editorial 28 THE COURIER SUN • JUNE 9, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com sun WWW.COURIERSUN.COM VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH STEPHEN REINA RON TORINA, JONATHAN RODRIGUEZ, CHERYL GALLAGHER KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA BRIANNA ELLIS KATARINA HYBENOVA CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI JACLYN HERTLING DEBORAH CUSICK WARREN SUSSMAN CELESTE ALAMIN MARIA VALENCIA VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS PUBLISHER & EDITOR CO-PUBLISHER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VP, EVENTS, WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA ART DIRECTOR ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR ARTISTS STAFF REPORTERS DIGITAL EDITOR CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS EVENTS COORDINATOR ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE CLASSIFIED MANAGER CONTROLLER PRESIDENT & CEO VICE PRESIDENT Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 www.qns.com editorial e-mail: [email protected] for advertising e-mail: [email protected] Entire Contents Copyright 2016 by The Courier Sun All letters sent to THE COURIER SUN should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE COURIER SUN. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to THE COURIER SUN within fi ve days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. VIctoria Media Services assumes no liability for the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold THE COURIER SUN and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement. SNAPS QUEENS BUS STOP // PHOTO BY XUETING CHEN Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us tag @queenscourier on Instagram, Facebook page, tweeting @queenscourier or by emailing [email protected] (subject: Queens Snaps). Something better for Flushing? He was for it before he was against it. That political strategy might seem effective for a presidential campaign, but it’s a terrible working theory in government. Nonetheless, that’s exactly what Mayor Bill de Blasio did in putting the kibosh on the Flushing West re-development project — an idea he initially supported as part of his overarching affordable housing plan — last month. The affordable housing component for the Flushing West project may be gone, but it should not stall the entire redevelopment plan altogether. The city should allow those behind the project to move it forward in order to properly transform and reuse a blighted area of the neighborhood. While the de Blasio administration and local Councilman Peter Koo cited logistical issues regarding the project, in reality, the plan itself was inadequate. The number of affordable housing units that the mayor wanted at Flushing West made the project cost prohibitive to developers. What the developers really need is state legislation reinstituting expired tax abatements that incentivize the creation of affordable housing units at Flushing West and other developments across the city. The abatements would allow the developers to be able to create the proper number of affordable housing units while still managing to obtain a decent return on their investment. The Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation must continue with its work. Let there be no doubt that Flushing is in sore need both of redevelopment and affordable housing. The Flushing Rezoning Community Alliance said as much in the wake of the mayor’s announcement, stressing that many Flushing residents are being priced out of the area by unscrupulous landlords looking to jack up the price amid a scalding hot real estate market. The short-term solution for the city is to take enforcement action to protect tenants and crack down on greedy landlords. But in the long term, how can the city create more affordable units in a neighborhood with so many environmental and logistical issues, as Koo said and de Blasio agreed? Perhaps the city should come up with a master plan not just for Flushing West but for the whole of Flushing, identifying the neighborhood’s critical needs and forming proper solutions to solving them. Only then would the mayor’s rejection of his very own plan make sense. The Queens Courier and the Mayor’s Offi ce are proud to present a weekly column in which Mayor Bill de Blasio answers your questions about issues that concern you the most. If you have a question aboutanything going on in the city, in your neighborhood or on your block, we want to hear from you! Email us at editorial@ qns.com and Mayor de Blasio will get you an answer! We’ve had some major potholes along Douglaston Parkway in Little Neck. When can we expect them to be fi xed? What can we do to ask the city to repave a street, and how long does it take for it to happen? First, I’m happy to report that thus far, the City has repaired a total of 1,121,440 potholes, and that the most current Average Response Time to repair a pothole is 2.89 days. To address your specifi c concern, the Department of Environmental Protection – which maintains the City’s subsurface sewers and water mains – along with the Department of Transportation are evaluating what repairs need to be made to Douglaston Parkway between the Long Island Expressway and the Grand Central Parkway. Douglaston Parkway was resurfaced in 2013 from Horace Harding to Northern Blvd, and the Department of Transportation will reevaluate north of Northern Blvd. The City strives to perform the most durable roadway repairs in the most timely matter possible. During paving and pothole season, which generally runs from December through June, anywhere from 25 to 75 separate DOT crews are dispatched daily to repair roadways and potholes. The crews work in all fi ve boroughs, responding to requests from residents and local stakeholders. During Fiscal Year 2016 we have repaved 1,135 lane miles citywide, and repaired more than 265,000 potholes citywide. This calendar year to date (01/01/2016 – 06/06/2016) we have repaved 384 lane miles citywide. We have also repaired 164,269 potholes citywide, a substantial decrease compared to last year when we repaired 332,392 potholes citywide during the same period of time. Fewer potholes and smoother roads are the result of our efforts to repave across the fi ve boroughs after last year’s $1.6 billion commitment to resurface roads all over the city over the next decade – a substantial increase in funding to improve the state of good repair of city streets and reduce the number of potholes. This week, we announced further good news: because of lower oil prices and drier weather, the City is anticipating it will pave 65 more lane-miles than anticipated this fi scal year. I encourage residents to contact 311 or fi le a pothole report on the DOT website. Ask the MAYOR
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