By The TimesLedger
Residents of Little Neck were warned last week that Flushing is about to be destroyed and their peaceful community could be next. The Little Neck Pines Civic Association gathered at Middle School 67 for a meeting that featured civic leaders from Flushing, Bayside and nearby Douglaston griping about the growing number of community facilities.
At the heart of the discussion is the “as of right” exception to zoning regulations that allows churches, synagogues, schools and other nonprofit organizations to build on virtually any block in any neighborhood. The organizers urged the Little Neck residents to launch a letter-writing campaign urging City Hall to do away with as-of-right.
To demonstrate their point, the organizers showed maps and slides of a neighborhood in northeast Flushing that is now home to a number of religious institutions and other as-of-right buildings.
City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said he is drafting legislation to address the as-of-right issue. We urge Avella and others to move carefully. The buildings in North Flushing were constructed to serve the needs of a rapidly changing community.
As the population grows and shifts, the character of Queens communities will continue to evolve. The same as-of-right laws that inconvenience some residents help other residents build their own sense of community.
Editorial: New schools: Priority No. 1
At long last, the mayor has won the right to control the city’s public education system. Mayor Bloomberg will have a limited amount of time to prove that the school system will function better when the city’s chief executive can be held accountable for the decisions that are made.
Much needs to be done. At a town hall meeting last week in Ozone Park, the mayor made it clear that at least in Queens he recognizes the need to build new schools and additional classroom space.
There are those who are fond of saying that one cannot fix what’s wrong with the public schools by “throwing money at the problem.” That’s cute and it has a nice ring to it, and even a grain of truth. But the reality is that it will take billions of dollars to create enough classroom space to meet even the most basic educational standards.
Children have the right to attend school in an environment that is conducive to learning. They have a right to have a desk in a classroom, not squeezed in a hallway or a remodeled restroom. This is a most basic and fundamental responsibility of local government.
Quick fixes such as the temporary portable classrooms that went up during the Giuliani years only served to mask the problem and allow some officials to pretend that progress was being made.
While it is true that the School Construction Authority did build a number of new schools in Queens, its effort fell far short of what was needed. The school construction has not kept pace with the projected population growth. We continue to head toward disaster.
We trust that the mayor as an accomplished business leader will be able to figure out why it costs so much to build schools in New York City. His administration should be able to cut construction costs in half.
Finding new money to build schools will not be easy. Although in principle we are opposed to tax increases, we think the mayor should consider a modest increase in the property tax that would be dedicated to building new schools and fixing the old ones.
The mayor and the Council may have better ideas on how to raise the funds, but no one should pretend that the city doesn’t need more classroom space, especially in Queens.
