Slam DOT’s One-Way Reversal In Glendale
Weeks after Glendale residents railed against proposed changes to a one-way street near P.S./I.S. 119 at a public meeting on the Cooper Avenue underpass project, three local lawmakers have formally asked the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) to scrap the proposed conversion.
City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, State Sen. Joseph Addabbo and Assemblyman Mike Miller sent a joint letter to Maura McCarthy, the DOT’s Queens borough commissioner, urging her to reverse its decision to change 74th Street between Cooper and 78th avenues from a oneway for southbound traffic into a oneway northbound.
During a Jan. 24 meeting held by Community Board 5’s Transportation and Public Transit committees at The Shops and Atlas Park on the Cooper Avenue underpass project, McCarthy explained that the change to 74th Street is designed to improve pedestrian safety by eliminating turns from Cooper Avenue onto 74th Street.
The change would also potentially allow school buses serving P.S./I.S. 119-located a block south at the corner of 78th Avenue and 74th Street-to drop off and pick up children on 74th Street, so youngsters would depart and board buses from the same side as the school.
Residents of the block, however, charged at the session that the conversion would only add to congestion on nearby 73rd Place and result in the loss of several parking spots due to turning school buses. Additionally, there were arguments that fewer children would be bused to P.S./I.S. 119 in the years to come as the school transitions into a full elementary school locally zoned to serve Glendale residents.
To that end, Crowley, Miller and Addabbo pointed out that the traffic study conducted by the DOT prior to proposing the one-way change to 74th Street was based on data gathered two years ago, when the school served only students from grades six through eight.
The legislators also argued that eliminating turns from Cooper Avenue onto 74th Street would bring additional traffic problems to the intersection of 78th Avenue and 73rd Place, where numerous students cross each school day.
“I strongly urge the DOT to listen to the wishes of the community and postpone the proposed change for 74th Street,” Crowley said. “The at- tempt to calm traffic and improve safety is admirable, but the DOT is using outdated numbers.”
“This plan does not best represent the needs of our community,” added Assemblyman Mike Miller, who noted that area businesses have also voiced their opposition to the plan. “Any street conversion, such as this one, should be brought to the attention of the community for more intensive scrutiny. The local residents are opposed to this plan. The plan is seeking to remedy a safety situation that may not even exist once P.S./I.S. 119 is converted.”
“The current plan to reroute 74th Street will be detrimental to the small businesses that have been operating in the community for generations,” said State Sen. Joseph Addabbo. “It will also increase traffic volumes on the surrounding streets, making them more dangerous for the pedestrians and school children that use those streets on a daily basis.”
It was noted that the letter from Crowley, Addabbo and Miller has also been sent to constituents in the area of the proposed change alerting them of their opposition.
