Plans To Pound Hotline With Woodhaven Gripes
The Woodhaven Residents Block Association (WRBA) celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with visits from Assemblyman Mike Miller and the 102nd Precinct at its meeting on Mar. 17 at the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
Ed Wendell, the group’s president, announced two initiatives related to the city’s 311 system.
On Mar. 31, the WRBA will be holding a “311 Day.” Residents are being asked to walk around their neighborhood and report quality of life problems to the civic group, which will then “report a ton of conditions to 311,” according to Wendell.
“We’re going to track them on a monthly basis to see what percentage of these items are taken care of,” he explained.
The civic group is looking for sponsors that will contribute money for each 311 call.
The WRBA is also beginning a “Woodhaven Noisebusters” program to crack down on repeat noise offenders.
“One of the problems that we are absolutely sick to death of is noise in our community in the summertime,” he told the crowd.
Volunteers will be connected to a network of cellphones. When a volunteer comes across a serious noise issues, they will send out a text message alert to the network with the address of the condition. All members of the network would then call 311 and report the noise complaint.
“It’s going to cause 311 to get a little annoyed at us for clogging the system,” said Wendell. “You know what? Solve the problem.”
102nd Precinct report
P.O. Jose Severino of the 102nd Precinct Community Affairs Unit began his report by recapping the recent apprehension of a local man by the FBI as part of a large heroin ring in the New York area. (See Page 2 of last week’s issue or www.timesnewsweekly.com for more information on the Perez Organization crackdown.)
Severino warned that heroin is “a scary drug; it’s very dangerous and it’s very affordable … It’s cheaper than cigarettes. That’s how quickly they can manufacture the drug.”
Turning to iPhone thefts, he urged residents who own one to install the “Find My iPhone” app, which allows the owner to track the phone if it is stolen.
“In the last three months, anywhere you look … thieves are being caught with the features in this app,” Severino said, adding that several recent Cops of the Month have been related to the use of this feature to apprehend criminals. “It’s so, so great.”
The application also allows owners to wipe data from the phone from another computer.
Wendell and several other residents asked Severino to help alleviate tensions at P.S. 306, at 95-16 89th Ave., where parents have allegedly been blocking driveways when dropping off and picking up students.
“I’m concerned that it’s really going to escalate,” Wendell warned. “They are reaching the boiling point.”
One resident who lives across the street from P.S. 306 told Severino that faculty members have also been blocking driveways, sometimes blocking the homeowner’s vehicle.
“If you want to make some extra bucks writing out tickets, please come” to the area, he pleaded.
Severino told the WRBA that he had met with school officials on the issue, and that the precinct can and will issue summonses if they are called to the area.
He added, however, that the precinct cannot tow a car unless it encroaches on the homeowner’s property.
Conditions around J.H.S. 210 were also brought up, with students loitering about afterschool. Severino admitted that it was “a constant ongoing issue.” Assemblyman Miller told the crowd he was attempting to get additional School Safety officers to the school, at 93-11 101st Ave. in Ozone Park.
One resident reported that his child was knocked down by a man at Jamaica and 88th avenues who allegedly claimed to have a weapon and asked for his valuables. The man was chased away, the resident added, praising the 102nd Precinct for their prompt response.
Wendell also spoke of a recent incident in which a cat was found beaten to death on 78th Street. It was found that the perpetrator was from Ozone Park and used a lug wrench to commit the crime, he claimed.
Residents also complained of a dangerous intersection at Jamaica Avenue and 80th Street.
“It’s a racetrack; an absolute racetrack,” said another neighbor. “We have kids running up and down the block. It’s a matter of time.”
Severino suggested that they call Community Board 9 and ask for a study for the feasibility of a speed hump.
Assemblyman Miller
“It was a crazy day, then a crazy night, then a crazy day again,” Miller told the crowd, referring to the marathon legislative session that resulted in a deal on redistricting, pensions, state gambling, a DNA Databank and teacher evaluations. “We did a lot of work that night.”
He admitted that while he had signed former mayor Ed Koch’s pledge for an independent redistricting commission, he decided an hour before the vote to support the redistricting plan, feeling that the compromise- in which the maps were approved in exchange for the creation of a constitutional amendment creating a bipartisan redistricting commission-” protects the people.”
He added that he found the maps preferable to leading it up to the courts.
The WRBA’s Maria Thomson called the new State Senate lines “awful, just awful,” pointing out that it’s now split between three different State Senators.
“You’re 100 percent correct. Had it gone to [the courts], it would have been worse,” he stated.
State gambling, if legalized in a constitutional amendment, will be limited to seven sites, said Miller, who said that he preferred that the area’s two “racinos”-South Ozone Park’s Resorts World and Empire City in Yonkers-be among those two sites.
Street change aftermath; other news
– Wendell began the meeting by jokingly reciting “an Old Irish proverb” relating to Board 9’s disapproval of two proposed traffic flow changes at its Mar. 13 meeting: “you can turn a road around but you can’t turn a road around in Woodhaven without our permission.”
“When we all pull together and work together, we can accomplish almost anything,” Wendell told the crowd.
(For more information, see the Board 9 recap on Page 1.)
– Later in the meeting, one resident asked the WRBA about the existence of a “hookah lounge” on Jamaica Avenue and 80th Street, not being familiar with the type of establishment.
Wendell explained that a hookah lounge is a café that features water pipes with flavored tobacco. Hookah lounges are popular in India and the Middle East, and have grown in popularity in New York.
They are not illegal, but they must apply for a license. In addition, this particular café does not have a liquor license.
– Wendell announced that the WRBA has raised enough money to sponsor a local Little League baseball squad.
Future meetings
The May 19 meeting of the WRBA will take place as a location to be determined, as the Ambulance Corps will be booked on that date.
Instead of a June meeting, the civic group will hold a Block Party at the Forest Park picnic area on June 23.
The WRBA ‘s next meeting will take place on Apr. 21 at 1 p.m. at the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps, located at 78- 15 Jamaica Ave. For additional information, call 1-718-296-3735 or visit online at www.woodhavennyc.org.
