4 THE QUEENS COURIER • NOVEMBER 28, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Reports of possible active shooter
at Bayside High School unfounded
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
edavenport@qns.com
@QNS
Bayside High School went into a brief
lockdown last week after a photo circulated
on social media of a person
with what appeared to be a gun on the
school’s campus.
A report from the Citizen app indicated
that at around 12:40 p.m. on
Nov. 21, a person with a gun was
reported at the school, located at 32-24
Corporal Kennedy St. A photo from
Snapchat indicating a person holding
what appeared to be a gun with the
geo-location set at Bayside High School
was shown to a teacher by a student.
The NYPD confirmed on Twitter that
the report of a possible active shooter
was unfounded and the lockdown
has been lifted. Capt. John Hall of the
111th Precinct said the lockdown was
lifted shortly after 1 p.m. and that several
parents arrived to pick up students
from the school early. However,
a heavier police presence stayed at the
school for the rest of the day.
Hall said that the photo that circulated
on social media showed a fake gun
with a rubberized tip that was used in a
physics class.
“Safety always comes first, and
Bayside High School was placed on a
brief lockdown while the NYPD investigated
a potential threat that was determined
to be unfounded. All students
and staff are safe, and there was no gun
in the building,” said Miranda Barbot,
a spokesperson for the Department of
Education.
Additional reporting by Jenna Bagcal.
De Blasio inks bill mandating plan for street safety improvements
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Mayor Bill de Blasio signed off on a law
last week that sets a decade of road safety
improvements into motion, cementing
the legacy of the Vision Zero program.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson
was the prime sponsor of the legislation,
which requires the city’s Department of
Transportation to implement a master
plan for street design every fi ve years,
and install bus and protected bike lanes
throughout the fi ve boroughs.
“Th is law helps us make alternative
transportation options more viable, which
is necessary in our fi ght against climate
change,” Johnson said. “Today would not
have been possible without the hard work
of transportation and street safety advocates,
including families who lost love
ones on our dangerous streets. Th eir persistence
and passion led to a plan that will
ultimately make New York City a more
enjoyable place to live, work and play.
New Yorkers for generations to come will
be safer because of them.”
Contained in the law are specifi c priority
areas for protected bike lanes, accessible
pedestrian signals, transit signal priority
and stop upgrades for buses, and new
pedestrian public space. Th e DOT would
be mandated to install 50 miles of bus
lanes and 30 miles of protected bike lanes
every year.
Over 1 million square feet of pedestrian
space would be built in the plan’s fi rst
two years, according to the mayor’s offi ce.
“No other American city has ever
changed its streets at the pace that DOT
has undertaken in the Vision Zero era,”
DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg
said. “Th e Master Plan sets key benchmarks,
but DOT’s work has already
begun: prior to draft ing the fi rst plan and
as part of Green Wave and Better Buses
eff orts, we will be busy getting ourselves
ready for a dramatic surge in our work.”
Th e bill came with support from other
elected offi cials such as Councilman
Antonio Reynoso and Councilman
Ydanis Rodriguez, who serves as chair of
the Transportation Committee.
“For too long, our city has taken a piecemeal
approach to street safety — making
individual improvements on a case
by case basis,” Reynoso said. “Speaker
Johnson’s legislation is a break from the
past, and will fi nally off er a fi rst of its kind
comprehensive plan for how to make
our city’s streets safer for pedestrian and
cyclists while improving traffi c fl ow for
our city’s buses.”
Danny Pearlstein, Policy Director at
Riders Alliance, also welcomed the bill
being signed into law for the benefi t it will
have on bus riders, primarily low-income
commuters.
“City bus riders are overwhelmingly
low-income New Yorkers of color. By putting
bus riders fi rst on busy city streets,
the Streets Master Plan is a powerful force
for equity in New York City,” Pearlstein
said. “Th anks to the great work of our
friends at Transportation Alternatives,
Speaker Johnson and Mayor de Blasio,
the most aff ordable way to get around
New York will now become a much more
eff ective transportation solution as well.”
De Blasio’s signature on the legislation
puts the law into eff ect immediately with
the deadline for the fi rst master plan from
DOT set for Dec. 1, 2021.
Photo by Mark Hallum
Photo: Jenna Bagcal/QNS
A police vehicle is parked outside of Bayside High School on Nov. 21.
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