The process will take two years to complete and is going to be broken down into two phases. For 2010, the goal will be to replace the drainage and water pipes, which are more than 80 years old.

“There is only so much patchwork you can do,” said Ciaran Staunton, a leading member of Sunnyside Gardens Park, referring to the drainage problems. “Last year, we spent $10,000 on repairs.”

The project will cost more than $400,000. The large sum has been raised by levying $100 special-assessments on members; holding fundraisers, such as the Memorial Day and Oktoberfest fairs; and receiving aid from companies, such as Con Edison.  

Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, Christine Quinn (Speaker of NYC) and Congressman Joseph Crowley have also provided aid.

Membership, which is available to anyone interested in paying, provides access to the 3-acre park that was created in 1926 and is open 364 days of the year. There are about 320 members, with a membership typically covering a family.

As part of the first year goal, members aim to replace two basketball courts, re-sod the soil (where baseball, soccer and kid’s Gaelic football is played) and put in place an exercise/bike track.

The second year, the plan is to create new swings and slides (and sandboxes) for toddlers. Furthermore, members are planning to create a climbing area for children between the ages of 7 and 9 years.

Many Sunnyside residents have been fighting for years to have the Avenue cleaned up, and have been working with the sanitation department, Dept. of Transportation and Community Board to bring change. They also have been calling for a sidewalk for some time.

The street is narrow, which made it particularly tight for two lanes even without the sidewalk. The local community rallied around the cause, pumping money into ongoing cleanups by picking up trash.

 “Barnett Ave. had been an eyesore and blight on the community for years,” Joe Conley told the Woodside Herald. “It was an accident waiting to happen.”

Sunnyside resident, Ciaran Staunton, who led the movement and reached out to The Sunnyside Post, has been a vocal critic of the road for years.

Last year, Staunton and other residents thought they had their victory. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn visited the site (48^th and Barnett Ave) and said the city would fund the sidewalk, which was scheduled to be completed by 2012.

However, the recession kicked in and New York City said it was unable to fund the project.

But Staunton was not deterred and formed the Barnett Avenue Alliance to lobby for the sidewalk.

The group’s persistence paid off and the city cleared the street, which was filled with local debris.

Today, the one-way street is in place and runs westbound from 48th to 50th streets. Furthermore, Barnett Ave. now has a sidewalk.

Photos from the Woodside Herald:

http://www.woodsideherald.com/uploads/Woodside_11_27_09.pdf

Accessorized With Stroller and Rake

JULIE SIMONSON, a research pharmacist whose flat accent reveals her Chicago-area roots, grew up in a forest. Her childhood home was surrounded as far as the eye could see by towering deciduous trees whose names and characteristics she knew so well that she could identify virtually every one by its leaf.

Although Ms. Simonson eventually moved to New York, she yearned to live near trees the way some people long to live near a Starbucks. So it is fitting that she, along with her husband, Jesse Nover, and their year-old daughter, Maya, have ended up in Sunnyside Gardens, Queens. Though not in a forest, their two-story attached house is surrounded by considerably more in the way of trees and other greenery than many New York dwellings of its type.

To people interested in cities, Sunnyside Gardens, a collection of redbrick buildings, nearly all of them row houses set along landscaped courtyards, is hallowed ground of a sort. The complex, which opened in 1924, is one of the nation’s best-known planned communities, and for 11 years the celebrated architecture critic Lewis Mumford lived not in some spiffy apartment house in Manhattan but in this leafy outpost well east of the city’s heart.

It was the presence of trees that drew Ms. Simonson to this part of the city. Her journey began in late 2003, when she met her future husband, who works as what he describes as an “information architect” for a technology company with offices in Manhattan.

For the rest of the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/realestate/29habi.html

The oak tree is not in any danger, but it shows that some of these vandals will not stop at anything. While the entire area is targeted by these bandits, this is the first time we have seen a tree targeted.

The one in the Gardens was filled with face-painters, BBQs, and delicious baked goods. Kids were playing games and it reminded me of something out of Little House on the Praire.

But this was the day to be on the southern side of the boulevard, where some real fun was being had.  I bought a Hector Lavoe salsa CD and ate some good old fashion empanadas (not cheap). There were some real characters at that one.

Take a look at the photos. 

Sunnyside Gardens

Greenpoint Ave.

Welcome Home Real Estate

46-15 Skillman Avenue

Sunnyside Gardens, New York 11104

718 -706-0957

http://www.welcomehomerealestate.biz

This firm is the “leader” for those who are interested in buying or renting real estate in Sunnyside Gardens. Check out the site for its listings. Also, the firm covers Woodside and Sunnyside.