LICBDC news: Borden Ave Bridge back in Sept; LIC boasts low crime rates

Vernon Blvd near 9th St, LIC

Last month, LICBDC held a Queens Agency Breakfast in LIC featuring Maura McCarthy, the Dept. of Transportation’s commissioner for Queens; Paul D’Amore, the Dept. of Parks & Recreation’s deputy chief of operations for Queens; and Lt. Philip Aversano of the 108th Precinct.

In a neighborhood like Long Island City, conversation topics regarding parking, parks, and crime were, as you can imagine, varied.

Via the Queens Gazette:

• The Borden Ave Bridge should be open again by September and the huge building project at the corner of Jackson Avenue and Queens Plaza South “would, when completed, include a garage incorporating municipal parking, though it will not be a municipal garage.”

• 108th Precinct: several statistics were read off that point “to the great decline in the crime rate in recent years,” and apparently “these positive statistics have become so familiar that their significance had to be emphasized by the lieutenant.”

• DOT commish mentioned the improvements to the Queens exit of the Pulaski Bridge, and promised that Jackson Ave and Queens Plaza “will be utterly transformed” by the rebuilding and redesign that have already begun. A “less glorious duty”: adjustments in response to the MTA’s downsizing, which involves improvement of bus routes.

• Audience was urged to use 311 to report potholes or non-functioning streetlights. Developers are encouraged to consult the DOT’s Street Design Manual to “see how it might be useful when they build.” The Jackson Ave redesign was also mentioned: plants are being installed that are especially pollutant absorbent.

• Parks & Recreation commish mentioned “significant projects at Court Square and in Queens Plaza, where there is a strip of plants in front of the MetLife building and, in the northeast corner of the plaza, a 1.2-acre park that is currently being created.” A kayak launch at Hallets Cove in Astoria/LIC is also in production.

• The audience also talked back: man complained that “the new median on Jackson Avenue in front of the Supreme Court building makes it nearly impossible to make a left turn on Jackson at Court Square to get to the parking garage behind the Courthouse.” Response: DOT is trying to impede left turns; “anyone headed for the garage by coming south on Jackson should take a long way round that will wind up coming north and turning right at Court Square to get to that destination.”

• Regarding bike lanes on Vernon Blvd: audience member wrote a letter to DOT saying the bike lanes and alternate side parking directive had cut the number of parking spots in half. Response: DOT will follow any possible changes in the pattern of bike traffic that might lead to restoring some parking spots; alternate side parking is the Dept. of Sanitation’s responsibility.

• DOT also defended the use of 12-hour meters (a third of the 1,100 meters in LIC), saying that “areas closest to Manhattan must accommodate commuters who park there and pick up mass transit into the main business area.”

• LICBDC [Website]

• LICBDC Looks At Parking, Parks, Crime [Queens Gazette]