Bayside Burger King bites the dust

Dear QC,

In case you're interested, looks like a large retail development is going to replace the Burger King location near the Cross Island entrance on Northern Blvd. Safe to say this will generate more traffic here, but I am a little relieved it is not going to be residential.

Mike in Bayside

More path problems at Little Bay Park

"It seems Parks Dept is flip-flopping on leaving a temporary Bike/Pedestrian path by Fort Totten's Little Bay Park "Comfort station construction project. Last weekend they opened up the fence on both sides so the path was completely usable. But I went today and its all closed up again. Can we talk to Parks; I was told Mike Agnella was in charge there of that park. Or give me the keys to the truck, I'll lay down some asphalt over the grass, as temp path.

At least they put up a sign on the fence by the 212 street side of the parking lot explaining what will be built AND, "Scheduled Completion: Fall 2014".

That's 2 complete seasons! If they leave it with no access from one side to the other, without risking one's life tangling with cars on the CIP entrance ramp!" - Upset in Bayside

Rapist scared off in Whitestone

From the Daily News:

Racing to rescue a helpless woman from the clutches of a would-be rapist, Bryan Teichman had just seconds Wednesday to decide whether he should start yelling - or revert to his Marine training and attack the man.

"My gut said to scream first, to avoid the conflict," said the 31-year-old Queens resident. "So I screamed, you know, some profanities, but basically: 'Get off her!'"

That was enough, police said, to send the suspect running - and for Teichman to be hailed as the city's newest hero.

Malba's traffic problem

From the Times Ledger:

When Robert Moses built the Cross Island Parkway in the 1930s, cars taking what is now called the Third Avenue exit were able to enter the quiet neighborhood by 7th Avenue, a 70-foot-wide road Moses built to handle the anticipated traffic in the area.

That changed as the years passed. First, 7th Avenue was blocked from exiting traffic and in 1997 a divider was extended to keep highway traffic off Sixth Avenue.

As such, many residents say 3rd, 4th and 5th avenues have turned into speedways, with parents afraid to let their children play in their yards along the tree-lined streets.

So the Malba Gardens Civic, a group with dozens of members in the immediate area, sent out a poll asking area residents what should be done to address the situation, after which they proposed the city convert 4th and 5th avenues between Whitestone Expressway and 147th Street to one-way.

Maura McCarthy, the city Department of Transportation’s Queens borough commissioner, attended the meeting to respond to the civic’s proposal. She said since an October 2009 meeting when she first heard the concerns, the DOT has done several studies.

The department found that 107 cars passed down 5th Avenue between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. at an average of 27.9 miles per hour, with 31 percent of drivers speeding. But 3rd Avenue was more affected by traffic problems, the study showed, as 152 vehicles drove on the street between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the day of the study, while only 13 drove on 4th Avenue in the same period. Between 2004 and 2008, six car crashes occurred on 3rd, zero on 4th and two on 5th.

McCarthy said the city would not automatically make changes to the streets based on those statistics and that proposals to install stop signs or traffic lights are untenable as the volumes do not reach required thresholds.

DOT: Good at wasting time with studies. Bad at improving traffic.

Gene - nice bag. Prada or Gucci?

Crap on the bluff

Now this makes for a lovely sight when you are strolling along Little Neck Bay in Bayside. Decided to delve further into why it looks like this. Address is 31-09 218th Street. Here's what it used to look like:

Something went wrong with the plans self-certified by a Main Street architect, and the site became abandoned, as noted in this Google Maps photo from circa 2008:

Last Summer, the DOB issued a stop work order - on this abandoned construction site - for a defective fence. It's amazing how effective they are in stopping work on already stalled sites. [Great job, Ira and Bobby!]
The City could condemn it in order to create an extension of Golden Park (after all, it is blighting the neighborhood), but then that would negatively affect a developer and positively affect the community, and under Mayor Bloomberg, we can't have that.