South East Queens: Park Leaderless

No new parks leader coming to SE Queens

Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski told Community Board 13 Monday that the agency's budget is too tight to hire a parks administrator for southeast Queens.

She was responding to a concern from Peter Richards, the chair of CB 13's Parks Committee, who brought up the issue at the board's meeting Monday at St. Luke's Church in Rosedale.

"Currently, we don't have the funding for it," Lewandowski said. "In the absence of that, we've done a lot of programming and capital improvements" in southeast Queens, she said, referring to concert series, puppet shows and boating outings.

Lewandowski said the larger parks in Queens, such as Flushing Meadows, Alley Pond and Ft. Totten, have administrators.

Hellenbrecht said 10 of the 38 resumes received so far were disqualified because they came from people who lived outside the city. Living within the city is a condition for the job.

Is a park leader really necessary? I have no idea, but time will only tell. It is wonderful news to hear that a park leader must living in the city. If the money is allocated to something that benefits the community more, then more power to them.

Pot Holes No Longer An Issue?

Apparently that is what the New York Department of Transportation was saying. Claiming that they attend to potholes with in 3 days of discovery. However, I know in my own daily driving that I come across so many potholes in the Flushing/Fresh Meadows area that have not been fixed yet for so long that it is now instinctive to avoid certain stretches of certain roads. (Mainly around Peck Park and Kissena Park.)

Potholes: The City Says They Only Exist For A Couple Days But Queens Residents Say Differently:

No one denies that many of the City’s roadways can be a bit rocky. The discrepancy lies with how quickly the city acts to shore up potholes and other defects in the roadway.
Scott Gastel, New York City Department of Transportation deputy press secretary, said that potholes are filled in less than three days.

Stella Rakhman of Community Board 8 said although there weren’t any outstanding complaints in the district, DOT usually took approximately 30 to 45 days to fix a pothole.
Even in DOT’s own ranks, there is a discrepancy. Craig Chin, DOT spokesman said on average it takes nine days to repair a pothole.

“We have a number of complaints, but not any more than normal,” Gaska said of the pothole situation within the boundaries of Board 14. “In the last year they have gotten a little better.”

NYPIRG: Expand Recycle Bottle Bill Refund

Students from the New York Public Interest Research Group chapters at Queens College and Queensborough Community College are urging lawmakers to update New York’s Bottle Bill.

Students Urge Lawmakers to Expand Bottle Bill

NYPIRG usually has strong points and make their concerns heard. This suggestion is great because most of the waste you find on todays streets are water bottles, while most cans and glass bottles are recycled. The more benefit people get from recycling the more likely they are to do it. The 5 cents is almost irrelevant I think if they up it to 10 cents we will see much cleaner streets and parks in Queens.


Update: Survey of Beverage Containers