14 AUGUST 1, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
City prioritizes bike lanes in R’wood area
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Ridgewood, Jackson Heights,
Corona, Elmhurst, Middle
Village and Rego Park have been
designated “Bike Priority Districts”
as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $58.4
million Green Wave bicycle plan, which
will expand the bike lane network and
increase police enforcement.
Those neighborhoods will get miles
of bike infrastructure by 2022 as part
of the city’s emergency response to
the rise of cycling fatalities in 2019.
The carnage has claimed the lives of
17 cyclists in the fi ve boroughs aft er 10
were killed last year, which the mayor
called a “crisis” and an emergency.
“When we came into office, we
promised New Yorkers we’d do
everything we could to end traffi c
fatalities,” de Blasio said. “No loss of
life on our streets is acceptable. With
a dangerous surge in cyclist fatalities,
we have to keep pushing the envelope
and increasing our eff orts. That’s what
this plan is about. It’s a continuation
of our promise. This time, specifi cally
to bikers. We are here to protect you
and we take that job seriously. We will
not stop until we have fi nally reached
Vision Zero.”
The 17 cyclist fatalities so far this
Following a surge in cyclist fatalities, Mayor Bill de Blasio announces a new
bike safety plan which includes several neighborhoods in Queens.
Courtesy of the Mayor’s offi ce
year represents the highest number
through July of any year since the
launch of Vision Zero in 2014. The
poor performance of public transit
has lead many to take to cycling to the
point where nearly a half million bike
rides take place in the fi ve borough
up from 180,000 bike rides a day
in 2006.
“We have assembled a long and
aggressive to-do list that we think that
can change this year’s tragic increase
in cyclist fatalities, and encourage
even more New Yorkers to get on
bicycles” DOT Commissioner Polly
Trottenburg said.
In Queens, the DOT will improve onstreet
connections to the Queensboro
Bridge, extend the protected bike lane
at Beach 94th Street in Rockaway, and
fi nish the fi nal phase of the Queens
Boulevard project, although once
again the mayor would not say when.
A founding member of the Jackson
Heights-based Make Queens Safer,
which is committed to change the
culture of indiff erence to a culture
of awareness and action around the
safety of “vulnerable road users”
including seniors, children and
cyclists said the Green Wave plan
sends a clear message.
“Our leaders are ready and prepared
to make NYC a world class model of
streets for people,” Make Queens Safer
co-founder Cristina Furlong said.
“Paired with the vigorous expansion
of protected bike lanes, and funding
to maintain them, access and equity
fi nally will reach our most vulnerable
road users. Whether it the $58 million
the mayor is spending or the $50 the
average speed violator pays, every
cent is worth it compared to the price
victims of traffi c violence pay due to
politics, delays and callous community
banter. The data is clear and must be
followed. Every traffi c death that is
preventable must be prevented.”
Vandals trashed Rego Park school greenhouse
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Intruders have squashed the fruits
of Stephen A. Halsey Junior High
School’s labor.
From the spring through the
summer, vandals have repeatedly
broken into the student-built
greenhouse in Rego Park, left behind
marijuana paraphernalia and
destroyed parts of the structure and
plants inside.
“Long story short, people have been
breaking into the garden by hopping
the fence and using the greenhouse as
a shelter to get stoned,” said the club’s
facilitator Chris Weiss.
Weiss said that as a result of the
damages, the club may have to
completely dismantle the greenhouse,
which would level the school’s
estimated $2,000 investment in the
building and would mean that the club
would not be able to use it in the fall.
This would be a major disappointment
for Weiss’s student group, the Green
Team, a cherished institution at
the school.
“I’m at a loss. I’m torn. Personally
I’m very angry that this happened,
but I feel so heartbroken for my kids,”
said Weiss. “For them to see their
eff orts destroyed so brazenly and so
carelessly, that’s going to be a very
upsetting life lesson for them.”
After breaking a lock off the
greenhouse door, the trespassers
recently ripped the walls and ceiling
panels off the building and destroyed
the shelving by sitting on it. Weiss
said that he’s had to clean up items
including rolling papers, discarded
cigar ends, the ends of joints and
left over munchies.
The 112th Precinct reportedly told
the school that they can try to step up
their patrol of the area at night, but
without any other evidence, there’s
nothing further they can do.
The interlopers seem to be hopping
over a low point in the fence around
the school’s garden, which Principal
Vincent Suraci has been trying to
fi x. Weiss is also hoping that Suraci
can get some security cameras for
the area, but until they are able to
implement these safeguards and
test if they’re eff ective, the school
will have to suspend or take down
the greenhouse.
In the meantime, the club is likely
going to have to limit their activities
to indoors. Over the year and a half
since it was founded, the club has
taken on some ambitious botanical
and beautifi cation projects that have
included redesigning the facade of
the building, creating a makeshift
hydroponics system and starting a
farm-to-table program.
Part of the club’s success is getting
kids out of trouble and into gardening.
Weiss said that a handful of students
who were getting repeated suspensions
have turned their behavior around
once they became enthusiastic about
gardening and “taken pride in the
school and themselves.”
“To me the loss is the inability to use
it with the kids. Listen, I could donate
blood until we get the $2,000 back,”
Weiss said. “I love watching them
participate in these kinds of things
where they’re getting their hands
dirty or they’re tying up a plant to
support it or when they’re amazed
that the fl ower turns into a fruit on
the vine. That’s the gift of it.”
Vandals ripped panels off of a greenhouse built by middle school
students. Photo courtesy of Mike Zevon
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