28 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 10, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Bayside, Whitestone projects receive over $1M in city funding
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Northeast Queens will see a host of
capital improvements after another
record-setting round of participatory
budget voting by the community.
Th ree proposed community projects for
areas including Bayside and Whitestone
will become reality aft er winning a total of
$1,041,000 in funding, Councilman Paul
Vallone announced on May 1. Residents
cast over 8,000 votes in District 19 — the
most of any other Council District in the
borough.
Garnering the most votes was a project
to fund and install four NYPD security
cameras throughout the district in
an eff ort to enhance crime prevention.
A total $141,000 will be allocated to fund
the project aft er it received just over 2,000
votes.
“Th ank you to Councilman Paul
Vallone and the community for selecting
the NYPD security cameras in the
participatory budget vote,” said Jerry
Filippidis, president of the 109th Precinct
Community Council. “It is with great
police work and crime prevention tools
like the NYPD Security Cameras that help
the NYPD continue to lower crime rates
and keep our city safe.”
Jack Fried, president of the 111th
Precinct Community Council, said the
cameras are “a great asset to fi ghting and
deterring crime” in the area.
Two other projects on the ballot will
also receive funding:
A project at Bayside High School will
turn building storage areas into soundproofed
music performance rooms,
including storage for musical instruments.
($600,000; 1,954 votes)
J.H.S. 194 in Whitestone will see a gymnasium
renovation. Walls will be repaired,
basketball hoops will be replaced, fl oor
will see refi nishing and safety padding
will be added to the space. ($300,000;
1,906 votes)
Jonathan Hirata, assistant principal
of Bayside High School, said the music
rooms “will serve students for many years
to come.”
“J.H.S. 194 would like to thank
Councilman Vallone’s offi ce for the
opportunity to improve our school building
and to participate in the District
19 City Council Participatory Budget
Vote,” said Ann Lippert, parent coordinator.
“Th e gymnasium renovation will
be greatly appreciated by all the students,
and community-based organizations that
share our space.”
Voting took place online and at local
polling sites from April 7-15. Other
items on the ballot included technology
upgrades at Poppenhusen Library in
College Point, an engineering and robotics
lab at P.S. 94 in Little Neck and an
adult fi tness center at Little Bay Park.
Photo via Google Maps
Bayside High School will see one of three improvement projects
Too many excuses, not enough voters in New York: study
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
Doesn’t anybody in Queens and the
rest of New York state care about their
democracy?
The State Senate Democratic
Conference sought to answer that question
with a voter survey conducted earlier
this year. In releasing the study’s results
last week, the conference concluded that
voters who didn’t participate in the most
recent presidential election had plenty of
excuses not to do so.
According to state Senator Toby Ann
Stavisky, the survey polled registered voters
in New York state who did not participate
in the 2016 general election. Just 57
percent of eligible voters in the Empire
State cast a ballot in the pivotal election
— ranking New York 41st out of the 50
states in voter participation.
Nearly 28.5 percent of registered voters
who didn’t vote in the 2016 election
claimed that they had work or school
obligations that precluded them from
voting; Election Day is not a legal holiday,
and the polls are open from 6 a.m. to
9 p.m., giving voters just 15 hours of the
day to cast their ballot.
Even so, federal law allows workers to
take time from their day to vote in an
election without being docked by their
employer.
Another 13.8 percent said they couldn’t
vote due to illness or disability, while 6.12
percent said they were tied up caring for
their child or a loved one. Absentee voting
may have given these voters the ability
to participate in the election ahead of
time, but the survey found that just 38
percent of voters have cast an absentee
ballot in one election or another.
Moreover, of those who didn’t vote in
the 2016 general election, 12.39 percent
said they couldn’t get an absentee ballot.
Approximately 17.8 percent of those
surveyed said they didn’t know the date
of the election (it was Nov. 8), while 16.2
percent simply forgot to vote. Another
4.23 percent said they didn’t know the
location of their polling place; an equal
number of surveyed voters said they just
didn’t have the time to vote for their next
president and other representatives.
If that wasn’t bad enough, turnout
in the 2017 municipal election was
even worse. A New York City Board of
Elections report found that just 22.3 percent
of Queens’ 1,211,203 registered voters
cast a vote in the election.
Stavisky said the results of the survey,
and the lack of voter participation in general,
are unacceptable — but they are also
signs that it’s time for substantial change
in the way New York holds elections.
“New York is a pillar of progressive
values and beliefs and should not
rank at the bottom of voter participation,”
Stavisky said. “We need to lead
the nation in encouraging citizens to be
actively engaged in the democratic process.
Empowering New Yorkers to have
a more active role in their state government
should not be a partisan or controversial
issue.”
Stavisky touted the Senate Democratic
Conference’s voting reform legislative
package, which would allow for early voting
in primary, special and general elections;
permit voters to obtain absentee
ballots in advance without declaring a
specifi c reason; automatically registering
voters who interact with state or local
agencies; creating a more modern voter
registration system to reduce inaccuracies
and disenfranchisement; pre-registering
16- and 17-year-olds to vote; and
enabling voters to more easily and swift ly
change their party affi liation.
Another bill in the package would consolidate
the federal and state primaries
to be held on one date. Other legislation
would expand language options for
ballots and provide voters with more
advanced notice of when elections take
place.
Th ere is still time for you to register to
vote if you have not already done so. Visit
vote.nyc.ny.us to fi nd out.
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