The city’s Department of Transportation is temporarily postponing a virtual Zoom workshop scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 29, on the proposed 16-mile Queens Waterfront Greenway after a meeting in Douglaston last Thursday, Oct. 24, turned into a huge shouting match between supporters of the trail and homeowners concerned about its potential impact.
The DOT posted the announcement on X Monday evening at around 6 p.m.
“Tomorrow’s Queens Waterfront Greenway virtual workshop has been postponed,” the post said. “A code of conduct will be developed to ensure decorum and respect for all participants.”
Last Thursday’s meeting took place at the Alley Pond Environmental Center. After a slide presentation by the DOT, the crowd of well over 100 people was split up into breakout groups. Just about an hour after the meeting started, what had been strained conversations erupted into a large verbal free-for-all that raged for several minutes.
In a small handful of instances, city employees and other meeting attendees had to physically separate some people.
The city’s plan is to run a trail of bike lanes and other amenities between Fort Totten and Gantry Plaza State Park on the East River waterfront in Long Island City.
Last Thursday’s meeting was the third of three workshops designed to solicit public opinion on a segment of the trail, with the session devoted to the easternmost stretch between Fort Totten and Willets Point.
Many homeowners are concerned about the impact such a trail might have on residential streets in areas where the shoreline is not readily accessible or even visible because of privately owned residential or industrial properties.
The DOT’s roughly 20-minute slide presentation delved into the history of the area in question, its present conditions and what the city sees as potential opportunities presented by the project.
The crowd then was asked to break up into groups at many tables where DOT staff took suggestions based on massive maps of Northeast Queens.
The format is common for community workshops on major projects in the city, particularly ones that could mean massive change to many streets. But it was not long before several of the group conversations devolved into heated exchanges between homeowners and plan supporters. One hour into the meeting, at just about 7 p.m., no conversations could be heard above the angry exchanges for a period of several minutes.
Here's what the Queens Chronicle forgot to write about, CM Paladino found out that the ones really calling the shots and that will authorize this "decorum" is some think tank that is tied to Transportation Alternatives. The DOT may be the most corrupted agency in New York City now that all of Mayor Adams crony hires have stepped down.
Turns out Public Works Partners LLC is a for-profit progressive/urbanist think tank specialising in crafting these fake 'public events' in order to manufacture consent. They list the DOT as one of their clients, but they also speak in depth about all the work they do aiding… pic.twitter.com/0UH7jKC1rt
— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) October 29, 2024
1 comment:
Dog and pony show.
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