Dog run in Astoria to cost $1M

From the NY Times:

Dog owners in Astoria, Queens, have for years suffered dog-run envy. As fancy new runs have popped up around New York, Astoria residents have wondered when they might get their own.

Now, through the participatory budgeting process and public largess, their moment appears to have arrived. Local officials recently announced that they had pooled enough money to convert a basketball court under the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge into a dog run.

But many residents, including some in the vanguard of the yearslong lobby for the run, were stunned by the estimated price tag: $1 million.

“I didn’t trust my ears initially,” Erin Kirby, media and marketing secretary for the Astoria Dog Owners Association, said. “We were shocked by that.”

City officials said the projected cost was in line with the budgets of other recently built dog runs. Still, for many Astorians the estimate has been a bittersweet introduction to the high costs of capital projects in the city.

Crazy tree cost

From the Daily News:

The city Parks Department is charging the MTA $520,550 to remove and replace 15 large trees from city property to enable an authority construction project. That breaks down to $34,703 apiece.

"Is that a typo?" shocked Metropolitan Transportation Board member Jonathan Ballan said Monday at the MTA Finance Committee meeting.

The Parks Department has a "standard basal area replacement formula" it uses to calculate the cost of replacing trees on city property, an MTA resolution states. The MTA needs a forestry permit from the Parks Department to remove the trees located around the Manhattan on-bound and off-bound ramps to the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. The MTA Bridges and Tunnels division wants to replace the ramp.

In case additional trees need to be removed beyond the 15 for the ramp replacement, the MTA Finance Committee approved spending up to $750,000 for removal and replacement.

So, if that's how much it costs to remove trees, why aren't developers being forced to pony up when they remove them?

Astoria getting taller crap

From the Real Deal:

Something of an oddity will rise in western Astoria this fall, when Giannola Realty breaks ground on an 11-story rental building, the New York Times reported. Up until a recent change to zoning laws designed to encourage development, the maximum building height in the neighborhood at the foot of the Robert F. Kennedy bridge was six stories.

Plan to allow trucks onto Grand Central Parkway

From the Daily News:

Astoria residents, tired of the heavy trucks that rumble through their streets in search of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, have made a seemingly simple request to state transportation officials.

They want the Grand Central Parkway opened up to trucks for the seven-tenths of a mile between the end of the Robert F. Kennedy Triborough Bridge and the start of the expressway.

But the hurdles are high.

It would take an act of law, state approvals and construction to get the plan rolling because commercial traffic is banned from parkways.

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., who supports the proposal, said city transportation officials have embraced the idea even though it would involve some unusual construction work on the highway.

The roadbed of the Grand Central Parkway would have to be lowered about six inches to allow trucks clearance under the 31st St. overpass.

"The trucks can fit there now, but they don't have the required safety clearance," Vallone said.

Although the work sounds complicated, Vallone said he was told it could be completed in one weekend.

Gianaris said he believes the state Legislature would pass the law to open up the parkway if the state Department of Transportation gave its blessing.

State DOT officials said yesterday they were reviewing the proposal.

Astoria traffic headache roundup

From the Queens Gazette:

Motorists who travel through the maze of traffic at 31st Street and Hoyt Avenue in Astoria to reach the Grand Central Parkway, Astoria Boulevard or the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (Triborough Bridge) should pay special attention to new signage at the bustling intersection – where the city recently installed a series of new traffic patterns, signs and signals.

Drivers are advised to take notice of the changes, since failure to follow messages on new signage puts them in risk of a $130 summons and two points on their driver’s license, law enforcement sources said.

The changes were made following months of hearings and an exhaustive traffic study that showed a need for safe crossings on Astoria Boulevard from 29th to 33rd Streets, reduced congestion and new vehicle-to-vehicle safety measures in the designated area, a city Department of Transportation (DOT) spokesperson said.

From the Queens Courier:

Two local Queens elected officials want the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to green light a plan that would allow large trucks to access the Grand Central Parkway (GCP) from the RFK Bridge, instead of having the large vehicles come in and cause congestion on the local streets of Astoria.

City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. and Assemblymember Michael Gianaris sent a letter to acting DOT Commissioner Stanley Gee and Regional Director Phillip Eng asking the agency to support an MTA construction project that, when completed, would eliminate the need for trucks to use local streets to access the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE).

Since November 2003, small commercial vehicles have been allowed to use the GCP to access the BQE from the RFK Bridge in the eastbound direction.

Local elected officials said that this program, which started out as a pilot, has been very successful, but larger commercial vehicles – trucks higher than 12 feet, 6 inches with more than three axles – are still required to exit at 31st Street. The vehicles are required to make a sharp right turn onto 29th Street and then a sharp left onto Astoria Boulevard to avoid the low clearance on Hoyt Avenue South under the elevated train.

Recently, the city’s Department of Transportation installed a traffic signal at 29th Street and Hoyt Ave South. The MTA Bridges and Tunnels wants to perform construction that will allow the large trucks to stay on the GCP to gain access to the BQE.

By grinding the highway lower, these large vehicles will meet clearance requirements. Legislators believe this will improve the operation of the newly installed traffic signal, and reduce traffic delays and safety concerns at this intersection.

Traffic problems in Astoria

From the Daily News:

PLANS TO untangle the traffic knot at the foot of the Robert F. Kennedy Triboro Bridge may end up causing more problems for Astoria residents.

Cars traveling south on 31stSt. will no longer be able to turn left onto Astoria Blvd., leaving them to wind through narrow streets to access the Grand Central Parkway.

And local officials question the wisdom of putting bike lanes in an area where cars jockey to exit the highway and get onto the bridge.

"I've been asking for improvements to this intersection since the day I was elected," said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., who has represented the area since 2002. "This is the first attempt at some major improvements. I support the goal, but some of the specifics go too far."

The plan was crafted by the city Department of Transportation in an effort to reduce congestion, ease crossings and provide more bicycle access in the area of Astoria Blvd. and 31st St.

Agency officials said about 300 traffic accidents occur at the intersection every year, along with 25 pedestrian accidents.

Borough Commissioner Maura McCarthy cited it as the highest accident location in northern Queens.

The plan also includes placement of a flashing red signal at 29th St. and Hoyt Boulevard South, changes in traffic-signal timing and new street markings.

Vallone (D-Astoria) said residents are especially troubled by the move to block left turns from 31st St. to Astoria Blvd.

They fear that will divert cars into neighborhood streets in search of an entrance to the Grand Central Parkway.

Agency officials said they will monitor traffic for six months to determine whether to keep the ban in place.

Triboro hawks have grown up fast

From Urban Hawks:

Before I went on vacation, I went by and saw the freshly hatched eyasses nesting on the Astoria side of the RFK Triboro Bridge. I finally got back to see how they were doing on Saturday. The two of them looked great.

They look healthy and very grown up. Their tails need to grow in before they'll be flying off, but they'll be leaving the nest soon.

How many things are disturbing about this story?

From the Daily News:

As Nathaniel Chambers was arraigned, prosecutors said the Department of Homeless Services driver was visibly blitzed when he was stopped on the Triborough Bridge on Friday.

Thank you, Daily News, for calling the bridge by its real name.

As the Daily News reported, Chambers was on his way to pick up Commissioner Robert Hess to take him to City Hall for the inauguration.

Why does the Commissioner of Homeless Services have a driver?

Hess has worked for the agency for nine years - and he was employed there when he was busted for DWI in 2003 and paid a $750 fine.

Homeless Services spokeswoman Linda Bazerjian couldn't explain how someone with a DWI conviction could be employed as a driver.

No comment.

Chambers refused to take a Breathalyzer test at the scene, but cops held the device in front of his mouth when he spoke and it registered a blood-alcohol content of .089 - just above the legal limit.

If the suspect refuses the test and the police try to take it anyway without his consent, it's most likely going to get tossed in court.

$1B repair for Triboro Bridge

From the NY Times:

Even people who have driven over it countless times would be hard pressed to draw a diagram of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge — formerly and perhaps still better known as the Triborough. The bridge is actually three in one: an eight-lane, 1,380-foot suspension span over the East River; a six-lane, 310-foot lift span over the Harlem River; and a six-lane, 350-foot truss span over the Bronx Kill, according to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority fact sheet. There are also 14 miles of approach roads and a giant traffic junction that provides access to Randalls Island and tries to sort out the various strands of interborough travel.

The bridge opened on July 11, 1936, and 3.3 billion vehicles have crossed it — roughly 400 times the current population of New York. Building it cost $60.3 million — the equivalent of $927 million in 2008.

The bridge is undergoing a $1 billion rehabilitation of its superstructure and roadway. At the same time, six million square feet of steel on the bridge are being repainted, a task that will take 10 to 15 years.

Astoria hawk rescue

From the City Birder:

We went back around 12:15 this afternoon and parks staff were scrambling to get a box in which to put one of the little guys who moments earlier had flown off the nest. He glided north across Hoyt Avenue North - into the trees that surround a small section of paved area that people use as a volley ball court...

There was a volley ball game happening and the only person to notice any of the chaos was a young boy of about 10 years old. Fortunately, the little fledge got himself to the ground and was nicely situated in the strip of land between the two fences - it's about 5 feet wide and 50 feet long and overgrown with grass and weeds. However, he was very close to 21st Street and if the volleyball players had realized he was there they could have easily spooked him out into traffic. So, the little guy was boxed up, put in the truck, and the rangers were called.

Photo from MileMarker114

Queens hawk hatchlings thriving

Video of the Unisphere hawk nest from Urban Hawks:



Video of the Triboro hawk nest from Urban Hawks:

Triboro Bridge hawk nest is back

From Urban Hawks:

It's clear by the parents behavior, that they're no longer sitting on eggs, but have hatchlings...