LIRR sites draw community concern

The safety of two Richmond Hill properties owned by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) has been called into question by community leaders who feel the sites pose threats to the city’s security.
Both properties are open and unguarded, providing unobstructed access to train tracks. The first location, an empty lot beside a Key Food store at the corner of Lefferts Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue, is riddled with trash, mostly discarded wood and metal. Train tracks run behind the waste pile, with no barrier separating them from the lot.
Simcha Waisman, President of the Richmond Hill Block Association (RHBA), said his concerns about the lot are twofold. First, he said, it is unsanitary.
“People shouldn’t have to live around these conditions,” said Waisman. “When people see one person or group of people drop trash someplace, everyone starts dropping. It’ll become a dump.”
But the most important concern, continued Waisman, was that the lot could become a safety hazard. In addition to the danger of accidents, Waisman pointed to terrorism as a potential threat.
“In today’s world, they’re finding all new ways to commit terrorism,” he said. “With no security, it’s only a matter of time…to catch a criminal, you have to think like one.”
Because the lot has no street address, LIRR was unable to positively identify it as theirs without physically sending a representative to the site.
However, Michael Simanowitz, Chief of Staff for Assemblymember Nettie Mayersohn, said the site absolutely belongs to LIRR.
“We worked with RHBA in years past to appeal to LIRR to clean up the lot,” said Simanowitz. “They acknowledged that the property was theirs, and they did come to clean up a couple times, but apparently it’s an ongoing problem.”
Simanowitz said LIRR used the property for deliveries.
The second location, at 91st Avenue and 127th Street, is a maintenance and service center which includes several fuel tanks. The site lacks security guards and has no mechanism for restricting access to the general public. In addition to the open entrance, holes in the fence provide access to the station along the tracks.
“I could come in with a tank and no one would question me,” said Waisman, who took several photos of the site without being approached by anyone from LIRR. “And this is not an out-of-the-way place. It’s right in the middle of the town.”
LIRR said the maintenance center was not yet in operation and that when it opens in September, security guards will be on duty at all times.
Nonetheless, said LIRR spokesperson James Castle, “[Waisman] probably shouldn’t have been able to walk around as freely as he did.”
The properties have been an issue for over a year, said Waisman.
“Someone bent on creating havoc could walk into either of these places and do damage,” Simanowitz said. “Security’s gotta be concern. It’s gotta be there.”
Simanowitz was hesitant to chastise the LIRR, however, noting that they have “been very helpful in the past and responded to concerns. But they haven’t come up with a long-term solution, and they need to do that.”
Waisman said the LIRR has told him they would “look into the matter” four times in the last six months, but the properties have never been properly regulated.