City officials told amNewYork on
Tuesday that cyclists and pedestrians will finally have their own lanes on the Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridge, ending a years-long controversy that had the two groups sharing a narrow path on the vehicle-heavy span.
Starting May 18, the north outer
roadway of the Queensboro Bridge will be used exclusively for cyclists,
and the south outer roadway, which is currently a vehicle lane, will
become a dedicated space for pedestrians.
The Queensboro Bridge, which connects
Queens to Midtown, is the only city-owned bridge above the East River
without separate paths for pedestrians and cyclists. Currently, the
north outer roadway of the bridge is a shared space that crushes both
pedestrians and cyclists together in a tight, 11-foot lane.
Advocates (aka lobbyists) have fought to open a
separate pedestrian path, citing dangerous overcrowding that has led to
conflicts among cyclists, pedestrians and micromobility users. Manhattan
Community Board 6 even passed a resolution in October calling on the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT)
to open the path without delay and “without regard to delays of
construction,” which was being done on the bridge’s upper level last
year.
However, once the south outer roadway
opens for foot traffic, the bridge’s pedestrian and cycling space will
double while eliminating space for vehicles.
he new pathway was supposed to open
sooner but Mayor Eric Adams, at first, delayed the celebration to ensure
he and his team were fully briefed, and the new layout did not
negatively impact traffic, a City Hall spokesperson explained.
The double-decker Queensboro Bridge
was built in 1909. Adams cited the span’s history by saying it has
connected New Yorkers between Manhattan and Queens for 100 years while
offering “breathtaking views” of the cityscape.
“Now, our administration will make it
even easier and safer to do so,” Mayor Adams said. “The more we make it
safe to walk and bike, the more people utilize their bikes, and thanks
to new cycling infrastructure in communities near the bridge, more and
more pedestrians and cyclists are utilizing the Queensboro Bridge.
Today’s announcement doubling the space available for pedestrians and
cyclists builds off those upgrades and is a win-win for everyday New
Yorkers.”
During my fundraiser in #Maspeth, a huge fire broke out across the street. The fire started from folks living in an RV, trying to generate electricity. We cannot have streets filled with RV’s that people live in full time. The fire spread to the location of GoodFellas Diner,… pic.twitter.com/UrpJHrlDJQ
Back in March I only saw about 8 RVs, none were by the Goodfellas Diner. Looks like a bunch more trailers moved in when the weather got warmer. Can the City of Yes fix this?
A fireball from a parked RV sparked a fire that tore through an iconic Queens diner from the movie “Goodfellas” – and now one mayoral candidate is calling for a camper crackdown.
The fire erupted at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at GoodFellas Diner in Maspeth with 60 firefighters eventually arriving to put out the flames, according to the FDNY.
“We were talking about all the RVs and debris in the garbage and the problems that come with this epidemic of RVs on the streets of the outer boroughs, and that’s when boom!,” Sliwa said. “We all came running out of the Clinton Hall, and we saw the truck exploded on fire and watched as the fire spread to the Goodfellas diner.”
The fire has reignited debate over illegal RVs in the outer boroughs neighborhoods like Maspeth, Red Hook, and Hunts Point, which have seen streets taken over by dilapidated campers, local outlets have reported.
Sliwa blamed City Hall for the latest.
“There’s no police response, no DOT response, nothing like this right here, you got campers parked on the lot of the Goodfellas Diner?! The Buildings Department should be out here asking what the hell is going on, but nothing,” he said.
Today is the day City Council has a remote hearing on a deranged and autocratic proposal by the Department of Transportation to give restaurants, BIDs and Transportation Alternatives and Open Plans connected groups the right to annex roads and steal parking spaces for privatization to continue the pandemic era "open streets" program that barricades streets and impedes traffic.
A good example of this colonizing of the streets of New York for dining and drinking is this space hogging restaurant that built two shanties and stole multiple parking spaces where the aforementioned urbanist lobbyists have ties.
Update.
17 people were living in this house. Queens Borough Redundancy/President Donnie Richards called the fire "preventable", which is pretty far-fetched considering these boarders could only afford to live virtually on top of each other because the city built a bunch of towers in the city's housing connect system that were 80% market rate.
The landlord decided to put the fire out himself and waited to call 911.
The City Of Yes will fix this.
The two-alarm blaze broke out on Chevy Chase St. near Henley
Road in Jamaica Estates about 1:30 a.m., officials said, with the
inferno soon bursting through the windows and roof.
FDNY officials described the house as a firetrap,
with no apparent smoke detectors, makeshift walls and occupants packed
into apartments on the first and second floor as well as the cellar and
attic.
One of the survivors described making a desperate escape as his father died leaping out of a second-story window.
“There was a lot of smoke inside. We cannot get out. I
broke the window so we can just get out of the window. This is the only
way,” said Abdullah Zaher, 25. “There was no flames upstairs. Smoke! My
father jumped, my brother jumped, and I jumped in the end.”
Zaher’s hand bled heavily from breaking the window as he spoke to the Daily News hours later. His father didn’t survive.
“He was everything to me, literally everything to me.
He was a friend, he was a father, he was a giver. Literally everything.
There was food, he would give me the food,” Zaher said. “He’s still
working, trying to survive. He was a chauffeur.. Uber driver.”
Firefighters found three men dead at the scene, ages 45, 52 and 67, according to police.
“There’s no evidence to us at this time that there’s a
working smoke detector in this house,” FDNY Commissioner Robert
Tucker told reporters at the scene. “And there’s a lot of evidence of
extension cords and other carelessness.”
At least eight residents were hurt but survived,
including three injured jumping out of second-floor and attic windows,
according to police sources. One of the survivors is in critical
condition, according to FDNY officials.
FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito described the scene in the house.
“When our units arrived, they had fire out the
windows of the first floor. The fire had extended to the second floor
and attic and these were all living spaces,” he said. “There were
makeshift walls. The means of egress were substandard, exits blocked,
stairways blocked.”
“There was a wall through the middle of the kitchen,
which was very abnormal,” he added. “There’s makeshift access to the
second floor, which allows the fire to spread much quicker upstairs.”
Four firefighters suffered minor injuries in the blaze, which the FDNY brought under control by about 3 a.m.
The house is listed in city records as a
single-family home, but dozens of Buildings Department complaints dating
as far back as 2008 show neighbors and residents complaining that it
was illegally converted into a roominghouse.
The most recent complaint, from February 2023, reads,
“The home owner [has] a mental disabled individual living in the
basement. The homeowner built a half wall in the kitchen so someone can
live there … there is approximately 12 to 14 people in the house.”
“It’s so frustrating because we’ve been watching this
unfold for years. I called 311. My husband called 311. Many of the
neighbors called 311,” said Steve Fischer, 67, who lives across the
street on the upper-class tree-lined block. “We knew based on what we
saw that it was being used as an illegal roominghouse.”
“It wasn’t for lack of many people trying to alert the city that there was something illegal going on,” he added.
Buildings Department officials said the owners of the
house were hit with a violation in 2010 for illegally converting the
basement into an apartment and in 2016 for work without a permit when
they constructed two wood-frame structures in the back and side yards.
Since then, the Buildings Department has received
several 311 calls complaining about illegal conversion conditions — but
inspectors were unable to get into the building for one visit in 2020
and three visits in 2023, agency officials said.
“Calls would prompt people from the city to show up.
Supposedly they would knock. The guy was not an idiot. He wouldn’t
answer the door,” Fischer said of the landlord. “It’s so frustrating
because it was so avoidable. … I hope he is charged criminally.”
The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
Tony Rock, 40, who paid about $1,000 a month to live in a first-floor room, dived out of a window to escape the fire.
“I heard screaming, the guy upstairs above me …
begging to get out of the room. He’s in there dying,” Rock said. “I saw
him jump out the window.”
Nearly 20 years of complaints on four pages on the NYC Buildings website
Italicized passages and many of the photos come from other websites. The links to these websites are provided within the posts.
Why your neighborhood is full of Queens Crap
"The difference between dishonest and honest graft: for dishonest graft one worked solely for one's own interests, while for honest graft one pursued the interests of one's party, one's state, and one's personal interests all together." - George Washington Plunkitt
The above organizations are recognized by Queens Crap as being beneficial to the city as a whole, by fighting to preserve the history and character of our neighborhoods. They are not connected to this website and the opinions presented here do not necessarily represent the positions of these organizations.
The comments left by posters to this site do not necessarily represent the views of the blogger or webmaster.