37-75

Toward a Quieter Living Space

last modified October 5, 2007 by tomlowenhaupt

The 37-75 Alliance's focus is on the noise, traffic congestion, and air quality problems afflicting the residents living around the intersection of 37th Avenue and 75th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City.

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The 37-75 Alliance

Complaint Log
See how many complaints have bee filed.

The 37-75 Alliance is made up of residents and small business owners in the vicinity of 37^th Ave. and 75^th St. in Jackson Heights, who have organized to address a variety of problems confronting us on a daily basis. Our goal is to improve the residents’ quality of life as well as the experience of those who come here to shop and visit. We are working with various agencies and organizations including the office of Councilwoman Sears, Community Board #3, the 115^th Precinct, the NYC Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection, and the NYPD’s Traffic Enforcement Division. If you have questions or ideas or would like to contribute to this project, contact us above, or email us at 3775alliance@gmail.com.

We believe the Internet--especially in the form of wiki groups like this one, which invite user participation--can be a powerful tool for city residents, helping create and expand a sense of community as members contribute to a dialogue on issues that concern them. Please visit the website of the "Campaign for .nyc," whose stated purpose is "To promote civic, commercial, community, and cultural improvement in New York City through the acquisition, operation, and development of the Internet's .nyc top level domain (TLD)." This effort will greatly enhance the effectiveness of community groups like ours.

Mission

Create a more livable space - quieter and less polluted - for the residents living around the intersection of 37th Avenue and 75th Street in Jackson Heights.

Objectives

Our objectives are to reduce noise, air pollution, congestion and beautify the street area.

Reduce Noise

The objectionable noise primarily emits from trucks unloading goods for the retail stores (85% from Trade Fair), garbage collected from those stores, blocked traffic and the noise of honking to unclog the blockage.

Delivery Trucks - Delivery trucks idling day and night is perhaps the biggest apparent problem. Perhaps we could put a big sign at the delivery area saying "Tickets Issues To Trucks for Idling" (See article on reducing idling.) Perhaps we could offer them a heater for their cabins or engines so they don't freeze or fear a difficult restart. Let's detail then take away the reasons they say they need to keep the engines running. After all, trucks that are stopped for unloading are prohibited by New York City ordinance from idling for more than 3 minutes. (See the text of this ordinance.)
Pickup Trucks - There are three categories of pickup trucks: nightly garbage collections, fat collection, recycling cardboard. Each requires a different strategy. Perhaps we can propose to the 5 stores that have garbage pickups that they coordinate the pickups. This should allow efficiencies and reduced rates for the five stores. Cardboard used to be picked up by forklift onto a flat bed truck. Much quieter. And the fat pickup is the worst of all, needing a solution.
Blocked Traffic by Pickup/Delivery - Also of concern is honking caused by the traffic blockages caused by the unloading trucks and the honking of the 18 wheelers. Perhaps a new law or regulation requiring smaller horns of city-operating 18 wheelers.
Blocked Traffic by 75th Street Parking Lot - The parking lot on the west side of 75th Street, between 37th Avenue and 37th Road, causes cars to back up to 37th Avenue when it fills up - mostly on weekends. The solution might be for the parking lot to assume responsibility for the backup and add staff to manage the street traffic. This management might include closing the gate, posting a filled sign, and flagging to any waiting cars that might cause a backup.

Air Pollution

The longterm problem of most consequence might be the air pollution caused by the idling trucks. The New York State Attorney General's Office states:

Truck and bus exhaust, especially from diesel engines, is very harmful to human health. Unnecessary idling increases these dangers.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has identified 21 chemicals in truck and bus exhaust that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects. These include chemicals such as benzene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and 1,3 butadiene.
Emissions from trucks and buses also contain other pollutants that have been linked to respiratory diseases and other serious health effects. These pollutants include: particulate matter – both black soot you can see and tiny, invisible particles a fraction of the width of a human hair that can lodge deep in your lungs; nitrogen oxides; and carbon monoxide.
The pollutants in truck and bus exhaust cause or trigger many adverse health effects, including: lung cancer; cardiovascular disease; asthma attacks; chronic bronchitis; decreased lung function; allergies; impaired immune system function; and shortness of breath.

See the statement by the NYS Attorney General's office on this problem.

Congestion

Healthy Street Gardens

See if we can get gardens on 75th Street. Open sidewalk between tree pits. Seek out Department of Parks representative and volunteer entire street for prototype project.

Strategies

Contacting city officials

We work with various agencies and organizations including the office of Councilwoman Helen Sears, Community Board #3, the 115^th Precinct, the NYC Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection, and the NYPD’s Parking Enforcement District.

Contacting offenders

See our Letter to Trade Fair Supermarkets.

The 311 campaign

A key part of our efforts are directed to calling in complaints to New York City's 311 complaint number. (See the 311 website.) The stated mission of 311 includes the following:

Help agencies improve service delivery by allowing them to focus on their core missions and manage their workload efficiently.

Provide insight into ways to improve City government through accurate, consistent measurement and analysis of service delivery Citywide.

Complaints to 311 are categorized and compiled into monthly reports, as well into the annual Mayor's Management Report. Since city agencies allocate their resources, in part, according to where they perceive the greatest need, having numerous complaints in the system, ideally, will alert officials of affected agencies that more attention or funds are needed for specific problems--in our case, more enforcement of exisiting regulations, and/or reconfigured parking and loading zones, etc.

Anyone can help in our 311 campaign. See the following for how to make the call and how to add your complaints to our central complaint log. The information is available in Spanish as well.