Structure Issues Lead To Its Demise
Safety concerns forced the city Department of Transportation (DOT) to permanently close its municipal garage and parking lot near Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens on Tuesday, Sept. 23, it was announced.
According to a Department of Buildings spokesperson, the garage and lot located at the corner of 82nd Avenue and 126th Street was “deemed structurally unsound” following an assessment that the DOT requested.
The parking facilities are frequently used by those with business at both Queens Borough Hall and the nearby Queens County Criminal Courthouse. The DOT encourages those traveling to both locations to use public transportation or, if they must drive, other garages in the community.
Neither the Buildings Department nor the DOT disclosed to the Times Newsweekly the specific issues inside the garage and lot that led to the structure’s emergency closure. Reportedly, the agency notified lawmakers earlier this year of the garage’s woes, and informed them on Sept. 16 that they would close the garage on Oct. 1.
Michael Cohen, legislative director for City Council Member Karen Koslowitz, told this paper on Wednesday, Sept. 24 that the garage-which opened 30 years ago-reached the end of its shelf life and had various structural problems that inspectors deemed too costly to repair.
Cohen added that the city intends to demolish the structure and replace it with a surface parking field for 300 cars, about 200 fewer spots than the garage and lot provided.
In a statement emailed to the Times Newsweekly on Wednesday, Koslowitz said she understood “that the municipal lot is no longer safe and needs to be closed.”
“What I don’t understand is why city agencies, having come to this conclusion months ago, did not notify the community and elected officials so that we might better plan for the closing of this parking field,” she added. “Now we have to try and come up with remedies, partial as that they may be, after the fact.”
As for a contingency plan, the DOT suspended alternate-side parking regulations yesterday for streets near Queens Borough Hall in an area generally bounded by Union Turnpike, Main Street, Queens Boulevard, Hillside Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue. Street cleaning regulations are suspended citywide today and tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, Sept. 25-26, for Rosh Hashanah.
As the Times Newsweekly went to press, it was not known if the temporary alternate-side suspension would continue beyond Friday. Updates on the situation will be posted on the paper’s Twitter account, www.twitter.com/ timesnewsweekly.
“We will continue to work with the local community to help address its parking needs, and Traffic Enforcement Agents have been assigned to the area,” according to a DOT announcement on Tuesday afternoon.
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown wrote to Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sept. 18 after learning about the garage’s impending closure in October.
In the letter, which the Times Newsweekly obtained, Katz and Brown were critical that the action was being taken “without any coherent plans to create supplemental parking capacity immediately around Borough Hall and Queens Criminal Court.”
“In addition, DOT has not done a traffic study to determine the impacts of such a sudden closure on this already congested traffic area,” they wrote. “Closing the [municipal lot] with insufficient time or ability to prepare will have immediate negative impacts on the entire community ….”
“We would never want any member of the public or our staff to be exposed to physical danger or property damage,” they added. “To take such drastic action without any sort of plan to mitigate the consequences to the community is not responsible and not fair to the people of this borough who rely on accessing these buildings.”
