Fed Ex Is Hot-Button Item At Delis' Last Cabinet Meeting
BY THOMAS COGAN

George Delis, the only district manager Community Board 1 has ever had, announced last month that he is retiring, so when his last cabinet meeting was held at Kaufman Astoria Studios in April he was a bit nostalgic, but not for long. He announced that Assistant District Manager Lucille Hartmann is a candidate to succeed him and got down to the business at hand, one item of which was the latest turn in Federal Express' planned incursion into Astoria. City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. came in to review current issues, particularly the failure of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, though he also covered other matters related to the state legislature's effect on the city. Others were given the opportunity to bring up issues and announce events.

According to Rudy Sarchese, an Astoria resident, Federal Express is already running 200 vans into Astoria and expects to obtain the 20-acre site on Astoria Boulevard from its current owner, Con Edison, for development of a huge cargo depot. Another resident, Edwin Cadiz, projected a nightmare vista with Fed Ex running its vans and trucks in and out of the depot on a 24/7 basis. Sarchese deplored what he regarded as Con Ed's big payoff deal, tracing a history he claimed began in 2003 with the purchase of the 20 acres by Con Ed from the federal government. He said the purchase price was $1.9 million and asserted the lot must be worth more than $30 million by now. Arthur Cronson, Con Ed's representative at every meeting, said he believed his company has owned the site for a longer period than that (later in the meeting, he said he'd checked and found Con Ed's ownership began several years earlier) and, more to the point, that money obtained from the sale of the land would be returned in its entirety to ratepayers, not stockholders.

When Vallone arrived, he began with good news. He said he had secured $1.2 million from the council for maintenance of Athens Square Park, where less than a week earlier the installation of a bust of Aristotle had been celebrated, and where some time in the future one of Sophocles is to be installed. He then referred to the skateboarding park to be opened under the Triborough Bridge before the end of the year, on a site used for years for truck parking by a business that seemed to believe it had the lot in perpetuity, a notion that Vallone finally dispelled. The failure of the mayor's congestion pricing plan was not mourned; Vallone had been against it unwaveringly and looked back on passage of it in the Council by a 20-10 vote as false hope for proponents. He said Assemblymember Michael Gianaris was set to vote against it in Albany, but, of course, it was never even brought to a vote. He did not regret the loss of some $350 million in federal money that was to come with final passage of the plan, comparing it to about $500 million annually that came in via the commuter tax before it was repealed in the state legislature several years ago. Get that reinstated, he said, and all thoughts of congestion pricing would be forgotten. He also expressed anger, though not surprise, that a promise by Albany to provide a $700 million bundle to New York was disavowed. He called the mayor's decision to close Off Track Betting a desperate move caused by Albany's insistence that the city pay for the upkeep of the OTB parlors and its rejection of Bloomberg's call for a change in the financial formula.

The Department of Transportation's representative to the meetings, Felix Okolo, had the word on why speed bumps are not being installed in front of some schools. On 10th Street between 36th and 37th Avenues, where P.S. 76 stands, there are too many curb cuts, he said; Delis still deplored the way a local limousine service's cars go streaking up 10th Street. Okolo said that DOT has not received any formal requests for a speed bump in front of P.S. 111 on 13th Street between 37th and 38th Avenues; Delis said several have been submitted. Okolo said that the roadway on 49th Street between Ditmars Boulevard and 21st Avenue is due for resurfacing; and he was told that 32nd Street between 38th Avenue and Northern Blvd. needs it.

Jim Pollack, head of the 114th Precinct Civ-OP (Civilian Observation Patrol), said he looks forward to a summer of clean-up work and graffiti removal- but at the same time he warned that Civ-OP might be forced to give up 28 years of such work if something cannot be done about the way its vehicle is often ticketed for illegal parking when the group is on a clean-up project. Two Department of Sanitation officials at the meeting told him they would not ticket him, but Pollock replied that the Department of Transportation is merciless in the matter.

Alyson Baker, director of Socrates Sculpture Park on Vernon Boulevard, announced an event to come in the park in May. The first Long Island City Bike Parade is to be launched from the park Saturday, May 10, rain or shine. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. From noon to 3 p.m., workshops will feature decorating bikes, bicycle repairs and safety tips and helmet fitting. At 3 p.m., a bicycle parade is to proceed from Socrates Sculpture Park to Queensbridge Park, accompanied by musical and circus performers. Bike New York, the Noguchi Museum, Recycle-a-Bicycle, Materials for the Arts and Partnership for Parks are sponsors. Travel and other information for this event is available online at www.socratessculpturepark.org. The telephone number is 718-956-1819.