Mayersohn Opposes Queens College Dorms

As an alumnus of the ACE Program at Queens College, I am and have always been very supportive of the College and its programs. In fact, in addition to funding a myriad of programs at the College, I have also secured capital money to help refurbish and renovate different parts of the campus; however, I have some very serious concerns about the construction of dorms on the Queens College campus.
I have represented Queens College, or the surrounding community for almost 25 years, and I have lived just a few blocks from the campus for more than 50. In that time, I cannot remember a time that traffic and parking in the neighboring communities was not an issue.
In fact, when I first joined the PTA at P.S. 201, I was chair of the committee on student parking in our neighborhood. Much has changed over the years, unfortunately not for the better. In today’s world where every home has 2.5 cars, and every other college student is driving to school, the limited resources of the neighboring community are being taxed beyond their capacity.
How many of you have or know someone who has had a car parked in their driveway by a student who was late for a class and just gave up on looking for a legal spot? It happens, and it will continue to happen.
CUNY was founded with the ideal of providing city residents with affordable, quality higher education and we are very proud of what Queens College has accomplished. Nevertheless, we are not Columbia, St. John’s, or NYU, and it should not be our purpose to create an exclusive, ivy-league school within the City University system that will appeal to out-of-town students.
I believe New York City has more than its fair share of bright, industrious students who can handle the curriculum of a school like Queens College and enable it to maintain its high academic standards - and at the same time use public transportation to get to and from school.
In 1999, former Queens College President Allen Sessoms had a plan to build on-campus housing. That proposal was opposed by the entire Queens Delegation in the Assembly, as well as the City Councilmember and State Senator. Community Board 8 passed a resolution against the idea. We were able to stop the dorms at that time.
When P.S. 499 came up for consideration, we received every assurance during the planning stages that the school would be built in such a way as not to adversely impact the traffic and parking in the community. However, anyone who lives north of the campus, or drives down Reeves Avenue during drop off or dismissal knows that all their planning did not do enough to stop the negative impact on that community.
What has changed in the last 8 years? What makes it a better time to add dorms to the campus? We do not have fewer students; in fact, I think we only had about 16,000 in 1999 and now we are up to 18,000. No new parking has been built. Moreover, this plan calls for the addition of only 200 spots which would not even begin to scratch the surface of the parking issues in this community.
Dorms were not right for this community back then, and they are not right now.
Assemblymember Nettie Mayersohn represents Flushing’s District 27.