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Another fire truck delayed due to road diet installation. Video taken October 8, 2018 at 8:30AM

DOT proposal: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/skillman-ave-43rd-ave-june2018.pdf
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Rain alert: Bring your umbrellas!

HOW TO HELP
•Attend public rally, “Save Our Neighborhoods,” Sunnyside Arch, 46th St. & Queens Blvd.. Wednesday, Jul 25 at 6pm
•Sign petition online:
https://bit.ly/2F4yWJm
•311 say ”comment to Mayor” atprompt, give name & zip to operator
•”Oppose” -Call Mayor’s number: 212-788-3000
•”Oppose” Call Councilman’s number 718-383-9566
• for Instant Alerts:
Send name & number QueensStreetsforAll@gmail.com

• Want to volunteer to get the word out by calls or flyers?
Email QueensStreetsforAll@gmail.com
Call 718 909 4806
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Queens Streets for All is an alliance within or near the DOT proposal of every school, church, business in the Woodside- Sunnyside DOT corridor, and residents, totaling a group of over 12,000 and counting.

We are extremely distressed that the mayor announced July 12 his move forward in August of 2018 to complete his DOT proposal, publicly opposed by our Community Board, Congressman, Councilman, Assemblywoman, and majority of residents.

Many of us are bicyclists, support protected bike lanes, and greater safety for pedestrians, motorists and cyclists. Protected lanes could be installed tomorrow with no loss of parking spaces.

We invite the mayor to come here and speak to us, see the streets, and reconsider his proposal, going through it page by page, with representatives from our first responders who have mentioned safety issues. The narrowing and loss of a lane of traffic on the two streets, both one-way and only two-lane, would cause an immediate hardship to the majority of local people.

The drastic loss of parking 116 spaces is also a hardship, with scarce space already and drivers circling for hours. The rate of car ownership here is half the Queens rate, and more congestion and search for parking, with no municipal parking, will add to harmful emissions.

The implementation will cause harm to businesses, staffers, workers, over 2500 schoolchildren, and churchgoers. Protected lanes could be installed tomorrow with no loss of parking spaces. We have painted lanes which are popular and supported. We ask for the many safety measures requested by our Community Board 2 before taking this drastic step.

We are lacking our primary alternative. Mass transit is in “crisis” as described by the mayor, and adequate mass transit would be a prerequisite before removing street space, parking spaces, and lanes.

Many of us cannot choose bicycles. The sacrifice and difficulty of plan implementation rests on our shoulders alone. The mayor is disrupting our ability to earn a living or operate, with no alternative or example by himself or his commissioners to, for instance, take public transit or a bike to work one day a week. Even in 2017 his fleet was over 30,000, ten percent more than when he took office.

Northern Blvd. is a more direct through route for the “7+ mile Bike Highway from Forest Hills to midtown Manhattan.” announced as the DOT goal. We support its selection for protected lanes, because all statistics point to it higher rate of accidents and deaths.

The city is forcing a change on relatively safe streets, casting statistics in a way that portrays the streets as dangerous, in order to impose a sweeping change without regard to the facts or the wishes and safety of a united community.

Queens Streets for All:
Skillman Project
Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce
Access Queens
United Forties
PS11 PTA
PS150 PTA
Mimar Sinan Camii Mosque
Young Israel Synagogue
Queen of Angels Church
AR Rahman Jame Masjid Mosque
Sunnyside Reformed Church
Grace Fellowship Church
St. Sebastian’s Church Academy
Holy Mountain Korean School
The undersigned, and signers to written petitions.

SIGN PETITION TODAY

Do you need blanks hard copies of the petition? Contact

Email: QueensStreetsforAll@gmail.com
Twitter: @QueensStreetsforAll
Visit: QueensStreetsforAll.org
Facebook: Queens Streets for All

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“Coming to the Table” reprinted with permission, Woodside Herald, also at http://woodsideherald.com/uploa…/Woodside_Herald_5_25_18.pdf
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Op Ed by Patricia Dorfman
Community Board 2 drew a large crowd of over 115, divided into table groups, for its Safety Meeting on Monday evening, May 21, at Sunnyside Community Services on regarding the Department of Transportation proposal for protected bicycle lanes and safety changes on 43rd and Skillman Avenues in Sunnyside and Woodside.
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Most attendees, no matter their point of view, attended with an expectation of loud disputes, but although most tables featured arguments and spirited exchanges, the event was surprisingly orderly. Board members of the CB2 acted as facilitators at each table to try to allow everyone to speak, pro or con. If opposed, attendees were asked for specific suggestions as to what safety measures might be helpful to submit to CB2.
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Some present from Transportation Alternatives, a pro-bike, anti-car lobby with which the DOT is working, were frustrated because they felt that the meeting was another “delaying tactic” as one mentioned. One complained that the Community Board mind must be already made up to hold such an event. The Board will officially vote on the plan at its Thursday, June 7, regular public meeting, and then the matter goes to Councilman Van Bramer.
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CB2 Chairperson Denise Keehan-Smith scheduled the meeting after the DOT did not conduct second Town Hall after its reduction to 116 of parking space loss, from a beginning at 158. Most in attendance who opposed to the plan did so due to the proposed loss of parking. One woman opposed to the plan spoke gloomily that the proposal as a “done deal” and the Community Board would be toothless in its advisory role.
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Macartney Morris, Transportation Alternatives Queens Volunteer Leader, made a case that despite criticism for a rushed process, the protected bicycle lanes had been progressing incrementally for over ten years. He also reiterated that both Councilman Van Bramer and CB2 Chairperson Denise Keehan-Smith had committed publicly to protected bicycle lanes.
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Chairperson Keehan-Smith stopped attendees from handing out materials beyond their tables. Many of those opposed to the plan, such as QueensStreets.net, an alliance of businesses, churches, schools and over 2000 residents in the area, brought specific suggestions such as staggered signals times, delayed green for drivers, “no through trucks” signs, and enforcement for all. The alliance had distributed over 1000 flyers urging attendance at the event, and asking for online or written petition signatures.
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Chris Wattenbarger, a statistician who lives on 41st Street, created his own print out critiquing each slide of the city’s PowerPoint. Among his points were that narrowed lanes would cause a school bus or large truck to completely block the street, and a own proposal in which no parking would be lost.
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Nicole Garcia, the Queens DOT Commissioner, with other members of her team, observed quietly as did Matt Wallace, Chief of Staff of Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, and members of Assemblyman Brian Barnwell’s staff.
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My own view, (as part of QueensStreets.net) is that bicycles have gained in popularity and riders are understandably demanding more space devoted to their vehicles. The city promotes bicycles, making car use more difficult and costly. But as Western Queens population expands and mass transit worsens; generations of driving residents are simply not able to change their lives quickly by government order.
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Businesses say that without car customers, they cannot survive. Churches, schools, and residents in the proposal corridor, overwhelmingly oppose the loss of parking spots to create more space for bicycles. For the DOT to continue to present data which purports to show Skillman and 43rd as excessively dangerous, and bike use heavy here, weakens the case for what long term might garner more support. If danger is really the issue, why is Northern Blvd. not first up for overhaul? More likely is that the proposal is preparing for volume not yet present.
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The choice of Skillman and 43rd Streets, relatively pleasant byways, seems to have been made because they are still pleasant byways, not because they lawless.
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The avowed intent is, as described by the DOT, to create a seven-mile “bike highway” from Forest Hills to midtown to ease the way for more cyclists. That concept brought joy to bicyclists and made many dream of an active, easier, free, non-polluting, autonomous commute.
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But to drivers, seniors, businesses, churchgoers, workers, many parents, it conjures up a spectacle of masses of cyclists racing through without stopping who largely do not dwell, pray, go to school or trade here. Their gain would be our loss. Parking loss, already scarce, has inflamed and unified opposition.
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Before accepted by most as a common good for the environment, recycling, which forces by law all of us to a devote a lot of time we might prefer to spend doing something else, was also a radical change. But the city took a more resident-friendly and transparent approach in implementation. This process of this proposal has been clumsy. Taking away street space from local use for a bike highway is taken as more usurpation of land by others, already in process. Additionally, the administration still seems to conduct their transport primarily in the way they wish us to move past.
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So let’s us hope that those who mean well with on-the-ground concerns keep talking as they did at the CB2 event. Dan Glasser of Stray Vintage, a store on Skillman, who needs deliveries to operate, said afterward, “It was great to see our neighborhood residents, business owners and cyclists working on ideas to make our streets safer. I hopped around a few tables and had some really productive discussions with a few cyclists.”
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(addendum: GreenStreets.net is not against bike lanes. Most of us like bikes and bike lanes. If a “bike highway” would not make pedestrians feel less safe, or remove parking needed by residents, businesses, churches and schools, we would, in a NIMBY-esque fashion be all for it, such as on Northern Blvd. which is a byway much more in need of safety for all.)

Sunnysidepost: 80 comments from both sides now accompany this article