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QUEENS WEEKLY, MAY 19, 2019
‘Play-in’ protest focuses on city’s role in Travers Park controversy
BY MAX PARROTT
A group of hundreds of
Jackson Heights residents,
their children and six local
officials gathered on
May 11 to protest the city’s
compromise on a plan to
turn the entire block 78th
Street into a car-free extension
of Travers Park
for the benefit a local
car dealership.
During the rally, the
emphatic group of legislators
— including City
Council Speaker Corey
Johnson and Comptroller
Scott Stringer — joined
Jackson Heights Councilman
Daniel Dromm and
Shekar Krishnan of the
Jackson Heights Green Alliance,
all of whom directed
their ire at city agencies
they claimed to be responsible
for capitulating to the
dealership’s demands.
“How we wound up
with this confusion is
due to administrative incompetence
on the part of
Department of Transportation,
the Department of
Parks and the Department
of Buildings,” Dromm
told QNS.
Much of the block
of 78th Street between
Northern Boulevard and
34th Avenue has already
been transformed into a
green space extension of
Travers Park, with only
a 200-foot section of 78th
Street south of Northern
Boulevard still open to
vehicular traffic. The city
had originally drafted a
$13 million plan to complete
the transformation of
the entire block, with the
understanding that the
curbside entrance to the
dealership at the corner
of 78th Street and Northern
Boulevard would not
be in use.
But before Howard
Koeppel took over the
property at the end of 2018,
his dealership renovated
the building to reopen a
curb cut on 78th Street to
use as a car dock.
When contacted, the
Koeppel Auto Group declined
to comment. Instead,
a representative
forwarded a letter they
recently sent to the community
which claims the
business made its plans
to reorient the dealership
around the side entrance
without knowing about the
city’s 78th Street project.
It suggests a design that
would allow them to keep
a curb cut entrance on
78th Street.
After the renovations,
Koeppel reached out to
the Parks Department to
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let them know his plans
clashed with their original
vision. The agency
then created a plan that
gave the dealership access
to the 78th Street curb
cut while keeping the remainder
of 78th Street as a
green space.
According to Dromm,
the city waited two months
to inform the councilman
about its decision.
“We here in Jackson
Heights have to fight to
protect ourselves and our
resources. And we will
do so, but I want to send
a message to Koeppel and
the city of New York: If
the city is truly serious
about Vision Zero, Mayor
de Blasio, this is your Vision
Zero moment,” said
Krishnan, referring to the
ongoing city initiative devoted
to preventing traffic
deaths and injuries.
To prepare the event,
described by the Green
Alliance as a play-in for
neighborhood children,
police erected a blockade
of steel gates to separate
the protesters from a traffic
lane leading to Koeppel
Mazda’s controversial
side entrance.
As Krishnan addressed
the crowd, a sparkling
Mazda sedan cautiously
rolled down the block
and through the dealership’s
private gate, and
the crowd burst into a
roaring jeer.
When Stringer took
the podium, he focused
on a recent study his office
released that identified
neighborhoods with
a disproportionately low
amount of park space.
Jackson Heights has
four play areas for every
10,000 children and the
fifth least amount of park
space in the city, he said.
“Emerging communities
— communities of
color — have less park options
than communities
of great wealth. And that
has to change,” Stringer
said.
Johnson said that
he had talked to Mayor
Bill de Blasio about the
situation, and his office
claimed the mayor was
looking into the issue.
“I let him know what
our expectations were
that this would get done,”
Johnson said. “He told me
that he would get back to
Council member Dromm
and myself in short order.
But there is only one
correct answer: Keep
your commitment. Keep
your promises.”
Neighborhood children participate in the Jackson Heights
Green Alliance’s “play-in.” Max Parrott/QNS