April 5-11, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News® 75 cents
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Rally: Safety facts don’t support DOT analysis
Continued on Page 81
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MP ROAD DIET
RAGE RE-IGNITES
Opponents send scathing MH jail letter
Continued on Page 81
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
Community leaders in
Morris Park are gathering
petition signatures to permanently
eliminate Morris Park
Avenue from a proposed ‘road
diet’ plan because the road’s
safety record has vastly improved
since the last time a
study was commissioned .
The controversial plan, if
implemented, would reduce
the number of travel lanes
for vehicles along most of the
length of the busy street as
part of the larger, citywide Vision
Zero traffi c safety plan.
This is the second petition
undertaken by community
members opposed to the project.
They have already garnered
over 700 signatures, according
to the group that rallied against
the NYC Department of Transportation
proposal outside Big
Deal Supermarket on Morris
Park and Paulding avenues on
Monday, April 1.
Councilman Mark Gjonaj,
who organized the rally, said
that in 2018, 1,000 petition signatures
were collected to express
the community’s strong
opposition to the proposal.
“All stakeholders have been
opposed to this,” said Gjonaj,
citing opposition to the Vision
Zero initiative from local
business owners and residents
alike, as well as at a town hall
meeting hosted in November
2018 by the Morris Park Community
Association.
Both sides of Morris Park
Avenue are lined with mom
and pop stores for its entire
length and these shops get deliveries
all day long.
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Diego Beekman Mutual
Housing CEO Arline Parks
promised to disrupt the city’s
plan to build a jail in Mott
Haven and now she’s putting
her threat into motion.
Parks along with a legal
team scripted a scathing, detailed
letter to the chair of
the NYC City Planning Commission,
Marisa Lago about
siting the Bronx jail at a former
NYPD tow pound on 320
Concord Avenue.
First and foremost, the
Parks team demanded that
the city give the Mott Haven
jail site its own Uniform
Land Use Review Procedure.
Currently, the Bronx’
soon- to -be - cons t ruc ted
26-story jail is bundled along
with the other three citywide
interment facilities as the
procedure began on Monday,
March 25.
“The environmental impacts
of the four actions
should be evaluated separately,”
the letter stated.
“The Bronx facility, especially,
should be analyzed
separately. It is materially
different from the other facilities
and will have different
impacts,” it continued.
St. Frances de Chantal School students enjoyed learning about
the world’s many diverse cultures at their school’s creative International
Day on Tuesday, March 26. Zoe Nilsson (l) and Madison
Baez dressed up in traditional Ecuadorian attire. See photo
spread on page 36. Photo by Aracelis Batista
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