28 THE QUEENS COURIER • NOVEMBER 30, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Mayor de Blasio promises more traffi c
enforcement agents in downtown Flushing
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Transit and safety issues came up again
and again during Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
three-hour town hall meeting in downtown
Flushing on Tuesday night.
De Blasio and the heads of various city
agencies made themselves available to
the public at the Flushing International
High School on Barclay Avenue. Aft er an
hour of remarks from local elected offi -
cials and the mayor, residents posed questions
spanning a variety of topics in the
remaining two hours.
Concerns about parking in the highly
concentrated and developing neighborhood
were voiced by small business
owners and local business improvement
representatives at diff erent points
throughout the evening. One local business
owner said the neighborhood has
lost over 1,200 aff ordable parking spaces
aft er municipal lots were re-purposed
and developed.
Th e city recently began an aff ordable
housing project at Municipal Lot 3 at
133rd Street and 41st Avenue. Th e “One
Flushing” project will bring an eight-story
building with 232 aff ordable units (60
reserved for seniors) to the area. It is
expected to be completed in 2019, according
to Councilman Peter Koo.
Th e changes have “created signifi -
cant hardship for small businesses and
increased traffi c congestion,” one concerned
business owner said.
“Flushing’s small businesses need your
help, too,” she said.
De Blasio said he and members of his
administration “don’t want to see a city
that encourages more and more car use.”
“We don’t think about how to add
parking as a goal in our planning,” de
Blasio said. “We think about how to add
aff ordable housing. We think about how
to add another pieces of infrastructure
— mass transit, which obviously relieves
a lot of the pressure in terms of parking.”
DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg
added that the city is looking to expand
Select Bus Service (SBS) to certain lines
that operate in Flushing. Th e proposal is
part of the mayor’s “Bus Forward” plan.
“We’re gonna have to focus in the
future on mass transit as the solution to
handling the neighbor of people in this
neighborhood,” Trottenberg said. “Th e
roadway really can’t handle many more
cars.”
Th e topic came up again when a resident
asked what the city will do to
improve clogged roadway conditions.
He cited a commute earlier in the day
between Brooklyn and Flushing, which
took him two hours by car.
“We really believe that if we increase the
amount of mass transit — which means
Select Bus Service, the ferry service, light
rail in-between Brooklyn and Queens,
CitiBike — that’s gonna change things a
lot,” de Blasio said.
Th e mayor said that the administration
will also be starting “a very important
experiment” in January to create new
approaches to handling road congestion
during rush hour. Th is will include
re-timing traffi c signals at key intersections
and altering delivery vehicle regulations,
the DOT commissioner added.
A resident later brought up the need for
more traffi c enforcement agents along the
neighborhood’s congested roadways.
Th e mayor said he has received similar
requests from Councilman Koo and
Inspector Judith Harrison, commanding
offi cer of the 109th Precinct.
“We will get you more traffi c enforcement
agents for downtown Flushing,” de
Blasio said.
Image via Youtube/NYCMayorsOffi ce
St. John’s Episcopal opens new registration offi ce
St. John’s Episcopal Hospital
launched this week its new registration
offi ce located on the second fl oor
of the hospital’s campus.
The registration office, which
was created through a collaboration
between the hospital’s Access
Care, Operating Room, and Labor
& Delivery departments, will serve
patients in the Ambulatory Surgery,
Pre-Surgical Testing, and Labor &
Delivery Units.
Th e opening of this offi ce comes
as St. John’s continues the process of
updating its internal process, most
notably the Emergency Department.
Th e new registration offi ce will provide
patients with an easier navigation
process upon arrival at the hospital,
and in turn will give patients and
their families a more positive experience
at St. John’s.
“In the past, our patients had to register
in the hospital lobby and wait
before coming up to the Surgical fl oor
or the Labor and Delivery Unit and
seeing their doctor, which caused confusion
and placed added stress on
our patients,” said Donna Arzberger,
director of perioperative services at
St. John’s. “Now we have a seamless
transition for patients going to those
units.”
Upon the opening of this offi ce,
patients who arrive at the hospital to
have surgery will go immediately to
the surgical fl oor, where registration
is only a few feet away from surgery
suites. Perhaps most notably, patients
who arrive at the hospital in labor will
no longer have to register in the hospital’s
lobby, but rather will be visited
by the registrar in their hospital room.
“We are excited to make changes
that improve the patient experience
and their families at the hospital,”
said Gerard Walsh, CEO of St. John’s
Episcopal Hospital.
St. John’s Episcopal Hospital is the
only hospital providing emergency
and ambulatory care to the densely
populated, culturally and economically
diverse, and medically underserved
populations of the Rockaways and Five
Towns in southern Queens County
and southwestern Nassau County.