Friday, August 12, 2011

Unsafe school sites OK'd by Council

From the Times Newsweekly:

The City Council passed resolutions last Thursday, July 28 regarding two Corona school sites that the School Construction Authority (SCA) has pushed over the objections of Community Board 4 and members of the Fire Department.

One site, a proposed 800-seat elementary/ intermediate school to be located at 97-36 43rd Ave., was voted down at Board 4’s Feb. 2, 2010 meeting due to complaints from members of the FDNY and NYPD—including Roger Montesano of the FDNY’s Community Affairs unit—that school buses and other traffic would impede responses to emergencies. Board 4 also noted the school site’s proximity to a nearby poultry slaughterhouse.

The other site, a proposed 1,100- seat elementary school at 96-18 43rd Ave., was voted down at Board 4’s May 10 meeting due to similar complaints from Vincent Mavaro, the commander of FDNY Battalion 46.

Both the FDNY and NYPD claim to use 44th Avenue, a relatively narrow road, as a main street to get to emergencies. The headquarters of Engine Co. 289 and Ladder Co. 138 are located near the schools.

However, in written testimony submitted to the City Council’s Committee on Land Use, both the School Construction Authority and the City Planning Commission recommended construction of the schools.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can anyone explain to me why the fools on the City Landuse Cmte. approved the building of 2 schools in an area where the street is highly congested with traffic. Testimony by the Fire Dept., Police Dept., community residents and board members, regarding the dangerous and hazardous streets where these proposed schools would be built, was totally ignored. CB# voted it down but the City, CPC & SCA see it as being perfectly safe. The fact that the Landuse Cmte. were advised of the extreme peril it would place children, people, fire & police, (who constantly use this throughfare on a daily basis), evidently doesn't amount to a hill of beans & they don't give a damn about the communities they represent. Board members are for the community and they vote for the betterment of their respective neighborhoods but these fools who sit on Landuse, CPC & SCA, just turn their heads and say "screw the community". Why, then, I ask, do we have community boards. What is their function in the community when their opinions and votes are never considered as well as the residents who live there. I, for one, am sick & tired of these jerks not being able to see past the end of their noses. Our communities are being destroyed by elected officials who know little or nothing about anything. NYC is in deep trouble with the so called leaders.

Anonymous said...

I concur

Anonymous said...

There is an easy solution. Shrink the catchment area for the new school so that no kid will qualify for busing. There is a 1/2 mile limit to busing. The exception is PreK and Special Ed.

If that is too extreme, then shrink the zone to the size where all the buses will fit on the 44th Ave and 97 Pl ONLY.

Have 43rd Ave as is, and enforce no double parking. The 110 Precinct is a 2.5 blocks away on 43rd Ave.

As for noise, the site is right next to the LIRR for crying out loud. Sound and vibration mitigation for a commuter train should absorb a fire engine siren pretty well.