WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MARCH 1, 2018 27
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Women’s Ride on March 25 supports gender equality and bike lanes
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
EDAVENPORT@QNS.COM
@QNS
Queens cyclists will be taking a
special ride next month that not
only celebrates the women, girls
and gender nonconforming people
who bike in New York City, but also
advocates for the continuation of the
Queens Boulevard protected bike lanes.
The Women’s Ride will take place on
Sunday, March 25. At 11 a.m., participants
will gather in Long Island City
at the Queensbridge Park Greenway.
The seven-mile-long ride will start
from Queens Plaza North, travel up
Skillman/43rd Avenue to Queens
Boulevard and finish at the newly
rededicated Women’s Plaza outside
Queens Borough Hall.
The event will fi nish with a brief
rally that will highlight the gender gap
in city cycling and improving cycling
infrastructure, both of which are
crucial to providing transportation,
environmental and economic equity
for all New York City residents.
The ride is free to attend, however
all riders must reserve their spot
online.
Once known as the “Boulevard of
Death,” the newly installed bike lanes
on Queens Boulevard have helped prevent
fatalities for the past three years.
The iconic boulevard not only serves
as a model for streets throughout the
city, but encourages more residents
to ride between the places they live,
work, commute, eat and shop.
The groups that will be hosting the
ride include Transportation Alternatives
Queens Volunteer Committee,
Ciclistas Latinoamericanos de New
York, Make Queens Safer, Bike New
York, Queens Bike, Jackson Heights
Beautification Group, New York
Cycling Club, NYSBRA Juniors, Women’s
Adventure Cycling Club, Trips
for Kids, NYC Youth Cycling, Eastern
Queens Greenway, Families for Safe
Streets, WE Bike NYC and Mujeres en
Movimiento.
Image designed by Noleen Burke
Queens Library will stop giving away plastic bags
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
The Queens Library will take
a big step toward becoming
“the greenest way to read” this
summer when it stops giving out free
plastic bags to its customers.
That’s how Queens Library President
and CEO Dennis M. Walcott
put it when the library announced
on Feb. 23 that all 65 locations in
the borough will stop distributing
plastic bags on June 30. In light of a
national eff ort to reduce the use of
plastic shopping bags, Walcott said
the decision also comes in response
to feedback from Queens customers
who reject the use of the bags.
“We appreciate that plastic bags are
convenient, but the consequences of
convenience are too great,” Walcott
said in a statement. “Plastic bags
harm the health of wildlife, humans
and marine life, litter our streets,
sidewalks, trees, parks, yards and
beaches and are costly to produce.”
Plastic shopping bags are typically
made of petroleum and can release
toxins into the ground and water
while taking hundreds of years to
decompose. As awareness about
the harm these bags can do to the
environment has spread, several
cities and states have made eff orts to
reduce their use, such as the 5-cent
fee per bag implemented in Suff olk
County, New York, this year.
In 2017, Governor Andrew Cuomo
nullifi ed legislation passed by the
City Council that would have enacted
a similar fee in the fi ve boroughs.
According to Walcott, the Queens
Library produces approximately 1
million plastic bags per year at a cost
of 10.2 cents per bag. That amounts
to more than $100,000 that Walcott
said the library will now be able to
put toward enhancing its electronic
book collection and expanding other
initiatives.
Marcia Bystryn, President of the
New York League of Conservation
Voters — a statewide organization
that fi ghts for clean air, clean water
and renewable energy through
political action — pointed out that
reducing the use of plastic bags has
a chain-reaction eff ect of environmental
benefi ts.
“While we continue to push for
statewide action on carryout bags
from our leaders in Albany, the
Queens Library will immediately
make a huge diff erence by taking
24 tons of plastic out of the waste
stream,” Bystryn said in a statement.
“This will reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, litter, truck traffi c, and
most importantly, it will help encourage
its millions of patrons to
make a positive change in their own
behavior to benefi t the environment.”
Eddie Bautista, executive director
of the New York City Environmental
Justice Alliance, also praised the library’s
decision while comparing it
to the federal government’s handling
of environmental issues. The New
York City Environmental Justice Alliance
is a city-wide nonprofi t focused
on linking grassroots organizations
from low-income neighborhoods and
communities of color in their struggle
for environmental justice.
“We applaud Queens Library for
taking meaningful action to safeguard
our climate and communities
at a time when the federal government
is rolling back policies and
practices that protect the environment,”
Bautista said in a statement.
“We need more organizations like
the library and leaders like Dennis
Walcott at the local level to continue
to counteract what’s happening in
Washington.”
The decision to wait until June 30
to fully implement the change was
to allow time for customers to adjust
and to align the move fi nancially
with the new fi scal year beginning
on July 1, Walcott said. He added that
the library will consider reusable
bags and other options in the future,
but will encourage customers to use
their own bags for the time being.
Celebrating
Lithuania’s
100th birthday
Photo courtesy of State Senator Joseph
State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo
celebrated the 100th
anniversary of Lithuania’s
independence last month by presenting
a proclamation to Julius
Pranevicius, the consul general
for the Republic of Lithuania in
New York, in Addabbo’s Middle
Village offi ce. The two also exchanged
fl ags of their respective
countries.
Addabbo
Photo via Pixabay
The Queens Library will no longer
give plastic bags to customers
beginning on June 30.
