Raising the Bar in Forest Hills: New Shops Signal Economic Recover

By Steve Tiszenkel

It’s all over! You can start making irresponsible purchasing decisions again — this economic downturn, the Great Recession, is nearing an end. We know this because Barack Obama tells us so.

“In the last few months,” the president said in a much-anticipated speech last week, “the economy has done measurably better than we thought—better than expected.” A lofty statement, this “better than expected,” and according to President Obama, the credit belongs to President Obama’s controversial economic stimulus package, which “put the brakes on the recession.”

Break out the overpriced champagne. Not only are things not entirely so bad as you might imagine they could be, but for the next three-and-a-half years, we’ve got a president who promises to keep things going in a sensible, non-backwards direction.

Now, skeptics — if, indeed, there are any skeptics left after such an encouraging report — might question whether a lack of backsliding really constitutes forward motion, if the fact that not quite as many people have been losing their jobs in the past couple of months is truly good news. But I respectfully disagree. There’s solid evidence that things are getting better. I refer not to the Gross Domestic Product report that spurred President Obama’s announcement, of which I can make neither heads nor tails — after all, I got a C in Macroeconomics during my freshman year of college, not exactly one the finer moments of my four years of secondary education. But I got A after big fat A in sociology, so sociology is what I’ll have to use.

Back in school, Professor Gary Alan Fine instructed our entire 300-level class to leave the leafy confines of our suburban campus, park ourselves on a city street of our choice for a couple of hours and observe. Only then, he instructed us, would we really be able to get a sense of the neighborhood we’d picked, of its economic status, where it had been and where it was headed. With Professor Fine in mind, I give you Exhibit A for the recovery: 71st Road in Forest Hills. By now, Forest Hills’ recent retail struggles have been exhaustively documented. Storefronts continue to stand vacant months or even years after their previous tenants closed up shop. Worse, when new businesses do move in, they’re almost invariably more downscale than their forerunners. My favorite example, which I cannot cite enough in this space, remains when Value Depot closed, lay dormant for about a year, and reopened as Value Depot.

But on 71st Road, there are suddenly signs of life. It’s not that new businesses have replaced old — that happens all the time, in good times and bad. It’s what kind of businesses have moved in. Dollar stores, cheap hair salons and chintzy prom-dress boutiques are now a thing of the past on this modest little block—in the past few months, the street has sprouted a gleaming Italian bakery that’s been winning raves, an immaculate pet groomer, and most recently the coup de grace: an adorable organic market. This isn’t your older brother’s Forest Hills. No, these are the kinds of businesses that work themselves into the fabric of Park Slope — but Park Slope in the more innocent age of 2006, not Park Slope last week.

And it’s not just 71st Road. The new restaurant on 70th Road whose smart exterior and terminating punctuation I’ve long admired even as it spent months sitting empty — this would be the eatery known as aged, period — is now open and looks to be phenomenally popular despite mixed reviews. A new toss-your-own-salad shop, clean and sophisticated, is farther east on another side street. And somehow we now boast not one but two hookah bars, both filled with Sprite-drinking, flavored-tobacco smoking young men and women who look exactly old enough to smoke but exactly not old enough to drink.

Until the former Radio Shack on Queens Boulevard gets a new tenant, until the depressing string of vacant stores on the east end of the Austin Street strip fills up, until Continental Avenue’s Twin Donut finally opens and then closes and then opens again as a tapas bar—only then can we say we’ve made it through this unfortunate moment in history. But for now, we can settle for better than expected.

"This morning, the GDP revealed that the recession we faced when I took office was even deeper than anyone thought at the time. It told us how close we were to the edge," Obama said. "But the GDP also revealed that in the last few months, the economy has done measurably better that we had thought - better than expected."

The stimulus and recovery bill, along with other measures taken by the administration, Obama said, "have helped us put the brakes on the recession," pointing to efforts to help homeowners, spur lending for families and small businesses, tax cuts and extensions to unemployment benefits.

The writer, Steve Tiszenkel is the host of the Website, Queens Central. Log on to queenscentral.com to read more about Forest Hills and surrounding neighborhoods.

After Years of Erosion, Jamaica Bay Marshes Make a Comeback

By Conor Greene

In honor of Earth Day, Rep. Anthony Weiner announced last week that 50 acres of Jamaica Bay’s marshland has been restored, reversing years of erosion.

Already, 50 acres of the bay’s threatened marshland has been restored, and another 100 acres are slated for restoration in the coming years, as the congressman plans to make the issue of wetlands preservation a top issue. “Jamaica Bay is going back to the birds more and more each year,” said Weiner (D-Forest Hills).

The bay’s 26,645 acres of marshes suffer as buffers that help mitigate waves, wind and floods and reduce damage to surrounding residents. The salt marshes are home to 91 species of fish, 325 species of birds and 214 species of special concern, including threatened and endangered species.

Experts have concluded that rising oxygen levels in the bay have caused the marshes to erode at an ever-quickening pace. According to Weiner, much of the blame for the rising oxygen levels rests with four nearby wastewater plants, which dump more than 250 gallons of nitrogen-rich wastewater into Jamaica Bay everyday. This kills delicate marsh roots and retards re-growth.

To make matters worse, the rate of loss has been increasing over the past few decades. Between 1924 and 1994, more than 1,800 acres of salt marsh disappeared, at an average rate of about 26 acres a year. However, the rate of loss increased between 1995 and 1999, with 220 acres of salt marsh disappearing at an average rate of 44 acres per year.

To combat the quickening salt marsh erosion, Rep. Weiner helped fund a $16 million Army Corps of Engineers project in 2006 to rebuild Elders Point East. As part of that project, engineers rebuilt 48 acres of marshland, adding more than 240,000 cubic yards of beach and transporting more than 750,000 native marsh plants including Saltwater Cordgrass, Salt Meadow Grass, Salt Grass and Rush into the depleted area. Weiner now calls that effort “a major success story” as recovery efforts now outpace marsh erosion for the first time by 15 acres.

“These marshlands are the very foundation of this ecosystem. They are a haven for insects, attract clams and support fish and birds,” said Weiner. “For years, concerned residents and environmentalists have warned us that they are disappearing. We can now say that the marshlands are coming back.”

To ensure the marshes’ survival, Weiner has announced two key upcoming projects that will help restore the marshland, as well as a four point plan to save the marshes. Both projectsare expected to commence next year. First, Elders Point West, located in the north-central part of the bay, will be rebuilt at a cost of $10.6 million. Building on the successes of the restoration projects at Elders Point East, the next step is building up 34 acres of marshes with 200,000 cubic yards of sand. Engineers will replant native Saltwater Cordgrass onto the restored land.

The second project is the restoration of Yellow Bar Hassock, located in the center of Jamaica Bay, west of Broad Channel. Due to erosion of the beach foundation, the salt marsh habitat here has been converting to mucky peat and mudflat at an estimated rate of six acres a year. The rising saltwater was drowning the marsh habitat and National Parks Service officials have projected that Yellow Bar will be completely lost by 2020.

Using Elders Point East as a model, the Yellow Bar Hassock design proposes building up to 60 acres of marsh with 250,000 cubic yards of sand. Within this new elevated marsh foundation, engineers will replant existing salt marsh plant hummocks to spur growth. There currently is no final cost estimate available for this project.

These projects will coincide with Weiner’s four-point plan,which includes reducing nitrogen in the bay by 60% in 10 years, including a 20% reduction in the next three years. Under the plan, Weiner will provide $9 million to fully fund the Yellow Bar Hassock and Elders Point West projects and study restoration options for other sites around the bay. In addition, federal stimulus money will be used to retrofit four sewage plants surrounding the bay. Finally, the plan doubles the number of Saltwater Cordgrass and Salt Marsh Plan Hammocks to be replanted in the two upcoming projects.

Gateway National Recreation Area attracts 10 million visitors a year, making it the third most popular park in the country. While great strides are being made to restore the wetlands, Weiner noted that there are other factors jeopardizing the marshes, including global warming and rising ocean levels, meaning they likely will never return to their natural state.

Resident Seeks Relief from LIRR Noise

By Conor Greene

Tired of constantly being subjected to blaring horns from trains passing by on the LIRR tracks behind his apartment, a Forest Hills resident has turned to the local community board for help.

Russ Gundlach, who lives in a fifth-floor unit in the Tennis View Apartments building along Burns Street, approached Community Board 6 last week with a petition from residents asking for help in convincing the Long Island Railroad to rebuild a wall that was demolished in October.

The problem began in October 2007 when the LIRR cut down a number of large, healthy trees, many at least 80 years old, that had served to block some of the noise coming from the tracks. The situation was exacerbated last September, when the railroad removed an eight-foot wall at the top of the embankment near the tracks along Burns Street. While the wall wasn’t built as a sound barrier, it served that purpose and its removal has made noise from the tracks much louder for nearby residents, said Gundlach.

“It’s very disconcerting to have an outside force or entity so close to your property that pretty much feels it can do whatever it wants without consulting the neighborhood,” he said. “We’re always reacting to what they do instead of giving our input… It’s devastating, the noise, vibrating and sparks.”

According to an LIRR spokesman, the wall along Burns Street was removed “after an inspection determined it was unsafe and could not be rebuilt.” The spokesman, Salvatore Arena, noted that while it isn’t clear why the wall was built in the first place, “it was never intended as a sound barrier and the LIRR has no plans to replace it.”

Regarding the cutting of trees, which helped block both noise from passing trains and the view of the tracks, Arena said the agency is “involved in ongoing discussions with the community about landscaping the area.” In the meantime, the LIRR “is doing everything possible to reduce the use of train horns and their decibel level without compromising safety.” Those efforts include a recent amendment to the LIRR’s operating rules to reduce horn use and installation of a muffling-type device on its M-7 trains.

Gundlach said that residents had been under the impression that the wall would be replaced, as the LIRR told them that work must be completed before the area is landscaped. However, they found out in October that the wall wouldn’t be replaced. “It’s been going on for over six months, and I cannot get used to this,” he said. “I certainly got used to the noise for the past nine years [before the wall was removed] and it didn’t bother me.”

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn) said in a statement that a sound barrier should be installed along the tracks. “The LIRR has long been an uneasy neighbor to the residents of Forest Hills Gardens. We need a hearty sound barrier where the crumbling wall once stood.”

For Gundlach, the situation has left him unable to find peace and quiet in his own home. “I’m having a hard time justifying staying there, but the problem is I truly love my apartment,” said Gundlach, who dreamed of living in the Gardens while growing up in Woodside. “It was always like a fairytale land, always a place I wanted to live. The Gardens allowed me to buy something and be pretty much assured it wasn’t going to change.”

Noise from trains passing through Forest Hills has become a problem since the Long Island Railroad removed trees and a wall from an embankment along Burns Street, according to a resident. The Forum Newsgroup/photos courtesy of RUSS GUNDLACH