FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 28, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Meng plan for
‘menstrual equality’
Congresswoman Grace Meng on Tuesday
introduced the Menstrual Equity for All Act, the
fi rst comprehensive bill to address the diff erent
challenges that women and girls face in aff ording
and accessing menstrual hygiene products.
According to Meng, menstruation hygiene
items, such as pads, tampons, cups and liners,
are necessary purchases for the vast majority of
women.
“Popular culture would have you believe these
products are ubiquitous and cheap, but many
women face diffi culty when it comes to aff ording
and accessing them,” said Meng. “We live
in the richest nation and yet millions of women
and girls suff er from issues of access and aff ordability.
We want women to succeed and advancing
menstrual equity is critical to reach this
goal.”
It’s estimated that up to 86 percent of women
use tampons, up to 72 percent use pads, and 75
percent use pantyliners. Most premenopausal
women use menstrual hygiene products on a
monthly basis and it is estimated that a woman
will use up to 16,000 tampons in her lifetime.
Regardless of income, women spend a signifi -
cant amount of money on purchasing menstruation
hygiene products each year.
Th e Menstrual Equity for All Act would,
among other actions, give states the option to
use federal grant funds to provide free menstrual
products in schools; allow homeless service
providers to also use federal grant money
toward menstrual hygiene products; require
Medicaid to cover menstrual hygiene product
costs for recipients; and direct large employers
(with 100 or more workers) to provide free
menstrual hygiene products for their employees
in the workplace.
Carlotta Mohamed
Camera crackdown
on local bus lanes
Th e Metropolitan Transportation Authority
has awarded a $6.2 million contract to a company
that will launch camera enforcement of
bus lanes to ticket drivers who they say slow bus
lanes to a crawl and add to the declining ridership
experienced by the agency in recent years.
Th e crackdown on drivers is part of the New
York City Transit President Andy Byford’s Fast
Forward plan to not only reinvigorate subway
infrastructure but make buses a reliable option
for commuters who may have lost faith over the
infamously slow pace.
Th e buses themselves will be equipped with
the technology to capture violations in real-time,
the MTA said, and fi ts Mayor Bill de Blasio’s initiative
to speed up buses by 25 percent in two
years.
Starting in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the MTA
will be piloting the program on 123 vehicles servicing
Select Bus Service routes in 2019 and
2020. Th e technology will collect enough data
to ensure that drivers making permitted turns
from bus lanes are not ticketed, the MTA said.
“We are excited that the MTA is undertaking
this critical eff ort to help keep bus lanes clear,”
city DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said.
“Earlier this year, Mayor de Blasio announced
a plan to speed buses by 25 percent over the
next two years, and automated enforcement –
where we hope to see every bus on every route
equipped — will be one more step to reach that
ambitious goal.”
Mark Hallum
Photo courtesy of the Holliswood Civic Association
Holliswood groups opposes plans for new development at fmr. hospital
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Some Holliswood residents are
denouncing plans of a new development
proposal to construct 20 homes
on the former site of Holliswood
Hospital.
When Steven Cheung, the owner
and real estate developer of the site,
located at 87-37 Palermo St., purchased
the property in July 2015 for
$10.8 million through a mortgage
foreclosure, the Holliswood Civic
Association raised concerns about
land use and overdevelopment in the
neighborhood.
In a statement presented to
the Community Board 8 Zoning
Committee at a public hearing held on
March 11, Linda Valentino, president
of the Holliswood Civic Association,
said they’ve met with Cheung and
his architect, Michael Kang, at several
meetings held with elected offi cials.
“We made it clear at these meetings
that the Civic Association did not
oppose the development of this property
by the construction of one-family
residences compliant with R-1-2 zoning,”
said Valentino. “Our position is
not one where a neighborhood objects
to a builder coming in and developing
property that the neighborhood had
always viewed as an unimproved area.”
However, Valentino said, during a
meeting in May 2017 held with three
elected offi cials and the developer,
their initial concern was raised that
the square footage of the property
would not permit the construction of
20 new residential premises that met
the requirement of R1-2 zoning.
According to Valentino, the civic
association, along with land use expert
Paul Graziano, presented an analysis
demonstrating that for the construction
of 20 homes to be consistent
with r1-2 zoning, the existing hospital
building would have to be demolished
— which they have no objections
to, she said.
“If the hospital building is demolished
and the project redeveloped,
the developer would have no need for
waivers, variances of zoning changes,”
said Graziano.
Additionally, Cheung took part
of the square footage from Lot 52
(the hospital building) to support his
attempt to construct the homes, said
Valentino.
“If he takes the hospital down, we
have no problem, he’ll have plenty of
land to do what he needs to do,” said
Valentino. “He’s also advertising in
China that he’s building 20 homes and
a high-rise with a sports complex and
library. He can’t do that.”
According to Valentino, at the
March 13 Community Board 8 meeting,
Cheung fi led a request by his
lawyer, Sheldon Lobel, for a waiver
of certain provisions of the General
City Law Sections 35 and 36 to permit
development of six two-story, single
family detached residences.
Two of the houses are partially within
the bed of mapped but un-built
portion of Clover Place, which runs
through the premises and four of
which do not, but will be accessed by
a 30-foot-wide access driveway connecting
Palermo Street to Clover Hill
Road, said Valentino.
When the board voted unanimously
to reject the developer’s request, concerns
were raised about who would
bear the responsibility for the maintenance
of the driveway.
“When asked by members of the
committee as to the plans for the hospital
building, the developer’s architect
responded by saying that no decision
had been made as to its future use,”
said Valentino. “He was also asked
how much they planned as a selling
price for the homes. He said they
hadn’t decided. Yet in the Chinese
media, it states very clearly that they
plan to sell them for $2,180,000.
Councilman Barry Grodenchik,
who has worked with Holliswood
since the beginning of the project in
2015, said the development has been a
pressing matter in the neighborhood.
“Th e hospital building really doesn’t
conform with the zoning. It was a left -
over kind of thing,” said Grodenchik.
“We asked for many things. Promises
were made and they were really never
completed. We have people living
there, it’s a residential neighborhood
and people are vandalizing the building
because it’s not sealed up and
those are just some of the concerns.
We still don’t know what they want to
do with the building itself.”
According to the association, a
review of the Department of Finance
real estate tax payments for block
10509 lot 52 (the Hospital site), shows
that the current tax balance owed as
of March 22, 2019, is $1,065,490.88.
When the property was subdivided
originally by the establishment of tentative
tax lots, the developer was not
current in his real estate tax payment.
“Th e Holliswood Civic Association
represents homeowners who strive to
remain current in their real estate tax
payments for their homes; we don’t
understand how the developer is
allowed to proceed with the project,”
the association said in a statement.
Th e group has released a petition
against the proposal for the site of the
former rehabilitation center for individuals
dealing with substance abuse.
“Any hardship the developer is
claiming is self-created and due to a
fl awed design,” said Marc Bresky, the
Holliswood Civic Association lawyer.
“Th is is not a reasonable development.
It is just a case of squeezing in houses
to make more money.”
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