for breaking news visit www.timesnewsweekly.com JUNE 11, 2015 • times 13 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.couriersun.com JUNE 11, 2015 • THE COURIER SUN 27 oped Glendale appears almost unrecognizable in this January 1936 photo taken on present-day 80th Street looking south toward Forest Park. An overpass over the Long Island Rail Road tracks in the foreground wouldn’t be built for another 40 years. Back then, the street to the left (now known as 81st Street) was actually part of Dry Harbor Road; present-day 80th Street, which goes off to the right, was then called Parkview Avenue. Have an old photo of Queens that you want to share with us? Send us a digital scan in JPEG format by email to editorial@queenscourier.com. letters A Marshall Plan to fix economic woes in U.S. The following is an open letter to New York’s congressional leaders. What is urgently needed to help resolve the crisis in America’s deprived urban and rural areas is for Congress to create a domestic Marshall plan, similar to the one George C. Marshall called for in a 1947 speech at Harvard University. Marshall’s European recovery program of $12 billion from Congress restored war-torn Europe to pre-war conditions. Washington needs to develop access opportunities to rescue urban and rural poverty youth. My idea is to create Rescue American Youth (RAY), somewhat like Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, which provided work for 250,000 young men in reclamation projects across America. My ray of hope should focus on education and employment so as to move poverty youth into mainstream America. I was pleased to learn that Kweisi Mfume, a well-respected former Maryland congressman, is also calling for an American Marshall plan. Anthony G. Pilla, Forest Hills Reader: Be excited about Select Bus Service After attending the Department of Transportation’s open house in Jamaica about Select Bus Service on Main Street, I was pleased to hear there were plans in motion to improve our buses. As a senior citizen living in Jamaica, I know all too well that our buses are slow, old, overcrowded and not very seniorfriendly overall. That’s why I was disappointed not to see bus riders’ excitement reflected in your article “Flushing business owners fight to maintain parking in SBS plan.” Select Bus Service would mean we could have faster service thanks to new buses, bus lanes and off-board pay — A LOOK BACK definitely a step in the right direction for all bus riders. Downtown Flushing, where traffic is lucky to move at 10 mph, is as bad as it is because we haven’t prioritized public transit. Now, over 500 bus riders have signed a petition demanding better buses along Main Street — and many more are invested in the future of our buses. As we develop SBS, we must have a balanced dialogue between bus and subway riders and car drivers so that we can build a public transit system that’s fast, functional and fair — a public transit system everyone can use. Jeanne Majors, Riders Alliance member, Jamaica Lamenting a shrinking Catholic school system It is a known fact that many of the Catholic elementary schools in Brooklyn and Queens have been closed or merged over the last 15 years. It is really a shame that this has and is continuing to happen. Most Precious Blood School in Astoria is slated to close its doors at the end of this school year despite a valiant effort by the parents to keep it open. Bishop DiMarzio, who claims that Catholic schools are essential, is such a hypocrite! Why is he continuing to close and merge schools? These closings and mergers are causing many teachers and principals to lose their jobs. Is this how the Brooklyn Diocese thanks all of its dedicated teachers and administrators? Also, these closings and mergers put a tremendous emotional strain on hundreds of parents and students. The bishop has the nerve to expect Governor Cuomo to support a bill that would extend tax credits to those whose children attend private and parochial schools. At the rate that these schools are being closed and or merged, there won’t be any schools for these hardworking and struggling parents to send their children to. John Amato, Fresh Meadows End critical delays in EMS response time BY CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS ELIZABETH CROWLEY AND DONOVAN RICHARDS The need for our EMS to be unparalleled here in New York City is increasingly great. As a city, we must make critical policy changes that will decrease response time and save lives. This February, the average response time to life-threatening medical emergencies in Queens was 10 minutes and 15 seconds, which is not acceptable. The City Council passed a law that would track end-to-end response times for both fire and medical emergencies, and further require the FDNY to report that response time. New Yorkers need to know the truth. This involves recording not only the time it took for an emergency unit to be dispatched, but also the time it took to process the call. The law was named for Ariel Russo who was tragically killed when she was struck by a reckless driver trying to evade the police. After the crash, there was a clear error in dispatching an EMS unit and emergency personnel lost at least four critical minutes. The “Ariel Russo Emergency 9-1-1 Response Time Reporting Act” now provides a more transparent record of response times. Last year, two young siblings, Ayina and Jai’Launi Tinglin, were killed in a Far Rockaway fire. EMS personnel did not reach the scene until 20 minutes after the call was received. The city found that personnel errors preceding the dispatch caused delays in reaching the children, but we see this as only half of the truth. Reports from dangerous, deadly fires have shown that the FDNY only dispatches ambulances after an FDNY unit on the scene confirms it is a structural fire. In this case, had the need for EMS to wait not existed, they could have been dispatched more than six minutes earlier. A lack of resources is likely the main reason the FDNY delays the EMS dispatch. We believe the FDNY must dispatch EMS units once the report of a structural fire comes in through 9-1-1 and make it part of the many units dispatched within a first-alarm fire. The FDNY again wasted critical time by waiting to dispatch EMS during a structural fire in Midwood. The fire killed seven children in the Sassoon family: David, Yehoshua, Moshe, Yaakov, Eliane, Rivka and Sarah. It took nearly 14 minutes for EMS to get to the scene. We write this op-ed to call on the fire department to make three critical policy changes that would reduce response times and improve the level of pre-hospital care. First, the fire department must change its dispatch policy and immediately send an ambulance upon receipt of a 9-1-1 call reporting a structural fire as part of a “first-alarm.” Second, we need to greatly expand the number of department ambulance tours. This is the surest way to reduce response times, and the additional tours managed correctly will not only save lives but could also generate revenue for the city. Lastly, in order to increase department professionalism, promotional civil service exams must be instituted for upperranking officers, just like those for the fire department’s firefighters and other public safety agencies. This would also bring the city into compliance with federal and state guidelines to ensure emergency scenes are properly and efficiently handled. Our EMS personnel work every day to keep us alive, and for that they deserve not only our unconditional gratitude but effective procedures to abide by. Let’s make our EMS stronger for today and always. Photo from the Ridgewood Times archives
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