By Bob Harris
Like New York Hospital in south Flushing, schools along 150th Street in Kew Gardens, Queens Hospital Center and development of the western waterfront of Queens, our city is growing.There is talk of a million or more people being added to New York City in the next few decades. What will Fresh Meadows look like in a few decades?We bought houses near Cunningham, Forest Park, and Flushing Meadows Corona Parks for the green spaces, open air recreation, trees, lack of noise, and clean air. The mayor is a businessman and feels that business, whether it is making goods or educating people, are revenue-producing and good for the economy.St. John's University recently bought several apartments outside their campus from 147-04 through 147-10 Union Turnpike. They house senior students. The university even runs a bus along Union Turnpike that lets students get to the campus. The school wants to expand. The property is R4, so the row houses could be built. But the school wants to add 40 more students to those already there without rebuilding the houses. A public hearing was held Dec. 13. The school wants a variance so it can add the extra students to the large rooms on the property. Members of Community Board 8 were concerned that if the school receives a variance for the property, it then receives a extra bulk variance and a larger community facility could be built here in the future. Several St. John's officials cleverly made a presentation during the community participation period prior to the regular meeting. CB 8 members made their concern known during the regular meeting.The CB 8 members spoke favorably about the contributions of St. John's to the community but expressed their fears of an expanding community facility. Twelve board members voted for the variance and 23 voted against it. This vote is advisory. It goes to Borough President Helen Marshall, then to the Board of Standards and Appeals for a decision. The Board of Standards and Appeals is a body of engineers appointed by the mayor to review zoning rules. Their actions have often changed whole blocks as developers used this board to build larger buildings than permitted by the zoning.Councilman Tony Avella has proposed bills to correct these actions by the Board of Standards and Appeals, but he can't get it out of committee in the City Council. I don't know if St. John's will continue to pursue this issue. I don't know if civic leaders will continue to testify against the variance.St. John's University has just proposed a 30-month building plan for the campus. It will include renovation of Sun Yat-Sen Hall, a new academic building in front of Sun Yat-Sen Hall, 16 new townhouses, and the conversion of St. Vincent's Hall, a former priests' residence, into dorms for honors students. A total of 500 beds will be added by 2008. It will add a parking deck for 200 additional cars to the current garages on Union Turnpike. The school currently enrolls 20,000 students.An anonymous donor gave $1 million to help pay for the renovation of the Sun Yat-Sen Hall. St. John's will ask for $275 million in bonds from the state Dormitory Authority for the project. The hearing was listed as planned for Dec. 26 and announced in only one newspaper.At any rate, the school is expanding, a little at a time, but enough to slowly impact on the communities around the school. The quality of life has to change in the future.GOOD AND BAD NEWS OF THE WEEK: I just read an article in the Caribbean New Yorker on Dec. 15 that said U.S. prisons hold more people than any other nation. Does this mean we have more crime or is does the United States have tough sentencing laws and a record number of drug offenders? Yes, criminals should be put away so as not to hurt the rest of society but I get nervous when I read that we have a record 7 million people in prison, while China, a dictatorial non democratic country, has 1.5 million people incarcerated.Skills can provide jobs and keep people from a life of crime, but selling drugs is the easiest way to make money in poor neighborhoods. That is an indictment of our society. It is the drug dealers and pimps who have the fancy clothing, diamond rings and big cars. Kids don't seem to understand that drugs and AIDS and early death go together. Drug offenders make up about 2 million of the 7 million people in our prisons. People have to steal to get money for drugs so this add to prisoners. What is the solution?
