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QUEENS WEEKLY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2019
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Over 60 Whitestone residents
— many of them newcomers
— filled the room at
St. Luke’s Church on Sept. 10
to address neighborhood concerns
at the 109th Precinct
Build the Block meeting.
Neighborhood Coordination
Officers (NCO’s) Thomas
Dean, Michael Petronzio
and Crime Prevention Officer
Mark Burger updated
residents who reside in Sector
D (Whitestone, Bayside,
Murray Hill, Beechurst,
North Flushing and Bay
Terrace) on issues about
speeding, how to prevent
burglaries at home, and the
opening of a College Point
men’s homeless shelter, at
St. Luke’s Church at 16-34
Clintonville St.
Burger, who has visited
162 locations within the sector
identifying weaknesses
where someone can enter
a homeowners residence,
encouraged the audience to
take home flyers on how to
prevent burglaries.
“I’ve surveyed about 140
homes and the other 42 locations
are schools, houses
of worship or commercial
establishments,” said Burger,
who received a list of
homeowners interested in
conducting the home survey.
Burger also informed residents
of stolen wheels and
rims from vehicles — preferably
Honda, Nissan and Toyota
models that have been
targeted in the community.
“Using technology and
checking the motion, your
phone and being on top of
who is at your door. The
best thing is to identify … if
it’s someone who shouldn’t
be there definitely give us
a call,” Burger said. “This
helps for home break-ins,
car break-ins, and rim and
tire thefts.”
The most pressing issue
that has long been provoking
residents is speeding along
the Cross Island Parkway
and Francis Lewis Boulevard
and overnight commercial
parking, according
to Dean.
“It’s something we’re
well aware of. Our CO from
the last meeting has contacted
the NYPD Highway
3 commanding officer and
Highway 3 has made some
arrests, which is a huge adjustment
from last summer,”
Dean said.
Other residents brought
forth concerns of marijuana
cigarettes at Francis Lewis
Park, cars parked overnight
by fire hydrants, speeding
cars in certain parts of the
neighborhood and teens on
bicycles harassing senior
citizens by North Shore
Farms — all of which the
NCO officers said they have
been aware of and addressed
at meetings.
Meanwhile, the delayed
opening of the controversial
College Point men’s
homeless shelter, which was
slated to open in September
at 127-03 20th Ave., has residents
on edge worried for
their safety.
“Right now, it’s not open.
If anything new pops up at
the precinct, it’s going to be
closely monitored. If we see
crime starts happening here,
Deputy Inspector Shine I
can assure you will deploy
extra resources to pay special
attention to the facility,”
Dean said.
109th Precinct NCO Thomas Dean (l.) and Michael Petronzio
(r.) Photo: Carlotta Mohamed/QNS
Seek taller gates for Triborough
Activists in Astoria urge MTA to improve safety on pedestrian path
Activists rallied on Sept. 12 at the Triborough Bridge in Astoria urging the MTA to improve safety on the bridge’s pedestrian
path. Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
BY MAX PARROTT
Elected officials and bike
advocates from Transportation
Alternatives and Bike
New York gathered on the
Astoria side of the Triborough
Bridge, know professionally
as the Robert F. Kennedy
Bridge, on Sept. 12 to
call on the MTA to improve
the safety of the bridge’s
pedestrian path.
After a recent report from
The City called attention to
the fact that the guard rail
along the bridge is not high
enough to stop bicyclists from
toppling over it in the case
of an accident, Councilman
Costa Constantinides and
Senator Michael Gianaris
called on the MTA to put up
a protective fence that could
accommodate riders.
“Right behind us, you
have a metal plate that
makes it very unsafe. Further
along, you have fencing
that ends over the water way.
It’s only a four-foot fence,”
said Constantinides.
As it stands, biking along
the bridge is prohibited,
according to signs posted
by the MTA that instruct
bikers to walk their bikes.
But many riders ignore the
sign and take the risk of
biking along the path anyways.
Others say that even
if they follow the rules, they
don’t feel safe because of the
metal plates that run along
the path.
“If you’re a road cyclist,
you wear clipless pedals,
there’s metal on these. Metal
on metal, you slide,” said Astoria
cyclist Shannon Rudd,
pointing at her metal-soled
cycling shoes.
The elected officials and
advocates proposed a twopart
solution. In the immediate
future, they say the MTA
needs to put up a 10-to-12-foot
fence over the whole bridge
and legalize biking along
the path.
In the grand scheme of
things, they want the MTA
to open the pedestrian path
on the southern side of the
Bridge to create separate
lanes for bikes and pedestrians,
and provide a ramp for
bicyclists to ride up.
Right now, riders are
forced to dismount and
carry their bikes up a set
of stairs to get on the path,
which Laura Shepard of
Bike New York pointed out,
stops the path from being
ADA-accessible.
“We understand the
nature of the agency we’re
dealing with has slow time
horizons. But it’s important
to demand that they
at least start the process,”
said Shepard.
The focus is not solely on
cyclists. The speakers said
low guard rails along fivefoot
wide path also make it
treacherous for pedestrians
as they pass each other as
well as bikers. Constantinides
added that four people
have committed suicide
on the bridge since 2015.
The councilman said that
he sent a letter to the MTA
with the immediate proposal
but he hasn’t heard back anything
yet. Gianaris said that
they are asking the agency
to fund the safety measures
in their next capital
funding plan.
“It’s a fairly modest cost
for the MTA. The southern
access would cost more
money, but it’s a dop in the
bucket for the tens of billions
of dollars that we have,”
Gianaris said.
For Constantinides, who
often warns against the effects
of climate change as
an immediate threat, the
goal to open up the southern
walkway and encourage
commuter cycling fits into
his crusade to reduce Western
Queens’ greenhouse
gas emissions.
“In the 21st century we
need to be thinking about
multimodal transportation.
How we are going to
move people out of cars?
How are we going to move
them into emission-free vehicles
to get them to work?”
said Constantinides.
Cops in Whitestone
hear burglary gripes