Board 2 Hears Two Views Of Congestion Pricing
...a Quinnipiac Poll of Queens residents found 61 percent in favor of congestion pricing, and 36 percent in favor of it even if the funds collected from it did not go to augmenting and improving mass transit...
BY THOMAS COGAN

At the Community Board 2 February meeting, concern about congestion pricing was bound to come up, and the meeting produced two opposite viewpoints. Also, a deep and abiding worry was again expressed about the possibility of a sexshow emporium on Barnett Avenue in Sunnyside, reviving rumors and counterclaims in the matter.

Other sites within the district were a source of complaint and commentary, including a parking garage that is about to be closed, leaving some of those who wished it closed to gripe that it's being closed too hastily. A vote was taken on renovation projects for a trio of Sunnyside Gardens homes, which are now under the aegis of the Landmarks Preservation Commission; and another vote was taken on an American Institute of Architects study originally presented at the November meeting.

Angus Grieve-Smith, a computer consultant and resident on 51st Street near Skillman Avenue, spoke during the public comment segment at the beginning of the meeting, lodging a complaint that Skillman Avenue was dangerous for pedestrians since it provides, and was meant to provide, speedy motorist access from Roosevelt Avenue to Queens Boulevard and ultimately the Queensboro Bridge. He offered that as one more reason to be in favor of congestion pricing. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan entails charging a high fee to motorists who enter Manhattan via such facilities as the Queensboro Bridge. Grieve-Smith cited the report of the Traffic Mitigation Commission, which said that a congestion pricing plan would produce a 6.1 percent overall reduction in vehicle miles traveled in Western Queens and a 38.6 percent reduction in the most congested areas, the bridge presumably being one such area. He said his opinion was a relatively popular one, inasmuch as a Quinnipiac Poll of Queens residents found 61 percent in favor of congestion pricing, and 36 percent in favor of it even if the funds collected from it did not go to augmenting and improving mass transit. He said he could be found in either group.

Walter McCaffrey, a private consultant who was a City Councilmember from Woodside for 16 years and Community Board 2 chairman for five before that, replied that congestion pricing "is, in the final analysis, a tax"- and one whose starting point would soon be moved upward. He said it was inspired by the congestion pricing plan instituted in London, but nobody among the New York advocates has been eager to disclose the fact that the price for car travel in Central London has increased 150 percent since the plan first went into effect. McCaffrey added that anyone who believes that a similar price increase wouldn't happen here "isn't being honest". He said the Traffic Mitigation Commission has admitted that there is no real guarantee that revenue collected would be spent on expanding and improving mass transit. He said one alternative that would go a long way toward reducing traffic congestion is hack stands. The worst traffic congestion in Manhattan comes from cruising taxicabs and limousines, he said, and they could be reined in with the installation of as many as 75 stands for taxis and other cars for hire. There are several other measures that he believes would mitigate the congestion problem without resorting to the mayor's plan, which, he repeated, is a regressive tax.

A dull-looking gray building, described as a "windowless warehouse" on Barnett Avenue at 48th Street has for a while been a source of controversy- little wonder, if, indeed, some individuals really sought at one time to convert the long and narrow structure into a nightclub called The G-Spot, as was reported. Jamie McShane, local resident, and a public affairs officer for a city agency, was at the meeting with his wife and child to ask what the board knew about current plans for the place. Patrick O'Brien of the city services committee said that the latest plan is for a bar and restaurant only, with no dance floor in that building, though the Department of Buildings permit posted there makes it plain that a dance floor is in the plans. He said his committee would not disapprove of any plan for the building except on greatly negative evidence, but was "going to look at this very hard". He appreciated local anxiety about what might be installed in that building, but said that some anti-nightclub flyers he has seen in circulation looked menacing, and suggestive of a "lynch mob mentality". It is understood that the pool hall on Barnett and 48th Street across from the building is being sold, so the consequence of that might rate a hard look, too.

Bernard Caligari, a trade union activist, spoke out about demolition of a building at 5-36 46th Rd. The developer wants to clear away the building and build dormitory facilities for New York University students. Caligari was at the meeting to denounce the demolition man on the project, whom he characterized as having a long list of indictments, whose presence on such a project was infuriating to him. He asked Board 2 Chairman Joe Conley if he and the board were aware of what is going on there, and Conley said he and the board were following it. Sheila Lewandowski, managing director of the Chocolate Factory theater complex on 49th Avenue in Long Island City, warned that two-way traffic on that avenue presents a great hazard to a children's park located there. She believes the situation could be alleviated by making the traffic flow one-way westbound.

When it came time to make committee reports, Lisa Ann Deller of the land use committee expressed her irritation about what she said was short notice on the closing of the municipal garage on Queens Plaza South. Plans to close the garage were widely heralded, as the structure has been a disappointment in the four decades it has been there. But to be told that it was to be closed on February 15 struck Deller and the rest of the board as hasty. She said she believed the city Department of Environmental Protection wanted it that way. She noted that in the proposed new garage, to be built at the base of a high-rise commercial building, the Department of Health and Mental Services already have 150 parking spaces reserved.