such as speed humps, raised crossings and slow zones and sidewalk extensions on Long Island City streets, in addition to total reconstruction of streets extending from Fifth Street and 44th Drive to Jackson and Borden Avenues. The Department of Transportation (DOT) will look to improve pedestrian, vehicle and bicycle safety and mobility, and the agency held a workshop last month to collect community feedback. According to a DOT spokesperson, the changes are being made “to meet the current and anticipated future demands of this growing neighborhood.” A spokesperson for Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who co-sponsored the workshop, said the reconstruction will follow a large-scale sewer project in the neighborhood. The sewer project will help streamline issues with plumbing and sewer infrastructure in a neighborhood that has seen rapid development, he said. Existing sewers will be replaced and new sewer infrastructure will be installed in new developments. The DOT will also focus on re-landscaping the area after streets are ripped up for sewer construction. The preliminary design, which will incorporate feedback from Long Island City residents, is expected to be complete this summer. Photo courtesy of Department of Transportation (DOT) preserve,” Avella said. “With the demolition of this house, however, the countdown timer will begin and it won’t be long before it is too late to protect the unique quality of the neighborhood.” Urban planning consultant Paul Graziano said his research into the issue leads him to believe that the LPC has a bias against suburban neighborhoods within the five boroughs. According to Graziano, almost every other National Register Historic District in Queens has been granted New York City Landmark status over the past decade. Although the LPC has landmarked more than 3,000 row houses in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Ridgewood since the beginning of 2014, he noted, the commission has never designated any suburban historic districts in New York City. “The inequity is staggering and it’s past time for the de Blasio administration to recognize and remedy this before the Broadway-Flushing neighborhood is irrevocably destroyed,” Graziano said. Maria Becce of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners’ Association said that Broadway- Flushing wants to send a loud and clear message to the mayor, LPC, the Department of City Planning and the Department of Buildings. “Unless there is a coordinated effort by the city to save the historical context of our planned community, largely covered by the Rickert-Finlay Covenant, with its distinct homes and green space, a piece of New York City history will be lost forever,” Becce said. 44TH dRIVE LIRR 5TH STREET BORDEN AVENUE
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