20 THE QUEENS COURIER • OCTOBER 10, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Long-awaited traffi c light comes to Woodside intersection
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Aft er 35 years of waiting, the residents
of the Boulevard Gardens community in
Woodside will have a traffi c light installed
at Hobart Street and 30th Avenue by the
end of the year.
Councilman Costa Constantinides
understood and heard residents concerns
about this particularly tricky intersection
long before he took offi ce in 2014
and he joined with Assemblyman Brian
Barnwell and the Queens offi ce of the
Department of Transportation on several
walkthroughs of the area.
“When I took offi ce, our Boulevard
Gardens neighbors made two simple
requests: remove the trailers from P.S.
171 and get us a traffi c light at Hobart
and 30th Avenue. Today, I am proud
to say that thanks to our partnership,
we have delivered on both promises,”
Constantinides said. “Crossing the street
shouldn’t be a life-or-death situation,
yet oft entimes it’s sadly the case at this
intersection. Th anks to the tireless advocacy
from Assembly member Barnwell
and the Boulevard Gardens community
and the partnership of Queens DOT
Commissioner Nicole Garcia, we’re creating
a safer Woodside for all those who
live here.”
Barnwell grew up at the Boulevard
Gardens complex and still calls it home.
He has a keen understanding of the dangers
at the intersection that has a blinking
red light and all-way stop signs.
“For decades Hobart and 30th Avenue,
and the area surrounding such, has been
dangerous. Th rough working with neighbors,
community leaders, and my colleagues
in government, we have secured a
big victory that will make the area safe for
all,” Barnwell said. “We have secured various
traffi c & pedestrian improvements, an
actual traffi c light, and 20 to 25 new parking
spots. It’s a win for all, and I’m very
happy to have helped secure this community.”
Many community members complained
that drivers disregard the stop
signs and speed through the intersection,
which serves as a junction between
Woodside and Astoria. It is heavily traffi
cked by by children who attend P.S. 151,
located just a block from the intersection.
Th e school’s principal Samantha Maisonet
has been among the community stakeholders
concerned about student’s safety.
“Th e Strippoli Triangle and Hobart
Street safety enhancements, which
includes enhanced crossings, curb extensions
and pedestrian ramps, as well as a
new traffi c signal at Hobart Street and
30th Avenue will make it safer for everyone
to walk from P.S. 151, the Boulevard
Gardens Housing Cooperative and local
businesses,” Garcia said.
DOT made improvements at the intersection,
but also the entire area from
Hobart to 54th Streets as well as from 30th
to 31st avenues. Th e resulting renovation,
which wrapped up earlier this year, has
created a pedestrian-friendlier crossings
between Boulevard Gardens and the elementary
school.
“Kudos to Council member
Constantinides and Assembly member
Barnwell for solving what was a dangerous
crossing here in Woodside,”
Community Board 1 Chairwoman Marie
Torniali said. “Th ey heard the concerns
of this community, worked tirelessly with
Queens Commissioner Garcia, and many
walkthroughs later, a traffi c light (will
be) installed which will make all the difference
in the world for the safety of all
pedestrians who traverse there.”
Courtesy of Constantinides’ offi ce
City Councilman Costa Constantinides (c.) and Assemblyman Brian Barnwell announce a traffi c light
will be installed at a dangerous intersection at the Boulevard Gardens complex in Woodside.
Queens councilman centers fi rst borough
president policy announcement on diversity
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
For Councilman Costa Constantinides’
fi rst press conference since declaring
his candidacy for borough president, he
chose to lay out his vision of how to use
the offi ce to engage immigrant communities
from around the borough.
Kabab King loomed over the councilman
in Jackson Heights’ Diversity Plaza
on Friday morning as he gathered alongside
Bangladeshi, Nepali and Peruvian
community leaders to outline his plan.
Constantinides’ proposal includes a
fi ve-point plan that would expand foreign
language access, creates satellite offi ces,
fund community organizations, focus on
environmental justice and prioritize census
outreach to ensure every resident is
counted.
“We have a federal government that
seeks to attack out immigrant community
that seeks to divide us, that seeks
to ban our Muslim brothers and sisters
from our nation, that seeks to attack our
Latino community on a local basis,” said
Constantinides. “We here in Queens say
no. We will not allow our federal government
to divide us.”
His plan imagined how to use city
resources to resist the policies of President
Donald Trump that could have the eff ect
of disenfranchising immigrant communities.
Among Queens’ 2.4 million residents,
more than 190 languages are spoken. It
also has the highest number of non-English
speakers in the fi ve boroughs, with
26 percent of its residents deemed by
the census to have limited English profi -
ciency. Queens is also home to 180,000
undocumented residents according to the
mayor’s offi ce.
Constantinides said that addressing
barriers in language is necessary as a
means of both increasing census participation
and protecting undocumented
immigrants from ICE raids.
With a roughly $5 million operating
budget, he believes the borough president’s
offi ce can expand both printed and
digital materials in foreign languages to
better inform communities of their rights
as immigrants, policy changes and the
public services available to them.
Another idea was to create satellite locations
for the borough president’s offi ce
outside Borough Hall in Kew Gardens
that would make it easier for them to
meet with representatives of the offi ce.
Asked where these spaces would be located,
Constantinides said he wants to place
brick and mortar offi ces in western Queens
in Jackson Heights or Astoria; southeast
Queens in Jamaica or the Rockaways; and
northeast Queens in Bayside.
He added that he would create a position
called a director of diversity outreach
to oversee these offi ces, and went on to say
that these auxiliary offi ces could also be in
libraries or in local elected offi cials offi ces.
In addition, he said that the Queens borough
president could do more to educate
community-based organization leaders to
get funding from the city’s budget process.
“Th ere’s so much funding available.
Whether it’s through the City Council,
the borough president, the mayor, we
should be doing better outreach to make
sure that it’s not always the same organizations
applying and getting funding,”
Constantinides said.
Max Parrott/QNS
Councilman Costa Constantinides
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