DOT Unveils Traffic Plan For Rego Center Mall, But Residents Say They’re In The Wrong Place
While Community Board 6 approved a Department of Transportation (DOT) plan to alleviate speeding around the Rego Center mall at its Mar. 14 meeting in the Rego Park mall’s community room, residents claimed other improvements were needed.
The DOT’s Jesse Mintz-Roth unveiled a series of proposed improvements to 62nd Drive, 63rd Road and other streets surrounding the mall.
Mintz-Roth claimed that the area is in the highest percentile of pedestrian accidents since 2005.
“There’s clearly a demonstrated need for safety improvements here,” he told the crowd.
The area is part of a larger study focusing on senior pedestrian safety, he added; “Rego Park is one of the hottest clusters” when it comes to senior pedestrian injuries, Mintz- Roth said.
Many of the proposals involve taking 63rd Road from Queens Boulevard to 112th Street, removing one travel lane and widening the parking lane. The DOT had sug- gested angled back-in parking between 108th and 112th streets but changed their plans after Board 6 objected.
On 62nd Drive between 112th and 108th streets, parking lanes will be widened and a double yellow line will be installed to direct traffic on the two-way street. From 108th and Apex Place and 99th to 97th streets, parking lanes will be widened on the one-way stretch.
As 62nd Drive approaches Queens Boulevard, turning lanes will be drawn onto the roadway to organize traffic flow. Mintz-Roth stated that this was a request from the NYPD.
Parking lanes will also be widened at 63rd Avenue between Queens Boulevard and Austin Street.
Finally, at Junction Boulevard between Queens Boulevard and 62nd Drive, the DOT will installed back-in angled metered parking, which will add 10 spaces while shrinking the traffic lane.
The benefits of the plan, according to Mintz-Roth, will be calmer traffic, improved pedestrian visibility and safety, organizing of traffic as it approaches Queens Boulevard and the additional parking spots.
However, most of the residents at the meeting urged Board 6, the DOT and the 112th Precinct to address congestion on 97th Street instead.
“It’s treacherous up there,” one resident warned; another warned that “people are going to get killed.”
“I attended a meeting two years ago when we talked about the anticipated congestion of this neighborhood and it has not been addressed,” another resident stated. “This is fine, and you have the numbers to back it up, but you have not addressed the congestion that the mall has generated and created.”
One resident asked for a midblock traffic signal on 97th Street between 62nd Drive and the Harding Expressway.
“We need something there because it’s so much traffic,” she argued.
DOT Queens Commissioner Maura McCarthy claimed that “it would be very unusual for a midblock signal to be installed, for distance reasons,” but that her agency will look at the area.
P.O. Gigi Redzematovic of the 112th Precinct Community Affairs Unit stated that they are attempting to get a crossing guard at that location to help students heading to area schools, but that they are waiting for a new class of guards to graduate.
“I can’t push,” she said. “It’s a part-time thing.”
Board 6’s Chris Collett and some of the other board members also expressed concerns about the back-in parking, with the loading dock across the street.
Board 6 Chairperson Joseph Hennessy asked the DOT to investigate the possibility of allowing more cars to turn from 62nd Drive onto Queens Boulevard.
John Dereszewski, who chairs Board 6’s Transportation Committee, noted that the proposal would “rationalize traffic flow on these streets” and recommended its adoption. Board 6 would vote in its favor.
Both Dereszewski and DOT Queens Commissioner Maura Mc- Carthy told the Times Newsweekly that they would study improvements to the 97th Street congestion issue.
Other news
In his report to Board 6, Chairperson Joseph Hennessy announced that the city wants to cut community board budgets by six percent as part of a larger set of proposed cutbacks in the new city budget.
“You name it, it’s being cut,” he warned.
Libraries, schools and firehouses are also on the chopping block.
Hennessy pointed out that according to the Borough President’s Office, “per capita per person, Queens gets $2.08. Staten Island gets $8.32. Manhattan gets more.”
District Manager Frank Gulluscio begged residents to call their elected officials and protest the cuts.
Joan Bush of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System came to speak about the center’s efforts to curb tobacco use in Queens.
“Tobacco kills more New Yorkers that AIDS, drugs, homicides and suicides combined,” she noted.
Last year, all city parks and beaches were made smoke-free, she added.
Board 6 approved a street fair fund-raiser for the Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which will take place on June 2 on 71st Avenue between Austin Street and Queens Boulevard.
They also approved a new liquor license for Maywick LLC, at 108-25 Ascan Ave. in Forest Hills.
Community Board 6 meets on the second Wednesday of the month at the Kew Gardens Community Center, located at 80-02 Kew Gardens Rd.
