Civic Association discusses local and city-wide issues

At the most recent meeting of the Our Neighbors Civic Association Of Ozone Park, numerous representatives and officials gave community members in attendance updates on both local and city-wide issues.
Mike Johnson, a representative for Senator Serphin Maltese, said that although the budget bill. has yet to be passed, the principles of the agenda have been agreed upon. He said that it is allocation of the monies that is still in question.
Johnson also mentioned that although the congestion pricing plan has been approved by the City Council, Maltese is still against it.
Maltese, he said, feels it is unfair to pass this bill because it will only add more riders to the already-overcrowded subways.
On a local level, it was announced at the meeting on Tuesday, April 1 that the Civic Association is still trying to get the city to convert 84th Street between Atlantic and Liberty Avenues to a one-way stretch. Members have already sent around a petition and feel that hey have gotten more than the 75 percent of the support needed to make the change. They have been told that the Department Of Transportation (DOT) is currently doing a survey of the area, and although it is not finished yet, the preliminary findings indicate that having that roadway be a two way street is not safe for the surrounding community.
Graffiti-tagged shops, walls and even homes have become a big problem in the neighborhood according to frustrated residents. The only advice given at the meeting was to report the graffiti, take a picture and then paint over it if possible.
The meeting ended with a presentation on the destruction of trees and how that affects the community, not just aesthetically but environmentally. The purpose of the slide show was to make people aware of the needed action to preserve trees. Eric Ulrich, the Association’s President, pointed out two short term goals of the civic: to plant 100 trees in Ozone Park and to clean and hopefully rid the graffiti in the neighborhood.