Long Island Gets Traffic Benefits Queens Gets Fumes

By Victor RossThe Douglaston Civic Association’s May 17 anti-HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane rally is highlighting a strong bipartisan opposition to Governor George Pataki’s plan to widen the Long Island Expwy. on the Little Neck and Douglaston sections of the roadway.
An estimated 140,000 cars and trucks drive along this short, crowded corridor every day.
The 21-month community battle against the $82 million, 1.1-mile, road-widening program has also triggered an increasingly rancorous opposition to the project. Raising local hackles was Governor Pataki’s recent cancellation of an HOV lane on the Cross-Westchester Expwy. because it "would have negative economic and environmental impacts."
"Our fight," said State Senator Frank Padavan, "is to stop a bad plan — a plan in which the participation of Queens residents was neither asked nor accepted. If it is necessary for citizens to line up in front of bulldozers, so be it. We are prepared for that."
Assemblyman Mark Weprin said that he would "stand alongside Mr. Padavan on this vital issue."
The infighting has escalated since the beginning of this year:
• Padavan, last week, delivered an appeal to a recent Supreme Court decision to the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court. "This battle," said Padavan, "is to protect Queens families, Queens homes and Queens parkland from destruction by people who don’t care about our needs, don’t care about our families, and don’t care if they cover all of Queens County with concrete from the Newtown Creek to the Nassau County line."
• Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza, last January, filed legislation which would ban "the construction or designation of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on the Long Island Expwy. in Queens County."
• Commenting on the cancellation of the Cross-Westchester Expwy. project for environmental reasons, Congressman Gary Ackerman said, "It seems like the Governor favors the environment in Westchester, but doesn’t care about it in Queens. I will continue to keep federal funding away from the proposed HOV project in Queens."
• Mayor Rudy Giuliani, last Wednesday, was publicly thanked by the Douglaston Civic Assoc. for his help in resisting the State DOT’s plan to add two additional lanes to the L.I.E., between the Nassau border and the Cross Island Pkwy. Under the law, his City Transportation Dept. must first approve the project before the state can implement it.
• Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s City Coordinator Lisa Schreibman charged that Pataki had canceled the HOV lane project on the Cross-Westchester Expwy. last November because "he understood the HOV lanes would bring more cars into his own neighborhood."
• Nancy Sakas, president of the Douglaston Civic Assoc., added "although public hearings were held in Nassau and Suffolk, one was never held in Queens."
Explaining the mounting vocal and legislative opposition to the project, Borough President Claire Shulman cited the "noise, pollution and visual blight that is expected to be almost 30 feet closer to the residential community. Plus, the lowering of property values, the immeasurable environmental cost due to the irreplaceable damage done to a mature native forest, as well as the anticipated bottleneck between the county line and the Cross Island Pkwy."
Carrozza detailed why she has already introduced legislation to halt the HOV project. "The HOV design and construction plans were created without any input from Queens residents or Queens officials," she explained. "This bill would prohibit the use of state funds on a project which would have a negative impact on one region in an attempt to alleviate the problems of another region."
The Governor’s office and the State Transportation Dept. did not return calls to The Queens Courier.