Jackson Heights Life

But rather than arguing about this, we should really just have a vote. Especially taking into account the views of the residents who actually live on 34th Ave... who might even support the closure, but have apparently never been asked?

Quote from: abcdefghijk on August 26, 2020, 10:32:35 AM

And a person would be mean-spirited indeed to prioritize their car needs over kids.

People love to hide behind kids.  They use inane emotional tactics to insinuate you have some kind of low moral character because you think their idea about permanently rearranging our neighborhood streets is dumb.  What a pathetic argument.

Quote from: r on August 27, 2020, 05:28:22 AM

In these strange times, it seems silly for neighbors to be attacking each other or accusing each other of being unkind or selfish or whatever.

I think one major point here is that residents never got a chance to vote on this, especially the residents most impacted by the road changes, on 34th Ave and on the nearby streets and avenues.

The justification for the original closure was always a bit fishy (why create a street-park when people are supposed to be isolating at home?). And the justifications for extending the closure also seem pretty fishy or non-existent so far.

But rather than arguing about this, we should really just have a vote. Especially taking into account the views of the residents who actually live on 34th Ave... who might even support the closure, but have apparently never been asked?

  Am hearing about efforts to put this to a VOTE!! yes. If a permanent closure of 34th Ave is found to be a good solution, so be it. But if it is determined to be an inadequate or ill advised use of the street, returning it to the previous car/full bike speed lanes would happen. The number of lawsuits that NYC has to deal with is already a huge load and a chunk of the budget that could be spent elsewhere so it's great to hear even a possibility of debate to listen to both sides on this issue. Let the decision be fair with the winning side having with data driven, reasoned arguments for all parties. Amen.

BAIT

Noun: food, or some substitute, used as a lure in fishing, trapping, etc. a poisoned lure used in exterminating pests.

Verb: (used with object) to prepare (a hook or trap) with bait. to entice by deception or trickery so as to entrap or destroy:
using fake signal lights to bait the ships onto the rocks.

The justification for the original closure was always a bit fishy (why create a street-park when people are supposed to be isolating at home?). And the justifications for extending the closure also seem pretty fishy or non-existent so far.

The street was opened in May (May 14th?) when 150-200 people were still dying per day in New York.

None of New York had even started reopening yet, not even the upstate areas. Encouraging everyone to come out of isolation and have fun in some new street park made no sense at all then.

It really feels like people who wanted more green space and/or were opposed to cars took advantage of the pandemic as an opportunity to advance their agenda. Which makes sense and to be clear I want more green space too, in general.

But the justification and timing was extremely fishy and as far as I can tell, there has been no attempt to be considerate of the people who live on 34th and ask them what they actually want. Maybe they all want a street park, but nobody knows because nobody has asked.