14 The Courier sun • JUNE 26, 2014 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com De Blasio signs package of Vision Zero bills at fatal Queens accident site BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] @aaltamirano28 A Woodside intersection where a fatal accident involving an 8-year-old student occurred last December became the site where a package of traffic safety bills were signed in hopes of a brighter and safer future. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was joined by other elected and city officials as well as family members of victims of traffic fatalities, signed 11 bills supporting the city’s Vision Zero initiative on June 23 at P.S. 152, less than a block from where third-grader Noshat Nahian was fatally struck by a tractor trailer in December. “We’ve been taking aggressive action from that day forward, because we understand these collisions injure almost 4,000 New Yorkers a year, and kill over 250 New Yorkers in recent years,” de Blasio said. “And that’s been the minimum. And that’s been an unacceptable reality each year.” Before signing the bills, de Blasio paid a visit to the completed Department of Transportation (DOT) project at Northern Boulevard and 61st Street, which includes two pedestrian islands, enhanced crosswalks and parking regulations. Later this year the busy roadway, between 62nd and 102nd streets, will become one of the first Arterial Slow Zones, lowering the speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph. The package of bills includes requiring the DOT to study left turns and come up with a report every five years; to respond to and address major traffic signal issues within 24 hours; to produce a report on work zone safety guidelines on bridges; to install seven Neighborhood Slow Zones this year and in 2015; and to lower speeds to 15 to 20 mph near schools. The bills also require the agency to study major roadways and produce a report every five years. The bills also refer to “Cooper’s Law,” named after 9-year-old Cooper Stock who was fatally struck in Manhattan, which requires the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) to suspend drivers involved in a crash where a person is critically injured or killed and where a driver receives a summons for any traffic-related violation. The package also included the establishment of penalties for vehicles that fail to yield to pedestrians and bicyclists, and requiring the TLC to review crashes with critical injuries or death. “The passage of today’s bills will bring us closer to making Vision Zero a reality in every neighborhood in the City of New York,” said Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer. “These laws will also help reduce reckless driving and speeding through our local neighborhoods. Traffic safety is an issue our city takes seriously. Through this legislation, we will make our streets safer for all pedestrians, motorists and cyclists alike.” The bills also address prohibiting stunt behaviors on motorcycles. “We have promised the people of this city that we will use every tool we have to make streets safer,” de Blasio said. “Today is another step on our path to fulfilling that promise, and sparing more families the pain of losing a son, a daughter or a parent in a senseless tragedy.” ACTRESS JODI LONG TALKS QUEENS ROOTS, SITCOM SUCCESS By Cristabele Tumola [email protected]/@CristabelleT After spending years gracing the Broadway stage, the small screen and the silver screen, actress Jodi Long’s days growing up in Woodside could seem like a distant memory. But for her, those experiences and the time spent with her performer parents have helped shape her work and life today. Long is currently starring in the TBS comedy series “Sullivan & Son,” which kicked off its third season on Tuesday, June 24. The show centers around a bar in a middleclass Pittsburgh neighborhood owned by Long’s character (“Ok Cha”), her husband (played by Dan Lauria) and their son “Steve” (played by Steve Byrne). Long plays a Korean immigrant mother who, with funny oneliners, doles out tough love and isn’t afraid to tell everyone what they are doing wrong. Though she is now playing a mother on TV, Long started acting as a child. Born in Manhattan, she moved to Queens as a baby, with her parents, a Chinese-Aussie tap dancer father and Japanese-American showgirl mother. The two became a popular husband-and-wife nightclub act “Larry and Trudie” in the 1940s and 1950s, and were featured on the Ed Sullivan Show. Long, with director Christine Choy, produced “Long Story Short,” which accounts her personal family story. The film won the Asian Pacific Film Festival’s Audience Award for Best Documentary. Along with traveling with her vaudevillian parents as a child, Long landed her first gig in the Broadway play “Nowhere to Go But Up” when she was 7 years old. “When you are a kid it’s sort of fun,” Long said of the experience and getting to play backstage among the rafters. But she took a break from acting because her mother said she “needed to be in school.” Remembering her days attending elementary and middle school in her local neighborhood, Long recalls a Queens that is different than it is today. “It was diverse in a different way,” she said, noting she was one of only a couple of Asian children in Woodside at the time. Long found more diversity in high school, when she attended the High School of the Performing Arts in Manhattan, where “it was about your talent, not the color of your skin,” she said. “In one way acting, the art kind of staged me. It is kind of about the humanity,” Long added. Long continued studying acting at SUNY Purchase College, and spent the next several decades working her way through roles, including on Broadway, and eventually coming to Hollywood landing parts in television shows and movies, such as “The Cosby Show,” “Sex and the City,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Franklin & Bash,” “The Hot Chick” and “Beginners.” One of her latest projects is the indie movie “A Picture of You,” which premiered in New York on June 20. The dramatic film centers on estranged siblings who travel from New York City to rural Pennsylvania to pack up the home of their recently deceased mother, played by Long. “For me I love acting,” Long said. “Whether it’s comedy, sitcom, dramedy.” As for her current role in “Sullivan & Son,” Long said she sees some differences and similarities in Ok Cha and herself. “I think I have a little more tact than the character,” she said. “I think she is a strong woman. I’m a strong woman. You need that to survive show business.” Photo by Peter Svenson Queens native actress Jodi Long’s third season of the TBS comedy series “Sullivan & Son” premiered on June 24.
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