Jackson Heights Life

This past week, the City Council approved making the Open Streets program permanent. Since the mayor suggested this originally, I think it's safe to predict he will sign this. Streetsblog is reporting on a petition to compromise on creating a permanent green space on 34th Ave. The "compromise" is long on promise but short on details. Everyone will get everything, but it doesn't appear obvious to me who will make these things happen. The article is at https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2021/05/03/the-compromise-new-open-streets-group-seeks-linear-park-for-jackson-heights and the petition is at  https://www.34avelinearpark.com/
The article quotes a supporter who says that tens of thousands of people use the open street each day. If that is not an exaggeration, then by all means support the petition! I haven't seen any real count of how many different people use 34th Ave, but if there is one please post a link so I can educate myself.

Whatever happens, someone has to prevent delivery scooters and electric bicycles from using this street when other vehicular traffic is prohibited. They rarely follow posted speed limits, often ignore traffic signals, and don't seem to understand that this is supposed to be a pedestrian pathway, not a short cut set up for their convenience.

 That's funny because I see a lot of anger, evasiveness and manipulation on both sides. It's an unpleasant situation and there is a need for some political or governmental group to see who is really doing the work to keep 34th Ave open vs. who is wanting some personal gain as leader or innovator or god knows what. They are dedicated volunteers and then there are people who are spouting lot's of crazy here. The whole Open Streets story with restaurants, etc. will probably not be decided this year either. The variety of experiences that are good and bad needs to stabilize to properly evaluate a change that is this big and this sudden.
 Personally, think the good parts of 34th Open Streets is negated by the excessively long hours with sometimes very little use and the length of blocks that is so much larger than any other street closure in all of NYC by a lot! Feel sorry for anyone trying to sell property on 34th Ave.

According to the petitions pro and anti, the numbers who are for an open 34th Ave are DOUBLE the number who are against it.

This means that selling property on 34th Ave appeals to quite a majority of folks. And would probably be a selling point to buyers like them.

Yet again, the NUMBERS count. Not people's obvious agendas.

My apartment, which was NEVER noisy before, is noisy all day now because you want to walk in the street.  Your agenda is to be as selfish as you can.  What is my agenda?

Why don’t you make up some more fake statistics.

where is the anti-open street side? Because we are not against it. Compromise doesn't mean being against something, it means we want to find ways to make it work.

According to the petitions pro and anti, the numbers who are for an open 34th Ave are DOUBLE the number who are against it.

This means that selling property on 34th Ave appeals to quite a majority of folks. And would probably be a selling point to buyers like them.

That doesn't follow. Just because someone likes the open street doesn't mean that they would want to live on the open street.

That's one of the reasons the process so far hasn't been fair. The decision of what to do with 34th should have been up to the residents of 34th.

I haven't seen any poll of what the residents of 34th actually want. It would be nice to have those numbers.

Quote from: itsit on May 07, 2021, 04:17:25 PM

That's funny because I see a lot of anger, evasiveness and manipulation on both sides. It's an unpleasant situation and there is a need for some political or governmental group to see who is really doing the work to keep 34th Ave open vs. who is wanting some personal gain as leader or innovator or god knows what. They are dedicated volunteers and then there are people who are spouting lot's of crazy here. The whole Open Streets story with restaurants, etc. will probably not be decided this year either. The variety of experiences that are good and bad needs to stabilize to properly evaluate a change that is this big and this sudden.
 Personally, think the good parts of 34th Open Streets is negated by the excessively long hours with sometimes very little use and the length of blocks that is so much larger than any other street closure in all of NYC by a lot! Feel sorry for anyone trying to sell property on 34th Ave.

We've actually heard someone with the situation of trying to sell their home, and the asking price is way lower than they thought they'd go, and it still doesn't sell.

Though folks are reluctant to accept the facts...apartments in Jackson Heights have probably decreased in value due to the pandemic. Urban living is no longer sought after.

NOTE: There are many ways to compromise. It is not necessarily yes or no but perhaps something else. Please keep that in mind when thinking and commenting. Compromise is not my way or the highway.

I have noticed that mostly what goes on in forums online... is that when folks hear facts that don't suit them, they shoot the messenger. But since Ancient Greek times,  shooting the messenger NEVER changes the message.