8 The QUEE NS Courier • APRIL 24, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com Astoria Park gets green for bike tour BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected]/@aaltamirano28 More than 30,000 bicyclists will pedal into a greener Astoria Park this May. Volunteers from nonprofits Bike New York, the New York Restoration Project and other organizations, as well as local and city officials came together on Earth Day to plant 64 trees at the park, which will be one of the major rest areas for the 37th TD Five Boro Bike Tour. “It’s our way of giving back to the environment and to the park,” said Beth Heyde, senior events manager for Bike NY. Out of the 64 trees, which included 12 different species, 20 were placed on the route bicyclists have taken throughout the park for years during the bike tour. “It feels so good to give back to this park that has been giving us so much for 37 years,” said Kenneth J. Podziba, president and CEO of Bike New York, who was born in Howard Beach. “We love Astoria Park so much, we love Queens so much.” The Five Boro Bike Tour is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 4, and begin in Lower Manhattan. This year Bike NY’s bike tour, which allows 32,000 cyclists to wheel through all five boroughs on streets free of traffic, will be the city’s first sporting event and the nation’s second cycling event to be certified as sustainable by the Council for Responsible Sport after making the tour environmentally green. The nonprofit has partnered with the city’s Department of Environmental Protection to provide riders with fresh city drinking water, eliminating the use of plastic bottles during the bike On Earth Day, over 60 trees were planted in Astoria Park, which has been one of the major rest areas for the TD Five Boro Bike Tour for the past 37 years. tour. Riders will also receive a kit that includes a compostable bike ID plate, recyclable bibs and a reusable helmet cover. “Today is the first step in the right direction,” THE COURIER/Photo by Angy Altamirano Podziba said during the April 22 tree planting. “We’re improving Astoria Park. We don’t just want it to be one year; we want to do this every year.” Little Neck wants monstrous wall to come down BY LIAM LA GUERRE @liamlaguerre [email protected] Little Neck residents say they can see the writing on the wall for their neighborhood, if a Long Island City-based company moving in has its way. More than 100 residents backed by local politicians protested on April 22 against watch manufacturer E. Gluck Corporation’s construction of a 35-foot wall, which is so high some said it blocks sunlight after certain hours. Community members fear it will hurt property values and their quality of life. “It looks like the cross between a concentration camp and ‘The Wall’ from ‘Game of Thrones,’ said Joan Arnowitz, a resident who lives down the block from the wall. “I have an $800,000 house that’s now going to go down in value.” E. Gluck is moving this year into the empty lot at 60-15 Little Neck Parkway, the former site of electrical wiring company Leviton. Residents and politicians were initially in support of the move, believing that E. Gluck, like Leviton, would be a quiet neighbor based on the wares it manufactures. The company promised to put a one-story warehouse on the site, according to politicians. But residents woke up recently to find the towering dark gray wall, which sits on a hill that is about 10 feet high off the curb, extending nearly halfway through the block. It appears to be the outside wall of the warehouse under construction. The company couldn’t be reached for comment before print time because of the holidays. State Sen. Tony Avella asked the Department of Buildings (DOB) for a Stop Work Order for the property. He and other elected officials also hope to take away about $13 million in tax breaks that the company was granted from the city for the next 25 years. “They lied to us. They told us that this would be a small project,” Avella said. “They made us an enemy. They didn’t have to do this, but they made an enemy out of us and we are going to fight for the community. This has to come down.” THE COURIER/Photo by Liam La Guerre Little Neck residents and politicans rallied to take down a massive wall that E. Gluck Corp. erected for a warehouse.
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