for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com may 16, 2013 • The queens Courier 3 Promises prompt board to OK Willets West BY MELISA CHAN [email protected] Plans for a behemoth mall at Willets Point received a key nod from Community Board (CB) 7 after the city and the facility’s developer laid out a list of new commitments. CB 7 granted a special permit BUDGET CUTS MAY AFFECT BP STAFF BY TERENCE M. CULLEN [email protected] Half the staff at Borough Hall could get pink slips if cuts proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg go through. Borough President Helen Marshall’s office is expected to receive about $3.14 million in funding for the 2014 fiscal year—nearly $1.8 million less than last year— officials announced at Marshall’s Borough Board meeting on Monday, May 13. If the budget is approved, the cuts will result in half the staff’s dismissal, according to Chief of Staff Alexandra Rosa. There were roughly 88 employees when Marshall was first elected in 2002, according to spokesperson Dan Andrews. If this year’s cuts go through, the current staff of 54 could be reduced to fewer than 30. “This has somehow become a discretionary item,” Rosa said. “Funding for the borough president’s office should not be a discretionary item.” Marshall said she is concerned over many of the cuts proposed in Bloomberg’s budget, particularly to her staff and to after school programs. “We have to justify everything we ask for,” she said. “Our responsibility is to spend the people’s money. We’ve got to spend it carefully and we have got to make sure that it’s going to really help our people. And that’s what we do.” Cuts to discretionary funds would also result in the reduction or elimination of services to the elderly and the disabled. Five senior centers would have to close, according to Marshall’s office. The facilities include the Kew Gardens Senior Center, the Forest Park Senior Center in Woodhaven, the SAGE/Queens Senior Center in Jackson Heights, the Korean American Senior Center of Flushing and the LeFrak Senior Center in Elmhurst. Andrews said the borough president’s office was still performing the same functions it did in 1989, when its role was last updated in the City Charter, but with a significantly smaller staff. “We are not a city agency,” he said. “We are the office of an elected official with charter-mandated responsibilities.” to Sterling Equities and Related with a 22-18 advisory vote. The joint venture wants to move Citi Field parking to Willets Point in order to construct a 1.4 million-squarefoot shopping center at Willets West. The board’s land use committee, including CB 7 Chair Gene Kelty, voted down the permit in a meeting last week. But a pair of letters detailing a list of new promises by the developer and city swayed them at the last minute. “I changed my vote tonight because I had papers in front of me that I felt comfortable with,” Kelty said. “The other time, there was nothing. I was looking at a blank slate in front of me.” In April, the committee told developers they needed more information about parking, traffic flow and transplanting the plethora of small business owners within the Iron Triangle. The Queens Development Group and Deputy Mayor Robert Steel returned with pages of new promises, including a pledge to provide ongoing environmental remediation of all 23 acres of Willets Point land the city is acquiring from the current occupants. The pair of letters also detailed commitments to conduct and fund traffic mitigation measures, build a 1,000-seat K-8 public school and give $1.87 million to the Willets Point Infrastructure and Traffic Mitigation Fund. Developers also agreed to put $100,000 into the fund for every quarterly meeting with CB 7 that they miss. “There was just a lot more that was brought into language in both these letters,” said Chuck Apelian, CB 7’s first vice chair and head of the land use committee. “That’s why I’m supporting this, and I think we’ve come a long way.” The recommendation now goes to Borough President Helen Marshall, the Department of City Planning and then the City Council. Ethan Goodman, a lawyer representing the developer, said there would not be another chance to clean up the longneglected property. “A vote against this plan is a vote against cleaning Willets Point,” he said. “We’re talking about 100 years of contamination. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” The Queens Development Group said in a statement the approval brings them “one step closer” to transforming the area into “a vibrant new neighborhood.” However, dozens of local residents, including current Willets Point landowners, pleaded with the board to vote against the permit. “We have jobs over there,” said Marco Neira, president of the Willets Point Defense Committee. “I don’t know why you’d want to approve the project and kill all those businesses. We are workers over there.” Joseph Ardizzone, the only person who lives in Willets Point, said democracy died with the board’s green light. “Anyone that votes yes to taking my property denies me the right to be an American citizen,” Ardizzone said. “God bless America? I don’t think so anymore.” Rendering courtesy of the Queens Development Group Community Board 7 granted a special permit for developers to move Citi Field parking in order to build a mega-mall at Willets West. RIDERS RAIL AT TRANSIT OFFICIALS BY LUKE TABET [email protected] Idle buses and a lack of adequate service are some of the transit problems plaguing northeast Queens, residents say. About 25 people aired their grievances to bus, subway and LIRR officials during a town hall meeting on Thursday, May 9. “I think we can all agree that we are under-serviced by mass transit in this district,” said State Senator Tony Avella. Some residents said they were outraged at buses that park for as long as an hour with their engines running along the service road of the Clearview Expressway near Bayside High School. The MTA said it would find a different location for the vehicles to park, according to Joseph Raskin, the agency’s assistant director of government and community relations. He encouraged residents to call the MTA with the time of the incident and bus number to further curb the problem. “We take that very seriously,” Raskin said. “We do not tolerate drivers leaving their busses running. We will take care of it.” Leaders from St. George’s Church on 135th Street and 38th Avenue in Flushing said an increasing number of buses end their routes right outside the church. The vehicles, they said, were rerouted to Main Street between 38th and 39th Streets. “We’re surrounded by buses that are idling and blocking traffic,” a church representative said. Raskin said the move was due to the popularity of the Main Street station in Flushing. He called it “by far the largest transfer station in our whole system.” Many commuters also argued for a free transfer from the LIRR to the subway at Penn Station. LIRR official Bob Brennan said the agency might not be able to supply that service. “Over 80 percent of our customers transfer to the subway,” he said. “Quite frankly, as most of you know, the MTA is on an austerity budget. Things like that cost money.” Rider Al Matican said he wanted the MTA to implement a pilot program that would install sliding doors between platforms and rails in subway stations. “The most important thing is saving lives,” he said. “Making the yellow lines bigger won’t stop someone from pushing you off the platform. If an elevator door was missing, it would be fixed right away.” Raskin said the MTA was looking into the sliding doors and “a lot of different solutions to stop this from happening.” “It’s a huge capital investment but it’s going to be addressed,” he said.
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