Editorial

Ridgewood In Brooklyn CD Is Wrong Move

Ridgewood has been in the forefront of this nation’s and city’s history for close to three centuries, from colonial times to the present. It was part of the terrain traveled by farmers from Long Island and eastern Queens when taking their harvests to markets in Manhattan.

And in the mid-1800s, when Queens as we know it was taking shape, Ridgewood was an integral part of that exciting development. Some of the largest picnic parks of those times were established there to provide a place to rest for weekend visitors to Queens cemeteries and for those on a recreational outing in the country.

When modern day New York City was formed just before the 20th century bowed, Ridgewood was firmly established as the westernmost community in Queens as its boundary with Brooklyn was drawn at Wyckoff and Myrtle Avenues.

Several times in recent years, city and even federal officials have tried to cut away pieces of this industrial community that evolved over the centuries.

In the 1970s, when the Post Office had Ridgewood and neighboring Glendale placed in a Brooklyn postal code—11227—causing increases in insurance rates for residents in those neighborhoods, then-Congressmember Geraldine Ferraro righted the wrong by having the 11385 zip code created, with Ridgewood and Glendale a part of it.

Ten years ago, a more serious threat to the Ridgewood community surfaced as as city mapmakers, redrawing New York City’s councilmanic district lines pursuant to the 1990 census, proposed snipping away at the very heart and fabric of this venerable community to place a part of it in neighboring Brooklyn’s Bushwick section.

Alert community and legislative leaders, Democrats and Republicans alike, however, mounted a unified campaign and fought off the threat.

Now, a similar threat has emerged as the New York City Districting Commission is exploring revisions in the council district boundaries occasioned by the population changes revealed in the 2000 census.

Once again a proposal to slice off a portion of Ridgewood now in the 30th Council district and add it to the 34th Council district in the Bushwick section in Brooklyn has been made. And once again, community and legislative leaders in Ridgewood have sounded the alarm, seeking to form a unified, bipartisan opposition force.

The Districting Commission, in issuing its very first draft proposal, said the rationale behind the Ridgewood–to–Bushwick change is the necessity for merging the Hispanic populations on both sides of Wyckoff Avenue.

But this is no mere swap involving a few blocks or families. It’s estimated that 30 to 40 percent of Ridgewood would be lost in the proposed transfer, which would stretch into Maspeth, also. The move would uproot firmly established families that are part of a cohesive, unified community. The Hispanics involved in the transfer themselves have voiced strong opposition to it.

The proposal is misguided and wrong and should not go forward, the Gazette maintains.

To callously hack away at one of Queens’ most unique neighborhoods and wreak havoc on a unified area of caring and concerned neighbors does a serious disservice to that community.

Ridgewood has always been able to take care of its own business—to fight off interlopers and resist ill-advised changes that would diminish its quality of life. But, as some community leaders have argued, this unified strength would be diluted if the change went through because Ridgewood residents would be in the minority. As Karl Wilhelm, board chairman of the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association, has pointed out, "in such a scenario, Ridgewood, with about 30 percent of the proposed councilmanic district, would get mere lip service by whomever the Brooklyn councilperson was."

In such a scenario, one can perceive a gradual decline in the quality of life of the targeted area. How long would it then take for the same effect to spread to the rest of Ridgewood?

The Gazette feels this could be a tragedy in the making for the landmark area of Ridgewood and the rest of Queens. We cannot let this occur just for the sake of political expediency. Ridgewood’s neighborhood individuality must be preserved.

The area’s civic and elected officials have denounced the proposed move as a unified group and the community must support this position just as firmly. One way to do this is for every concerned citizen of Ridgewood to attend the Districting Commission’s next meeting in Queens next Tuesday, November 27, at 6 p.m.; at Queens College on Kissena Boulevard in Flushing.

Let every voice be heard! Save Ridgewood!