A Community Open Letter

As you are aware, Councilmember James Gennaro convened a Town Hall meeting on Thursday, March 27 to discuss the proposed 800-seat Gate way to Health Sciences Secondary School on the grounds of the Queens Hospital Center.
At that meeting, a panel of School Construction Authority (SCA) representatives presented the proposed project and attempted to answer the community’s concerns.
Unfortunately, we did not hear anything from the SCA to alleviate our concerns, and at the writing of this letter, we are outraged that the SCA has continued to ignore our reasonable request to reset the 30-day “time clock” for community review of this proposal and the convening of a public hearing by Community Board 8.
First, the SCA exhibited great insensitivity by starting the community review period right before the Passover and Easter religious holidays. Community Board 8 and Gennaro formally requested the SCA to correct this injustice and reset the review period to commence Wednesday, April 11, a request that has been ignored despite the public declaration by the SCA representatives to consider the request and “get back to us.”
This is no way to treat our community.
The various studies and analyses that were presented by the SCA to gauge the impacts of the Gateway School proposal on parking, traffic and other quality-of-life impacts are so removed from reality as to be fatally flawed.
In addition, we question the sufficiency of the remediation of an estimated 6,000 tons of contaminated soil proposed to protect the health and safety of students, school personnel, and community residents.
As the host community for the Queens Hospital Center (QHC) campus, the people of Hillcrest Estates shoulder more than our share of impacts from community facilities, yet we have graciously engaged the city in discussions that have led to the expansion of the campus in recent years and more impacts on our community.
Our track record speaks to our willingness to make sacrifices for the greater good of the city. However, we absolutely and unequivocally draw the line on submitting ourselves to a sham process that disrespects this community and makes a mockery of our historic willingness to serve our city. We call upon the SCA to withdraw this notice of school sitting and restudy the Environmental Assess-ment in conjunction with community representatives as it relates to traffic, parking, and environmental issues.
Sincerely,

Councilmember James Gennaro;
Kevin Forrestal, President of the Hillcrest Estates Civic Association;
Bernie Diamond, Area Chair for Community Board 8;
and Bob Trabold, from the Hillcrest Citizens for Neighborhood Preservation group.

You Say Tomato - We Say Branchinelli
The article in the April 5-11 issue of The Queens Courier, featuring Gaby’s pizza by Andrew Park is great!
Gaby’s is definitely one of our favorites!
I just wanted to throw a quick addendum your way.
The tomatoes you mention in the article as “Brankinelli” are actually spelled Branchinelli and commonly pronounced Brank-a-nelli.
The tomatoes are named for their importer, and Gaby’s food products supplier.
But again, kudos to Gaby’s and the wonderful article!
Rudy
Howard Beach

One happy reader
It is always a pleasure to write a letter of recommendation for such a talented writer as Karen James. Her article, “The Force Is With Her,” [which appeared as a Senior Profile] has impressed many people who have read this story. She wrote to the point, not only in an interesting but newsworthy fashion.
Beside her talent, she impressed me as pleasant, cordial and personable.
The Queens Courier photographer, Christina Santucci, was also a very nice person and they were both quite professional. They are certainly assets to your paper.
Maria Ferrar
Kew Gardens

Quinn’s Refund Plan
The plan advanced by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to give credit to a select group of renters is phony, discriminatory, one that tries to seek cheap publicity, and should be rejected by the Mayor and the State Legislature.
In case you do not know Ms. Quinn, every renter pays increased rent because of the increased real estate taxes and if some refund has to go out, it should go to all the renters.
If you just want to appeal to, and please your own voter-base, you had better find some other ways.
This type of gimmick is not going to work, as it is too transparent.
Chandrakant Pancholi
Jackson Heights

Fire the groundhog too!
This deceitful rodent misled an entire city into believing that spring would arrive two weeks early. New York City continues to wait! As Don Imus accepts responsibility for his on-air racist remarks, as Durham County DA Mike Nifong accepts responsibility for his overzealous pursuit of three innocent lacrosse players, and as Larry Birkhead accepts responsibility as a single father, does the groundhog get off responsibility-free?
Where is the public outcry against this much-hyped and often-incorrect teller of weather-to-come? Where are the calls of injustice? Where are the protests? Should he be fired? Is this a sign of global warming? Who has the recipe for Groundhog Stew?
If “who cares” is your answer, then you understand exactly how I feel after reading the media-hyped stories we’re forced to wade through day-after-day, before getting to what has currently become the only part of the daily newspapers that is well planned, thoughtful, and relevant; the comic section.
Frank L. Parker
Sunnyside