14 The QUEE NS Courier • FEBRUARY 11, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com COPS ARE CRACKING DOWN ON ASTORIA’S ILLEGAL FOOD DELIVERY SCOOTERS By Angela Matua [email protected]/@AngelaMatua Cops are spearheading an initiative to get illegal scooters driven by restaurant delivery employees off of Astoria streets. According to Captain Peter Fortune, the 114th Precinct’s commanding officer, residents had been complaining about the issue at recent 114th Precinct Community Council and Community Board 1 meetings, arguing that the people operating the vehicles were not obeying traffic control devices and driving the wrong way on one-way streets. “Everywhere you look in Astoria, they’re being operated,” Fortune said. On Jan. 26, the precinct began a three-day initiative to target the use of these scooters. At the end of the initiative, the force seized 11 electric scooters and handed out 11 summonses to the owners of the commercial establishments operating the vehicles. The electric bikes cannot be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles and cannot be considered bicycles because they are powered by both pedals and electric motors. Fortune said his officers also tied in an educational component. The NYPD spoke to restaurant owners and deliverymen along commercial strips in Astoria to notify them that these scooters are illegal and that different arrangements should be made when delivering food to customers. He added that the 114th Precinct is not targeting deliverymen but issuing summonses to businesses that are responsible for purchasing the scooters and telling their employees to operate them. He also said his precinct is the first in Queens “that’s taken an aggressive stance on this.” “If this is the community issue, then we’re going to address it,” Fortune said. Councilman Costa Constantinides also brought this problem to the attention of Fortune and sent a letter to the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) asking for backup from the city agency. “There seems to be a new local hot spot opening on every corner,” Constantinides said in the letter. “With this surge of activity, there are many food delivery cyclists and motorists we need to share the road with. Unfortunately, these drivers do not consistently adhere to city’s traffic laws. Oftentimes, they fail to yield to traffic signals and stop signs, while also driving on the sidewalk for convenience.” He asked the DCA to enforce its rule requiring food delivery employees to wear reflective cycling gear and to conduct outreach campaigns to educate restaurant owners and employees about their responsibilities to follow traffic laws. Fortune and his officers plan to maintain the initiative and reassess the situation further. If they continue to see these illegal scooters in the area, officers will do more enforcement and educational outreach in the future, he said. The NYPD began a citywide crackdown last summer and were instructed to hand out environmental control board violations, which come with a $500 fine. Fortune said city agencies are also looking at the businesses that rent or sell these scooters in order to eliminate the problem. “We don’t want to hit businesses,” Fortune said. “We want a successful commercial industry. We just have to do it safely.” Photo courtesy of Kim Nguyen/Bushwick Daily The 114th Precinct is spearheading an initiative to get electric motor scooters off of Astoria streets. AFTER THREE DENIALS, STRINGER APPROVES PERMANENT CONTRACT FOR ELMHURST SHELTER By Angela Matua [email protected]/@AngelaMatua City Comptroller Scott Stringer gave his approval on Feb. 5 to a contract that makes the temporary homeless shelter at the former Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst permanent. The latest contract for the shelter, located at 79-00 Queens Blvd., was submitted on Jan. 6 for a two-year, $23,870,000 deal ending on June 17. According to a spokesperson for Stringer, this contract is contingent on an agreement by Samaritan Daytop Village Inc. to clear open violations. Stringer has repeatedly said the emergency homeless shelter must address outstanding violations before he can accept any proposal for a permanent contract. He denied the contract last May, July and September. “The Department of Homeless Services has provided the comptroller’s office with the required documentation that health and safety violations have been cured or that there are plans in place to address those violations at the family shelter located at the Pan American Hotel,” spokesperson Eric Sumberg said in a statement. According to officials, the contract is currently only registered through June 30, 2016. After this date, the Department of Homeless Services will conduct a performance review to decide if the contract should be extended for the full two years. Samaritan Daytop Village Inc. also plans to turn Pan Am into a Tier II shelter and will have to provide construction plans for kitchens in each unit, a playground File photo The city approved a permanent contract on Friday for the Pan Am homeless shelter in Elmhurst. and an outdoor recreation area, officials said. The old hotel was turned into a temporary homeless shelter in June 2014, and residents and local elected officials were not informed of the change. The site has suffered from vermin infestation and has been cited for a number of health and safety and fire code violations. Elmhurst residents and politicians have staged several rallies calling on Stringer to deny previous contracts. Grassroots organization Elmhurst United has argued that approving the contract would further burden School District 24, the most overcrowded in the city, and that its numerous outstanding violations make it uninhabitable. POLS’ PAY HIKES NOT GROUNDED IN REALITY Last Friday, members of the City Council voted overwhelmingly, 40 to 7, to give themselves a hefty $36,000 raise, bringing their yearly salary to $148,500. Many city lawmakers believed the raise was warranted, even though it went far beyond what an independent commission recommended was appropriate. The Council tried to sell the lucrative raise as justified, saying that they are banning fellow lawmakers from earning outside income. The only problem with this rationale is that very few Council members work second jobs. It’s a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. What’s more surprising is what happens when you look deeper into the breakdown of those who voted for the pay raise versus those who did not. Of the seven who voted against a pay raise, all were either moderate Democrats or Republicans from Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Of those who voted for the pay hike, it included Queens Politics & More BY MIKE FRICCHIONE every member from the powerful progressive caucus, which as their website describes, “was formed in 2009 with the goal of advancing policies to build a more just and equal New York City.” But the average New Yorker has seen neither a more “just” nor “equal” city. Since 2009, take-home pay has, on average, either remained stagnant or has declined. And the biggest declines were seen from those workers who are already on the bottom rung. Similarly, household median income, as well as income per capita, has also been on a gradual decline in New York since 2009. Furthermore, income inequality continues to increase in Brooklyn and Queens, and especially in Manhattan, which happens to be where the bulk of progressive caucus members represent. This is not to say that a small group of lawmakers are to blame for a stagnant economy. Quite the contrary, it’s simply strong evidence that a raise is not merited at this time. The optics are bad. But it’s made worse when you consider that the median household income in New York City is approximately $50,711, thousands of dollars lower than where it was in 2009 and nowhere near what Council members are now paying themselves. One can only imagine what would happen if we demanded that our public servants took a salary commensurate with the public that they purport to represent. Maybe if we tied politicians’ pay to that of their constituents, we would then start to see the beginnings of a more “just” and “equal” city.
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