SEPTEMBER 15, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
LOCAL
CL ASSIFIEDS
PA GES 15
Demanding safer streets for students
Rally at LIC’s LaGuardia Community College presses DOT to do more to protect pedestrians
REMEMBERING HEROES OF 9/11
Officers from the 109th Precinct hold a moment of silence in Flushing on Wednesday, Sept. 11 honoring the
victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93 that
occurred 18 years ago that morning. Photo via Twitter/@NYPD109Pct
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UPDATED EVERY DAY AT TIMESLEDGER.COM
BY MARK HALLUM
After a deadly decade on the
streets near Long Island City’s
LaGuardia Community College,
the staff has had enough
with unfulfilled promises from
the city Department of Transportation
(DOT) for road
safety improvements.
Activists at a Tuesday press
conference hosted by Councilman
Jimmy Van Bramer not only
said there have been 15 fatalities
on Thomson Avenue in front from
the school between 2009 and 2019,
but that DOT has been allocated
the resources to make safety
improvements for years.
Many at the rally looked back
on March 11, 2013, when a car ran
into several individuals in a pedestrian
plaza across from 30-20
Thomson Ave., killing 16-yearold
Tenzin Drudak who was
waiting for a bus on
the sidewalk.
Kevin Lopez, 20, was also
struck on his bike while on his
way home from school, according
to information on one protester’s
sign.
The trend does not end
there; along with the 15 fatalities
over the last 10 years,
there have also been 760
severe injuries.
“Tens of thousands of people
traverse these sidewalks and
these streets every single day,
and make no mistake: it is a
dangerous stretch for anyone to
walk or cycle and even drive,”
Van Bramer said. “They were
not in the street. They were actually
on the pavement — on the
sidewalk — waiting to cross this
street when a car plowed into
them, killing Tenzen Drudak and
injuring numerous others.”
There are four high schools
along with LaGuardia in a fiveblock
radius which is a transit
hub for up to 15,000 students per
day, according to Van Bramer.
Despite this, DOT has not designated
this section of Thomson
a school zone — something the
UPDATED EVERY DAY AT QNS.BY MAX PARROTT
Controversial plans for a
homeless shelter in Glendale
will be the focus of a Community
Board 5 public hearing scheduled
to take place next month at
Middle Village’s Christ the King
High School.
The session will take place
at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 7, at
the high school located at 68-02
Metropolitan Ave.
The hearing comes after the
Department of Homeless Services
confirmed that is not only proceeding
with its plan to turn the
abandoned factory at 78-16 Cooper
Ave. in Glendale into a shelter, but
that it will also open a facility for
homeless residents in Ridgewood
as well.
The event is likely to attract
strong opinions and community
attendance given the six-year
campaign that community organizations
and local politicians
have waged against the shelter.
District Manager Gary Giordano
said that the meeting room
at Christ the King High School
BY JENNA BAGCAL
Head to Bell Boulevard in Bayside
later this month to indulge in a day
of good eats, free live music and family
fun activities.
BY MAX PARROTT
When exploding tire
shrapnel struck a young
mechanic in the chest and
knocked him unconscious
in a Willets Point auto
shop recently, emergency
responders were stalled by
the same gates that block
several major streets to the
industrial enclave, according
to a QNS investigation.
The city erected the
gates early in July as part
of its ambitious plan to
transform the neglected
industrial area in Willets
Point into three affordable
housing buildings, a public
park and an elementary
school, among other developments
to be determined
by a city task force.
But in executing the
first phase of the city’s
The closed section of Willets Point
Boulevard, located just south of the
accident on Aug. 15.
Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
Willets Pt. gates hinder EMS
Oct. hearing
on proposed
Glen. shelter
Take stroll down Bell
Boulevard in Bayside
/TIMESLEDGER.COM
