By Athena Dawson | news@queensledger.com

The Woodhaven Business Improvement District (BID) kicked off the holiday season on December 8th with their annual tree lighting ceremony. Dozens of families gathered to celebrate on Jamaica Avenue and Forest Parkway, and NYPD officers were present to barricade the street to allow for foot traffic. 

While they waited for the main event, residents lined up for free hot chocolate, snacks, and toys provided by the Howard Beach Woodhaven Lions Club and the Kiwanis Club of Ozone Park-Woodhaven. Walter Chaluisant, president of the latter organization, felt the event was a success. “The turnout was great, this was a huge success, everyone here, all the smiling faces and children,” he said.

Santa makes an appearance.

State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar made an appearance at the ceremony and thanked the Woodhaven BID, Woodhaven Block Association, and Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society for putting on the event.

Students from P.S.97 and the All Nations Baptist Church choir revved up the crowd into the holiday spirit as they performed Christmas carols in Spanish and English. 

Residents gather around to celebrate the lighting of the Christmas Tree

John Perricone, executive director of the Woodhaven BID, said the event was a way to bring the community together.

“As the BID we try to support all of the storefront businesses on Jamaica Avenue, and we feel like this is a way for us to be more active as a community organization. We’re a very close-knit, family-oriented neighborhood, so it allows people to enjoy the festivities here but also to patronize and walk through the corridor,” he said.

All Nations Baptist Church Choir performs at tree lighting ceremony

A countdown for the tree lighting commenced around 7pm, and families gathered around the block to marvel at the brightly lit Christmas tree. Santa Claus also made a highly anticipated appearance at the event, riding in a festively decorated car and a line wrapped around the block for family photos with him.

By Celia Bernhardt | cbernhardt@queensledger.com

The Department of Transportation gave a status update on its micro-mobility and carshare initiatives to BP Donovan Richards and a table of Queens community board chairs who came armed with plenty of requests, questions, and criticisms. 

The meeting, held on Dec. 5, centered on Citi Bike, e-scooters and carshare. Here’s what the officials had to say.

The department’s carshare initiative, partnering with ZipCar and other corporations, rolled out a permanent program earlier this year after a two-year pilot from 2018-2020. There are now 42 total program sites throughout Queens, each one consisting of two spots near a street corner with signage reserving it for carshare parking only. Community Districts 3, 12, and 14 already had sites set up during the pilot period; the service has now expanded into almost all other CDs, excluding only 5 and 11. 

Citi Bike, owned and operated by its parent company Lyft, is wrapping up the tail end of its third phase of expansion. The expansion started up in 2019 and brought the bike service beyond the westernmost areas of CD1 and 2 and into CD3 and 4, and parts of CD5. No further expansion is on the horizon for now except some extra installation to bolster the bike service’s capacity in CD2, explained Finlay Scanlon, DOT’s outreach coordinator for bike share and ride share mobility. 

Slide from DOT’s presentation, depicting which Commu- nity Districts received Citi Bikes. Courtesy of @queensbp on YouTube.

E-scooter share hasn’t landed in Queens yet, but it’s about to: after a 2021 pilot in the East Bronx, the DOT is bringing the service to eastern Queens in the late spring and early summer of 2024. It’s part of a transition that began this year to establish a longer-term scooter share program, in collaboration with companies Lime, Bird, and Veo.  

Map of where e-scooters will be in Queens. Courtesy of DOT

Richards expressed some disappointment that Citi Bike wouldn’t expand farther into the borough. 

“A neighborhood like Far Rockaway is ripe for it,” he said, mentioning an earlier successful pilot with Lime Bike. Finlay responded by explaining Citi Bike’s strategy.

“We try to have every station be about a five minute walk from another station, so it increases the use of the system,” she said. “So that really requires building out continuously without any gaps or holes.” 

Richards maintained his point. “As we’re talking about transit equity, these are neighborhoods, according to your map, that are just left out of the conversation,” he said. “We still have to have the conversation around infrastructure, but the bottom line is transit deserts should have several options. And we’re just not seeing it here.” 

Rev. Carlene O. Thorbs, Chairperson of CB12, slammed the implementation of carshare in her district. 

“They’re in front of homes, private homes, and that should not be. How can you help another company and bring them into our community and park their cars in front of somebody else’s house?” Thorbs said. 

Courtesy of @queensbp on YouTube.

Thorbs also criticized parking spots in front of businesses. “Did you even think about the fact that there are barber shops and beauty parlors? People want to park and go in and out of these locations, and then we’re going to have two stationary cars sitting,” she said, alleging that some store owners hadn’t known about the program. 

“There were a lot of lessons learned this round,” Project Manager for DOT’s carshare program Stevie Feig said. “We will be revising that for this next round of site selection. Some sites will be removed, some sites will be added, and some sites will stay.”

CB3 Chair Frank Talyor (East Elmhurst, North Corona, Jackson Heights) felt similarly to Rev. Thorbs, expressing disapproval of carshare parking spaces in front of both businesses and private homes. “These parking spots represent business and dollars,” he said. 

With regard to Citi Bike, Taylor said that his board had requested in writing that bike corrals not be placed in front of private homes, though this had not changed the outcome. 

Heather Beers-Dimitriadis, Chair of CB6, had a different problem. 

“There is nothing,” she said. “We don’t have Citi Bike and we are looking forward and wanting [it]…we have ample places to put docking stations without taking up parking space.”  Beers- Dimitriadis rattled off several examples of where docks could be placed, including a location near a former Rite Aid by the Long Island Rail Road. 

Finlay reiterated Citi Bike’s approach to expansion, but said that if a new wave of expansion was eventually greenlighted, CB6 would be first in line. 

“It would so easily blend into where we already have bikes installed,” she said. “I’ve received, actually, several emails from high schoolers in your district requesting Citi Bike.” 

Bryan Block, chair of CB13, held a similar sentiment about the e-scooters set to spread through his district. “We do not want them, period,” he said. “CB6 can have them.”

“Merry Christmas,” Beers-Dimitriadis said. 

“It’s not a fit,” he continued. “We’re not Park Slope; we’re not Fort Greene; we’re not Brooklyn Heights. We’re a suburban community. We drive, we ride, we purchase our own bicycles, period.”

By Celia Bernhardt | cbernhardt@queensledger.com

The city’s Parks Department kicked off the redesign process for Ridgewood and Glendale’s Mafera Park on Tuesday Dec. 5, with a community scoping meeting on Zoom that drew about 40 people. 

Racking up $500,000 in funding from Borough President Donovan Richards and $3.5 million from Council Member Robert Holden, the capital project involves reconstructing the playground and sprinklers. District Manager Gary Giordano said that the park has held up generally well since its last renovation in the 90s, but has suffered some deterioration.

“It’s just age,” he said. “The safety matting gets worn, the playground equipment gets worn.”

With the closest playground a ten minute walk away at Beninger Park, Mafera’s playground is a go-to spot for parents who live nearby. 

Credit: Celia Bernhardt

Tuesday’s scoping meeting marked the beginning of a 10-15 month design process.

“It starts tonight with listening to you all,” James Mituzas from NYC Parks’ capital team told attendees over Zoom. “We listen to your wants and desires of what you want to see at the playground. We’ll put pen to paper and create a conceptual design; that takes us roughly four to five months. And at that juncture, we’ll take that conceptual design and bring it to you at Community Board [5]…and they’ll tell us whether or not we got it right.”

Mituzas explained that tweaks can still be made in response to the board’s feedback. After that, the procurement process (consisting of plenty of contracts and legal reviews) will take about a year; then, construction can last between a year and a year and a half. 

“Unfortunately, the best time to work is the best time to go into a park,” Mituzas said. “You’ll lose a season with this, and in the end, you’ll have a brand new playground.” 

Credit: Celia Bernhardt

Frank Vero, the landscape architect and project manager for Mafera’s makeover, introduced himself to the Zoom attendees. He recalled moving with his wife and kids to the neighborhood in 2017. 

“We’ve lived in Ridgewood for about five years, and this was one of our main parks that we came to,” Vero said. “So it’s really exciting to get to now take that park that we spent five years using as our backyard and try to make it better for all of you.”

Vero listed off several considerations the department keeps in mind whenever it embarks on a park redesign: heat mitigation (especially through tree canopies), managing stormwater, tree preservation, accessible design, and welcoming entrances. He also highlighted building additional seating areas for caregivers, bringing in “new, interesting, fun” play equipment for kids, building small fences within the wide-open playground to make things more manageable for caregivers, and strengthening the water spray features as specific ideas for Mafera.

Credit: Celia Bernhardt

Building barriers throughout the playground, especially to create some distance between younger and older kids, was an idea echoed by multiple parents during the open comment section of the meeting that followed. Also mentioned by a couple parents was creating more visibility through play structures, as the current density of the design can make it difficult to keep one’s child always in sight. 

The bathroom was mentioned by some as an area that could use improvements, but Parks officials reminded the public that it was outside the scope of work.

By Celia Bernhardt | cbernhardt@queensledger.com

The busy Sutphin Boulevard–Archer Avenue–JFK Airport subway station in Jamaica is now home to a fleet of the MTA’s new fare gates. 

The double-door gate devices replaced traditional turnstiles and emergency exit doors in one side of the station earlier this month. It’s the first full deployment of the technology following its pilot in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Ave-Barclays Center station.

The MTA hopes to reduce fare evasion with the gates, which don’t easily lend themselves to being hopped over — though some have observed that evaders might find “doubling up” to pass through the gates with just one payment to be even easier with this design. 

The gates allow customers with strollers, large luggage, bikes, or mobility devices — who might have needed to use an emergency exit rather than a turnstile in any other station — to pass through smoothly. Built by Cubic, the firm which developed both MetroCard and OMNY, the new additions cost roughly $700,000.

The MTA held a news conference in the station on Dec. 4, marking not only the debut of the fare gates but a Customer Service station as well. The shiny new alcove is the 14th of its kind in the city. It’s staffed by station agents who can assist customers with OMNY technology, Reduced-Fair, and other issues. 

MTA Acting Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Riera said at the press conference that Sutphin Boulevard was a particularly appropriate station to receive the new additions. “With a direct link to the AirTrain, the [station] is often visitors’ first introduction to New York, making it a perfect spot for a new customer service center and wide aisle fare gates,” she said.

In the evening of Monday, Dec. 11, some customers seemed exasperated by the unfamiliar fare gates while others passed through without a hitch. A station agent was active in helping people who had issues with OMNY on the new machines. One fare gate seemed to glitch, remaining open even when no one was swiping or tapping to pass through.

Maggie Tiwarie, a Richmond Hill local on her way home from work, said that the new gates were a good addition. 

“I think it’s efficient,” Tiwarie said. “It’ll stop people from just going through without paying.” 

At the Dec. 4 press conference, one journalist asked how the MTA would determine whether or not the gates would reduce fare evasion when one emergency exit door remained on the other side of the station. “Obviously we’re watching these gates in particular,” NYC Transit President Richard Davey said. “If someone is a determined fare evader I think that’s going to be tough to beat under any circumstances, but I think the majority of folks are not.”

“At a station like this, you have a lot of customers with luggage who legitimately need to use these wide-aisle gates,” Davey added. “Obviously for customers with disabilities as well and mobility devices is an example. So we’re watching all that to see and learn.”

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

On Friday, Dec. 8, pols, community leaders and tenants rights activists gathered in front of City Hall to celebrate Intro 195, a bill that requires landlords to keep unoccupied units in good repair. The legislation also allows for tenants to report issues in vacant units. The sponsor of the bill, Councilmember Carlina Rivera of District 2, said that disrepair in uninhabited units affects the rest of the building. 

“Some of these conditions are pretty serious. It’s rats, it’s garbage, leaks, mold, lack of carbon monoxide detectors, lack of fire suppression, the list goes on and on, there’s even been broken locks and open doors” Rivera said during a speech. “It just creates this feeling of being unsafe.” 

Deborah Rand, who helped write the bill with Rivera, said the legislation was intended to give autonomy back to tenants and take some of the onus off of the Housing and Preservation Department in fixing vacant housing. Tenants can now go to court themselves to report their landlords and get an order to inspect apartments for dilapidated conditions. Previously, HPD had to get permission — either from a building owner or with a court-appointed order, to inspect vacant units before enforcing any violations which delayed the process of repairs. 

“What this  does is it gives some control over what’s happening in vacant apartments around them. In certain parts, certain buildings in the city, if owners want to get rid of tenants, they actually allow the vacant apartments to deteriorate,” Rand said. “A lot of occupied apartments suffer from leaks, mold, you know, unsafe conditions, possible fires from the vacant apartments. So what this bill does is it gives the opportunity for the people in occupied apartments to make complaints about the vacant apartments.” 

Rivera echoed a similar sentiment and said that Intro 195 would allow for more units to become habitable. Estimates of how many empty apartments there are in New York City remain unclear, but estimates range from 40,000 to 90,000, according to reporting by Gothamist. 

“We are changing the law to ensure that now occupied units are included in inspections so that we can have more homes online. But also we can address hazardous conditions that have affected so many living in their own residential building,” Rivera said during a press statement. “It will empower HPD to support residents suffering from conditions emanating from vacant units.”

The bill is intended to prevent a concept called warehousing, the practice of letting vacant units intentionally sit empty for a variety of reasons. This can sometimes look like landlords combining or “Frankenstein-ing” vacant units into a larger apartment in order to be able to circumvent rent-stabilization laws and charge a higher rate. Landlords also might not want to sink money into repairing a unit to make it habitable, or a building owner will let a rent-stabilized unit sit vacant because renting it out will bring down the average price of the entire residential building. 

Brooklyn and Queens Councilmembers Shahana Hanif, Lincoln Restler and Shekar Krishnan all gave statements supporting the legislation. Krishnan said housing is the most important issue facing New Yorkers and holding landlords accountable is the first step to deliver safe living arrangements for city residents. 

“The fact of the matter is that housing is the most urgent crisis in our city because it connects to every other crisis around us,” Krishnan said in a press statement. “How many apartments lie vacant that could be used to solve the housing crisis that we face? Yet, we haven’t seen the action that we need from our city and state agencies to address this problem which is exactly why we, as a City Council, are taking action.”