By William Kregler
On Monday, Dec. 18, Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, along with Community Board 2, decided at the last minute to postpone a town hall hearing on the soon to be protected bike lanes along 47th and Skillman avenues.
This will initially remove at least 158 parking spots with more to come with businesses needing loading zones. The surrounding Sunnyside community will feel the huge negative impact like their neighbors along Queens Boulevard have experienced.
With the exception of only one member, CB 2 overwhelmingly voted for phase one of three phases of the Vision Zero program. Thus 600 parking spots were initially lost. The loss of two traffic lanes in order to create bicycles lanes has created bottlenecks of vehicle traffic as well as longer periods of traffic congestion.
This congestion has slowed traffic to a crawl as it overflows into the adjoining neighborhood streets. Speed (i.e. tax) cameras also have hit the pockets of taxpaying motorists whose licenses, registrations and taxes pay for the roads. Failure to address the deterioration of the roadway along Queens Boulevard that I personally recorded and submitted to the DOT has gone unaddressed.
This new uproar is due to the fact that phase one will affect communities west of 48th Street where the vast majority of the community board members are chosen from. These individuals are handpicked representatives who believe they are to support the political agendas of the elected officials who appointed them.
The only chance the Sunnyside residents have in combatting this ill-conceived project is to pressure their community board members to fight for their neighborhood and not for the politicians and special interest groups.
William Kregler
Woodside
