FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com may 1, 2014 • The queens Courier 29 THE COURIER/Photo by Angy Altamirano More than a year after a high school student was fatally struck on his way to school, LaGuardia Community College released a traffic study of Thomson Avenue. Traffic study at fatal street BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] @aaltamirano28 More than a year ago, 16-year-old Tenzin Drudak was fatally struck while on his way to school on Thomson Avenue. Now, LaGuardia Community College has released a traffic study on the highly congested roadway to help prevent another life from being lost. The comprehensive analysis was led by traffic engineering firm Philip Habib & Associates and recommends that three changes be made to the corridor to improve safety for students and faculty. The first change calls for the widening of sidewalks along Thomson Avenue by getting rid of one of the eastbound lanes, creating a buffer between vehicles and pedestrians. The other suggestions are creating sidewalk bulb-outs, or curb extensions, and modifying current signal timing at select intersections. The recommendations were decided upon after measuring hourly traffic volume and assessing signal timing, lane markings and curbside parking regulations. The firm also reviewed accident data from the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT). Last July, the DOT redesigned Thomson and Skillman avenues by closing the slip ramp and making it illegal for vehicles to make left turns from Thomson onto Skillman Avenue. New signs and plastic markers to limit left turns from Thomson Avenue to 30th Street have also been installed. There is also a brand-new 550-square-foot pedestrian space at the intersection of 30th Street and Thomson Avenue, where Drudak was struck by a minivan. It is bordered by stone blocks, plastic markings and six planters. Thomson Avenue brings in a large amount of pedestrian traffic with more than 50,000 students and 2,500 faculty and staff members from LaGuardia Community College, located on Thomson Avenue, and more than 2,000 students from five nearby high schools, according to Dr. Gail O. Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College. “For years, LaGuardia has been concerned about the pedestrian and vehicular safety of its students, faculty and staff,” Mellow said. “LaGuardia urges the city to rapidly make the necessary improvements for both pedestrian and vehicular safety by making modifications on Thomson Avenue, between Skillman Avenue and Van Dam Street.” THE COURIER/Photo by Liam La Guerre Congresswoman Grace Meng organized a vigil on the anniversary of a massive building collapse in Bangladesh, which killed 1,129 garment workers. Queens Bangladesh community mourns victims of factory collapse, calls for reforms BY LIAM LA GUERE [email protected]/@liamlaguerre Gone, but not forgotten. U.S. Rep. Grace Meng organized a vigil on April 24 for 1,129 Bangladesh garment workers, who perished when a faulty building collapsed a year ago, to honor their memory and call for an increase in occupational safety and compensation. “No one should go to work every day fearing for their life because the building they work in is not structurally sound,” Meng said. The Rana Plaza factory collapse occurred near the capital city of Dhaka last year due to safety conditions with the building. Cracks were discovered in the eight-story building but were not repaired, and employees were ordered to work in the structure. More than 2,500 people were injured after the collapse. Many other buildings in the garment industry in Bangladesh share the same safety concerns. Some of those buildings produce goods for major and small American retailers, including Wal-Mart and Target. The coalition of politicians and labor union officials at the vigil hopes to bring awareness to the issues and to have major companies pledge to increase safety measures. Little has been done to relieve working conditions, according to union representatives, and they want to prevent another tragedy. “I think they are more concerned about the bottom line than they are concerned about the workers who have made them so successful,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. “The way we make change is by increasing public awareness of what happened and why it happened.” Flushing gay rights activist honored with street co-naming BY LIAM LA GUERE [email protected]/@liamlaguerre A local activist who paved the way for gay rights was honored along with her family with a street co-naming on April 26 on the Flushing block where she lived and worked. Standing in front of Jeanne Manford’s former home on 171st Street, politicians, including openly gay Councilman Daniel Dromm, neighbors and members of the gay rights community, held a ceremony to unveil the new Jeanne, Jules and Morty Manford PFLAG Way street sign. “I think it’s important for everybody to know the struggle that we’ve gone through, and how we got to where we are today, and it was because of people like Jeanne, Jules and Morty that we are where we are today,” Dromm said. Manford founded Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) in 1972 and walked with her gay son, Morty, in the New York City Pride March at a time when homosexuality was still considered a mental disorder. The Manfords also took in young people who were thrown out of their homes for being gay. Now PFLAG has more than 350 chapters and 200,000 members across the country that work toward insuring the rights of gay people everywhere. “We all do the work that we do because it’s right and it feels good and it’s just the right thing to do, but when Photo by Liam La Guerre Local gay rights activist Jeanne Manford and her family were honored with a street co-naming on April 26 on the Flushing block where she lived and worked. Jeanne did it, it was so courageous,” said Dale Bernstein, president of PFLAG. Manford, who died last year at the age of 92, was awarded the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal for her achievements by President Barack Obama. Jeanne’s daughter Suzanne Swan, who lives in California, attended the ceremony, where she recalled memories of her mother. “She was just my mother,” she said. “She was just nice, sweet, quiet, and it’s just overwhelming for me to come here and hear the stories and see the people. It’s been fantastic.”
QC05012014
To see the actual publication please follow the link above