With this first real impeding snow storm approaching the city I went to check on the map of street clasifacation. The sanitation department as part of pre-season preparations, street categories are reviewed and updated in accordance with the DSNY Public Street Snow Removal Classification criteria.
When you look at our area map you see a HUGE glaring yellow spot. We are third in line to get any attention.
Hopefully, this is the way it has always been. Hopefully, everything will we will see the same plowing as previous years. I just hope that last years storm is forcing us to be an afterthought. On second thought all we do have a lot of sanitation employees that live here
PRIMARY STREET – Any street that is:
A main traffic artery, main thoroughfare or a lifeline street such as highways, expressways, drives or bridges;
Feeder approaches to, and exits from bridges, tunnels, ferries, highways, airports;
All bus routes, private and city owned;
Streets which have located upon them facilities such as fire houses, police stations, hospitals, nursing homes, newspaper
plants, fuel distribution depots, transportation terminals, and schools;
All streets within CONCENTRATED food-produce, industrial, financial, theatrical-amusement, shopping, hospital or maritime (passenger and freight) areas;
All Snow Emergency Streets so designated by the Department of Transportation.
SECONDARY STREET – Any street that is:
Reasonably heavily trafficked but not a primary street;
Used as an alternate route for a primary street;
The short length of residential area streets that feed into primary streets;
TERTIARY STREETS – All other streets not heavily trafficked and not considered primary or secondary streets, including, but not limited to dead-end streets.
This past weekend the Gerritsen Beach ball fields dugout and newly planted trees have been destroyed. Vandals ripped up and tossed around more than a hundred trees. They also severely damaged the dugout bending fence poles completely out of shape.
For those keeping track, they did not last 30 days.
The specific area of the back weeds , formally known as woodchips, behind PS 277, is now part of the nyc million tree program. The parks department and hundreds of volunteers planted these trees no more than 30 days ago. As soon as you walk back there went you will see more than a hundred trees ripped up and tossed around. Worse yet, sitting right in the middle of all of these trees is a mural with a Gerritsen Beach little league golf outing t shirt flapping around on top of it.
Some of the problem is the area itself the fields are very dark at night which and the dugout is not visible on a good night.The dugout is behind trees on Channel Avenue and the street lights don’t reach back there. The tree area behind the school suffers the same issues and would be almost impossible to see at night as it is uphill and behind containers.
I guess they didn't see the sign. Clean Up or You're Out!
Last year, parks cleared a large patch of land across from the library to plant 2,000 plus trees. While clearing the land they discovered a berm of cement and debris. At the time, Parks promised then that they would coordinate with sanitation and just remove the debris. Months later, Parks discovered they didn’t have enough money and shelved the project.
To get the project completed Councilman Lew Fidler has moved $100,000 in discretionary funding from another parks project into this specific project to have the debris removed.
Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg announced along with Ken Salazar the United States Secretary of the Interior, and Judith Enck Regional Administrator of Region 2, the beginnings of a formal legal agreement detailing how the city and federal governments will manage and who will have jurisdiction over the very large Jamaica Bay.
Right now some of Jamaica Bay is controlled by the city while some is controlled by the federal park service and there are areas that are controlled by both if not more other agencies. There are a lot of overlapping projects and jurisdictional issues that arise from sharing the area. The Mayor said is best when “Even though these city and federal holdings sit next to one another like a jigsaw puzzle, they don’t always fit well together,” . The agreement signed yesterday, is the building blocks for a new unified governing model that works together and shares planning objectives and goals.
As for what this means for the plumb beach rest stop. Parks Commisioner Adrian Benepe said there will be a major rehabilitation project to rebuild and stabilize the area with the army corps of engineers and the city soon. Councilman Lew Fidler and newly elected Bob Turner will have to keep pushing to make sure they keep their word and we don’t lose the belt parkway. The Parks Commissioner announced that a project will be started in the near future by the army corps of engineers with the city and in cooperation with the national parks service.
The Environmental Protection Agency also announced that as of October 28, 2011 Jamaica Bay is now a No Discharge Zone. According to the EPA “A No Discharge Area (NDA) is a designated body of water where the discharge of treated and untreated boat sewage is prohibited (does not include grey water). Under the federal Clean Water Act it is illegal to discharge untreated (raw) sewage from a vessel in U.S. waters.”
The house boats the Gerritsen Beach area have access to free pump out station at the Knapp Street treatment plant. The house boats that dont or are unable to move might have a visit from the EPA shortly.
As per Senator Goldens requests and 311 calls, the NYC parks department has cleared most of the weeds in front of the soccer field fence. The fence is also known as the Green Monster as it blocks the view of most a good portion of the soccer field.
A little more than one year ago the Seba Avenue Comfort Station construction began. When it is complete we will have: a comfort station, a whole sprinkler are, 16 swings, a extended play area, and a push button crosswalk.
As of today, the comfort station is basically complete a path has been paved, and decorative plants have been installed.
Soon enough the swings will be installed, and more work will start to add the sprinklers and extended the play area.
Despite promises from Councilman Fidler, the Parks department was indeed allowed to encroach on the Gerritsen Beach Little League, blocking their walkway.
Parks recently “completed” the walkway, gate, guardrail mess (above) blocking normal pedestrian, stroller, dog walking, traffic while giving ATV’s easy access.
It appears that it’s a parks department gate and not necessarily a community access gate. If that is true then we are going to need a parks department employee to unlock this gate whenever necessary.
None of this makes any sense, the area is now 100% closed all the time instead of 100% open all the time. There used to be a small opening all the time through the guardrail (maybe 3 feet) then a huge concrete block to block any ATV’s from driving in. Now it’s closed 100% of the time. But now we have a 10+ foot gate that will be open when parks feels like it.
No where in previous meetings was a new path discussed, suggested, nor was anything presented to the community.
Original Plans Showed no Path - Encroaching the Little League
Well, as it turns out the guardrail was replaced. No access gate yet but replaced nonetheless.
Note:
The guard rail was not removed and replaced within a day as the posting date suggests. The guardrail was removed almost two weeks ago and it was suggested at a meeting that there was no timetable for a replacement.
The Seba Avenue Comfort Station path is well under way and if you have not noticed the contractors recently removed a substantial length of the guardrail and a community access gate. According to Senator Goldens Town Hall, Parks does not know when the guardrail or the community access gate will be replaced.
This is concerning as it could cause many new problems and rehash many old problems with Cars, Quads, Dirtbikes, Etc as there is nothing to anything or any one from doing anything malicious back there.
Councilman Lew Fidler joined DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn early this rainy morning so that he could show the Commissioner why a traffic signal is desperately needed at the site of the renovated park and playground. Seba Park has been restored from its state as a rubble strewn lot to include a skate park and tot lot. A comfort station is near completion and funding is in place for an expansion of the children’s play area to include equipment for the somewhat older siblings of the children expected to use the tot lot.
“I wanted the Commissioner to understand that we are inviting parents to cross Gerritsen Avenue from their homes, pushing a stroller with one hand and holding the hand of an 8 year old in the other, with no cross walk and no traffic light. Nine years ago, before we invested in our neighborhood park and there was literally nothing here, there was no need for a traffic light. Now there is, and it is not about car traffic, it is about pedestrian safety. Having a light that is steady
green, but can be changed by a pedestrian waiting to cross by pushing a button is just what we need.”, said Councilman Fidler.
“I want to thank the Commissioner for coming down and looking for herself. We’ve been writing and writing and been getting the stuffy old traffic study answers. There is no substitute for seeing,” added Fidler.
The Commissioner promised a prompt answer to the request. “The Commissioner said she has young children herself so she clearly gets it” noted Fidler. “I am guardedly optimistic.”
Renovations to Seba Park were funded in Phase I by joint allocations from Councilman Fidler, then Assemblyman Frank Seddio, Senator Marty Golden and Boro President Markowitz. Subsequent funding for the tot lot, comfort station and playground expansion has been obtained by Councilman Fidler, Assemblyman Maisel and Boro President Markowitz.
Parks was on site the other day at the Giant Hole Inside PS 277 Playground site and has determine that this is not a hole but a sinkhole caused by a broken pipe.
According to a parks spokesperson they have gone in with the camera probe and found a broken pipe, possibly a sewer pipe, that will need to be repaired before the hole can be filled.
“It is not a simple case of filling a pot hole, and will take some time”. They will have to open up the street and repair if that is the cause which will take time. Therefore, in response to the community’s concerns, they will put a temporary plywood cover on the hole itself in addition to the barricades currently around it.
There is a giant hole right in the main pathway of Dr. Johns (PS 277) playground next to PS 277. The hole became evident weeks ago after the snow melted. A simple barricade was erected around it to keep the toddlers away. It’s been weeks since the barricade and now the hole seems to be growing and everyone is wondering when this will be repaired.
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