QC06202019 - Page 8

8 THE QUEENS COURIER • JUNE 20, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM With trailers long gone, Woodside school gets new yard BY MAX PARROTT mparrott@schnepsmedia.com @QNS Astoria Councilman Costa Constantinides joined School Construction Authority President Lorraine Grillo at P.S. 151 at the Mary D. Carter School in Woodside on June 11 to unveil a brand-new schoolyard aft er the school removed mobile classroom trailers from the site. “Two years aft er we began the process of removing these trailers, Photo provided by the offi ce of Councilman Constantinides City Councilman Costa Constantinides helped cut the ribbon on a new schoolyard at P.S. 151 in Woodside Richards pushes community land trust funding with eye on Rockaway BY MAX PARROTT mparrott@schnepsmedia.com @QNS Last year, the City Council passed a law that for the fi rst time offi cially recognizing community land trusts and allowed the city to enter into regulatory agreements with this form of tenant-owned housing. Now, Queens Councilman Donovan Richards trying to expand the resources to make this a form of ownership a reality as soon as possible. “Th e idea is to get very aggressive,” Richards said. Richards recently sponsored a City Council initiative for this year’s budget that would ask for an estimated $850,000 worth of resources to go to eff orts that would help community land trust advocates get organized. “Th e nearly million dollar ask that we have this year is going to really enable us to build out even more capacity. But more importantly now that HPD and the city is actually recognizing and community land trust as a tool, we want to be prepared to organize communities,” Richards told QNS. “Th ere’s a lot that goes into engaging stakeholders, promoting community land trust, educating them, educating the public on what it is. And then more importantly is establishing boards for communities like the Rockaways.” Where does Richards interest in community land trust stem from? He wants them for Edgemere, the Rockaway neighborhood facing Jamaica Bay that was neglected for decades by the government. Th ere’s acres of land of city-owned land, acquired between the 1970s and 1990s, available in Edgemere. In 1997, the city began a plan to create over 800 units of aff ordable housing on that available public land, but it only got through about 300 units before the Great Recession halted development in 2008. “So you literally have hundreds of lots open in Edgemere right now that have the capacity to have homes put on them. But more importantly, an opportunity for us to preserve that land at least for a hundred years. Even as the market changes in Rockaway,” said Richards. In 2015, Richards helped launch the Resilient Edgemere Planning Initiative, a Department of Housing Preservation and Development plan which contains an initiative to identify city-owned sites that could be used for CLTs. Now he thinks it’s the time to push that initiative forward. Richards says he sees CLTs as an important solution to relieving the eff ects of predatory speculation because it takes the city’s overwhelming focus on subsidizing rentals, and it allows removes them from the speculation process by building them public land. Richards says that he feels confi dent that the council is inking toward a deal on CLTs. Councilman Donovan Richards we can today proudly open a new schoolyard for generations to come,” Constantinides said. Th e schoolyard plan is the result of Constantinides’ sustained partnership with Grillo to replace transportable classroom units (TCUs) from school campuses across his district. When the councilman announced the removal of TCUs from P.S. 85 in April, Constantinides revealed the fi nal part of his plan to clear his district of all such temporary classrooms, which have been criticized for lacking proper heating, cooling and other basic amenities for students. Up until 2017, the trailers at P.S. 151 were occupied by students from P.S. 255Q, an elementary school for autistic students who are spread among eight diff erent sites in Queens. When the city made moves to remove the trailers, the special needs students moved to P.S. 397Q. “We removed old, dilapidated TCUs to bring new, beautiful play space for the students at P.S. 151 to enjoy as well as ensure that the students of P.S. 255Q have a new permanent home that meets their needs,” Grillo said. Constantinides has also partnered with Grillo and Borough President Melinda Katz to close trailers at P.S. 70 in Astoria in addition to P.S. 85. $99 $99 $99 DESIGNER FRAMES PLUS FREE 2ND PAIR Frames & Lenses Offer ends 7/31/19 ��brand clear sphericalLenses/*Contact lens fitting additional. Not valid for Toric lenses. Not valid with Some restrictions apply, see store for details. Offer ends 7/31/19 Select frames with clear plastic, single vision lensas vision plans or packages. 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