By The TimesLedger
Despite concerns about traffic, Community Board 8 has done the right thing in giving its seal of approval to the creation of a permanent elementary and intermediate school on the campus of Queens College. Given the overcrowded condition of nearly every public school in Queens, one might expect that everyone who cares about the education of our children would be happy. Sadly, that is not the case.
There exists a core of local residents in the Flushing area who remain bitterly opposed to the plan. Although the impact on traffic is one of the concerns, other objections are far less benign. At the Community Board 8 meeting at Parsons Junior High School on April 24, a local civic leader gave a disturbing glimpse at the bigotry that lies just beneath the surface in too many neighborhoods of Queens. One community leader, the president of a civic association in the Flushing area, reportedly offered the following reason for opposing the new school: “This is going to bring blacks in, Asians in, and a lot of kids from Corona.”
If indeed their representative uttered such a racially divisive comment, the members of that association should ask him to step down – immediately. To do anything less would be to condone the racist view that there are parts of Queens where blacks, Latinos and Asians are not welcome.
We do not believe that this uncivil civic leader speaks for all or even most of the people who oppose the school. It is likely that the biggest concern is traffic. This is an issue that must be addressed. There is still time to come up with a traffic plan that will minimize the impact on the community bordering the college.
We believe that the people of Queens will someday fight to get their children enrolled in this new type of school. There are advantages to creating schools that provide a continuum from preschool to high school and Queens College offers an ideal location for this experimental school.
We applaud the community board for having the courage to support the innovative approach to public education offered at PS 499.
What a screw-up
In a meeting with the TimesLedger, Borough President Claire Shulman described a deal in which the city would agree to extra flights into New York that would be diverted from LaGuardia Airport to JFK in return for the construction of a one-seat ride from Kennedy to Manhattan. She said the MTA has said aside $650 million to make the AirTrain a one-seat ride using Long Island Rail Road tracks.
There's ones small hitch. The train cars already purchased by the Port Authority aren't heavy enough to run on the LIRR tracks. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have chosen to refer to the AirTrain as the Boondoggle Express.
Two years ago we predicted that the AirTrain would go down as one of the most monumental wastes of money in the history of mass transportation. We were right.
Yes, someday New York will offer a convenient one-seat ride from Kennedy to Midtown. And yes, the monorail system built for the AirTrain will be a part of that system. But in the process hundreds of millions of dollars will have been wasted.
Someday the story of the AirTrain fiasco will be required reading for students of urban planning. Students will be asked to learn from the failures of the Port Authority.
Shulman has said she did not put the brakes on the AirTrain when she realized that it would require passengers to switch in Jamaica from the AirTrain to the subway system because it was the first step — however lacking — to a one-seat ride. It was obvious to almost everyone that business travelers would not be willing to take mass transportation if it meant schlepping luggage from a modern monorail to a crowded subway car.
Shulman knows just how desperately the one-seat ride is needed. The Van Wyck and the Belt Parkway cannot handle the traffic coming to and from the airport. With the additional flight the problem will only get worse.
We are stuck now with train cars that are too light to use in the proposed one-seat ride system. The Port Authority has a lot of explaining to do.
How bad is it?
We'd like to thank U.S. Rep Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) for at least trying to light a fire under the feet of the Army Corps of Engineers on the issue of mercury contamination in the waters surrounding Fort Totten. Months after testing these waters, the Army still won't say if the water is safe for humans.
With his patience running out and time running out for the Army to vacate the fort, the congressman demanded to see a report on the level of pollution in these waters. The Army then handed over a preliminary report that noted the levels of mercury but did not say whether this represented a significant threat to human beings. The Army then asked for more patience. The report given to Ackerman is preliminary, it said. A more detailed report that will include the risks for people will be released soon. But they didn't say when soon is.
Meanwhile, people continue to fish and ride watercraft in the waters near the fort. The simple question remains: is it risky to eat the fish and swim in these waters? As summer draws near, this is a question that must be answered sooner rather than later.
No one blames the modern Army for the pollution that may exist. But if the waters are dangerous, the community needs to know and it needs to know now.
