FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 14, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Bike lanes rile
Flushing residents
Community Board 7 members didn’t
seem convinced Monday night of a proposed
Flushing bike lane network presented
by Department of Transportation
(DOT) offi cials, whose goal is to improve
bicycling conditions in the community.
Approximately 50 board members
and residents listened to DOT offi -
cials as they explained their Bicycle and
Greenway Project proposal a part of the
city’s Vision Zero initiative on March
11 at Union Care Plaza located at 33-23
Union St. in Flushing.
Th e DOT project proposal aims to
improve the safety of all road users;
respond to community-driven planning
process; increase bicycle network coverage;
and create new connections to
jobs, parks, neighborhoods and existing
bicycle facilities. Th e proposal will not
impact parking or cause the removal of
lanes from streets.
However, CB 7 member Kim Ohanian,
opposed the proposal arguing that a bike
lane will lead to more deaths and fatalities.
“I’m sorry but I cannot and will not
ever support this plan, you’re planning
on putting a bike lane on my street in
front of my house,” said Ohanian, who
lives on 59th Avenue off of Main Street.
“You can’t be serious with all of the
truck traffi c and parking that the hospital
needs because they park all over our
neighborhood … how in God’s name do
you think this will work without somebody
getting killed?”
Carlotta Mohamed
Another meeting
on Sunnyside
Yard set
Just as thoughts of Amazon’s HQ2
campus in Long Island City are beginning
to recede, the specter of the massive
Sunnyside Yard development project
comes drift ing back to western Queens.
Th e city and Amtrak will host the second
of four public meetings later this
month, marking the halfway point of the
18-month master planning process and
it will allow the brain trust behind the
project to clear up some misconceptions
that are shared by many residents living
in neighborhoods surrounding the 180-
acre train yard.
Th e city’s Economic Development
Corporation believes the Sunnyside
Yard development would meet the challenge
brought on by the increase in population
according to its feasibility study
released in 2017. It concluded that nearly
85 percent of the busiest rail yard in
the country could be decked over allowing
for 24,000 new housing units, new
schools, retail, community and cultural
facilities and parks and open space.
Th e three-hour meeting will take place
on March 26 at P.S. 166 in Astoria
beginning at 6 p.m. with an update
from Vishaan Chakrabarti, who leads
the team working on the master plan.
Bill Parry
Photo courtesy of Sanitation Department
TRASHY TICKETS
Bayside resident rails against summons shenanigans
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
Bayside resident Bill Harap has been
noticing something strange on garbage
collection day.
When the New York Department of
Sanitation (DSNY) came to collect recyclables
on Friday, Feb. 22, the collection
crew threw the trash into the back of the
truck — but he saw that some pieces of
plastic and paper had fallen back onto
the curb.
Harap then charged that aft er the truck
pulled away, a supervisor pulled up in a
DSNY car and issued him a summons for
having trash on the curb, even though it
was not his fault.
“At time/place/occurrence, I did
observe bottles, plastic wrappings, dirt,
pebbles at curb well within 18 inches of
the 8 to 9 a.m. residential routine time,”
wrote a supervising agent on Harap’s
heft y $300 citation, the second one he
received over the course of two months.
His initial $25 summons was for “recyclable
plastic mixed in with recyclable
unsoiled cardboard,” which Harap also
denied doing.
Th e Bayside resident claimed that he
observed the same thing happening to
multiple houses between 29th and 30th
avenues on Bell Boulevard for “at least
two months.”
“Th e truck went all down the line of
houses,” Harap said.
When Harap complained to the supervisor
of the QE11 DSNY Garage, he told
the resident that the summonses “would
be taken care of.” But when he followed
up about the tickets, the supervisor told
Harap that the agent “refused to void the
summons” and he would have to fi ght it
in order to get rid of it.
Th is is not the fi rst time DSNY collectors
have been accused of issuing bogus
citations. Back in 2012, trash collectors
in Brooklyn were caught on video
issuing “trumped up” tickets for infractions
like mixing recyclables with regular
garbage.
According to one Brooklyn resident,
the agent did not even open the bag
before issuing a summons.
Th e Courier reached out to DSNY for
comment and a spokesperson said that
they would look into the issue. No other
response was received as of press time
on March 13.
A recycling truck
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