About 75 concerned Fresh Meadows residents, many of whom are senior citizens, on Tuesday vehemently opposed the construction of Great Sunshine Daycare on 67th Avenue and 172nd Street saying, despite the center’s name, the site will cast a dark cloud over the suburban neighborhood’s already busy intersection, just one block from PS 173’s playground, and steps from MS 216.
Resident Cliff Hamburger — who presented at a town hall meeting held to discuss concerns about the proposed development — explained potential traffic congestion.
“You can’t unload a school bus in less than a minute,” Hamburger said at the meeting in PS 173’s auditorium.
The drop-off route for the day care will follow the already congested 67th Avenue, and exit from 72nd Street.
“[Or], the mother will have to drop off a toddler, take the child in, get him/her settled, resulting in idling engines,” Hamburger said, adding that staff will need “street parking, weekly deliveries and garbage collection.
“The DOT has agreed to finally conduct a traffic study,” Hamburger added. “So pending that, there is a stop-work order in place for the facility.”
The facility will be equipped with nine classrooms for approximately 290 students, and 30 staff members. It’s also proposed to have 11 parking spaces on the ground floor, one elevator and two staircases.
Rob Agnello, another presenter, discussed sewer capabilities for the facility, which currently only has one at 36 inches in diameter.
12 comments:
Of course we need giant daycare centers. What did you expect when the City started offering "free" babysitting at pre-K. Build it, they will come.
Let's get together and have a press conference with our elected servants and have them explain why this is happening and hear their shite answers !
A day care center is not universal pre-k. They may have pre-k there but that is not what a day care center is.
Do your research before saying something so ignorant about universal pre-k.
Pre-K for all was piloted in many states(look at Georgia now) before being implemented. There is a strong correlation between spending a relatively small amount of money to give everyone pre-K and those kids going to college. The alternative is having those kids drop out of high school.
Instead of making an emotional cry baby argument because you hate it when government pays for anything, do some studying.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Of course we need giant daycare centers. What did you expect when the City started offering "free" babysitting at pre-K. Build it, they will come.
You know the drill
Where are your electeds?
Where is your community board?
Where is Queens Civic Congress?
We really don't need universal pre-K. Kids learn fine without it. Hell, half my class didn't even go to kindergarten and they're accountants, doctors and attorneys.
"You can't unload a school bus in less than a minute," Hamburger said at the meeting in PS 173's auditorium.
As they say, "True dat." Today, as often happens on my way to work, there was a school bus discharging someone at Francis Lewis High School on Utopia Parkway. The student being discharged from the school bus is in a wheelchair, and I have to ask, and I'm not trying to be heartless, but why does the bus have to flash its lights and put out the "Stop" sign, which stops traffic on (busy) Utopia Pkway for about ten minutes, when there is no danger of the passenger running out into traffic, because they are in a wheelchair? (It understandably takes a long time for someone in a wheelchair to get off a school bus.) And why not discharge the student on a side street instead of on Utopia? The traffic congestion by that school is just out of control, with parents stopping in the left lane and dropping their children off, so that they exit into traffic. I know, they'll just install a bike lane and that will solve all of the problems...
"The alternative is having those kids drop out of high school."... So you are saying that if a child doesn't go to pre-K they will become a high school dropout? Sorry, I'm not buying that. You wouldn't be a UFT member by any chance, would you?
>why does the bus have to flash its lights and put out the "Stop" sign, which stops traffic on (busy) Utopia Pkway for about ten minutes, when there is no danger of the passenger running out into traffic, because they are in a wheelchair? (It understandably takes a long time for someone in a wheelchair to get off a school bus.) And why not discharge the student on a side street instead of on Utopia?
Power tripping on the part of bus drivers. If the law allows it, they will do it.
How pathetic. You can't wait a few minutes for wheelchair bound passengers to exit a school bus or find another route so as to avoid that inconvenience? What kind of sub humans are you? It should be your goal to ensure a free quality education to all children, yours, mine - even if they need a wheelchair to get there. Shame on all of you.
Sounds like the invasion is spreading out. No one cares about our neighborhoods anymore except for the long time residents that want to keep these neighborhoods civilized. The rest of the uncivilized population that is moving in could care less, and the politicians that are making a buck and another vote by passing out building permits like movie tickets and creating all this chaos are only in it for themselves.
True - we didn't need Universal Pre-K but only because we had family units (Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles etc.) that had brains not air between their ears, and they took time to teach us, spend time with us, discipline us.
Today is different - people are stupid, lazy and too self involved to be real parents and mentors to their children. They take no personal responsibility for their broods except to drop them off somewhere and have someone else take care of their problem.
Can't wait to see how f'd up that generation will turn out to be.
"True - we didn't need Universal Pre-K but only because we had family units (Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles etc.) that had brains not air between their ears, and they took time to teach us, spend time with us, discipline us.
Today is different - people are stupid, lazy and too self involved to be real parents and mentors to their children. They take no personal responsibility for their broods except to drop them off somewhere and have someone else take care of their problem."
Sorry to interrupt the good old ways fantasy, but part of the reason all these folks were available to help with child care is that they didn't ALL have to work. When you have grandparents working at 65+, they don't have time/energy/health to take care of grandkids. Both parents are also outside the home working everyday and aunts and uncles are doing the same.
It is the rare few who have non-working, healthy family members available to look after kids. Especially if you wait until your mid-late 30s to have kids. At that point, your parents, even if they are retired, are not in the best of health to take on full-time child care responsibility while you and your spouse go to work.
How pathetic. You can't wait a few minutes for wheelchair bound passengers to exit a school bus or find another route so as to avoid that inconvenience? What kind of sub humans are you? It should be your goal to ensure a free quality education to all children, yours, mine - even if they need a wheelchair to get there. Shame on all of you.
I think it's clear that the complaint was directed against the bus driver, not the handicapped teenager.
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