4 The Courier sun • OCTOBER 2, 2014 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com TRUCKS PLAGUE GRAND AVENUE, RUINING QUALITY OF LIFE, LOCALS SAY BY SALVATORE LICATA [email protected]/@Sal_Licata1 There are still a truckload of problems in Maspeth. Grand Avenue, a main artery that runs through Maspeth connecting Brooklyn to Queens, is used daily by many trucks and tractor-trailers as a thoroughfare between the boroughs. The problem is the decades-old practice is illegal for most trucks, which continue to traverse the roadway despite an alternate truck route established by the Department of Transportation (DOT). Trucks hurtling down Grand Avenue are hurting businesses and the quality of life in the neighborhood, said Anthony Nunziato, a resident of Maspeth and the owner of a Grand Avenue business. “These trucks coming through cause numerous amounts of problems for us,” Nunziato said. “People are afraid to cross the street, traffic is constantly backed up, there is unnecessary noise and truck fumes are all over. It’s a real quality-of-life problem.” Back in 2007, the DOT, along with Community Board 5, devised an alternate truck route named the Maspeth Bypass to alleviate this problem. The route, implemented in 2011, gives trucks and tractor-trailers a Brooklyn-Queens route that avoids Grand Avenue Trucks illegally use Grand Avenue, in Maspeth, making for quality of life issues, according to area residents. except for local deliveries. Nunziato, who has owned Enchanted Florist on Grand Avenue for more than 28 years, said the restrictions there, according to state law, roll down the avenue daily in apparent violation of state law, Nunziato said. When asked about the enforcement of the illegal trucks on Grand Avenue, the DOT referred the question to the NYPD. The 104th Precinct said they conduct enforcement with the state Department of Transportation, which will, after a request, set up a temporary weighing station to check for illegal trucks. 1-800-382-HOME(4663) are rarely enforced, which is why the trucks are still an outstanding issue. “All we want is enforcement,” he said. “The alternate route was put in for a reason. There has to be something done.” Moreover, 53-foot-long tractor-trailers, which must follow a strict traffic pattern when traveling in the city and may not make any pick-ups or deliveries when for Housing www.sonyma.org THE COURIER/ Photo by Salvatore Licata The NYPD’s official press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Nunziato fears that as the trucks continue to rumble down the avenue, he will start to lose business. “I have customers telling me all the time that it’s too dangerous to come down Grand or that there’s always too much traffic,” Nunziato said. “The bad part about it is that we actually devised another path for the trucks to use and it is just being ignored.” Street name mishaps in Hamilton Beach cause serious problems for residents BY SALVATORE LICATA [email protected]/@Sal_Licata1 Hamilton Beach — where the streets have two names. While it sounds like a U2 spoof, the dually-named streets make it difficult for people to find addresses but more importantly, cause serious problems for firstresponders heading toward emergency scenes. Twice this year, an ambulance responding to a Hamilton Beach resident with diabetes was delayed because the dispatchers failed to recognize her street, Burlingame Court, a local leader alleged. Only the street’s other name, 163rd Road, rang any bells. “It’s unbelievable that in this day and age we have this problem,” said Roger Gendron, president of the Hamilton Beach Civic Association. “It is something that could lead to a really serious issue down the line.” Hamilton Beach has historically been off the city numerical mapping grid, and the streets all originally had names instead of numbers. In 2007, the city decided to make it part of the grid, following street numbers and avenues from Old Howard Beach, just to the west. City officials changed some of the street names to numbers but one year later decided to de-map the proposed grid and keep the original names along with the new numbered street names. The names versus numbers issue has arisen before. In 2007, a fire broke out on one of the newly numbered Hamilton Beach streets, but fire trucks responded instead to the Old Hamilton Beach side of Hawtree Creek and the house burnt down, Gendron said. After that, the civic association requested that the streets revert to their original names. But officials instead combined the old and new, leaving many streets with dual names, such as 163rd Drive and James Court or 163rd Road and Burlingame Court. Councilman Eric Ulrich said he has been working with the 106th Precinct to figure out whether the recent screw-ups were human error or a system problem. As the precinct investigated the 911 mapping system, they found that both Burlingame Court and 163rd Road showed up. Officials came to the conclusion that it was most likely an issue with the dispatchers and ambulance drivers not being familiar with the neighborhood, according to a representative from Ulrich’s office. But Gendron is afraid next time may be too late. “Thankfully they got there in time,” Gendron said. “But something has to be done.”
SC10022014
To see the actual publication please follow the link above