Building The Borough 2000

Construction of new school space, new facilities, and new jobs was the hero in this year’s glowing State of the Borough speech, but Borough President Claire Shulman emphasized that the key to keeping all the success going is going to be the coming census.

Borough President Claire Shulman delivers the first "State of the Borough" address of the new century. Tribune Photo By Ira Cohen

As Shulman gave her speech filled with praise for projects that would address continued school overcrowding and city-supported constructions that will build a new Queens Health Center and flood-relieving sewers, an easel stood behind her, covered in a black cloth. She unveiled it with the words that on this easel "is the most powerful weapon we have for obtaining the resources we need . . . the key to securing necessary funding for building new schools, developing new housing programs and improving our transportation system." Beneath the veil was the Census 2000 Form.

The Borough President urged all Queens community groups to get involved in insuring an accurate census count that will get the borough it’s proper share of state and federal funding in the future.

While praising school construction projects, Shulman vowed that her office would continue to search for ways to relieve Queens’ severe overcrowding problems. Her reports on increased adult daycare, re-opening of the Long Island Railroad Elmhurst station, quieter airports, and increased affordable housing projects drew enthusiastic applause from the audience and Shulman re-stated her vow to push for a one-seat ride from Manhattan to the borough’s airports.

Bound version of the report on the "State of the Borough."

Among the dignitaries, elected officials, and civic leaders in the audience was Susan Vollono’s 6th grade class from P.S. 156 in Laurelton. The class held a successful book drive and enlisted the help of Borders Bookstore and Barnes & Noble to collect books for needy children of Queens. Shulman spotlighted the class as examples of the "unsung heroes" of Queens and they had praise for her report.

Sixth-grader Alexandria Largie said it was "interesting to know what the community is building" and she supported plans for dormitories at a local school, because that might change her mind about going to Howard University.

And her 12-year-old classmate Joel Osborne added that it seemed the borough had made "a big improvement from the year before" and he was encouraged by Shulman’s commitment to creating more learning space and attracting better teachers.

Following are highlights from the Borough President’s report, as well as comment from other elected officials on the state of our neighborhoods.

The capitol plan to construct new schools includes 23 new buildings. Queens received 31 percent of the 16,285 new school seats created in the city for the 1999-2000 school year. New Queens schools include P.S./I.S. 137 in District 27; P.S. 161 in District 28; and E.C.C. 228, P.S. 212 and I.S. 230 in District 30.

Queens students scored above the other four boroughs in standardized reading and math tests.

Governor George Pataki’s State of the State address added: "Ending social promotion in NYC is the first step in establishing rigorous standards for student achievement. In the coming weeks, I will ask for your support for a five-point plan to attract new teachers to our schools. We must address the problem of uncertified teachers. Let’s expand charter schools throughout New York, and let’s put responsibility for schools where it belongs-in the hands of the Mayor and City Council."

During the 1990s, Queens reduced in every major FBI category.

Crime fell from 50,433 incidents in 1998 to 46,120 in 1999, an 8.6 percent decrease with the following statistics: a 15.7 percent decrease in rape, 12.9 percent decrease in auto theft, 10.7 percent decrease in burglary, 4.1 percent decrease in robbery, 2.5 percent decrease in grand larceny. However, there was a 16.5 percent increase in murder statistics.

In 1999, the Council of Senior Centers and Services expanded work in Queens. Extra funding helped expand hours of operation, programs, and services for SAGE, the only center for gay and lesbian seniors. Funding also helped continue expanded service hours for mentally frail clients in Community districts 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 in the Alzheimer Adult Day Care Centers in those communities.

City Council Speaker Peter Vallone’s State of the City address added, "This year, the council will provide expanded funding — for seven days of meals — at all senior centers . . . We can offer seniors some much needed relief in the form of a City tax credit for the purchase of over-the-counter drugs . . . The Council will enact another tax credit to deal with a pressing concern for all our elderly — finding and holding onto a decent, affordable place to live."

The Borough President’s Office has asked the Dept. of City Planning to examine the feasibility of a stand–alone local commercial district that would allow slightly higher density commercial development in lower density communities.

In 1999, the QBP Zoning Task Force helped to preserve the unique character of residential neighborhoods. Since 1989, two dozen areas have been rezoned to preserve integrity. Kew Forest Land and Little Neck Pines are in the process of being rezoned. North Corona, East Flushing, and Ridgewood are currently under consideration for rezoning.

State agencies are considering how to improve access and other infrastructure improvements to advance Destination Technodome, a $1 billion interactive entertainment center planned for the Averne section of the Rockaway Peninsula.

The Queens Blvd. Retail Working Group was created to address traffic, parking, pedestrian, and transit impacts of several projects planned on Queens Blvd, including expansion of Queens Center mall, an 18-screen multiplex, and redevelopment of the Sterns Bldg.

The first phase of the Water’s Edge housing development, which consists of 40, 2-family homes, is underway, helped by $2.2 million in City capital budget funds to improve infrastructure.

In the summer of 1999, a developer was selected for the Edgemere Urban Renewal Plan, which will result in the development of 800 units of affordable housing; 10,000 sq. ft. of local commercial space; a new elementary school; a day care center, and 13 acres of parkland.

Also in 1999, the Creedmoor Working Group, came up with a plan for the 26-acre parcel in the northern section of the campus. Negotiations are underway with the Board of Ed., the School Construction Authority and the State, to construct 3 schools - at the elementary, intermediate, and high school levels.

Unemployment dropped from 6.6 percent in Nov. 1998 to 5.6 percent in Nov. 1999.

The Economic Development Corp. is working to improve vehicular access to ever-expanding College Pt. with the reconstruction of Linden Place.

In Maspeth, the borough president assisted in the organization of a combined Business Improvement District, and worked with Phelps Dodge to remediate its former industrial site into a manufacturing center.

The Federal Avaition Administration Regional HQ in Springfield Gardens moved toward completion in 2000.

A new retail center in Southeast Queens will house the first major supermarket there in over 25 years.

In the Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s State of the City address, he added: We’re going to implement a waterfront development for Brooklyn and Queens so that we can develop both sides of the river . . .We’re going to use the Downtown Revitalization Program that helped turn around downtown Manhattan and apply it to the other boroughs."

In Fiscal year 1999, 1,029 housing units were constructed, 1,886 were under construction and 724 applications for residential permits were filed.

Over 100 homes will be built on the former Playland site. Forty two-family homes will be built on sites in the Arverne Urban Renewal Area.

In 1999, according to the Long Island Board of Realtors, the median price of a Queens home was $209,000, an increase of 11.5 percent from the previous year.

The NYC Housing Dev. Corporation’s New Housing Opportunities Program completed 206 units in Queens in 1999, with another 132 under construction and 284 more in the planning stages.

During Fiscal year 1999, the Dept. of Buildings conducted 11,067 field visits related to illegal conversions, and issued 3,857 violations.

In 1999, ridership on buses in Queens increased 10 percent compared to 1998.

The newly restored LIRR Forest Hills Station was dedicated in June, following a $5.4 million restoration. Final touches were also put on the restoration of the Woodside LIRR station, and renovations on the Bayside station will be completed the first quarter of this year.

The Queens Boulevard-63rd Street connection, which will provide up to 15 additional trains running between Queens and Manhattan during rush hour, is almost 90 percent complete and proceeding on schedule to its October 2001 completion. A renovation of the 74th Street/ Broadway and Jackson Heights/ Roosevelt Avenue station complex will cover the entire block.

For the first time in more than a decade, the number of structural and non-structural fires increased slightly. But although the number of serious fires increased in 1999, response times to the fires decreased, as did fatalities. In 1999, the Fire Department replaced two ladder trucks and five engine companies.

The Structural Work is complete and the mechanical work for both the interior and the exterior is currently in progress for the new Queens Hospital Center, which will have a "center of excellence" for Women’s Health and Cancer Care and a Diabetes Center.

As for the West Nile Virus, the report said "the city is now instituting a long-term comprehensive program for the prevention of the West Nile Virus and other mosquito-borne diseases. This program is likely to include enhanced mosquito surveillance, trapping wild birds to test for the presence of the viruses, and using ‘sentinel’ chickens or other foul to identify mosquito-borne diseases before they appear in humans."

Shulman’s Chief of Staff Alex Rosa added that her Mosquito Task Force will be meeting again this week with members of the Health Dept., Park Dept., State Dept. of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineer to discuss plans for the Spring. On the agenda is project funding, fact-finding about Staten Island fish killed by the pesticide Malathion, and "tidal flushing" plans for fresh-water areas of the Rockaways.

Pataki emphasized that the state "will set goals to reduce asthma attacks by 50 percent, ensuring all children receive vaccinations by their second birthday, try to eliminate teen smoking by 50 percent in the next five years, make sure every child is screened for deafness, protect infants born to HIV, and expand capabilities of disease identification and response resource."

Giuliani has called for "healthcare to be as private and as competitive as it can possibly be, because private institutions do a better job than government does of dealing with healthcare needs . . . We’re going to establish an office within the Mayor’s Office to increase access to health insurance . . . We’re going to expand the HealthPass program that takes small businesses, lumps them together, and allows them to buy health insurance as if they were a big business."

And Vallone added, "we will expand access to child care for working families, and create a New York City tax credit for every family that has qualified child care expenses."

Describing her speech as the "first state of the borough report of the 21st Century," Shulman concluded by discussing the various ethnic celebrations in the borough throughout the year and observing "we are at the doorway to the new millennium. Let us walk through together with confidence and determination."