By Dustin Brown
Borough President Claire Shulman cast serious doubt on the legitimacy of census figures for Queens Monday after voicing opposition to key aspects of a proposal to bring the Olympic Games to the borough and other parts of the city in 2012.
At its monthly meeting Monday, the borough board also voted for proposed zoning amendments that would clarify regulations governing adult establishments in the city.
Shulman’s comments came during a presentation by Kewulay Kamara, a U.S. Census Bureau data specialist, who explained initial findings of the 2000 census to the community board chairmen and city council members who make up the board.
“I don’t think everybody in the borough was counted,” Shulman said. “If you look at our schools, we’re minus 30,000 seats. Where did they come from?”
Shulman criticized the Census Bureau’s decision to have one of every six respondents fill out a long form which asked more detailed questions than the standard census questionnaire. Shulman described the longer form as an invasion of privacy.
“I think it was a mistake to give out a long form at all,” Shulman said. “I’ve been very paranoid about this. I’d like to know the percent of long forms that went to other states because whole neighborhoods tore them up and we still came up with 2.2” (million) residents.
Responding to a Monday New York Times article detailing the proposal to bring the Olympics to the city, Shulman disputed key elements of the Olympic plan proposed by NYC 2012, a non-profit group the city authorized to submit a bid to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2012.
The Olympic proposal calls for half of the Olympic Village to occupy the southern tip of Queens West, a longstanding project that will redevelop the Hunter’s Point shoreline with commercial and residential properties.
Shulman said she opposes placing the Olympic Village in Queens West, which would prevent any of the residential units from being permanently occupied until after the Games were held.
“It really doesn’t belong there,” Shulman said.
Shulman also criticized the plan to combine two lakes in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the Games, which she said would force a portion of the park to be closed for three years.
Further, Shulman said the proposal to build a No. 7 subway line spur from 42nd Street to a stadium planned for the block south of the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan is more ambitious than Olympic planners realize.
“I’m not sure that they understand the magnitude of that proposal,” Shulman said.
In the only vote during the meeting, board members voted to change a 1995 zoning law governing adult establishments.
The amendments would clarify the definition of an adult establishment, which 1995 zoning laws defined as a business with at least 40 percent of floor space devoted to adult material.
Adult establishments have evaded the regulations by overstocking non-adult materials they had no intention of selling, city planning project manager Kenneth Bergin told the board. This has helped them meet the 60-40 requirement while still functioning as adult establishments .
The changes are aimed to prevent such “sham compliance” with the regulations, Bergin said.
According to the amendments, a business that meets the 60-40 requirement will still be considered adult if customers have to pass through an adult section to reach non-adult materials, if the only cash register is in the adult section, if no barrier exists to set apart the adult section and if any type of peep show is in operation.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
