Crowley urges passage of bill to strengthen penalty for leaving an accident

The Water Board voted to increase the 2013 rate by 7 percent last week, despite weeks of opposition from the public in hearings held around the city.
Although the rate is the lowest increase in seven years and is 25 percent lower than what was expected at this time last year, according to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), critics say the rate increases every year to some degree, and needs to be capped.
Even with the 7 percent hike, water rates in New York City are among the lowest in the nation, even though DEP manages a system that includes 19 reservoirs, 295 miles of tunnels and aqueducts, 14,000 miles of water and sewer mains, and 22 wastewater treatment plants.
However, a series of budget-tightening measures over the last three years allowed DEP to keep the rate increase low this year, Commissioner Carter Strickland said in a statement.
For example, under the NYC Green Infrastructure Plan, an agreement reached with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the city deferred $2 billion in capital investments while at the same time achieving higher water quality, according to DEP.
“The lower-than-expected rate increase demonstrates our commitment to keeping rates low while delivering the renowned service that residents deserve,” Strickland said.
“Though rate increases are difficult during tough economic times,” he added, “we are moving in the right direction and maintaining the highest standard of quality New Yorkers have come to expect.”
Although DEP was able to defer or eliminate more than $5 billion in unfunded mandates, Strickland said at a Water Board hearing at Christ the King High School in Middle Village on April 26 that unfunded mandates are the main driving force behind increasing water rates.
Regardless, legislators such as Assemblyman David Weprin recently introduced bills to cap the annual water rate increase at 5 percent.
He also introduced a bill to restructure the Water Board, so seven of its members would be appointed by the mayor, one by the City Council, one by the comptroller and one by the public advocate.
Weprin said it is a conflict of interest for the Office of Management and Budget to appoint the Water Board members.
A third bill Weprin introduced would prevent the city from forcing homeowners to pay charges associated with their water bills while they are appealing decisions to keep them from facing late penalties and possible liens on their homes until a final decision is reached.
“Many New Yorkers affected by the recent economic downturn are already struggling to pay their water bills at the current rate. Yet, the New York City Water Board continues to raise water rates year after year,” Weprin said in a statement responding to the rate hike. “The time has come to say enough is enough. These increases are simply unacceptable.”

Senator Charles Schumer and other local representatives are calling on the National Park Service (NPS) to green light construction of an outdoor production studio outside of Kaufman Astoria Studios.
The project would close 36th Street between 35th and 36th avenues in Astoria for the studio, which would be guarded by what speakers called an iconic new gate.
It is the gate that’s holding up the $2 million project, however, after minor changes to its appearance triggered NPS to call for a renewed review after construction was already reviewed and approved.
“The one thing California has over us is that they have an outdoor movie studio,” Schumer said. “We’ve lagged behind Hollywood as the center of film and television for this reason, because they want to be in New York. They know the talent is here.”
If the project is approved, the studio will open for the summer of 2013 and create thousands of jobs over the next year, Schumer said.
Outdoor studios allow for exterior and special effects shots. The project is aimed at attracting film and television clients who might otherwise go to Los Angeles, New Orleans, or other cities with outdoor studios.
“It would be a destination not only for film and TV clients, but for tourists,” Schumer said. “But unfortunately, instead of going forward, this project has been held up by needless delays and a sea of bureaucratic red tape that could postpone construction and threaten the ability of the studio to allow filming here by the summer of 2013.”
Schumer pointed out that New York is doing well in film and television, with 188 films and 23 primetime television shows shot in the city in 2011. However, clients are expressing interest in filming in the outdoor studio, he said, but scheduling can’t be secured until the project is approved.
In the 1970s, NPS deeded the land outside Kaufman Astoria to New York City with the stipulation that the site, which was a silent film mecca in the 1920s, continue to be used for filming.
According to the deed, NPS must sign off on projects to assure that the land is being used for that purpose.
Although NPS already approved the project, when the Public Design Commission proposed slight changes to give the gate a grittier, more industrial look, the agency called for a completely new review of the project.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who also spoke at the press conference, grew up in Astoria and said he used to ride bikes with his sister along 30th Avenue in the 1970s, when the area looked abandoned.
“Like an old warehouse, business, factory district with nothing going on,” he said. “And to see 35th Avenue reborn the way you see it today, it would not have happened without Kaufman Astoria and the Museum of Moving Image.”
“But we can’t have it as good as we want it to be without this outdoor soundstage and studio,” he said.

Glendale is getting ready for another year of fresh vegetables, fruit and flowers, as its Community Supported Agriculture Program (CSA) is taking on new members for 2012.
Members of a CSA pay for the season in advance and sign up for vegetables and flowers, eggs or non-organic fruit. Members can choose one, two or three of the items.
Items can be picked up on every or every-other Saturday, and the program lasts from June through Thanksgiving.
The Glendale CSA is partnered with Garden of Eve Organic Farm in Riverhead, Long Island. Kevin Burns, who founded the organization in 2010 with his wife Kimberly Ferstler, said CSA’s are good for farmers because they get paid before their season starts.
Although New York City has about 100 CSA’s in total, few are in Queens, Burns said.
“It’s fun and adventurous,” he said of being a CSA member.
“You get some things that you maybe wouldn’t have purchased,” he said, “It does change a little bit your cooking habits and shopping habits.”
He said there is also a large social aspect involved in joining a CSA, because members share recipes and cooking tips. People often linger at the stands and talk to each other.
The CSA is hosting a trip to its partnering farm on May 19 and another in August.
“Each community has a different dynamic,” he said, adding that he was previously a Greenpoint and Forest Hills CSA member.
Burns said the Glendale CSA showed him a lot more diversity in the neighborhood, including a wide range of ages, occupations and opinions.
Some members join for health reasons, others because they care for the environment, while some are community oriented.
“I think everybody wants to eat better,” Burns said.
There are scholarships available for low-income members, and food leftover at the end of every Saturday is donated to a local food pantry.
The CSA last year had 75 members, it so far has 50 signed up for this year, but Burns is aiming for 80.
Bill Wenzel, a Glendale CSA member who’s lived in the area since 1980, said he used to be a member of a Manhattan CSA ,but joined this one when it opened three years ago because it is closer to where he lives.
“I believe that eating food that you don’t know quite where it came from and how it was processed is somewhat dangerous dealing with the long term,” Wenzel said.
In addition, “I believe that farmers should be able to get a fair price for their food.”
Wenzel also said not knowing exactly what he will get every week is an added thrill.
“I have gotten to sample foods that I walk passed in the local super markets and looked at them, but never knew how to eat them or how to prepare them,” he said. “So I’ve widened my food consumption quite a bit.”

For more information, visit GlendaleCSA.blogspot.com.

In an effort to restore train service on Rockaway Beach Rail Line from its namesake neighborhood to Rego Park along 100th Street, Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder and residents of the Rockaways and South Queens communities unveiled an online petition in favor of the train line.
The petition, Goldfeder says, sends a strong message to Governor Cuomo and transit agencies that Queens residents “strongly support full restoration of the long-abandoned line.”
“Residents from all demographics, from all neighborhoods, are really uniting to send a strong message to the MTA, the Port Authority and the governor that we must improve transportation access in Queens,” Goldfeder said. “And the best way to do that is by bringing back the Rockaway Beach rail line. This line is the only line that will allow us in Queens to go north and south.
“Our corridors are all jammed up,” he added, “and bringing back this line would really alleviate the transportation problems and give all Queens residents access.”
Urging residents to sign the petition, Goldfeder noted that it’s important that people realize it’s not only one neighborhood or one group fighting for the restoration.
Goldfeder is also pushing for the rail line because of the estimated growth of South Queens with Resorts World Casino, the governor’s proposal to build the largest convention center in the country in the area, and the new image of the Rockaway Peninsula as a tourist haven.
“The Rockaway Beach line is the way to go to get people to Resorts World Ne York and the Rockaways,” he said. “It’s about interconnectivity in the borough.”
Residents can sign the petition at www.rockawaybeachrail.com.
Goldfeder said that with enough signatures, he will show the petition to the governor, the Port Authority and the MTA.
Although some residents are in favor of a restored rail line at the abandoned tracks, others would like to see a High Line-like park along the tracks, or a “Queensway,” adding more green space to the borough.
“We’re talking billions of dollars here,” CB9 chair Andrea Crawford, an avid supporter of park space on the rail line, said in February. “To say that you can reactivate the track is disingenuous. We need more open space in Queens and I don’t think the time and energy spent on a railway project helps anyone. I don’t think it’s a viable solution.”
Goldfeder said that he is not against that idea. He said if there is a way that a rail line and green space can coexist side by side he will be all for it.
Crawford suggested updating the A train so that it becomes more reliable and offers more express train service.
But some supporters of a train line, including mass transit advocate John Rozankowski. said that it would be a huge benefit as it would give Queens residents, particularly Rockaway residents, greater access to and from Manhattan.
“Reviving the Rockaway line will have a dramatic impact on Queens,” he said.
Rozankowski also hopes that the reestablished rail line will bring more businesses to the borough since it will bring intra-borough connectivity.
If built, the rail line will run through Ozone Park, Forest Hills, Glendale and Rego Park.