38 The QUEE NS Courier • JUne 26, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com editorial Go to www.queenscourier.com and search “Identify This letters IDENTIFY THIS PLACE Place” to find out where this is TRAFFIC LIGHT NEEDED ON NORTHERN BLVD. The Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC) located at 228-06 Northern Blvd., Douglaston, is a great place to learn about ecology and the need to protect and preserve our planet. The Center sees over 62,000 people a year including 40,000 children. Many of those children arrive by school bus on weekdays on class trips. The problem is that there is no traffic signal by the entry way and exit to safely allow the cars and buses that visit APEC to enter and leave the site. Traffic on Northern Boulevard at that location speeds along briskly most of the time. It is just a matter of time before there is a serious accident there, possibly injuring or killing people. The Department of Transportation has been advised of this problem many times. Their excuse for not installing a traffic signal is that traffic will back up on the exit ramp nearby causing congestion on the Cross Island Parkway. But there are dozens of exits throughout the city where highways meet other roadways near traffic signals and there is no issue. Another excuse given is that a new APEC building will soon be under construction and the position of the entrance and exit may change. According to the architect of the new building, the exit would be in the same position as it is now. The exit is where the bulk of the problems lie. There is also a need to create a turning lane westbound on Northern Boulevard into the Center. Cars and school buses must be able to access APEC from both directions. If a traffic signal and turning lanes can be placed for businesses just down Northern Boulevard by a restaurant, car wash and driving range, surely APEC, which services so many children and adults, can be given the same consideration. We need action now! Henry Euler Bayside CITY NEEDS MORE FERRIES Editor’s Note: This letter was sent by the five borough presidents to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. Because of its importance to Queens, we reproduce it here. For decades, New York City’s waterways have been an untapped resource. While it has the potential to serve as a major form of public transportation, only a limited number of ferry routes are provided between the five boroughs. We feel the time is right to move forward with expansion of waterborne transportation that links all the boroughs in a manner that other transportation alternatives cannot. Permanent funding for the Rockaway Ferry is an important piece to realizing this long-term goal. As the final stages of the Fiscal Year 2015 budget adoption approaches, funding needs to be provided so that ferry services become a permanent transportation option for those that do not have readily available access to traditional means of public transportation. At the bare minimum, it means not cutting successfully utilized ferry service already in existence. Cutting the Rockaway Ferry, and not making it part of the permanent budget, is counterintuitive to that policy. This includes making ferry options like the Rockaway Ferry a permanent part of the City’s waterway plan. We understand there are many priorities important to each of our individual boroughs but the realization of a five-borough ferry system is of utmost importance to the city we share. We need to add ferry service, not take it away. With the budget coming to a close the five borough presidents are solidified on the need for waterborne transportation. We see the importance of the Rockaway Ferry as it is utilized by Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens already. The five Borough Presidents therefore ask that the Mayor and the New York City Council allocate the funds for this necessary inter-borough ferry service as the budget adoption process comes to a close. We look forward to discussing this matter with you personally. Thank you. Melinda Katz, Queens Borough President Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President James Oddo, Staten Island Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Bronx Borough President BEACH, BEACH, BEACH There are few summertime pleasures more wonderful than a leap into the surf on a sweltering day. And many Queens beaches offer that opportunity. Just not enough of them. More than half the Rockaway shore is closed to swimming because of Sandy damage has not been repaired yet or a lack of lifeguards. Whether you’re a half-full or halfempty kind of person, a simple truth remains: half is simply not good enough. On June 19, The Courier revealed that only 29 of more than 100 beaches in Rockaway were open for swimming, but all were open for what the Parks Department calls “normal access” – a euphemism for being able to walk in the sand. Miraculously, several days later, 19 more beaches went from “normal” to full access. We are happy the Parks Department acted so quickly and we wait eagerly for the day when full access to the beach – including swimming – becomes the new normal. SEA FEVER I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying. It’s obvious the great poet John Masefield never rode the subway to work. (At least not here in New York; he returned to England before the subways were built.) But he did give us a glimpse of an ideal and, it turns out, necessary commuting option. New York is a city made great by its waterways, which were abandoned as transportation conduits many years ago. But what is old is new again and the call of the sea as an alternative to road and rail grows louder and more insistent. The five borough presidents, including our own Melinda Katz, have sent a letter to the mayor and council speaker (reproduced on this page) crying for an expansion of ferry service throughout the city. We could not agree more. The existing ferries are exhilarating but few. They need to be expanded and subsidized if necessary, to bring New York City together and give businesses in remote corners the opportunity to grow. SAD IRONY It is not lost on us, the fact that in a single edition we bring readers the joyous news of 13 people who have thrived for a century or more now living in the same community alongside the heartbreaking story about an 8-year-old boy dying. Colin Flood, who, a few months ago, was featured on the front page of this paper sitting in a Coast Guard helicopter, died Sunday of leukemia. We are deeply saddened by the death of this lovely child and offer our sincere condolences to his family. At the other end of the spectrum, there are now 13 seniors at the Chapin Home for the Aging who have lived for more than 100 years. It’s exciting to see these centenarians live so fully at an advanced age. We wish them continued good health and congratulate them on their longevity. THE QUEENS Victoria SchnepS-YuniS JoShua a. SchnepS BoB Brennan William J. Gorta amY amato-Sanchez nirmal SinGh Graziella zerilli Stephen reina ron torina, Jennifer Decio, cherYl GallaGher liam la Guerre, criStaBelle tumola anGY altamirano, Katrina meDoff, eric Jankiewicz cliff KaSDen, Samantha Sohmer, elizaBeth aloni criStaBelle tumola Demetra plaGaKiS louiSe caValiere celeSte alamin maria Valencia Daphne fortunate Victoria SchnepS-YuniS JoShua a. SchnepS Publisher & editor Co-Publisher AssoCiAte Publisher editor-in-Chief VP, eVents, Web & soCiAl MediA Art direCtor AssistAnt to Publisher AssistAnt Art direCtor Artists stAff rePorters Contributing rePorters Web editor eVents MAnAger senior ACCount exeCutiVe ClAssified MAnAger Controller offiCe MAnAger President & Ceo ViCe President Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 website: www.queenscourier.com e-mail:[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Entire Contents Copyright 2014 by The Queens Courier All letters sent to THE QUEENS COURIER should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available, as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE QUEENS COURIER. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to THE QUEENS COURIER within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. Schneps Communications assumes no liability for the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold THE QUEENS COURIER and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement.
QC06262014
To see the actual publication please follow the link above