— IN THE PAST WEEK —

Cutting the Ribbon on Alley Pond Environmental's Temporary Space

It was wonderful on Saturday to celebrate the grand opening of Alley Pond Environmental's temporary space on 76th Ave! The center will continue to provide the community with stellar educational programming here while a new state-of-the-art facility is constructed at the original location on Northern Boulevard.

The new APEC building will feature a rainwater collection system, skylights and a geothermal heating system and will be larger than the center’s current building, providing more space for classes and special events.

Proud to work with former Queens Borough President Melinda Katz to see this massive project become reality!

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How Would You Spend $1M for Northeast Queens?

Participatory Budgeting for District 19 is in full swing! If you would like to propose a project idea for this year’s Participatory Budgeting ballot to help improve our local parks, schools, libraries, etc, you can do so by contacting our office at [email protected] or calling 718-619-8611. Through Participatory Budgeting, you can directly decide how to spend at least $1 million in this year’s City budget.

After you have submitted your project idea, our office will contact you to discuss the next steps and how to turn your project ideas into real proposals for our ballot. These proposals will be up for a community-wide vote in the spring, where the projects that receive the most votes receive funding from our office!

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Creating Safer Streets for Our Seniors

On Wednesday, I introduced a bill that would mandate DOT to designate handicap parking and loading zones for access-a-ride passengers outside of all DFTA-contracted senior centers, a move that would make our streets a safer place for our city's over 1 million older adults!

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Op-Ed: City building inspectors should adopt drone technology to avoid further tragedy

"Drones—unmanned aerial vehicles—offer a 21st-century solution to reduce inspection time and cut construction costs. On sites around the country, drones equipped with sophisticated sensors and cameras fly around and above buildings to generate 3-D models and high-quality images.

What would take several days to accomplish under current conditions could take only minutes or hours when completed with a drone and a nearby operator, saving both time and money. Better yet, there’s no need for scaffolding, and half of the city’s 328 miles of scaffolding dotting our sidewalks—more than the distance from Central Park to Niagara Falls—was erected to perform facade inspections.

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Sadly, this conversation is moot if New York doesn’t begin accepting more innovative methods. As it stands, all drone use within the five boroughs, including for commercial construction purposes, is illegal under a 1948 local law, despite the Federal Aviation Administration’s legalization of commercial drones in 2016. When the statute was written more than 70 years ago, it was to protect against the operation of large manned aircraft, like planes; today the antiquated legislation does little more than slow progress.

Together with our partners in government and the industry, it’s time we create a safe and sensible system that allows for commercial drone use."

Read More At Crain's New York

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