Board (Photo: QueensPost)
March 29, 2013 By Christian Murray
The Sunnyside Business Improvement District outlined its 2012 achievements at its annual meeting last Thursday and elected a largely unchanged board.
Rachel Thieme, the BID’s executive director, told the 60-member audience that Sunnyside Shines (aka the BID) had spent $388,000 in fiscal year 2012 with most of the funds being spent on streetscaping, sanitation and a host of local promotions.
Thieme listed many marketing and beautification programs that took place within the BID zone, which covers 38th Street to 50th Streets on Queens Blvd, and 42nd to 50th Streets along Greenpoint/Roosevelt Ave. They included:
- 1) 45 hanging flower baskets
- 2) The Taste of Sunnyside
- 3) Free pictures with Santa, held at the BID’s office in December.
- 4) Summer Streets (a series of concerts held under the arch every Saturday in August)
- 5) Movies in the Park (Movies that took place on three Friday nights at Noonan Park)
- 6) Seven days per week supplemental sanitation (workers picked up 60,000 bags of trash and removed 3,000 instances of graffiti during 2012)
- 7) Holiday lights (which included four ‘Welcome to Sunnyside’ signs, 30 streamers and 26 snowflakes)
- 8) The installation of 11 benches.
- 9) Continued maintenance of the Sunnyside Arch
Thieme said that the BID has stepped up its efforts to combat graffiti, with the implementation of a monthly removal program. She also said that plans are in the works to create a committee to recruit businesses to Sunnyside.
The same board members were elected as last year with the exception of Patrice Lee — who is ineligible since she no longer owns a business in the district with the closing of April Glass)– and Joseph Wessely, who represented Dime Bank. Dime owned the property at the corner of 43rd and Queens Blvd. until it sold the building late last year.
The BID board, comprised of 17 members, has had very little turnover since the organization was established in 2008. The BID’s bylaws (like all NYC BIDS) require that the majority of the board members—or nine in this case– be landlords with real estate in the district.
With five city officials—as required by BID rules—also sitting on the board, there are only three other spots available. Two have been allocated to local business owners and one spot for a resident who lives within the BID borders.
Lee was replaced by Czarinna Andres, whose family owns Bing’s Hallmark on Greenpoint Avenue, while Maureen Stathis, a landlord, replaced Wessely.
Two new board positions were created (making the 17 board members), with one going to Michael Fonte of TD Bank (as a business owner) and another to Thomas Conte, a landlord who owns Conte’s Realty Corp.
As in the past, John Vogt, who is a property owner via White Castle, was re-elected as chairman; Chris Winchester, of Pickman Realty, was named vice chairman; and Arthur Weiner, of LIC Building, the treasurer.
