FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com MAY 19, 2016 • THE QUEENS COURIER 41 oped FOR MORE NEWS VISIT QNS.COM letters & comments HAPPY WITH QUEENS BLVD. BIKE LANES I thank the mayor for recognizing that bicycling is used as a legitimate form of transportation, not a toy only. He is continuing something that has been done in other parts of the city and have been successful going on nine years. In Manhattan, where protected bicycle lanes and pedestrian safety improvements were implemented years ago, injuries are down by about 20 percent. Queens Boulevard and major Manhattan roadways are now convenient and safe cycling routes to other parts of the city and destinations along the route. The pedestrian safety improvements are also perfectly integrated. QNS user TransitNinja205 BIKE LANES ARE RIGHT DECISION BY MAYOR The Mayor made the absolute right decision, and it is deeply disappointing to see the borough president, who has never attended any of the community workshops that have been held for this project, and has not accepted any invitation to sit down with transportation advocates about this project, can so readily dismiss over 9,000 petition signers, 250+ business and community coalition partners and the months of direct outreach DOT did for this Phase 2 project specifi cally including a presence in the Queens Center Mall for an entire week to obtain community feedback. Honestly, calling for the bike lane implementation to be delayed is incredibly irresponsible and ironic. DOT is actually in the middle of making a comprehensive change to Queens Blvd along its entire length – the very approach the Borough President seems to be calling for. As for this idea that somehow bikes only belong in parks; its absurd and a very outdated way of thinking. We are well past the idea that bikes are just recreational vehicles. I am a bike commuter and there are hundreds of thousands of other bike commuters out there with me per DOT statistics. Queens Boulevard provides a relatively straight run down to the Queens Borough Bridge and Manhattan beyond. It is the perfect route and a reasonable distance for bicycle commuters, not to mention all the shopping available to people on bikes along that route. QNS user pwbnyc ‘THE POWER BROKER’ TO BLAME FOR CROSS BAY TOLL Regarding tolls on the Cross Bay Bridge: The reason why Robert Moses has wanted to put tolls on this bridge was because he had “fi rmly” believed that the Rockaways was the part of suburbia in Long Island, given by the physical, geographic, make up of the borough of Queens. QNS user Pedro Valdez Rivera Jr. THANKING THOSE WHO SERVED Memorial Day is fast approaching, and I hope the many will not forget the importance of this day. Brave men and women have fought and died in many wars to keep freedom alive. These wars started with the Revolutionary War and extended to the war of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, Korean War, the Vietnam War, and fi nally Iraq and Afghanistan. This Memorial Day, I fi nd myself thinking what it means to be an American. The answer is crystal clear, and that is the pride to live in a country that allows us the personal freedom to speak our minds. These freedoms come with great personal sacrifi ce for those who leave family, friends and jobs to serve the greater good. I myself have served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam Era. Although I never saw combat, I had friends who did and died serving our country. So, please honor Memorial Day and honor those who gave their lives for all those things we hold most dear. You do this by fl ying the American fl ag from homes and offi ces. You can also do this by attending the many Memorial Day parades in your local communities and saluting those who serve our nation so well. Let’s not forget those who serve on the home front like policemen, fi re fi ghters and EMS workers who serve us so well. You can also call a veteran you know and tell them thank you for serving and keeping us free from tyranny. Frederick R. Bedell Jr., Glen Oaks Village A LOOK BACK One of the most poignant ways Americans pay tribute to its fallen soldiers is by placing an American fl ag at their graves ahead of Memorial Day. Boy Scout troops are shown in this photo placing American fl ags at the tombstones of soldiers and veterans interred at Cypress Hills National Cemetery. The picture was taken on May 29, 1945, less than a month following the defeat of Nazi Germany and more than three months from the defeat of Japan that fi nally ended World War II. Send us your historic photos by sharing them on our Facebook and Twitter pages, emailing them to [email protected], or by mailing printed pictures to The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you upon request. An open letter to city on contract fairness BY CONCERNED VENDORS Editor’s note: The following is an open letter addressed to Anne Roest, commissioner of the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT) and was written by a Queens business owner who requested to remain anonymous. I am writing to you on behalf of numerous black- and Hispanic-owned information technology (IT) companies operating in the NYC market. Unfortunately, I feel compelled to send this letter anonymously for fear of potential retribution. However, the issues raised in this letter are all accurate and merit your immediate attention and action. A number of us recently attended an MWBE (minority and women-owned business enterprises) event sponsored by DOITT which we found encouraging and raised our hopes that the city’s behavior would fi nally change toward us. However, according to a recent public notice, DOITT intends to award professional service contracts to solely eight vendors for a period which could last the next decade. We think that this is a huge mistake which not only severely hampers competition but also excludes any black-owned and Hispanic-owned companies. I have been told that most of the selected vendors listed in the award were either under a DOITT contact for many years or subcontracting most of the work from those same vendors. According to the city Small Business Services MWBE database, none of the proposed awardees are black- or Hispanic-owned. We think that New York State currently has a much better model for both their staff augmentation and IT project work which allows for many more vendors to compete, more diversity and continually allows for expansion of the vendor pool. That is simply better business and better for diversity. New York’s black and Hispanic IT community has been waiting many years for an opportunity to compete and for an administration that values diversity. DOITT’s history with these IT staffi ng contracts has been to perpetually award to the same vendors. Furthermore, DOITT has continually neglected to compete this contract until this past year and instead chose to extend the existing contracts by sole source—even after they were originally set to expire—without allowing new competition. Furthermore, DOITT’s decision to limit the work for at least the next six years to solely the eight vendors selected will lead to closed doors for my members for years to come. We don’t want this to happen, and we’d like to think you don’t do, either. If the result is that DOITT has to expand the pool to 20 or 30 vendors or even more to accomplish that, it’s a win-win for both competition and diversity. If the state can award to dozens of vendors on their backdrop contracts and continually increase the pool of qualifi ed vendors, so should the City of New York. We hope that you take these concerns seriously and take the opportunity to do what is right for competition, right for diversity and right for New York City. The time to act is now.
QC05192016
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