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for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com december 12, 2013 • The CourieR SUN 21 HALL OF SHAME Making Silent PHOTO VIA INSTAGRAM New Park Pizza was tagged with “worst service ever” on Friday, December 6. BY JOHANN HAMILTON WHAT DO YOU THINK OF BILL BRATTON People give Ray Kelly a hard time sometimes, but personally I’m going to miss him. Hopefully Bratton does a good job. Edwin Henry I can’t think of a single reason anyone would dislike Bill Bratton. He’s a tough, hard-working police officer with years of experience and he seems fair. Jennifer Holloway I think Bill Bratton focuses too much on things like petty crime when he should be trying harder to get rid of corruption inside the police I’m a fan of Bill Bratton. He has an old school, nononsense style that I really appreciate. Guy Park force. Kristen Patterson I really don’t like Ray Kelly, so I would welcome any change from him, honestly. I don’t remember much about Bratton, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. Lindsay Robins I really don’t like Ray Kelly, so I would welcome any change from him, honestly. I don’t remember much about Bratton, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. Lindsay Robins AS POLICE COMMISSIONER? oped street talk  I like Bill. I agree with him when it comes to stomping out small crimes as well as the big ones. Frederick Bishop I’ve been a supporter of Bill since he was the commissioner back in the 1990s, and I look forward to having him back. Priscilla Warren Skies a Reality BY CONGRE SSMEMBER JOSEPH CRO WLEY Anyone who lives here in Queens can tell you just how loud and disruptive the noise of airplanes can be. Millions of Americans throughout the country, including those who live in the s communities surrounding LaGuardia and JFK Airports are impacted by constant, thunderous engine noise all day long. The sound isn’t merely a nuisance – it disrupts sleep, distracts students in our community’s schools and drowns out the joys of daily life. The problem of excessive noise from airplanes flying over our communities has always been a hard nut to crack. Planes usually have a limited number of options for approaching and departing from runways. These flight paths can change based on many varying conditions in weather, winds and congestion. Especially in the crowded skies over our denselypopulated city, there are precious few places airplanes can fly where they won’t be heard by some community. But there’s one way to resolve this problem to the benefit of all our communities: make airplanes quieter. In 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued regulations requiring all new aircraft designs to meet Stage 4 noise standards, which is a considerably lower decibel level than those currently in use. While these new rules were a significant step toward improving the quality of life for those who live near airports, they did not go far enough. The FAA did nothing to make sure airlines would begin to phase out older, louder airplanes or retrofit them with quieter engines. Last week, I introduced legislation to fix that. My bill, the Silent Skies Act, will require airlines to begin stocking their fleets with newer, quieter aircraft. In order to introduce quieter planes into the market, the bill mandates that the FAA issue regulations by the end of 2015 forcing airlines to begin updating their fleets to meet Stage 4 noise standards. Fleets will have to be updated at a rate of 25 percent every five years, so that all commercial airplanes meet these quieter standards by no later than 2035. But, we can’t stop there. We can’t just phase out today’s noisy planes and call it quits. We must push the envelope and try to develop technologies that make airplanes even quieter. That’s why the Silent Skies Act will also create a fund to encourage research and development into these technologies. It will allow the FAA issue up to $10 million in grants for developing better ways to help meet or exceed Stage 4 noise standards. In return, companies that benefit from the program will be asked to pay the money back, using the profits they made on their new engines. When talking with my constituents about aircraft noise pollution in our communities, I always say our airports will never be perfect neighbors, but we can certainly make them better ones. The truth is our airports are only getting busier. New York will continue to be a destination for more and more people. And that’s a good thing for our local economy. But, that doesn’t mean our communities need to sacrifice their quality of life. The Silent Skies Act is just the kind of approach we can take to make life better not just for the residents of Queens, but also for so many other communities near airports around the country. Crowley represents New York’s 14th Congressional District, stretching from Pelham Bay to Elmhurst.  New Park Pizza tagged BY MAGGIE HAYES mhayes@queenscourier.com One angry customer took to tagging New Park Pizza as the “worst service ever.” The disgruntled patron tagged the line on the iconic pizzeria’s front windows for all of Cross Bay Boulevard to see, according to an Instagram picture posted the morning of Friday, December 6. The pizza joint has been a part of the Howard Beach community for over half a century and numerous customers file in and out each day. One customer said she has never had a problem with the service. An employee said the graffiti was washed away by the time he came into work before 11 a.m. New Park Pizza was the site of a fight that lead to the 1986 hate crime in which a black man, Michael Griffith, was killed.


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