FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com FEBRUARY 11, 2016 • The Queens Courier 3 ‘Lifesavers’ street safety project at Bayside school is a hit with parents By Alina Suriel [email protected]/@alinangelica A Bayside elementary school is being held up as a shining example by school district leaders for its proactive street safety measures. The District 26 Community Education Council (CEC) recently invited P.S. 46 The Alley Pond School to give a special presentation on its Project Lifesaver initiative, which reduces dangerous traffic congestion by restricting street traffic during arrival and dismissal times. Project Lifesavers has been a continuing success since its May 2015 launch, according to Principal Stamo Karalazarides. The school closes down one lane of the two-lane street used by parents and utilizes school workers to escort children to and from their family vehicles. “If the kids aren’t safe, nothing else matters,” Karalazarides said. “We didn’t wait for something to happen. It was a proactive effort, not a reactive one.” The initiative has undergone minor changes as unexpected situations arose, including making adjustments necessary for different weather conditions and securing an extension on the timing of a corner street light with support from Assemblywoman Nily Rozic. According to CEC President Alan Ong, the presentation was part of an increased effort by the group this year to improve traffic safety around schools. “It’s a well-known problem not just throughout our district, but through Queens and the five boroughs,” Ong said. While P.S. 46 was the first school to speak on its experiences, the group looks to have more schools share ideas and is also collecting data on traffic conditions to share with local precincts and politicians. Rozic agreed that traffic concerns at public schools are a widespread issue in Queens that must be solved in order to protect the safety of our children and said she looked forward to helping other schools inspired by Project Lifesaver. “These types of cross-community and school solutions are critical to ensure long-term safety both in and out of our schools and I would encourage other schools in Queens to use this model going forward,” Rozic said. Queens straphangers say 7 train needs full line review now By Angela Mat ua [email protected]/@AngelaMatua Fed up with delays, overcrowding and poor infrastructure, 7 train riders are taking matters into their own hands. Commuters who frequent the 7 train gathered at the 40th-Lowery Street station in Sunnyside on Feb. 9 to demand that the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) conduct a full line review. The riders were joined by Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who said his constituents “blow up” his social media feeds every morning when there are train delays and crowded platforms. “This is not happening once in a while, in a big city, on a busy train line,” Van Bramer said. “It happens almost every single day. The MTA knows this.” He also added that the 52nd Street- Roosevelt Avenue stop in Woodside was voted the worst station in New York City in terms of structural components by the Citizens Budget Commission last year. Sunnyside resident Melissa Orlando is a founder of the Facebook page 7 Train Blues, a forum for riders to share their 7 train experiences and update each other on train delays. Orlando argues that the service has gotten worse in the last year. “We’ve had at least five days with train outages,” Orlando said. “It’s unacceptable for the people of Queens to have this level of service.” Hayes Peter Mauro, a 7 train rider and media director for Access Queens, said the train is “dangerously crowded” and passengers have to frequently wait for multiple trains to go by before they can get on one. Mauro said the MTA has been telling passengers for several years that the signal system will be fixed, but the improvements have not been made yet. “On a regular basis, every week there are shutdowns, service disruptions,” Mauro said. “It’s not just the crowding, it’s also the tracks themselves and we know they’re working on it, yet this keeps happening.” A spokesperson for the MTA said the agency has “enhanced inspections and added additional personnel to improve response times to right-of-way incidents on the 7 line that is beginning to stabilize service along the line.” Several incidents such as a broken rail line have “negatively impacted service” in the past few weeks, he added. Access Queens is requesting that the MTA appoint a community liaison to listen to riders’ frustrations, and a town hall meeting is currently being planned, with an invitation sent to the MTA board and new president. Officials for the MTA said they would be open to meeting with the community. Van Bramer, along with Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras- Copeland and Councilmen Daniel Dromm and Peter Koo, sent a letter on Feb. 8 to MTA CEO Thomas Prendergast calling for the review. “After years of ongoing signals work, 7 train riders deserve the best service the MTA can offer, and a Full-Line Review can help achieve that,” the letter read. THE COURIER/Photo by Angela Matua Subway riders demanded a full-line review of the 7 line on Feb. 9. THE COURIER/Photo by Alina Suriel Principal Stamo Karalazarides and supervising school aid Fran Kersch on the first day of the safety initiative.
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