FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com march 26, 2015 • The Queens Courier 3 THE COURIER/ Photo by Angy Altamirano The MTA has announced that it will be making permanent service additions to the Q103 bus line, which runs down Vernon Boulevard between Astoria and LIC. Community feedback leads to permanent bus Nick Cannon service greeted the expansion along Vernon Boulevard crowd of children at the BY hospital ANGY on March ALTAMIRANO 16 and told During a public hearing in December on the methods of traveling between our neighborhoods has aaltamirano@them how inspired queenscourier.he was by com/@aaltamirano28 increased service, community support was unanimous, never been more pressing. This service expansion represents each and every one of them. according to the MTA. a hard-fought victory, but I will never stop fighting As they say, ask and you shall receive. Due to an immense Local leaders and business owners saw the need to for improved transit service in our community.” amount of support from community members, it will now expand the Q103’s service as crucial to the growing The Q103 bus line also serves as the public’s only be easier to access the western Queens waterfront. neighborhoods, which have seen a rise in new residential option to connect areas to subway stations such as the The MTA announced on March 20 that weekend developments and expanded cultural attractions. F line at 21 St–Queensbridge and the 7 line at Vernon and increased weeknight service on the Q103 route, Some of the cultural spots that the bus serves include Blvd–Jackson Av. which runs down Vernon Boulevard between Astoria the Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park. During the pilot program, ridership levels increased and Long Island City, will be permanently added after “I am thrilled the MTA heeded my call to make Q103 by 6.8 percent on weekdays compared to the fivemonth a successful pilot program started last June. service expansion permanent. Western Queens has period before the trial, and by 30 percent The service additions made during the experimental long needed better bus service, so it is gratifying that compared to average weekday use in 2012, the MTA program include extending weeknight hours from 7:30 the MTA responded to our concerns,” state Senator said. Currently weekday ridership is 1,100 customers, p.m. to 9 p.m., and adding service on Saturdays and Michael Gianaris said. “There is so much happening the average Saturday ridership is about 300, and on Sundays from about 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. throughout western Queens that our need for better Sundays it is about 250. 109th Precinct to pilot NYPD’s newest online social experience BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com/@LiamLaGuerre The 109th Precinct’s commander, Captain Thomas Conforti, has become an ambassador of social media and technology to the NYPD. He was one of the first commanding officers in the city tapped to introduce Twitter while leading the 112th Precinct last year, and he organized the first online precinct community council meeting. Next month, the tech-savvy police captain will serve his online-forward liaison role again as the first in the department to make use of a growing social software platform called IdeaScale. The crowdsourcing platform will give residents the ability to vote and give feedback on ideas or projects by the precinct. “Twitter is good for me to get information out to people, but when I need to know people’s opinions on something in the community, how do I get that?” Conforti said to a room full of members of the recently formed We Love Whitestone organization on Wednesday. “I think it’s a step in the right direction. It’s going to build on my belief that the police department is reaching far more people that have concerns than they ever had before.” After an idea is submitted on IdeaScale by an organization, members can share their opinions, which can be anonymous, and they can vote on the idea. The goal is to get more people involved to make better decisions and strengthen ideas. Created in 2009, the software is being used worldwide by 25,000 customers and 4 million users, according to its website. This includes various private organizations, institutions, and federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Navy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and even the White House. One way the precinct will use IdeaScale is to share plans for events and collect feedback from residents, Conforti said. They’ll be able to know what members of the community think and what’s popular. Conforti believes that it will also help them reach more people who want to connect with the precinct but may not have the time to attend monthly community meetings. “We understand that people might have some issues so they don’t come to meetings,” Conforti said. “They could reach out any time at their convenience over social media.”
QC03262015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above