‘Play-in’ protest over Jack. Hts. street
Community rails against city compromise with dealership over use of curb near park
Neighborhood children participate in the Jackson Heights Green Alliance’s “play-in.” Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
BY MAX PARROTT
A group of hundreds of
Jackson Heights residents,
their children and six local
officials gathered on May 11 to
protest the city’s compromise
on a plan to turn the entire
block 78th Street into a carfree
extension of Travers
Park for the benefit a local
car dealership.
During the rally, the
emphatic group of legislators
— including City Council
Speaker Corey Johnson and
Comptroller Scott Stringer
— joined Jackson Heights
Councilman Daniel Dromm
and Shekar Krishnan of
the Jackson Heights Green
Alliance, all of whom directed
their ire at city agencies they
claimed to be responsible
for capitulating to the
dealership’s demands.
“How we wound up with
this confusion is due to
administrative incompetence
on the part of Department
of Transportation, the
Department of Parks and the
Department of Buildings,”
Dromm told QNS.
Much of the block of 78th
Street between Northern
Boulevard and 34th Avenue
has already been transformed
into a green space extension
of Travers Park, with only a
200-foot section of 78th Street
south of Northern Boulevard
still open to vehicular traffic.
The city had originally
drafted a $13 million plan to
complete the transformation
of the entire block, with
the understanding that the
curbside entrance to the
dealership at the corner of
78th Street and Northern
Boulevard would not
be in use.
But before Howard Koeppel
took over the property at the
end of 2018, his dealership
renovated the building to
reopen a curb cut on 78th
Street to use as a car dock.
When contacted, the
Koeppel Auto Group declined
to comment. Instead, a
representative forwarded a
letter they recently sent to
the community which claims
the business made its plans
to reorient the dealership
around the side entrance
without knowing about the
city’s 78th Street project. It
suggests a design that would
allow them to keep a curb cut
entrance on 78th Street.
After the renovations,
Koeppel reached out to the
Parks Department to let
them know his plans clashed
with their original vision.
The agency then created a
plan that gave the dealership
access to the 78th Street
curb cut while keeping the
remainder of 78th Street as a
green space.
According to Dromm, the
city waited two months to
inform the councilman about
its decision.
“We here in Jackson
Heights have to fight to
protect ourselves and our
resources. And we will
do so, but I want to send a
message to Koeppel and the
city of New York: If the city
is truly serious about Vision
Zero, Mayor de Blasio, this is
your Vision Zero moment,”
said Krishnan, referring to
the ongoing city initiative
devoted to preventing traffic
deaths and injuries.
To prepare the event,
described by the Green
Alliance as a play-in for
neighborhood children,
police erected a blockade of
steel gates to separate the
protesters from a traffic lane
leading to Koeppel Mazda’s
controversial side entrance.
As Krishnan addressed
the crowd, a sparkling Mazda
sedan cautiously rolled down
the block and through the
dealership’s private gate,
and the crowd burst into a
roaring jeer.
When Stringer took the
podium, he focused on a recent
study his office released that
identified neighborhoods
with a disproportionately low
amount of park space. Jackson
Heights has four play areas
for every 10,000 children and
the fifth least amount of park
space in the city, he said.
“Emerging communities
— communities of color —
have less park options than
communities of great wealth.
And that has to change,”
Stringer said.
Johnson said that he had
talked to Mayor Bill de Blasio
about the situation, and his
office claimed the mayor was
looking into the issue.
“I let him know what our
expectations were that this
would get done,” Johnson
said. “He told me that he
would get back to Council
member Dromm and myself
in short order. But there is
only one correct answer:
Keep your commitment. Keep
your promises.”
Reach reporter Max
Parrott by email at mparrott@
schnepsmedia.com or by
phone at (718) 224-5863,
ext. 226.
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