8 The Courier sun • march 19, 2015 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com New water trails may come to Jamaica Bay BY SALVATORE LICATA THE COURIER/Photo by Salvatore Licata slicata@queenscourier.com @Sal_Licata1 Paddlers may soon have a new scenic Jamaica Bay path to follow when exploring www.mainstreetradiology.Downtown Flushing Office 136-25 37th Ave. Flushing, NY 11354 Neuroradiology Musculoskeletal Mammography/Women's Imaging Cross Sectional/Body Imaging www.mainstreetradiology.com • 718.428.1500 Neuroradiology Musculoskeletal Mammography/Women's Imaging Cross Sectional/Body Imaging Northern Blvd. Office 32nd Avenue 44-01 Francis Lewis Blvd. 32-25 Francis Bayside, NY 11361 Bayside, NY Neuroradiology Proud to be the Official of The New York Cosmos Northern Blvd. Office 44-01 Francis Lewis Blvd. Bayside, NY 11361 www.mainstreetradiology.com • 718.428.1500 Nuclear Medicine/PET Nuclear Medicine/PET Magnetic Resonance Imaging Interventional Radiology Downtown Flushing Office 136-25 37th Ave. Flushing, NY 11354 32nd Avenue Office 32-25 Francis Lewis Blvd. Bayside, NY 11358 Jackson Heights Office 72-06 Northern Blvd. Jackson Heights, NY 11372 the body of water in south Queens and Brooklyn. The Regional Plan Association (RPA) is proposing a new public access waterfront trail for the bay which they think will “encourage well-being through active outdoor recreation and by connecting people with history, nature and community.” If built, it would connect a network of different access points and destinations throughout south Queens and Brooklyn. “There are a lot of things going on in Jamaica Bay right now,” said Robert Freudenberg, director of energy and environmental programs for the RPA. “This paddling program is a tremendous opportunity to start the next phase of using the bay.” Over 292,000 people live within a mile of Jamaica Bay, and the Gateway receives an average of 3.8 million visitors annually for its variety of recreational uses. The RPA says that there has been a growing interest in paddling on the bay, though only 6,700 people used it for the sport in 2014. The “Paddling the Bay” trail, as it is called, would encompass Jamaica Bay as far east as Idlewild Park, near JFK airport, to as far west as Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn. It would consist of five smaller trails: Dead Horse Trail, Airfield Trail, North Channel Trail, Rockaway Bayside Trail and the Wildlife Trail. These trails would connect paddlers to things such as restaurants, parks and bike trails among other recreational activities. The organization has outlined about five different access point in Queens that already exist but are looking to add some to complete the trail route they proposed. Existing ones consist of Rockaway Point Yacht Club, Riis Landing, Bayswater, Idlewild and Rockaway Jet Ski, part of Thai Rock. Some of the potential areas they are looking at to build access points, if the project were to go through, are at Beach 88th Street, Rockaway Community Park, Belle Harbor and Spring Creek at the southern tip of Howard Beach. Each of these access points, both existing and potential, would take some type of investment to build out by either upgrading the facility or building totally new infrastructure. There has been no monitory figure dedicated to what it would take to create the trails at this point. The RPA has given each access point a range of one to four dollar signs to give an estimate of how much money it would cost to upgrade or build out the area. With one symbol the RPA says building the infrastructure would cost thousands of dollars or could be work that may be done through volunteer programs. But where there are three or four dollar signs, costs could go up to the millions. The RPA said that some of the recent investments that were brought to the Jamaica Bay waterfront, including its water quality and park areas, have given visitors a renewed interest in exploring the land— which is why they believe investing in a water trail is vital to its continued growth. Though they have designed what they believe it should look like, the trail is not in the construction phase. They are still asking the National Parks Service (NPS) and the NYC Parks Department, two of the owners of most of the land around the gateway, for continued consideration of new dock sites, finding stakeholders and funding opportunities. The project would have to be taken over and completed by the NPS. There are still multiple ideas for the trails being played with, but the RPA says they want to start getting information to the public regarding the trails to see what they think of the idea. “The big thing here is that we would like to see what the community and potential users of the trail want to see,” said Freudenberg. “This was a vision we want to get to a reality and we will have continued conversations with the community and landowners regarding the project.” Greater Jamaica Development Corporation gets new president BY ANTHONY GIUDICE Knight, 50, has helped UMEZ create hundreds a.giudice@timesnewsweekly.com of businesses and thousands of jobs in its service @A_GiudiceReport area since 2003. She has served as vice president for Morgan Stanley in New York and in Tokyo. She serves The Greater Jamaica Development Corporation on the boards of several corporate and nonprofits (GJDC) announced on March 12 that it named Hope including the Carver Bank Community Development Knight, previously the chief operating officer of the Corporation, Grameen American and Morgan Stanley Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ), as its New Markets, and she is the chair of the board of new president. trustees of Marymount Manhattan College, where she “Hope has the background and experience to best earned her bachelor’s degree in business management. project the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation’s She also earned a master’s of business administration mission,” GJDC Board Chairman Peter Kulka said. degree from the University of Chicago. “She has proven herself extensively in her work at “I am excited at the prospect of joining the superb the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and she team at Greater Jamaica to build on the work they have is widely respected throughout circles dedicated to done to lead the restoration of Downtown Jamaica expanding economic development and opportunity in to its historic central role in the economic vitality of emerging urban communities.” Jamaica, Queens and beyond,” Knight said. “I have large shoes to fill following Carlisle Towery’s four decades of commitment to Jamaica. I am ready to roll up my sleeves and build on the progress to which he has contributed so much.” “I could not be more delighted to leave Greater Jamaica Development Corporation in the capable and dedicated hands of Hope Knight,” former GJDC President Carlisle Towery said. “Jamaica is poised to reach even greater heights in the future, and everything about Hope’s experience and commitment gives us reason to believe she will help take us there.” Knight said she looks forward to meeting with Jamaica’s elected officials, Borough President Melinda Katz, state Sen. Joseph Addabbo, as well as community leaders, heads of cultural organizations and officials from economic development and transportation agencies that are important to Jamaica’s progress.
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