Marshall Touts Progress In Address
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall delivered her 2012 State of the Borough address last Tuesday, Jan. 24 at Queens College in Flushing, where she told elected, community and civic leaders that she believed more jobs generated by major projects, multi-millions of dollars she invested in capital projects and an improved prognosis for healthcare had put America’s most diverse county on a path to future growth.
After her introduction by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Marshall said as she begins the third year of her third term, “I am grateful for the honor to have allocated more than half-a-billion dollars over the past decade to improve our borough.”
“More than $143 million has been invested in new parks, additions and playgrounds for users of all ages; more than $116 million has gone to cultural institutions and historic houses that help to preserve our borough’s past and more than $106 million provided for new and technologically-improved libraries to serve future generations,” stated Marshal. “I have worked hard to put our borough on a firm footing for future generations.”
The borough president said that Queens has an improved prognosis when it comes to healthcare.
“We have finally saved a hospital,” she declared. “I am proud to say that Peninsula Hospital in Rockaway remains open today and that its new President and CEO Todd Miller and his board of directors are now interested in planning for a new state-ofthe art facility on the existing campus.”
Such a move would fulfill a prime recommendation in a healthcare report commissioned by Marshall in 2006 that called for opening a new hospital on the Rockaway Peninsula.
Marshall also reinforced her support for quality medical care by allocating a half-million dollars from her Capital Budget in 2011 for new hospital equipment that included a digital mammography unit at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Rockaway, home to more than 100,000 residents.
North Shore-LIJ began admitting last Wednesday, Jan. 25, the first patients to its $300 million new building that features the Katz Women’s Hospital and the Zuckerberg Pavilion; a new Firehouse Health Center, under the auspices of the Damian Family Care Centers, opened in Jamaica last Friday, Jan. 27; New York Hospital Queens also opened a new Urgent Care and Dental Emergency Unit; and Mt. Sinai Queens hospital in Astoria has filed an application with the State Department of Health to modernize and expand its facilities.
A graduate of Queens College, Marshall thanked Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a native of Queens, for the “magnificent job he is doing” and his “bold” plan to build the new home of America’s largest convention center in Queens, generating new job growth.
Using still photos on a giant screen to illustrate her points, the borough president said that the Resorts World New York casino at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park had already hit a trifecta by creating 1,600 new jobs, $50 million for education and focused attention on southeast Queens for future growth.
Additional economic and academic growth for Queens will be generated, Marshall said, by Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to make nearby Roosevelt Island the home of a new applied sciences campus.
She said other major projects had also moved Queens forward in 2011, including Hunters Point South, where sanitary, storm sewers, curbs and sidewalks were installed in 2011 and substantial work completed on a 1,100-seat school. Ground will be broken this September for the first 1,000 of an eventual 5,000 new housing units contained in the East River development.
In Willets Point, ground was broken in December for a $50 million infrastructure project that will pave the way to transform the area into a major, new, mixed-use development. “A developer will be announced in 2012 for the first phase of the project, which includes 400 units of mixedincome apartments, retail space, a hotel and two acres of open space,” said Marshall.
On the education front, Marshall said that the battle continues to reduce persistent school overcrowding, like that found at P.S. 19 in Corona and P.S. 96 in South Ozone Park. “And, she said, School District 24 continues to hold the dubious distinction of being the most overcrowded in the entire city,” she said.
Nevertheless, progress was achieved with the opening of four new schools with more than 1,700 new seats in 2011 and plans are underway to add another 10 schools over the next two years with almost 6,000 additional seats.
The former early childhood teacher also pushed for parental involvement to be recognized as “the key element in a student’s success.” Marshall told the crowd that, “You cannot run a structure without input from the stakeholders.”
She also plans to maximize opportunities for Queens with the planned multi-billion Cornell University and Technion Applied Sciences Academy on nearby Roosevelt Island. The new campus will accommodate 2,500 students, generate up to 20,000 construction jobs and 8,000 permanent ones. The university will also develop educational programs for 10,000 New York City students and 200 teachers annually-a partnership that will begin this fall.
On other battlefronts in education, Marshall pledged to fight for federal dollars under the Title 1 Program, which provides service for low-income students, and to protect seven Beacon Schools threatened by proposed budget cuts.
The borough president also took time to remember some of the outstanding individuals with ties to Queens who died over the past 13 months, including: former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro; civic activist Pat Dolan; Community 4 District Manager Richard Italiano, philanthropist Selma Kupferberg, former Borough Historian Stanley Cogan; former City Clerk Dora Young; longtime HPD employee Rubin Wolf, former Community Board 13 Chairperson Sue Noreika and City Department for People with Disabilities Commissioner Matthew Sapling.
Marshall said, however, it was the spirit of those who had died that could be found in heroes she brought onstage last Tuesday. They included: World War II combat veteran Arno Heller, a volunteer in Marshall’s office and recipient of the French Legion Medal of Honor, who will finally receive in a matter of days the Bronze Star, he earned more than half a century ago; Firefighter Ronald Daly, a member of Rescue 4 in Woodside, who entered a raging home fire to rescue a man and his dog; Detectives Charles LoPresti and Richard Johnson, who captured the suspect in four firebombings that took place in December; and Department of Sanitation workers Joseph Maneggio and Semi Nkozi, who rescued five children and their mother from a house fire in Far Rockaway.
Other highlights included:
– Seniors: Under the Department for the Aging’s Innovative Senior Centers Initiative, two Queens centers opened in January, Self-Help Benjamin Rosenthal Senior Center in Flushing and SNAP in Queens Village.
– Parks: With $650,000 in funding from the borough president’s office, a new cricket field opened in Baisley Pond Park. Another field opened in Idlewild Park with $1.7 million in funding from Marshall’s office. A second playground was renovated in Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village with borough president funding, and the Boathouse and dock in Flushing Meadows Corona Park was opened after a major renovation of the 1939 structure. Marshall has provided more than $100 million for this flagship park since coming into office in 2002.
She provided $1.1 million for improvements at Oakland Lake Park Ravine and, in Sunnyside, funded with City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer the revitalization of Lodati Park. Marshall has also provided $1.5 million for the reconstruction of the Laurelton West Playground.
– Economic Development: Now the fourth-largest Central Business District in the metropolitan area and the new home of JetBlue headquarters, Long Island City has new housing, green space, top-rated hotels and office space. New gateway at Queens Plaza, through federal funds from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, underway. At nearby Roosevelt Island, opportunities will be maximized with new multi-billion Cornell University and Technion Applied Science campus.
In downtown Flushing, traffic patterns have improved to complement development of Skyview Center, Queens Crossings and the proposed Flushing Commons. Plans are also underway to rezone the waterfront to enable additional public open space access, housing and commercial opportunities.
Finally, in downtown Jamaica, infrastructure improvements are being made to improve traffic patterns and provide a new gateway that includes Sutphin underpass. The Atlantic Avenue extension and Station Plaza will begin construction next year.
– Business Development: Queens Economic Development Leadership Council continues to link business stakeholders from across the borough with economic development experts, like Kenneth Adams, president of Empire State Development, and City Council Economic Development Chair Karen Koslowitz.
– Planning and Development: Working with the Queens Department of City Planning, some 43 neighborhoods have been rezoned since 2002, including south Jamaica and Sunnyside-Woodside in 2011. “We are working in 2012 with City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras on east Elmhurst, and in Bellerose, Floral Park and Glen Oaks with Councilman Mark Weprin,” Marshall said.
– Environmental Issues: Last fall, investigative efforts began on the Newtown Creek Superfund site. A cleanup plan will eventually be publically reviewed, funds will be made available for community projects, and the borough president’s office will serve on the Advisory Committee that will recommend worthy projects. Earlier this month, Borough President Marshall called on the state to delay hydrofracking permits “until we are 100 percent certain that our city’s drinking water won’t be threatened by the process.”
– Police: Because of a dramatic increase in crimes in Rockaway, Marshall has asked Commissioner Ray Kelly to include the peninsula in Operation IMPACT, a program that provides additional officers in the area. The first phase of the $1 billion Police Academy in College Point is also underway.
– Fire Department: Response times have improved, and Queens’ fire companies last year saved the lives of 60 borough residents by providing CPR on the scene.
– Culture: Hundreds of thousands of visitors visited borough cultural institutions in 2011. The Hall of Science won a $3 million grant to create classroom science games to make understanding science fun, and the Queens Museum of Art continues to move forward on its expansion plan that will double its size. In 2011, Queens also held its first World Film Festival.
– Libraries: The more than $16 million Helen Marshall Children’s Library Discovery Center opened in Jamaica in September; the Central library, with the support of Council Member Leroy Comrie, is being renovated; ground will be broken in the fall to expand the East Elmhurst library and, in Elmhurst, the Borough President allocated almost $23 million to build a state-of-the-art facility.
