By Helen Klein
Speeding cars on East 78th Street, between Flatlands Avenue and Paerdegat 1st Street, are giving residents angst. At the May meeting of the Friends United Block Association (FUBA), which was held at Temple Shaare Emeth, 6012 Farragut Road, Kern Lewis and Dianna McFee asked for help in dealing with the situation, which they say has gotten out of hand. A particular issue, noted Lewis, is the uneven surface of the roadway, which is badly in need of repair. “The paving is very bad,” she reported. “When cars come through, they can end up in your bed. It’s terrible. The road has been very bad for a long time.” McFee agreed. “We need something, maybe speed bumps,” she told her listeners. “I was doing the garbage last night. When I heard a car come through, I jumped, the speed he came down.” Another problem with the uneven road surface is that it becomes filled with water when it rains. The standing water, said Lewis, could be problematic, as a breeding area for mosquitoes which carry West Nile Virus. Many of the streets in the area suffer from unevenness, noted Gardy Brazela, FUBA’s president. “77th, 78th, 79th are all pretty bad,” he acknowledged. And, in fact, the complaint is an old one. For years, residents of Canarsie have complained about the condition of many streets, recalled Brazela in a subsequent interview. “It’s an old problem that hasn’t been addressed yet,” he stressed. “The road is uneven. There are a lot of bumps. It needs to be resurfaced. We’ve been trying very hard, through the mayor’s office and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to get it taken care of. We’ve been told the problem would be resolved, but, up to now, it hasn’t.” A spokesperson for the DOT, Chris Gilbride, said that the agency hadn’t, “Received any speeding complaints, but we have received complaints about the uneven pavement,” he acknowledged. By press time, no information was available regarding action being taken by the agency to respond to those complaints.
