FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MAY 9, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 21
Courtesy of Adrienne Adams
Schools win big in
Adams budget vote
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Schools, libraries and commuters were
the big winners in Councilwoman Adrienne
Adams’ fi rst-ever participatory budgeting
vote held in her southeast Queens district.
Adams represents the communities of
Jamaica, Rochdale Village, Richmond Hill
and South Ozone Park, where residents voted
for technology and infrastructure upgrades
at schools, libraries and installation of time
clocks at bus stops.
Th e Participatory Budgeting vote cycle
empowers local residents to vote for project
proposals developed by community stakeholders
that they would like to see funded,
according to Adams.
Voters were able to choose their top fi ve
selections out of 20 project proposals to
decide how to spend over $1 million of public
money.
“As the representative of diverse communities,
I have seen Participatory Budgeting
provide a path to civic engagement for people
who are oft en excluded from the decision
making processes,” said Adams. “Having
power to create proposals and put them on
a ballot for a public vote is a powerful tool
to bring neighbors together, to bring more
transparency to our public funding and to
make sure that decisions are in the interest of
a broad set of community members.”
Along with traditional paper ballots, residents
were also able to vote online. Th e sole
identifi cation requirement was proof of residency
in the district, removing traditional
obstacles to full civic participation such as
youth, income status, English-language profi -
ciency and citizenship status.
Th e winning projects with an allocated
amount of $1,353,000 below received the
highest number of votes for the 28th City
Council District were:
Technology upgrades for P.S. 48, P.S. 55, P.S.
161, M.S. 72 and M.S. 332 ($175,000)
Bathroom renovations at P.S. 40, P.S. 45, P.S.
55, and P.S. 80 ($400,000)
Water fountains with bottle refi ll at J.H.S.
226 and P.S. 55 ($48,000)
Five real-time rider information at bus
stops in District 28 ($200,000)
Technology upgrades for Baisley and
Rochdale libraries ($160,000)
Technology upgrades for Leff erts and South
Ozone Park Library ($170,000)
Renovation of student lounge at Richmond
Hill High School ($200,000)
Just 7 early voting sites planned for Queens in 2019
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
A Queens lawmaker wants the city’s
Board of Elections to go back to the
drawing board when it comes to early
voting sites in the borough.
At a press conference on May 3 at
LaGuardia Community College, state
Senator Michael Gianaris called on the
BOE to create more than seven early
poll sites for voters in Queens, which
has the second-highest population in
the state (by county) and the largest
geographic area in the city.
“Seven polling sites for more than
two million people is an aff ront to
democracy. Th e Board of Elections plan
deserves a recount,” Gianaris said. “We
passed this law to make it easier for
millions of New Yorkers to vote. Th e
Board of Elections needs to step up so
more New Yorkers will vote.”
Under the state’s new early-voting
law, Queens residents will be able to cast
their votes nine days before Election
Day this year. But the BOE plan submitted
to the state this week had just
the seven locations, and “the few sites
chosen are not even convenient for
many residents,” Gianaris wrote in a letter
to the Board of Elections.
He charged that BOE had “submitted
the minimum necessary for legal compliance,
in the process setting the stage
for failure of the early voting process by
only having one site for every 337,000
Queens residents.”
Th e preliminary list of locations chosen,
according to Gothamist/WNYC
are Rentar Plaza in Middle Village;
LaGuardia Community College in Long
Island City; York College in Jamaica;
Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens,
Resorts World Casino New York City
at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone
Park; the Al Oerter Recreation Center
in Flushing Meadows Corona Park ;and
the Rockaway YMCA at Arverne by
the Sea.
“Early voting should enable the most
people possible to cast ballots prior to
Election Day and that requires more
sites, in more neighborhoods that are
easily accessible to public transportation,”
Gianaris wrote.
City Councilman Costa
Constantinides took issue with the BOE
for placing a single polling site in western
Queens, at LaGuardia Community
College in Long Island City.
“It is shameful that the Board of
Elections has stymied the ability
to vote early in western Queens,”
Constantinides said. “We are on of the
densest parts of the second-most populous
section of New York City, yet our
borough will have a paltry seven sites.
Earlier voting is supposed to make our
American right easier, not harder.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio urged the BOE
to use $75 million dedicated in his
executive budget to open 100 early voting
sites across the city.
“We now have a real opportunity in
New York to strengthen our democracy
and drive up participation in our
elections,” de Blasio said. “”However,
to take advantage of this opportunity,
the Board of Elections must abandon
their age old practice of doing the
Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
bare minimum. Th ey must do right by
New Yorkers, and we’re giving them the
funding to do it.”
During a City Hall hearing on
April 30, the BOE’s executive director
Michael Ryan said they were facing
resistance from locations that did not
want to be used for early voting because
it consumed too much time. Each election
will now be an eleven day event for
early voting and a set-up day prior to
Election Day.
“Th e Board of Elections is doing the
bare minimum to implement early voting,
especially in Queens where there
are more voters assigned to each polling
site than any other borough,”Common
Cause New York Executive Director
Susan Lerner said. “Th is is not only
inexcusable, but likely a violation of
state law. We need between 50-100 voting
centers across the city to serve New
Yorkers in non-traditional locations,
close to transportation, borough-wide,
and including city and state facilities.
Both the city and the state have devoted
millions of dollars to make early voting
a success, it’s time for the BOE to
step up.”
Second K Bridge span set to open this Sept.: Cuomo
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
2@QNS
Th e Kosciuszko Bridge, or the K
Bridge as Governor Andrew Cuomo
calls it, will have its second cable-stayed
span open this September, bringing the
reconstruction project to a close well
ahead of schedule.
Cuomo conducted on May 6 a press
tour of the work site up more than 10
fl ights of stairs unveiling a nearly completed
roadway as well as cabling to
suspend the concrete and steel above
Newtown Creek.
“Th is replacement bridge was done in
a totally diff erent method than the state
had used before: it’s what is referred to
as design build construction,” Cuomo
said. “Th is bridge is four years ahead of
schedule from what the original time
estimate was if the government had
done the job. So just the initial change,
the design build saved us four years.”
Th ere will be fi ve Queens-bound
lanes and four Brooklyn-bound lanes
upon the second spans completion and
will include a pedestrian and bike path.
Making the bridge accessible to foot
traffi c and bikes was an opportunity for
the state to build green space on each
side allowing access to the waterfront.
Th e project totaled $873 million for
the state with over $100,000 incentive
for everyday the contractors push closer
to completion ahead of schedule.
Until the May 6 announcement, the
expected completion date had been
December. Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
link
link
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
