Stop the Manhattanization
of Our Neighborhood
Dear Editor:
Recently, I learned about a major construction project that could ruin our neighborhoods – both Kew Gardens Hills and Hillcrest – and has just been approved by the City. A skyscraper luxury apartment building, consisting of twin 47-story towers, is set to be built on the empty lot next to the 107th Precinct. The entire lot, stretching between Parsons Blvd. and Park Avenue, between 71st and 72nd Avenues (next to Boulevard ALP assisted living), not far from Aron’s, will be consumed by this mega-structure. This project threatens to destroy our quality of life and begin the process of turning our quiet neighborhoods into a miniature version of Manhattan.
We live in an area with mostly single-family houses, complemented by some low-height apartment buildings, most of which are four to seven stories tall. This has maintained our skyline’s low profile and kept the suburban feel intact. However, this new development would initiate the urbanization of our community, ruining the very reason many of us live here.
People choose to live here for the more suburban lifestyle, while still being connected to New York City. Unfortunately, in other neighborhoods in New York, where a skyscraper like this has been approved, more towers quickly follow, and within a decade or two, these areas transform into mini-Manhattans. Worse, housing values plummet, as people no longer want to live in houses overshadowed by skyscrapers and congested with traffic. As a result, there are mortgage defaults, developers buy up properties cheaply, and more skyscrapers are built. Slowly but surely, the original community disappears. We have seen this happen in other cities where random high-rise clusters appear in residential areas, destroying the long-standing local communities.
Another major issue is traffic. With over 800 apartments and multi-level underground parking, there will be more than 800 cars entering and exiting onto small streets, overwhelming the local roads from 73rd Avenue to Jewel Avenue as people try to get to Main Street or 164th Street for highways and access to shopping areas. Jewel Avenue, already congested during rush hour, will become a parking lot. Our streets and neighborhood simply cannot handle this level of traffic. It won’t just clog the streets; it will also increase exhaust fumes, bringing with it health risks. I couldn’t find the environmental impact report for this project, but if one exists, there’s no way it was a legitimate study, considering these basic facts.
Environmental concerns go beyond traffic. That empty lot plays a crucial role in local drainage during rainstorms and snow melts. A smaller structure wouldn’t be an issue, but a skyscraper of this size would redirect water runoff downhill, leading to flooding in areas like Hillcrest and Electchester during a Sandy-like storm. This project will use union laborers, but do the unions realize how harmful this will be to their members living in Electchester? In Hillcrest, with its high-water table and lower elevation, compared to Kew Gardens Hills, the increased water flow would likely cause more basement flooding and water damage after heavy rains or snow melts. There’s no way this passed a legitimate environmental survey.
The project would also create a public transportation nightmare. The only bus service available to get to the subway or LIRR is the already overcrowded Q64 on Jewel Avenue, which is in dire need of relief. During rush hour, extra buses are dispatched from Main Street to ensure people past Pomonok can even board. This project would push the system to its breaking point, crowding out the low-income residents of Pomonok who depend on bus service the most. It would also have a significant impact on Kew Gardens Hills, with Jewel Avenue becoming even more congested.
As I mentioned earlier, I couldn’t find the environmental report, nor could I find the Community Board notice for this project. Public projects of this magnitude require community board approval, with specific legal requirements for public hearing notifications. The last record I could find is from 2019, when an earlier version of this project was rejected. If the community board didn’t approve this new project, then someone in a City office bypassed the process, which is a serious problem that needs addressing from our local officials. If the community board did approve it, then why weren’t there proper notifications for hearings? We need answers from the Borough President-appointed members of the community board; and if mistakes were made, they need to be corrected.
We need to raise our concerns and protest this project that will adversely affect both the frum communities in Kew Gardens Hills and in Hillcrest. Call all our local elected officials and demand action. An elected official’s first duty is to advocate for their community and provide a platform for grievances; securing funding for community organizations is secondary. We need them to focus on being our advocates. The more people who call, the more likely they are to take a stand, just as we saw with the e-scooter issue that prompted Gennaro to change his stance and prioritize community safety concerns. Call your elected officials at every level of government – city, state, and federal. Don’t you just call; get your friends and neighbors to call, too. This project will heavily impact Pomonok and Electchester, so if you know people there, make sure they’re aware, and encourage them to make their voices heard.
Call their offices (not email) and let them know that come election time, your vote will depend on their action on this issue. Councilmember Jim Gennaro’s office: (718) 217-4969. Assemblyman Sam Berger (Kew Gardens Hills): (718) 969-1508. Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (Hillcrest): (718) 820-0241. Our State Senators: Leroy Comrie (718) 765-6359 and John Liu (718) 765-6675. Congresswoman Grace Meng: (718) 358-6364. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards: (718) 286-3000.
Let’s unite to stop the Manhattanization of Kew Gardens Hills and Hillcrest, and protect our suburban way of life. Make your voice heard today!
Dovid Hirsch
Dear Editor:
How much more can Kamala Harris demonstrate that she is an anti-Semite and she hates the citizens of this country? She is giving our hard-earned tax dollars ($157 million) to those in Lebanon who have faced hardship due to Israel’s destruction of Hezbollah. What about the 60,000 Jews in northern Israel who have had to flee their homes because of thousands of rockets being shot at them from Hezbollah over the last couple of years? Meanwhile, citizens of this country in southeastern US, who have lost everything from Hurricane Helene get a check for $750. Add to the insult, FEMA is completely out of money because they prioritized illegals over saving the money for citizens who might need help at a later time.
Kamala Harris is more interested in kowtowing to Arab and Muslim communities for votes in Michigan by visiting them instead of assisting those in North Carolina and Florida. She is wrong for Jewish votes and wrong for the citizens of the United States. Anyone who votes for her hates Israel, Jews, and the USA.
Shalom Markowitz
Procrastination
Dear Editor:
Procrastination is a word that is familiar to all too many of us. We procrastinate when it comes to paying bills, paying taxes, redoing our houses, going on diets, or doing anything difficult or unpleasant. Procrastination is the reason it took me 30 years to get my bedroom painted. It took me four years to find someone to marry me and another six months to actually get married. The only thing I don’t push off, which I should, is eating.
The current fad is intermittent fasting, during which you fast 14-16 hours a day. That sounds great except I don’t do it in the morning because after davening, I have to eat my cake and drink my coffee. I can’t do it in the afternoon because then I’ll feel light-headed and not be able to drive my car to buy groceries. I certainly can’t do it at night because I won’t be able to figure out which new Netflix movie to watch, and I’ll have difficulty focusing on who committed the murders.
If I were to vote for which activities are the most pushed off, they would be cleaning under the bed, clearing out and cleaning the freezer, getting one’s teeth cleaned, and writing thank-you notes or Rosh HaShanah cards. Remember those? Anyway, by the time you get a thank-you note for a wedding gift, the whole registry is outdated. By the time you get a thank-you note for the baby gift, it’s time to get the kid a Bat or Bar Mitzvah gift, and by the time someone responds to a condolence note, he/she has remarried.
Let me not procrastinate and wish everyone a G’mar Chasimah Tovah. I’ll see you, G-d willing, after the chagim - unless I push that off.
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
Happy 100th birthday to President Jimmy Carter. Unlike many former Presidents before him, he didn’t, upon retirement, enrich himself by joining corporate boards or giving $500,000 speeches. His volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, including playing a leadership role of such a great humanitarian organization, will preserve his place in history.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Great Neck, New York
Dear Editor:
A few weeks ago, I was walking on 78th Avenue, off of 147th Street, when I saw a little girl who looked about five years old walking by herself. She was walking from a third of the block all the way till the corner of 147th Street. It looked very odd to me and really alarming. When I walked further, I saw a young Orthodox man storing things in the trunk of his car, so I asked him why this very young girl was walking around by herself. He answered, “Yeah, we know about it and we’ve talked to the parents and it doesn’t help.” I thought that was a very strange thing for him to say, and that the authorities should know about this.
When we hear on the news that some horrible crime happened in some strange circumstance, we wish that someone could’ve been there to alert the police; that would’ve made a difference. So, I called 911 and explained that I witnessed no crime but I wanted to bring this to their attention, and I was hoping that they would come with a car right away and see this girl walking by herself, ask the girl where she lives or knock on a few doors to find out what’s going on. The dispatcher took my information, my name and number, but I told them that I do not have the time to wait for a police car to arrive. They asked me whether I would be willing to take a call from them. So, I said sure, but I don’t know any more than what I told them already. About a half hour later, I got a call from an anonymous number. It was them, and they asked me what else I knew. I told them that I don’t know more than what I told the dispatcher, but I added that if a car was dispatched from a nearby location to come over right away where the girl was walking, they would’ve found her there and could’ve had all their questions answered.
They answered that they didn’t have a car available to look into it at the time. Okay, who am I to argue? I guess times are rough and there are emergencies going on beyond mere suspicious circumstances. I guess all the police around the neighborhood were pursuing crimes in progress. Oy Vey!
Weeks went by, and then I got a call from the detective following up on the case, who asked me questions like what part of the block was the girl walking on and in which direction. Of course, I answered his questions, but I also add that they could’ve gotten all the information right away had they just come over when I called. He answered that the precinct doesn’t have time to stake out the block for a half-day. He then instructed me that if I see the girl again walking by herself, I can call 311; it is serious, but it does not require a 911 call. I said, “Well, 311 is not an emergency phone call.” He told me I was being condescending and that he could not go on with the phone call. So, I said goodbye to him.
But, really, even if I was condescending, which I don’t believe I was, being condescending to an officer should not be a factor in continuing an investigation. They did not consider this a serious situation, because if they did, instead of wasting time with me on the phone going over the same thing, they would’ve gone over to the block and knocked on a few doors.
The truth is that often we find that years before a horrific crime was committed, someone did call the police about suspicious circumstances, only to be ignored and the police get active only after the fact.
We all want to be respectful and differential to the men and women in blue, but sometimes law enforcement needs to have more respect of the public, as well.
Maybe if this letter gets around enough, the parents will be shamed into taking better care of this small girl and not let her walk around by herself to tempt fate.
Abe Fuchs
