Seeking solutions for Fresh Meadows flooding

Daily News photo

From the Queens Tribune:

The Department of Environmental Protection is not doing enough to stop the flooding that has plagued Fresh Meadows for decades, residents said at a town hall meeting last Wednesday.

Billed as a meeting “to educate homeowners on how to protect their property from rainwater” and to inform them about recent infrastructure developments to reduce flooding, the town hall at the Utopia Jewish Center turned into a platform for homeowners to vent their frustration about a problem that’s been plaguing their neighborhood since the 1940s.

The strategies addressed two kinds of flooding, both of which occur in Fresh Meadows. The first is sewer backups, caused when sewers exceed their capacity due to heavy rain, and overflow out of basement toilets or floor drains. The second is street-level flooding.

Causes of flooding can range from cooking grease in the sewer pipes to tree roots to roads that slope the wrong way. In Utopia, chronic flooding has led to an abundance of theories on the causes – like a special valve that prevents flooding to LaGuardia airport and redirects the water towards Utopia.

That rumor was dismissed by the DEP. But either way, it’s clear that the problems with flooding in Utopia and Fresh Meadows are systemic. The question is how much the city can, or will, do.

At least someone remembers last summer

Congressman Anthony Weiner is holding a Town Hall meeting with the DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. The purpose is to discuss the community's needs and issues in regards to the major flooding we've been experiencing over the last year. The meeting will take place at the Utopia Jewish Center on Utopia Parkway and 65th Ave. Other elected officials and representatives from other city agencies are also expected.

Map crap

Attached is a 1901 planning map of southern Queens, which shows an endless grid covering the entire borough.

In my opinion, this is where the crappification of our borough may have begun, when our city began to look at Queens as an endless suburb, rather than a collection of towns with their own unique grids and routes. On this map, wetlands and creeks are erased, there are no large parks, or diagonal roads.

The area is Idlewild, which remained largely undeveloped until 1948, then an airport covered almost everything south of the Belt Parkway between Howard Beach and the County Line. Had the airport not been built, this area would probably have resembled the rest of South Ozone Park, with long rectangular blocks and tract housing.

A second attached map shows a master plan for the future of Flushing in the early 1930s. Kissena Creek is wiped from the map, and the only exceptions to the endless grid are the Parental Home (future Queens College), cemeteries, and a number of golf clubs. I wonder why the mapmakers expected the farmers to sell their lands to the grid, but the golf clubs to remain. Flushing Meadows is labeled as the "World's Fair Site."

The third attachment shows northern Forest Hills, where Cord Meyer created an alphabetic grid from Atom to Zuni. Notice how the proposed grid marches over the meandering Flushing River. Thankfully, Robert Moses was able to save the river as part of the 1939 World's Fair plan.

The lesson here is clear, grids are ugly. Neigborhoods without grids, such as Waldheim, Jamaica Estates, Bayside Gables, Forest Hills Gardens, and Malba have a certain charm and sense of history, while places like Utopia and HIllcrest have the monotony of the numbered grid. I apologize in advance for offending your Hillcrest readers. Grid-defying such as Apex Place, Hawtree Creek Road, and Jackson Mill Road deserve to be preserved. Often, these streets are their neighborhoods' last link to a time before the ugly grid was imposed on our borough.

Also note that while a strict rectangular grid can be ugly, its polar opposite- a Levittown street maze can also be a problem.

-Mazeartist

Commercial Crap, part 2

Want to erect commercial crap? Tear down a one-family house at 61-09 Utopia Parkway, subdivide the lot to make 61-07 Utopia Parkway, and squeeze in two attached store buildings. Of course, put "community facilities" on the 2nd floors of each so you can stretch them into 3 floors.

And this is very important: Don't protect workers' safety or adjoining properties.

See also Commercial crap, part 1.