Speaker Quinn visits problem street in Sunnyside Gardens

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn pledged to help find a solution for what residents complained is a dangerous, garbage-strewn two-way street in Sunnyside Gardens.
“It’s very clear that it’s not a safe situation,” Quinn said of Barnett Avenue, during a visit to the tenants’ association monthly meeting at the Phipps Garden Apartments recently.
On Friday, February 1, Quinn plans to return to the neighborhood with Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan so that the agency can begin formulating a plan for the street, which many consider the border between the Gardens and Woodside and stretches from 43rd Street to Woodside Avenue.
“We are going to walk the street to make that street actually a street, to make it safe and to take the garbage away that day,” she told a collection of about two dozen residents on Tuesday, January 15.
“I don’t want to come back here in two years at the end of my speaker’s term and say I tried but I couldn’t get it done,” Quinn said.
The last time that Quinn had visited Barnett Avenue, in support of designating a 16-block area as a historic district, she had seen the problem firsthand - fast-moving traffic, winding curves, no sidewalks, and the narrow roadway.
“The police officers that were escorting us when we got back into the car said, ‘You know, that’s not very safe,’” Quinn recalled.
Tenants’ association co-President Dorothy Cavallo added that, “everybody was dodging the automobiles that day.”
“It is really a forgotten area,” Cavallo added during a 10-minute question and answer session with the Council Speaker.
Also of concern to local residents were the issues of trailers used as classrooms in local schools and a reduction of parking spaces.
“We are losing a lot of parking spaces, which will be replaced with many less,” said tenants’ association co-President Gerry Perrin, referring to the possibility that additional buildings may be built within the Phipps Garden Apartments. Quinn promised to alert residents should the plan progress.
Quinn also praised the association for raising their concerns and working with each other and elected officials.
“I’m a member of my tenants’ association also, so I know the difference it makes having a strong tenants’ association, Quinn said.
Earlier in the evening, Councilmember Eric Gioia congratulated the residents’ group for forcing Phipps Garden’s management to repair leaks, which had spread to more than 100 apartments.
“When you go to court and fight a big land owner, it’s tough. In a lot of ways it’s like David and Goliath,” he said.