WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 10, 2016 13 LETTERS AND COMMENTS NOT EVERYONE THRILLED WITH LIC STREET REPAIRS Regarding plans to renovate streets in Long Island City: Why are the bus stops shifting from Vernon Boulevard and Borden Avenue and Vernon and 50th Avenue? There is no need. You’re shift ing end stops to in front of residences and further from subway transfer. Regarding the sidewalk extension, please do not place any benches. We don’t need to encourage the drunk noisy bums to hang out there anymore. QNS user LICParent THANKFUL FOR FLUSHING PLAYGROUND RENOVATIONS On plans to renovate the playground at Bowne Park: Great news! I wonder though if they will address the three main issues the previous playground had: The young child play structure was several hundred feet away from the older kid structure (a nightmare if you have kids of diff erent ages); no fence around play area; and no benches in the shade near the play area. I took my kids to that playground twice a week for a year and no one ever approached me, or to my knowledge the other regular parents there, about our insights to the playground. QNS user Emily GLEN OAKS MAN SAYS ‘GO CUBS GO!’ The Chicago Cubs’ curse has ended aft er 108 years. I myself was stationed in Great Lake, Illinois, as a member of the United States Navy and traveled by train into Chicago to Wrigley Field. I would attend games when they were in town and sometimes they would win and sometimes they would lose and this was over 40 years ago. Now I am proud of the Chicago Cubs who fought the good fi ght and has made America proud. Bravo Chicago Cubs for proving when you believe, nothing is impossible. Frederick R. Bedell Jr., Glen Oaks Village HOPING FOR A ONE-WAY CONVERSION OF LOCAL STREET Community Board 8 approved a capital and expense budget that places the upgrading of our area’s roads, schools and parks at the top of its list. As a Kew Gardens Hills resident who’s lived on 77th Avenue near Park Drive East for 72 years, I’m glad CB 8 gave top priority to rebuilding both roads. But another thing must be done: convert 77th Avenue into a one-way, eastward-bound venue from Park Drive East to Vleigh Place. Cars now going in both directions nearly collide and threaten the safety of children and parents who face two-way traffi c with no stoplight to enter P.S. 164 at 135th Street. Chaos reigns when school opens at 8:30 a.m. and closes at 2:30 p.m. All you hear are horns blaring and people shouting while crossing guards try to impose some order. Turning 77th Avenue into an eastbound-only road will solve the problem. Drivers heading west can use 78th Road. I hope CB 8 pursues this measure and I urge Councilman Rory Lancman, Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz and state Sen. Joseph Addabbo to support it. Richard Reif, Kew Gardens Hills OP-ED Homeless kids right in your backyard In honor of Veterans Day, we take you back in time to 1943, at the height of World War II. In Middle Village, the Elm Civic Association erected an honor roll at the corner of Eliot Avenue and 71st Street, which is now the site of Our Lady of Hope School. The honor roll bore the names of those who served in the Armed Forces. Send us your historic photos of Queens by email to [email protected] or mail printed photos to The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you upon request. Photo: Ridgewood Times archives BY RALPH DA COSTA NUNEZ, PH.D. For the first time, there are more than 100,000 homeless students in New York City’s public and charter schools. Last year the homeless student population rose 22 percent from the prior school year. Whether you notice them or not, homeless children attend almost every school in every district and in all our backyards. Almost one out of 10 school children is homeless and one out of eight has been homeless at some point in the past fi ve years. Some school districts have up to 18 percent homeless students. We have a city full of blameless children in unstable — oft en unsafe — living conditions. Two-thirds of homeless children will stay that way for longer than one school year. The trauma and stress of homelessness negatively impacts children long after they regain a permanent address. They need support services to keep up in school, and special educational needs to be identifi ed and addressed as early as possible. They need health care, social work interventions and other long-term investments to insure a better future as productive tax-paying New Yorkers. Homeless children are an indicator of the explosion in family homelessness. In recognition of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness is re-issuing its community snapshots of family homelessness to embolden New Yorkers to take a look at their backyards. You can view them at www.ICPHusa.org. Even a quick look will demonstrate A LOOK BACK that homelessness is a local issue that aff ects every neighborhood in New York City. Family homelessness is a pervasive problem that is increasing at an alarming rate. Mayor de Blasio is putting resources toward addressing the problem, as had Mayor Bloomberg before him. And yet the number of families entering shelters climbs every day and the homeless student population rose by 22 percent amid news that the Great Recession is fi nally in the rearview mirror. How can we stem the growth of family homelessness? We must reframe the solution away from housing and toward education and employment. A typical homeless parent is a young, single mother with two children, most of whom are under the age of 5. Only about half the parents have a high school diploma, and fewer than half work during the time they are in shelter. At some point they receive a rental subsidy voucher and leave with few skills for success. Is it any wonder that roughly half return to shelter? Compassionate New Yorkers who hate to see taxpayer money wasted can understand that the children from their communities who are homeless, while invisible to most, are expensive and a loss of human and community potential. We hope ICPH’s community snapshots will be a starting point for conversation, commonsense solutions, and a call for clear leadership on this issue that is, yes, right in your backyard. Ralph da Costa Nunez is president of the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness.
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