By Connor Adams Sheets
Retired police officer Mike Catalano spent 25 years keeping drivers safe on the city’s roads and highways, but the Whitestone retiree said if he were still on the force, he would need only to step out of his front door to find people committing traffic and parking violations.
“If I was still a police officer today, I’d be down here issuing these buses summonses,” he said last Thursday morning as he stood by the terminus of the Q34 bus at the intersection of 149th Street and 25th Avenue.
Catalano and several of his 25th Avenue neighbors met there for the third time this month to call attention to their concerns about the bus stop, on a narrow two-way street in front of the Flushing Fields park. They said it has become an accident waiting to happen because the buses severely restrict driver and pedestrian visibility.
On May 14, their nightmare came true when an 11-year-old student from nearby JHS 185 was struck and injured by a car two weeks ago, according to Dell.
The Q34 runs from Jamaica to the stop in Whitestone and neighborhood residents have been incensed since July 2009, when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority rerouted the bus line to end on their once-quiet street, where buses often sit empty now for 30 minutes or more during layover periods.
The bus used to run along Willets Point Boulevard, but the agency changed the route after residents of that street took their concerns to then-City Councilman Tony Avella, who relayed them to the MTA.
After visiting the site two weeks ago, Avella, who organized the last two meetings, took up the cause of the Q34 once again. Avella, who is running for state Senate, spoke with the MTA about the issue, asking the agency to come look at the site and listen to resident’s complaints, but it declined the invitation, saying the 25th Avenue termination point was the best solution.
Avella and the residents disagree.
“I’m here in support of the residents and to embarrass the MTA …. They need to come out here and describe why they made the decision. They work for us and it’s unacceptable and irresponsible for them not to do so, especially now that there’s been an accident,” Avella said. “If the original situation wasn’t good and this isn’t good, we need to get together and find a situation that’s safe for everybody.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
