Editorial: Traffic Control Needed

Some of you may remember that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) conducted a preliminary review of seven U.S. Congressmen back in May.

One of them was Congressman Joe Crowley, the Queens Democratic County Chair who represented neighborhoods including Jackson Heights, Woodside and East Elmhurst.

By August, the field was narrowed down to just three congressmen and a full review was recommended by the watch-dog agency— oh and yes, one was Joe Crowley.

While some Crowley supporters may be concerned with the results of the investigation—despite recent criticisms of the OCE as being “overly aggressive”—perhaps the same supporters need be equally concerned about remarks made at a press conference in Maspeth on Monday, when it became clear that Crowley might have lost his mind.

A seasoned politician who has held public office since 1987, Crowley offered up a quote to NY1 television that put him at the center of the circus taking place inside the office of Assembly member Marge Markey.

After an announcement by Markey that the Department of Transportation (DOT) is looking to change a traffic pattern in Maspeth and will take steps to stop trucks from taking shortcuts to Brooklyn along Grand and Flushing avenues, Joe Crowley responded to reporters questions with the following: “Things don’t happen overnight even if we want them to happen overnight and I can understand the frustration...”

You’re right Joe, things don’t happen overnight. But if you are going to come into a community where residents have been plagued with dangerous truck traffic and pedestrian deaths for more than ten years, then your definition of overnight best be somewhere less than the last 3,650 days.

And if as you say, you can understand the frustration, then you can imagine how frustrated the residents are about the fact Marge Markey has done nothing about the situation for the last ten years she has been in office. But we don’t need to say anything about Markey - she summed her position up nicely in a quote at the same press conference. Speaking about the DOT’s future plans for the Maspeth Bypass, Markey said, “I don’t know what they’re coming up with, it may be a series of one way streets. I don’t know...” Well Marge, this is one of those rare occasions
when you got it right-- you don’t know.

Another question is why would you call a press conference if the agency that supposedly is putting these meas- ures into effect isn’t even present? The answer to that is quite simple—the press conference was a political ploy to benefit Markey, staged by the party with the hopes of returning another out-of-touch incumbent to office in November’s election.

Marge Markey is just one more example giving more deserving incumbents a bad rap. We urge all of our readers to take a good look at the messages your elected officials are sending you. They are the only voting guide you’ll ever need.

People in Maspeth are rightfully worried about getting run over by trucks. Hopefully a plan proposed nearly a decade ago by two Maspeth residents and volunteers will finally save them. But who will save the rest of us, forever in danger of getting run over by political traffic?