FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 8, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 37
oped
This May 1923 photo shows a road in Queens that no longer exists. Strong’s Causeway crossed the Flushing Creek and marshy areas that
would one day become the World’s Fairgrounds and, later, Flushing Meadows Corona Park. A bridge carrying the causeway over Flushing
Creek is in the background; the roadway would later be incorporated into Horace Harding Boulevard and, later, the Long Island Expressway.
Send us your historic photos of Queens by email to editorial@qns.com (subject: A Look Back) or mail printed pictures to A Look Back, Schneps
Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you. Photo courtesy of Queens Library
Digital Archives
letters & comments
VITAL SOCIAL PROGRAM
FACES DEADLINE
Members of Club Pride, a psycho-social
program for seniors run by Pride of
Judea in Douglaston, are facing a fateful
deadline. Started 20 years ago, Club
Pride put many people on the road to
recovery aft er they were discharged
from psychiatric hospitals.
I’m one of them. I joined in April
2003 aft er being twice hospitalized
for clinical depression. Club Pride has
transformed me from someone who
struggled to get out of bed every day
to a person actively engaged in community
aff airs. Many other members
achieved similar transitions, thanks
to the therapy, coping skills and social
support we gained at Club Pride.
But this vital program will end on
June 30 unless responsible civic and
political leaders act soon.
Th e crisis stems from a dispute
between two agencies who fund Club
Pride: NYC’s Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene and the Jewish
Board of Family and Children’s
Services. Both share budget costs but
disagree on how the program should
be run.
Club Pride not only helps the mentally
ill, but also serves as a training
ground for college students majoring
in social work and art therapy.
Six interns a year get hands-on experience
working with a vulnerable segment
of Queens’ population. Roughy
120 interns were trained at Club Pride
over the past 20 years. Many are now
practicing professionals.
Ironically, Club Pride’s demise
occurs shortly aft er Mayor de Blasio
launched a new program run by fi rst
lady Chirlane McGray, called NYC
Well, to expand mental health services
to all New Yorkers. Ending a successful
mental health program that proved
its value over the past 20 years doesn’t
mesh with this initiative.
Perhaps NYC’s Department for the
Aging can co-fund Club Pride along
with the Jewish Board. One person
who could arrange this is Councilman
Paul Vallone, whose 19th District
includes Douglaston. He chairs the
sub-committee on senior centers and
raised funds for several services aiding
the elderly, such as free transportation
for medical visits throughout Queens.
Douglaston’s Albany legislators
should also use their clout to make it
happen.
Richard Reif, Kew Gardens Hills
TEEN TO MAYOR: STOP
OVERDEVELOPMENT!
Editor’s note: Th e following letter was
written by the author to Mayor Bill de
Blasio. Th e author told us that he is 14
years old.
I feel a need to call the city out on
its lack of eff ort in preserving my
charming community of Broadway-
Flushing.
Over the years, the Broadway-
Flushing Homeowners Association
has been fi ghting an ongoing war to
preserve the beautiful and historical
architecture which are the center for
our community and harbor its uniqueness.
Witnessing the destruction of
these homes and the stories they tell
can adversely aff ect a community in
ways that the city’s corrupt government
cannot comprehend, nor care to
take into consideration.
Th e reason I’ve decided to write this
letter now is because this overdevelopment
I so strongly speak out against
has reached my street and aff ected the
members of the community closest to
me. I’m sure this letter represents one
of many written to the city regarding
this community, however, I’d like
to ensure the city is held accountable
for such utter incompetence and corruption.
Specifi cally, the home on the corner
of my street, 166-15 35th Ave., is being
destroyed and the land is being used,
once again, as a way to build a monstrosity,
which exceeds the appropriate
lot size, ultimately destroying the
history embodied within the home.
Th e plan for the house does not at all
fi t the appearance of the area and will
degrade the value of the surrounding
homes, therefore deteriorating our
street’s fi nancial stability.
Th e downfall of my community is
an example of the hypocrisy infl icted
upon the citizens of New York. Mayor
de Blasio, how can you continue to
neglect the needs of the communities
of New York who continue to request
assistance in the fi ght to end overdevelopment?
While it may be “just” one home,
the fi ght against overdevelopment still
proceeds without any further support
from city leaders. I urge you and all
elected offi cials to eradicate the potentially
destructive corporatism and
overdevelopment that has begun to
engulf New York City.
William Cariello, Flushing
Email your letters to editorial@qns.
com (Subject: Letter to the Editor) or
leave a comment to any of our stories
at QNS.com. You can also send
a letter by regular mail to Letters to
the Editor, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside,
NY 11361. All letters are subject to
editing. Names will be withheld upon
request, but anonymous letters will
not be considered for publication. Th e
views expressed in all letters and comments
are not necessarily those of this
publication or its staff .
It’s time to reform
New York voting laws
BY STATE SENATOR
TOBY ANN STAVISKY
Across the nation, we are seeing voting rights
under assault. States with grotesquely gerrymandered
districts, which were drawn in a totally
partisan manner, are cutting back on groundbreaking
reforms such as early voting and sameday
voter registration in the name of fi ghting
“voter fraud.”
What is really happening is voter suppression.
However, we aren’t seeing the same rollbacks
here in New York. Why? Because New York
remains a state with one of the most antiquated
voting systems in the nation. In other words,
we’re seeing no scale back of reforms because
there are no reforms to scale back.
New York has the second worst voting participation
record in the nation, with just 29 percent
of eligible voters participating. Th ink about that.
Only 29 percent of a state with a population of
19.75 million people vote in elections. Th ere are
millions of New Yorkers who aren’t having their
voices heard, and countless elections that could
have been swayed with their votes.
Th ere is no doubt that a huge contributor to
this abysmal statistic is a lack of serious voting
reform, which is why I stood with my colleagues
a week ago to support of a series of bills to protect
and expand New Yorkers’ voting rights.
Th ese reforms include common-sense bills
such as early voting, same-day registration and an
expansion of absentee voting, but also progressive
initiatives such as the Voter Empowerment
Act and the creation of a new electoral crime for
voter suppression. Democrats, like myself, have
been pushing for the enactment of these bills for
years, and yet not one has been brought to the
Republican-controlled Senate fl oor for a vote.
Th e threat to voting is real. In the past fi ve
years, we have seen the pivotal protections of the
Voting Rights Act stripped and states require
proof of identifi cation (a protocol that has historically
disadvantaged low-income individuals
and people of color). Now, our president,
by openly questioning the 2016 election numbers,
has enabled states to continue to gut voting
laws. New York has always been a leader in progressive
thought and policy. It is time our voting
laws catch up to that tradition.
Each year voting reforms are not enacted, millions
of New Yorkers are denied a more modern
and easier voting process. We cannot allow for
the suppression of votes any longer. As we’ve
seen this past year, every vote counts, particularly
in state and local elections. Why then, is there
so much bureaucracy and red tape to disenfranchise
New Yorkers?
Th e fact is, our country was founded on the
notion that the people have the power and that
power in enacted through elections. Th is tradition
holds elected offi cials accountable to their
constituents, making sure we serve in the best
interest of the public. We are doing a disservice
to them by not passing voting reforms.
My hope is that this will be the last year my
colleagues and I call for voting reforms. I would
love to see each of the bills in this package
passed. But I am committed to keep fi ghting for
truly accessible elections for as long as it takes.
Stavisky represents the 16th Senatorial
District which covers a swath of central and
northeast Queens.
A LOOK BACK
