DOT IDs High Risk Locations Transportation Committee has discussed altering the dangerous confluence of Myrtle and Wyckoff avenues and Palmetto Street as recently as last month, as reported in the Times Newsweekly May 22 edition. A 23-year-old woman, Ella Bandes was killed at the Wyckoff Avenue intersection last year. As part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision ZeroAction Plan, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2024, Board 5 heard a presentation by the DOT on changes to make the Ridgewood intersection safer at the last monthly meeting Wednesday, May 14. -CONTINUED FROM PG. 8- Pushing To Return Civic Virtue To Kew Gdns. ‘Mean Streets’ Eyes City’s First 100 Traffic Deaths Of 2014 compiled to traffic accident figures the city tallied in 2014, as the NYPD and other city agencies had conflicting data. New York City’s 100th traffic death in 2014 occurred on the 155th day of the year, lastWednesday, June 4, when a truck driver on the Cross Bronx Expressway died after being struck by a dislodged manhole cover that flew through the rig’s windshield. The city is on pace to have 235 traffic-related deaths this year.B rooklyn registered 34 fatalities so far this year, one more than Queens’ total. Queens had the city’s first traffic death on NewYear’s Day, when Luis Cabrera, 26, died after the car he was riding in struck a median and overturned on the Long Island Expressway near Parsons Boulevard in Kew Gardens Hills. Fatalities in the Times Newsweekly coverage area listed on theMean Streets tracker included the following: • VedWadhwa, 56, died on Jan. 3 when the cab he was driving lost control and struck two parked vehicles on 118th Street near 95th Avenue in Richmond Hill. • Angela Hurtado, 68, was fatally struck by an illegally turning vehicle at the corner of Grand Avenue and 69th Place on Jan. 18. The driver was later arrested for operating a vehicle with a suspended license. • Martha Tibillin-Guamug, 25, died on Feb. 2 when she was struck by a turningMTAbus while crossing at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Broadway on the Elmhurst/Jackson Heights border. • Kaneez Hussein, 73, was killed on Feb. 20 after being struck by a car while walking in the middle of Jamaica Avenue near 131st Street in Richmond Hill. The driver fled the scene and was later arrested. • BasdeoMohan, 65, died onMar. 5 after swerving his vehicle and smashing into a stopped car on Atlantic Avenue near 133rd Street in Richmond Hill. •An unidentified 25-year-old man was fatally struck by a van as it backed out of a driveway on 60th Lane near Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood on Mar. 6. • Kumar Ragnauth, 64, was fatally struck by a vehicle that fled the scene at the corner of Northern Boulevard and 40th Street in Long Island City on Mar. 7. • Vadro Kone, 50, died onMar. 19 after losing control of his vehicle on an Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridge offramp, which then struck another car. Reportedly, Kone suffered a health condition that caused him to lose control. • Angel Torres, 46, died after being hit by a sedan while bicycling through the intersection of Broadway and Halsey Street in Bushwick on Apr. 9. The driver—whom police identified as Kareem Q. Jordan— remains wanted for questioning. • William Guevara-Delgado, 26, was fatally struck by a truck on Apr. 23 at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and 85th Street on the Woodhaven/Ozone Park border. • Oscar Pauzhi, 54, died on Apr. 26, after being hit by a car while crossing Atlantic Avenue near 107th Street in Richmond Hill. Reportedly, the driver fled the scene and remains at large. • Rosa Anidjar, 82, reportedly crossed against the light and was fatally hit by a car on Queens Boulevard near 71stAvenue in Forest Hills on May 3. •An unidentified 40-year-old man died on May 11 after being hit by a van while bicycling on Rockaway Boulevard near 90th Street in Ozone Park. The driver fled from the scene following the accident and remains at large. • Elliot Mintzer, 67, died on May 21 when he was hit by a tractor-trailer backing up inside the parking lot of a Key Food supermarket on 64th Road near 108th Street in Forest Hills. To view Mean Streets, visit the Transportation Nation section of www.wnyc.org. -CONTINUED FROM PG. 8- TIMES, THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014 • 28 Iritano’s task force colleagues include Community Board 9 Chairperson Ralph Gonzalez and District Manager Mary Ann Carey; documentary producer Robert LoScalzo and activist Jon Torodash. Task force members recently met with representatives of Queens Borough President Melinda Katz’s office regarding the possibility of returning Civic Virtue to Queens and restoring the fountain base on which it once stood. The renovations are estimated to cost $100,000 to complete. But a spokesperson for Katz indicated to the Times Newsweekly the borough president does not want Civic Virtue returned to Queens. “She wants the statue’s former site to instead be known as the “Queens Tribute to Women Plaza,” and wants it to be repaired and renovated so that it can become a place that is a fitting tribute to women,” the spokesperson said in an email to this paper on Monday, June 9. “She will be meeting with the commissioner of DCAS (the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which is said to control the site) in the very near future, and one of the topics of discussion will be the future of the site, and what the plan should be for beautifying it.” Since “Triumph of Civic Virtue,” as it is officially titled, was commissioned through donated funds in 1922, the statue has resided in three different boroughs. It was unveiled at City Hall Park in Manhattan, where it remained for nearly two decades. The city moved Civic Virtue to Kew Gardens in 1941; with Heracles’ backside facing City Hall, according to legend, then-Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had it relocated, as he publicly expressed his displeasure of having to look at the Greek god’s posterior on the way to work every morning. Seven decades later, Queens elected officials and activists derided Civic Virtue for more than its aesthetics. Critics slammed the depiction as sexist, as it shows feminine sirens standing under the feet of a male god, and called for its removal from Queens’ seat of government. Meanwhile, the statue suffered from years of weathering and neglect. Task force members, however, charged that opponents misunderstood the statue’s elements, as the sirens in Civic Virtue have tails and are depicted as “non-human, allegorical figures.” “I don’t understand why people give this sculpture a meaning it doesn’t have,” Carey stated. “They aren’t two women; they’re just two sirens. They have tails. I don’t know any women who have tails.” Following much public debate, the city relocated Civic Virtue to Green-Wood in 2012 on what was called a temporary loan. Citing documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request from the city, the task force claims city taxpayers covered the nearly $100,000 restoration cost. Half of the price tag, the task force further claimed, covered the creation of a custom-made shell by which to safely transport Civic Virtue from Kew Gardens to Brooklyn. The task force took exception with signage at Green-Wood claiming that the cemetery funded the statue’s restoration since the city purportedly “lacked the support of local officials” to do so. Members called on Green-Wood President Richard Moylan and Public Design Commission President Signe Nielsen to have the signs removed. -CONTINUED FROM PG. 10- SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS MEANS MORE THAN WAVING FLAGS. Help Returning Soldiers By Donating To Local Veterans Organizations. He’s Wanted For F.H. Sexual Abuse A security camera image and sketch of the suspect who sexually assaulted a woman in Forest Hills last week. treated at Elmhurst Hospital Center for minor injuries to her right arm and knee. An investigation by the NYPD Queens Special Victims Squad is ongoing, police said. Anyone with information regarding the sexual assault or the News From The WRBA Many businesses on the avenue are owned or managed by people whose primary tongue is not English. I understand that. If I were a store owner and had to produce a sign written in, say, Chinese, and I had to do so without any assistance, I would undoubtedly make plenty of mistakes. But if I had to produce a Chinese sign, I would make the effort to seek help from someone with a firm command of that language. I would be embarrassed to have an illiteratelooking sign hanging outside my store, regardless of the language. It would reflect poorly upon my business and upon me. Someone made the decision to order an awning that spelled “fancy” with an r. And someone else decided to create an awning with “francy” emblazoned on it. And neither person noticed a problem. Either they didn’t bother to ask someone else to spend ten seconds proofreading the awning, or they didn’t recognize that “fancy” has no r in it. Either way, there was a deficiency here. As I already noted, this is not the most serious problem in our neighborhood. But these errorriddled signs do contribute to a sense that Woodhaven is populated by people who just don’t care. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. The members of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association are just some of the many denizens who seek to keep the neighborhood lively, healthy, dynamic, and prosperous. We would be better off if Jamaica Avenue came closer to embodying that positive attitude, and improving stores’ signage would be a small step in that direction. I would like to recommend a (perhaps quixotic) solution. The Woodhaven Business Improvement District (BID) serves Jamaica Avenue. I propose that the Woodhaven BID offer a proofreading service to businesses on the avenue. Business owners setting up shop on Jamaica Avenue should be contacted and welcomed by the BID, and they should be informed that the BID is willing to check their signage prior to production or installation. This is within the BID’s mandate, and it surely would not be a significant drain on the BID’s time and energy. But if, for some reason, the BID is unable to offer this option, I know several people who are prepared to step forward to render proofreading services themselves. One might respond that store owners would not bother to avail themselves of such a BID-provided service if it existed. If that were the case, then it would raise questions about who is setting up shop on Jamaica Avenue and how much pride they feel in Woodhaven. That, of course, would be a very different set of issues. For now, I just wish more business owners on Jamaica Avenue would use spell-check before ordering their expensive signage. * * * Editor’s note: The next Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association meeting is on Saturday, June 21, 10 a.m. at the American Legion Hall (89-02 91st Street). Blenkinsopp is a member of Community Board 9 and director of communications for the WRBA. For additional information on the WRBA, visit www.woodhaven-nyc.org. -CONTINUED FROM PG. 4- suspect’s whereabouts that could prove helpful is asked to contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 1-800- 577-TIPS; by text message to 274637 (enter information, then the code TIP577); or online at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com. All calls and messages will be kept confidential. -CONTINUED FROM PG. 6-
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