4 FEBRUARY 20, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Middle Village residents grill MTA reps
at disorganized bus redesign hearing
A Middle Village resident vents as participants leave after the meeting
was cut short. Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
date for a Middle Village workshop.
During the meeting, an agitated
crowd first insisted that MTA representatives
stop their presentation
short to answer questions. Then
when the Q&A portion began, many
members of the crowd bucked the
format of submitting written feedback
and shouted their questions
and criticism across the P.S. 49
auditorium.
The presentation began uneventfully
enough, with MTA representatives
introducing the audience to the
draft plan timeline, and telling them
that there was no planned implementation
date. But by the time the
representatives had outlined some of
the proposed routes going through
the neighborhood the crowd began
to grow exasperated.
“I don’t want to know about Flushing,
I don’t want to know about
Elmhurst. I want to know about my
neighborhood where I live,” said an
unhappy audience member. “Your
map has eliminated Middle Village
completely.”
The auditorium erupted into
cheering.
The representatives catered to the
resident’s suggestion and began collecting
written questions. Judy Mc-
Clain, the chief of MTA operations
planning, asked the crowd to keep in
mind that the MTA was looking for
comments about changes for them
to implement in the next draft of the
redesign.
“I heard that there’s a big concern
there’s not enough service in Middle
Village. The more specific the comments,
the better,” said McClain.
The audience feedback tended toward
open-ended questions, rather
than micro-level suggestions.
“How do you factor in schools?” one
asked. “Why isn’t there access to local
streets?” asked another. “How can
the MTA justify cutting the Q38?”
McClain’s answers as well as those
of her colleague Lucille Songhai,
kept lapsing into back-and-forth
with members of the audience or
crowds.
After Holden cut the Q&A off,
most of the crowd stormed off, but
a small group stuck around to meet
individually with the MTA representatives.
Several constituents,
who patiently waited their turn to
take their specific issues up with the
representatives, said that they were
glad they did.
The Jurgens family in Maspeth
came prepared with map printouts
that showed how their two closest
routes to them, the Q18 and the Q47,
were consolidated in a manner that
left large gaps in coverage to the west
of Mt. Zion Cemetery. They said that
meeting one-on-one with the MTA
representative felt constructive.
“I think it’s more venting. They’re
just hearing what our concerns are.
We’re not going to get anything of
substance yet. She spent five minutes
listening to us. She was nice,”
said Darren Jurgens.
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Many Middle Village residents
left a Feb. 12 public hearing
on the Queens bus redesign
unsatisfi ed aft er heightened tempers
and interruptions resulted in an
abrupt end to the meeting.
Councilman Robert Holden, who
organized the event with Assemblyman
Brian Barnwell, stopped the
Q&A portion after about 20 minutes
of questions and told participants he
would be rescheduling another bus
redesign event in April as a workshop.
His staff said that they were
expecting a workshop before they
received last minute notification
MTA was changing the format to a
presentation.
“We’re going to do an April workshop,
not this,” Holden told his constituents.
“We can’t get feedback and
you have to write your questions on
a piece of paper with a map on the
back that you want to take home.”
An MTA press release challenges
Holden’s claim of being blindsided by
the format. A spokesperson for the
MTA pointed out that a Jan. 31 release
billed the event as a presentation.
But the spokesperson confirmed that
the MTA is working on an upcoming
Board 5 to meet Feb. 25
Community Board 5 will meet
in next week in Middle Village,
where residents can hear a
presentation from MTA reps on proposed
changes to city bus routes.
As announced by District Manager
Gary Giordano, the session
takes place at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 25
at the cafeteria inside of Christ the
King Hish School, located at 68-02
Metropolitan Ave.
The meeting will begin with the
presentation from MTA reps and
will be followed by questions from
Transportation Servies and Public
Tansit Services committee members
and community residents.
The conversation will then shift
to a review of traffi c safety requests,
time permitting.
For additional information, call
the CB 5 offi ce at 718-366-1834.
MEDIA ADVISORY
Middle M
M
V illage
IA A
A
IS S
S
P reparatory
Charter Y
r Y
S chool
will
c onduct
t i t s
g m onthly
py B oard
yd o f
f T rustees
M eeting
Tru
th 7th , 2020
on Thursday February 27
Details are as follows:
WHO: Middle Village Preparatory Charter School
WHAT: Monthly Board of Trustees Meeting
WHEN: Thursday February 27
ste
27th th 7 , 2020
TIME: 6:00 PM
WHERE: Multi-Purpose Room at Middle Village Prep
Door # 10
68-02 Metropolitan Avenue
Middle Village, NY 11379
All meetings of the Trustees and all committees and subcommittees
are conducted with the New York Open Meetings Law
( N.Y. Public Officers Law §§ 1 00-111).
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