Jamaica Residents Protest High School

Jamaica residents and politicians rallied outside the gates of Queens Hospital Center Sunday, charging that upcoming development projects on its grounds will ruin their neighborhoods quality of life.
The assembled crowd of more than 20 residents and four elected officials blasted the construction of an 800-student high school and a mixed-use facility on the public hospitals campus.
"We are worried about congestion," said Robert Trabold, president of the Hillcrest Citizens for Neighborhood Preservation and a resident who lives directly across from the hospital and organized the rally.
Although it has not begun construction, the Department of Education (DOE) plans to build a Gateway to Health Sciences High School on land provided by the hospital.
The Economic Development Corporation and the Health and Hospital Corporation, which runs Queen Hospital Center, also intend to build a mixed-use facility on the public hospitals ground as well. Although no final plans have been set, the facility is expected to hold apartment units, retail space and a parking garage.
Trabold and other residents say the addition of another school will overburden the community, which is already home to four high schools, numerous elementary schools and St. Johns University. According to residents, 29,000 students come to their neighborhood each day. Residents believe the cumulative effect of the two additional developments will result in more overcrowding on public transportation, a diminution of their quality of life, parking problems and depreciation of their homes property value.
"The Q65, Q25 and Q34 [buses] from 160th Street to Union Turnpike are jammed," said Trabold about the current students impact on the neighborhoods bus lines.
He added that the school would make parking more difficult: many hospital staffers now street park rather than pay a $50 hospital lot monthly fee.
Councilman James Gennaro, who attended the rally with Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, Senator Frank Padavan and Councilman David Weprin, said he met with DOE officials and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott over the schools construction and the mixed-use facility last November. Walcott told Gennaro that he would come back with a study showing how the two projects were feasible without impacting the neighborhoods quality of life. But Gennaro said he is still waiting to hear back from Walcott.
"Community leaders and elected officials are united in our belief that this construction cannot be accomplished without major disruption to the neighborhood," said Gennaro.
Since the school is as of right, some residents, rather than fight the construction, tried to work with DOE last fall in order to win some concessions. Kevin Forrestal, president of the Hillcrest Estates Civic Association, had requested that the School Construction Authority (SCA) pare the size of the high schools student body from 800 to 600. His fear, he said, was that "an 800 school becomes 1,200 or 1,500 with overcapacity."
But Forrestal said the SCA turned down his request on grounds that the size-cost ratio it employs made a smaller school impossible.
A DOE spokesperson said SCA is still in the planning stages for the school. He also noted that resident concerns will be addressed in a public review process with the community, in the future. No meeting date has been set yet.
Trabold said that the new school would not only burden residents but could prove hazardous to students. The hospitals main entrance, near 164th Street and Grand Central Parkway, has been designated an accident-prone intersection by police, Trabold said.
An environmental impact study by the SCA also raises questions about possible contamination on the site, Trabold said. His preservation group has seen half the study, which, he states, warns of possible ground pollution from chemicals from the hospitals morgue.
Residents said they are considering legal action to block construction and are looking to raise $10,000 for a private environmental study of the property.