FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com FEBRUARY 13, 2014 • The Queens Courier 3 BUS TIME COMING TO BORO BY CRIS TABELLE TUMOLA [email protected] Queens commuters will soon be able to track when the next bus will arrive. MTA Bus Time, which allows riders to follow the real-time location of buses through any web-enabled smartphone or computer via GPS, should be coming to the borough within weeks, according to the agency. “We have completed borough-wide installations in Queens and Brooklyn and are currently fine-tuning software. We are on schedule to go online in the next several weeks,” MTA spokesperson Kevin Ortiz said. MTA Bus Time users can also text an intersection or street address to 511123 to receive a message listing local bus routes or find out information by using a smartphone with a QR-code reader. The QR-code is printed on the Guide-ARide schedules posted at bus stops. The technology started serving all of Staten Island’s bus routes in January, 2012. It was later expanded to include all Bronx and Manhattan routes, as well as Brooklyn’s B63 and B61 lines. The MTA said in October, 2013 it would be expanding Bus Time to Queens and remaining routes within the next six months. Assemblymember Phil Goldfeder has been pushing for the MTA to implement the technology throughout Queens and to set a start date for its launch. He sent a letter to MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast last week asking him to immediately expand its use to the entire borough. “Waiting for a bus in Queens should not be a guessing game,” Goldfeder said. “Bus Time is the perfect solution to make public transportation more accessible and efficient to keep traffic moving. I’m excited to see a successful program come to Queens residents.” Crews working to fill boro potholes BY MELIS A CHAN [email protected] More than 21,000 pesky potholes in Queens have been filled so far during this year’s snowier than usual winter, the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) said. Nearly 2,000 in the borough were fixed last weekend, as part of the city’s season-long repair efforts, a department spokesperson said. Since January, the 1,000-member roadway crew has set a record pace, working around the clock to fix more than 75,000 potholes along the city’s rocky roads, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said. “These tireless public servants … will be filling many more given the snowstorms the city has already faced this winter and the wear and tear that inflicts,” Trottenberg said. Potholes typically pop up around February and die down by April, though the timeline is dependent on weather, experts say. They form when water, that slips into cracks under the road, freezes and expands when the temperature changes, causing a freeze and thaw cycle that damages the road. It becomes a hole when heavy traffic rolls over the weakened spot. “It’s crazy, especially now after all the snow. Forget about it,” said Jose Soto, who drives from Flushing to Astoria. “It ruins your tires. You can get in an accident. It’s annoying. You have to zigzag.” It typically takes a few minutes for crews to fill, compact and seal a pothole, a DOT spokesperson said. More work is expected to be done next week on residential streets and major roadways, including the Long Island Expressway’s (LIE) eastbound service road, between Little Neck Parkway and the Nassau County border, and 149th Street at 27th Avenue in Linden Hill, the DOT said. “It’s like a minefield on the LIE,” said driver Risa Doherty, who commutes from Roslyn in Nassau County to Bayside. “Cars are swerving around the potholes at high speeds.” To report a pothole, call 3-1-1 or visit nyc.gov. Craters generally have to be at least at least one foot in diameter and three inches deep to be fixed, according to the DOT’s website. THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Potholes like these, on the Cross Island Expressway service road, are hard to avoid. SUIT TO STOP CITI FIELD MALL BY MELIS A CHAN [email protected] State Senator Tony Avella and a long list of Queens park advocates are suing the city to stop a mega mall from coming to Citi Field. The 1.4 million-square-foot shopping center is part of a major $3 billion project by Sterling Equities and Related Companies to redevelop Willets Point. The ambitious and controversial plan, approved by the City Council in October, also includes the cleanup of 23 acres of contaminated land and the eventual construction of housing units with commercial and retail space. The group filed the suit February 10 in New York County Supreme Court, saying the project cannot proceed without state Legislature approval under a doctrine that protects state parkland. The suit also seeks annulments of city approvals. “It’s a serious principle here,” Avella said. “If the city is allowed to get away with this, what’s to stop them next time? If we keep giving it away, someday we’ll wake up and there will be no parks.” Officials tweak contentious T Building plan BY MELIS A CHAN [email protected] A controversial plan to turn the historic T Building into a housing unit for mental and chronic health patients has slightly changed, but it is still on the table, The Courier has learned. In late 2012, Queens Hospital Center (QHC) was in talks with Comunilife, a nonprofit human services agency, to develop the dilapidated 10-story building on its Hillcrest campus into 251 units of affordable housing for people with low-income and chronic health conditions. Residents would include veterans and people suffering from psychiatric diagnoses or a range of illnesses, from diabetes to AIDS. The bid was met with fierce opposition from a coalition of civic leaders and elected officials, who said the “questionable population” could put children at nearby schools in danger. Now a new version of the project is being bandied about, said sources close to the hospital and confirmed by local leaders. Hospital officials hope to compromise and house fewer patients than originally proposed. The number is still up in the air, but a source said there would still be more than 100 patients. “The plan keeps changing, but never actually gets formally introduced,” said Councilmember Rory Lancman, who learned of the new concept last week. “I don’t know if this idea will gel into a plan more than the last one.” Several proposals are on the table, said Celia Dosamantes, a spokesperson for Assemblymember David Weprin, though the Comunilife plan is still front and center. “There is room for discussion, which is good news,” she said. Last month, Community Board 8 approved a resolution to demolish the T Building after a request from State Senator Tony Avella and Assemblymember Nily Rozic. “This building is in serious disrepair,” Avella said, adding that it costs the hospital $2 million a year to maintain. “Money that is going into that building is taking away from patient care. That building should come down.” But Queens preservationists are appealing to the city and state to save and landmark the former tuberculosis clinic. “This hospital is part of a great war against disease, poverty and hardship,” said Queens Preservation Council Chair Mitchell Grubler. The next step for the site heavily depends on money. Funds for the multi-million dollar housing unit have not been secured yet, sources said, and it was unclear how much it would cost to dismantle. “It’s hard to distinguish between a plan and merely an idea that isn’t going anywhere,” Lancman said. “Last time, there was all smoke and noise and nothing ever came of it.” Queens Hospital Center spokesperson Cleon Edwards said officials are still working to find a resolution that “seeks to balance concerns” of the community with the hospital’s “obligation to provide high quality healthcare services to its patients.” EXCLUSIVE ‘RISING STARS’ POSTPONED Attention Courier readers, our annual Rising Stars event has been postponed due to inclement weather. New date will be Thursday, February 27 at Terrace on the Park from 5 to 8 p.m. All tickets will be honored at that time. Questions or comments should be directed to Maria Romero at 718-224-5863, ext 226 or [email protected].
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