FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com MARCH 24, 2016 • THE COURIER SUN 23 oped QUEENS SET UP TO BE FORGOTTEN IN THE NEXT BIG BLIZZARD BY COUNCILMAN RORY LANCMAN Queens residents watching the City Council’s recent Sanitation Department budget hearing saw an administration living in an alternate reality. As Sanitation C o m m i s s i o n e r Kathryn Garcia testifi ed, she spoke about trash removal, about electronics recycling and various other concerns. Yet she failed to acknowledge her agency’s complete failure to plow the streets of many Queens neighborhoods during the January blizzard, including several in my district. After decades of Queens being neglected, many of us hoped that the city had learned its lesson and would fi nally present a budget that would make sure Queens streets are cleared after a snowstorm. Instead, Commissioner Garcia said she was “satisfi ed with the performance” and stated that the response was “pretty impressive.” This completely ignores the reality that Queens residents experienced. In my district, as reported in this paper, dozens of streets went unplowed. The commissioner said that “Queens was very challenging” because of its narrow streets. Were these narrow streets new? Substantial problems with PlowNYC, the city’s snow plow tracker app, were also completely glossed over by the commissioner. The app showed streets as being plowed that were clearly untouched. Commissioner Garcia blamed this on problems with GPS in canyon areas (where skyscrapers can throw off GPS). We don’t have skyscrapers in eastern Queens. Technology may have shortcomings, but we can’t fi x them if the problem isn’t even acknowledged. Going into the hearing, I had hoped to hear a new approach from this administration on how Queens was, fi nally, going to get the city’s attention after blizzards. Instead, I’m forced to report that I have no confi dence that my district is going to see cleared streets the next time it snows. The Sanitation Department, and Commissioner Garcia, failed to even accept that there was a problem and clearly saw no reason to improve their abysmal performance. This is disappointing, but unfortunately not surprising. Again and again, our neighborhoods are forgotten after snowstorms, a reality that won’t be changing under this sanitation commissioner. Councilman Rory I. Lancman represents the 24th District in the City Council. FOR MORE NEWS VISIT QNS.COM A LOOK BACK News broke this week that the MTA plans to letters & comments WHY RENOVATE A LIBRARY WHEN YOU CAN BUILD A NEW ONE? The Little Neck - Douglaston Library will soon be undergoing facility upgrade renovations. Long term, there are plans for a new library. Why waste funds on renovations when there are two available vacant sites just down the block? Three years later there are still no tenants at the old Scobee’s Grill site. The new building is still without a tenant. The same is true for the old Staples next door, which has been vacant for two years. Both sites have ample off-street parking, which the current library lacks. It would be far easier to move to either location than construct a new library from scratch. Diogenes is searching for a brave elected offi cial to come forward and allocate funding in the upcoming July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017 budget to fi nance this investment. Larry Penner, Great Neck UNLICENSED MASSAGE THERAPY IS CHEAP — AND DANGEROUS I am a licensed massage therapist and I spent the money, passed the tests, and jumped through every hoop NYS held so I could legitimately practice something I’m passionate about. Why not let anyone practice medicine because they know what say they know what they’re doing and can tell when someone has a cold? How about getting rid of licenses to practice law because the person says they can read and write a contract? Or, let’s get rid of licenses to drive because I know how to put a car in gear and go down the road? You think because someone knows how to give a massage, they understand all the repercussions of giving someone a massage that shouldn’t have one? Do you think if you get hurt from someone who hasn’t studied to work on you, you have any course of action to address your injuries? Cheaper isn’t better, it’s just cheaper and it’s not legal. If it’s that important to your health to get a massage, spend the money and go to someone who’s licensed. QNS user Licensed close down part of the Myrtle Avenue Line between Middle Village and Bushwick for many months in 2017 for necessary improvements. We thought this would be a good time to show you a picture of the elevated line as it appeared while it was under construction more than 100 years ago. This 1914 picture shows the metal girders above Forest Avenue looking eastbound near Putnam Avenue in Ridgewood. Note that the girders are absent of any railroad ties or tracks. The Myrtle Avenue Line would open a few years later; today, it connects riders to midtown Manhattan via the M train. We want your historic photos of Queens! Share them on our Facebook and Twitter pages, email them to [email protected], or write to The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you. WHAT’S THE POINT OF URGENT CARE THAT ISN’T URGENT? The point of having urgent care centers is to relieve the overcrowding of hospitals when it is not an emergency. I went to an urgent care with my daughter and was told to go to the hospital for a CT scan. I waited and for her to be seen 11 hours at LIJ. All this could have been avoided if the urgent care doctor could have called the hospital and ordered her a CT scan. We would have been in and out in far less time. This is a great concern as to how our hospitals are running. Medical insurance is a disaster; not only is the coverage more expensive, the out of pocket is very high. Some insurance companies did away with a copay — now you pay a percentage. We are not getting the service we deserve. I do hope someone reading this will do something about our medical care system and hospitals. We are going down the wrong path. Maria Concolino, Woodhaven EARLY DETECTION IS BEST MEDICINE TO FIGHT CANCER I would like to remind everyone that March is colorectal cancer awareness month. Anyone over 50 should have a life-saving colonoscopy. Thousands have died of this insidious disease and 49,190 are expected to die in 2016. This is reported as the third leading cause of death. Yet 90 percent of colorectal cancers are curable when caught early. I myself was tested at age 50 when blood was discovered and a non-cancerous polyps were found and removed. But if I had not been screened, it could have develop into colon cancer. I am now 66 years old and have been tested every fi ve years. I am due to be screened in April and will not fail to do so since I just recovered from prostate cancer last year. Now I have known people who have died from this disease including a young man who died at age 55 and had two children. He and his family suffered much. This is a deadly disease when not screened for early detection. I therefore urge all people who are over age 50, both men and women, to get screened for colorectal cancer. Frederick R. Bedell Jr., Glen Oaks Village
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