Renovate Queens Plaza
To The Editor:

There has been impressive development in certain areas of Long Island City spurred by significant change in the zoning recently. Nevertheless careful and comprehensive, world-class urban planning of the strategic hub of transportation that is Queens Plaza has been woefully neglected.

Other parts of our city are demanding attention from the city in order to get wellplanned renewal and they are getting it; just look at 125th Street in Harlem and Downtown Brooklyn. Helen Marshall even proposed last fall that the city address and fix with millions, the disgusting state that is Willets Point. Does it make sense in terms of priorities to pour millions into Willets Point, a place with one resident, no public transportation and few paved roads or sidewalks? Well, someone needs to ask Borough President Marshall to organize the cleanup of the Gateway to Queens, Queens Plaza.

The truth is, we residents of Long Island City have demanded nothing in terms of improvement of services and quality of life in regards to this blighted and dangerous area. Our elected officials might even be grabbing at straws trying to find ways to spend money in the district. Please note the millions that [Congressmember] Carolyn Maloney garnered for a "bike path" and "improved traffic Flow". The city struts itself bragging that they are going to tear down the grotesque municipal parking garage and they are throwing into the mix a few spindly trees and a couple of concrete benches. They promise to address the difficulty that pedestrians have crossing the plaza.

My answer to what has been proposed is:

A pedestrian must have a reason to cross the plaza. There is none right now. You can get a donut and a lap dance on both the north and south sides of the plaza. This is a menacing place. You and I agree that Met Life got a bad rap for pulling out. After all not only is there no real retail to draw people to shop or eat in the area, all access to the trains is remote and scary. Manager Joseph Berardi tells me how hard it is to keep his employees working at the Chase Branch on Queens Plaza. He reports that they are afraid to leave at night.

The elephant in the room is the monstrosity of the train trestle. It reminds me of the more seedy areas of Bombay that I saw when working there 2o years ago. Why is this permitted to continue? Because I believe we, as a community, have done nothing to demand improvements to this area from our government. [We need a plaza that is] world class, a place that is beautiful, easy to access by all and very enticing to stop in. I don't want anyone to expect me to solve the problem of what to do with the traffic or the hideous erector set of a train trestle, that's what the best urban planners do.

A couple of months ago I heard Tom Finklepearl at the Queens Museum describe the process they undertook to get the funding and finally to search the world for the best architects to marshal the new plan for the museum. The new design is fabulous.

Don't we believe that a similar plan should be underway to attract and retain the best thinkers and designers in the world for the redevelopment of the Gateway to Queens? Sincerely, Megan Dees Friedman Long Island City