Opinion: Queens’ Council District 30 needs more greenspace for true COVID recovery
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Council District 30 candidate Juan Ardila (right) with campaign volunteers in Ridgewood’s Grover Cleveland Playground. Eagle file photo by David Brand
By Juan Ardila
While it’s hard to envision much good coming from COVID-19, one bright spot has been a renewed focus on the tremendous parks of New York City.
Parks became a refuge during the peak of the pandemic and go-to hotspots for residents as restrictions were lifted and indoor activity was still limited. Now, as we look to make a full COVID recovery it’s become even more apparent that the upkeep and expansion of our parks and greenspaces is vital to the health and safety of our communities.
Being a transit desert, car use in District 30 has led to the unwelcome honor of having some of the worst air quality in all of New York City. Air pollution and asthma rates are higher in Queens than most New York counties and from a city perspective, there’s something else that doesn’t play in District 30's favor — we are also a park desert.
While we have big beautiful parks like Juniper Valley and Forest Park, they are on the edges of District 30 and very few of our residents are within a 10-minute walk of those parks. This plays out across New York City. Amongst the largest cities in America, New York has the fewest square footage of greenspace per capita in the country. And according to an analysis by the Trust for Public Land, the communities without immediate access to public parks are largely Black and Hispanic neighborhoods outside of Manhattan. District 30 is nearly 40% Hispanic and not coincidentally we have some of the fewest sq. footage of park space per citizen of any council district in the city.
“We had nowhere to go, so we just went to the cemeteries” was a common refrain I heard from constituents all last summer when the parks were closed and our families were left without access to greenspace otherwise. And as beautiful and vast as our cemeteries are, they’re still not the parks and playgrounds that most every other district enjoys. Coming out of a pandemic that forced us to over-utilize the few parks we do have, it is imperative we start to envision a district with more parks and community spaces.
This is why I am advocating for an expansion of greenspace in District 30 and increased accessibility to our beautiful Highland Park.
Our neighbors in Liberty Park, Glendale and Ridgewood have been petitioning our elected leaders to utilize the five vacant lots at the corner of Central Ave and Cypress Hills for a community garden project. While the lot is privately owned by the owners of Stop N Shop, it has remained vacant for two decades and a community garden would not preclude them from further development should they decide to build on the land for the first time in 20 years.
Furthermore, it abuts a parking lot, is across the street from the commercial train line, across another street from The Legacy Center Community Development Corporation, and at 5 lots, a large empty parcel of land — in other words, we have the rare opportunity in a near-perfect location to provide a new community green space within District 30 to an underserved area.
As previously mentioned, though District 30 is low on greenspace, we do feature some of the best parks in all of New York City — like Highland Park, which includes the great natural preserve of the Ridgewood Reservoir. Unfortunately for the citizens of District 30 who live closest to Highland Park, simply getting to it is a gauntlet of dangerous roads, impractical bike lanes and sidewalks that dissipate into dirt paths. Specifically, the access from Vermont Place via Cypress Avenue is as unsightly as it is dangerous, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
As many of us who live in the district know, Cypress Avenue from Cooper Avenue to Vermont Place is a constant sore spot of congestion, speeding, illegally parked cars and trash. In fact, the trash got so bad at one point during the pandemic it was not uncommon to see abandoned cars along that route. And in order to access the park along Vermont Place you have to cross the entrance and offramp to the Jackie Robinson expressway, which does not even have a light for the onramp in either direction.
As we work to expand access to more greenspaces, we also have the opportunity to ensure that our streets are clean, orderly, and most importantly, safe for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers. To put it plainly: we can use this opportunity to address multiple community issues at once.
The Eastern-bound lane of Cypress Avenue from Cooper Avenue to Vermont Place is currently two-lanes wide, yet it is overrun with illegally parked cars and is otherwise unused. Running along the cemetery, the sidewalk there could easily be expanded to create a protected greenway that could accommodate pedestrians and bicycles. This can be extended along Vermont Place to connect with the current — and horribly inadequate — asphalt path, which should also be widened to accommodate bikes and pedestrians. Finally, a delayed green light should be added to provide a safe route across the entrance of the Jackie Robinson and access to Highland Park.
Outside of the beautification and safety issues a greenway along this strip would address within the District, it would also provide a welcome accompaniment to the supportive housing center being built along the Western-bound side of Cypress Ave. The mixed-use development will house our neighbors with disabilities and mental illness, and like all residents they deserve safe and easy access to a great park that is a mere few blocks away.
This pandemic has proven that greenspaces are deeply interconnected with our physical and mental wellbeing. The citizens of District 30 deserve to live in a community that puts their health, and that of their families, first. A safer and greener district is possible if we prioritize policies that are environmentally responsible and created with the input of District 30 residents. That is what I intend to do as your city councilmember.
Juan Ardila is a Democratic candidate in Council District 30.
