4 The Courier sun • JANUARY 14, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com Ridgewood students unveil community apps for Forest Park By Anthony Giudice agiudice@ridgewoodtimes.com @A_GiudiceReport Forest Park and the surrounding areas are coming into the digital age thanks to the students in the information technology class at Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood. The students introduced their apps, which they have been working on for several months, to community representatives, including Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, who was the civic partner for this project, and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña at Oak Ridge in Forest Park on Thursday morning. “So many people, even if you’ve lived in this community for 50 years or whether you just moved in a couple of years ago, you really don’t know all that Forest Park has to offer,” Crowley said. “That will soon change thanks to the information technology class at Grover Cleveland.” In all, there will be five new apps that will service all types of visitors of Forest Park. The first app, “A Tour of Forest & Highland Parks,” takes users on a trip around the parks and, by using GPS location, shows where all the attractions and facilities are located. The app “Who’s Buried Near Forest Park?” helps visitors locate nearby cemeteries and find out where historical figures are interred through GPS location. “Nobody really talks about the cemeteries,” said Evelyn Torres, one of the students who worked on this app. “We wanted to give visitors a closer look at them.” Another app, “Forest Park Birding,” educates visitors about the bird population in Forest Park. There are more than 120 different types of birds in Forest Park, and this app will categorize them all. “I believe this is especially useful for The students at Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood developed interactive apps for visitors of Forest Park. experts,” said Nelson Gonzalez, who helped develop the bird-watching app. “They can input their own information on the birds, and it brings experts and newer bird-watchers together.” The students also created a geological app called “Rocky’s Forest Park Adventure.” This app brings users on a geological tour of Forest Park, including interactive earth science questions for students. The fifth app that the students created, “Reservoir Racing,” allows runners to compete against one another to be at the top of the leaderboard by racing around the Ridgewood Reservoir. “I really want to test this out,” said Gustavo Espinoza, one of the app’s developers. “When we incorporated the leaderboard, I knew it would get people involved.” For the students involved, this experience was more than just creating an app. They learned firsthand how the technology industry works. They had to do extensive research on Forest Park and the nearby areas, work closely with community organizations including The Forest Park Trust, The Queens Historical Society, the Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance and others, as well as work with Grover Cleveland’s graphic design class to create artwork for their apps. “This is as real-world as it gets,” said Andrew Woodbridge, the information technology teacher at Grover Cleveland. “They are actively involved in making this app. We want to prepare THE COURIER/Photo by Anthony Giudice them for college and a career. They are doing the same things adults do.” Fariña encouraged the students to work hard to turn their love of technology into a job that they love. “Think about what you do after you leave high school and think about as you get to college how you make sure that this becomes possibly a job for you in the future,” Fariña told the students. “The other thing I am happy to be here today is I didn’t know this park existed. Now I will need to use your app to really come back and really appreciate it more.” The apps will be launched and available for download on the Google Play store on Jan. 19, after the students take the feedback given to them by the community representatives and fine-tune their work. MTA to put Queens station renovations projects on the fast track Photo via Wikimedia Commons The Parsons Boulevard station in Jamaica is one of seven subway stops in queens that Governor Andrew Cuomo wants the MTA to quickly redesign and rebuild as part of his 2016 agenda. By Robert Pozarycki rpozarycki@queenscourier.com/@robbpoz Seven dilapidated train stations in Queens will be rapidly redesigned under a transportation plan that Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Jan. 8 in Brooklyn. In all, 30 subway stations in New York City will be overhauled in the governor’s proposed program, including four stations on the N/Q lines in Astoria: 30th Avenue, Broadway, 36th Avenue and 39th Avenue. The Parsons Boulevard F train station in Jamaica and two stations on the M/R lines — the 67th Avenue station in Rego Park and the Northern Boulevard station in Woodside — will also be renovated. According to the governor’s office, the MTA will be tasked with altering its design guidelines to allow for each station to be redesigned with a brighter, cleaner look and easier navigation. The MTA will also expedite the projects by utilizing the design-build contract procurement method that the Cuomo administration used to quickly advance infrastructure projects such as the new Kosciuszko Bridge on the Brooklyn/Queens border. A single contractor will be selected to handle all 30 stations. Cuomo added that the stations will be completely closed during renovations; though this will inconvenience riders, he noted, the closures would allow for the projects to be completed more quickly. The governor projects that most of the 30 station rebuilds will be completed by 2018, and all will be finished by 2020. Each station project will take between six and 12 months to complete. The renovations are part of the governor’s 2016 agenda, which aims to bring aesthetic and technological improvements to the entire Metropolitan Transportation Authority system beginning this year. Cuomo also plans to introduce a touchless, mobile fare payment system to replace MetroCards and tickets; to expand wireless Internet hot spots; and to install USB ports in train cars, buses and train stations to allow customers to recharge their phones while riding or waiting. “This is absolutely vital to the daily functioning of New York City, but for too long, it has failed to meet the region’s growing size and strength,” Cuomo said. “This is about doing more than just repair and maintain. This is thinking bigger and better and building the 21st-century transit system New Yorkers deserve.”
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