Nov. 17, 2011 By Christian Murray
Public officials are putting plans in place to create pedestrian plazas beneath the 33rd, 40th and 46th subway stops.
Joe Conley, chairman of Community Board 2, said the plans include putting in better lighting, bicycle racks, and tidy newsstands. He said greenery and the installation of local art, such as sculptures, are also major component of the plan.
Conley said that there are plants that can grow in the shade and that sunlight does get in under the tracks during certain hours of the day.
The Department of Transportation, which controls the road and space below the subway, is in support of the plans and has held meetings with councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and Conley. Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan is also behind the plan.
The first step will be to add barriers around the perimeter of the space directly below the subway stops to keep the food carts out, which are responsible for much of the surrounding trash. The aim is to do away with the vendors by the end of the year, Conley said
The improvements will then be introduced next year.
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25 Comments
Are you sure? It can not be real. That is a really bad photoshop picture of what the artwork would look like.
Hi Long Time Resident,
That photo is real. We have not– will we not– put anything that has been manipulated with by photo manipulation ware on the site. Thanks for asking.
The plans seem like good ones. PErhaps the people selling food there could be re-employed as caretakers of the new public area. Benches or moveable chairs, like the ones in Bryant Park, would encourage people to get to know each other. Some sound abatement might be necessary. The traffic noise can be awful.
Our pols are fixated on removing the foodcarts- surely due to pressure from restaurants who think they are losing business to them- rather than cleaning up the space. If they really wanted to clean up the space they would figure out who is spreading 50 lb bags of birdseed at the 45th & 46th st crossings. I see the empty bags tossed in the trash at those locations at least once a week.
Can I just ask, is that photo for real? It looks like an intentionally bad Photoshop job.
“How are earth are they gong to keep the birds out of there?”
Last week I saw them placing pigeon “spikes” beneath the 40th street station.
I’ll be glad to see the now three carts (and one little lady with a mini-cart) under 40th street being blocked. We have businesses that pay rent and could use that $ rather than the cart-people. The gyro place tried opening for breakfast for two weeks and gave up because of them. This may have even been a contributing factor to TheGrind closing up (why buy coffee from them, when there’s a cart right under the station?).
Which is better: food-carts under the station and empty store fronts because they can’t stay in business, or art, plants, trees and booming business?!?
@Sunnysider Good point about the dates of the CB2 meetings.
For some reason they don’t list the date and time on the “meetings” page, but after the fourth paragrpah of the “About” page it states, “Board meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month September through June.”
Wouldn’t it be great if on the page for “meetings” it said clearly at the top that they meet the first Thursday of every month?
Also, I didn’t realize this at first, but if you hold your cursor over the “community” link at the top left of this site, you get a bunch of sub-pages including one for Community Board 2. In the last paragraph of the page below they list the dates.
http://sunnysidepost.com/community-groups/community-board-2/
It would be great if the farmer’s market that is now held on Saturdays at 43rd Street and Skillman relocated to the space under the train tracks. Maybe a block between 45th and 46th? Businesses in the area may be concerned that they would lose parking spaces on Sat, but it would increase the number of pedestrians. It would increase the visibility and accessibility of the market. I could see people coming from many neighborhoods off the 7 line just to shop the market. It would also enable more south-of-Queens Blvd. residents to shop the market and buy the excellent produce. (I wrote a letter to the farmers market organizers, but would encourage others to do so if you think this is a good idea.)
Our Town..no dates are posted only times are listed
Let see how they communited in the minutes of their meeting. But you would think that sometimes the minutes are posted here as news story or in the hearld and so far nothing is mentined. I guess we just have to wait and be patient.
Or they could have had a public notice that the agenda for the meeitng was such an such. You can get their agenda sent to youre-mail address before their meeting so you will know ahead of time what the meeitng will be about. I get it and It made no mentin of the plaza unless I did not read it clearly.
@Sunnysider I agree that plans should be made public. I hope that this idea was made public at Community Board 2 so the public could comment.
The Community Board has a website and lists meetings and other info at http://www.cb2queens.org/meetings.html
As of Nov. 19 they haven’t yet posted minutes for the Oct. or Nov. meetings (http://www.cb2queens.org/meetings.html), so maybe we can all encourage them to do that!
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Oh, I just noticed that the comments posted here don’t show the date they were posted, that’s odd, no?
Our Town I enjoy reading your comments and I will write our councilman and community board. I think that communication is very important even without a survey. Just the idea of being told what is happening without a discussion is undemocratic. How do you feel about it? Not everyting needs a survey but at least it is newsworthy in my opinion. You do not have to agree with me. but we can respect each others opinion.
We live in a representative democracy. We elect reps t act on our behalf not take surveys on every issue. The idea is we elect reps we identify with and share our values and goals. If they don’t we tell them and/or vote differently next time around.
It’s the responsibility of each of us to make our voices heard.
It would be very complicated to take a survey on every issue. And if only ‘important’ issues, who is to decide which issues are important to whom?
Call or write your reps, assemble friends and neighbors, create a petition, **attend a community board meeting**. This is how democracy works.
Who is paying for these improvemnts / changes. Do we get to vote on what changes we want. Why are we never asked our opinion. If it is our tax dollars how about a survery for us to decide on. Not our civic leaers.
I do like the bright lights. less chance for a mugging and how about cameras so If I do get muggest you will have picutres of me getting mugged.
and who will gve the civics course teaching people not to litter? There is always so much trash in this area.
Sunnyside Post thank you for correcting me. I just thought from the picture because I saw new cars and the contrete look new that cars were not part of the pedestrian plaza. thanks for letting me know.
How are earth are they gong to keep the birds out of there?
What about the pigeons that have tatooed the sidewalk under the station, especially at the north and south edges?
I this sounds great!
Messer, I love that cart too… but you gotta admit the space needs a clean up. Also that guy who occasionally sells toys over there… do people really buy that stuff?
Where will the carts go? The cart under the 46th st station is one of my favorite meals.
Well, giant snowglobe-lookin’ things are much more attractive than the current pigeon graveyard. “Like!”
I think this is great! Sunnyside has always been my home and the only thing I would really want to change is the lack of green and beauty. I live near 40th street station and we are seriously lacking in some greenery. I think plazas are a great start but it definitely shouldn’t end there. We need more trees and our parks need grass not just concrete and rubber.
Sunnysider,
The plazas are to be directly below the subway stations. The plazas would not be where the cars are parked.
What about all the cars that are parked under the train. No public meetings. the poitician have their own meetings and leave the public out . HOW NICE OF THEM!!!!! When do we get talked too. What about our opinion….
“Like!”
The food carts are not “responsible for much of the surrounding trash.” Their customers may be, but that’s not the same thing.
I like it!