Minutes after posting about the development on the Homecrest-Midwood border that’s pissing off neighbors – and the Board of Standards and Appeals’ ruling to let it go forward despite community objections – we received the following letter. In it, Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association president Ed Jaworski implores Councilman Mike Nelson and his colleagues to investigate the BSA and its divisive practices.
This time it landed on the sidewalk. Next time it could be a person.
The following op-ed is from Manhattan Beach resident Allan Rosen. In it, he shares a recent battle with 311 over dangerously neglected trees. Read more of Allan’s writings on Sheepshead Bites. Let us know what you think of 311 in the comments section.
How effective is 311? Not at all, according to City Council Member Karen Koslowitz from Forest Hills, Queens.
Koslowitz was asked why requests to DOT to fix a pavement hazard, which caused many elderly people to trip while stepping off the curb on Queens Boulevard, had gone unheeded for over two years. She stated that problems just don’t get solved when you call 311.
I tend to agree with her. My neighbors have been attempting to get dead branches pruned from trees on the border of Manhattan Beach Park for over two years. Their calls to 311 have not solved the problem. On July 5th of this year, I decided to call 311 for the first time to report the problem. Thus far, nothing has been done although 311 promises responses within 30 days from the appropriate department, which in this case is the Parks Department. Parks also claims to investigate all complaints within 30 days.
This is a dangerous situation existing throughout the city. Sheepshead Bites recently reported how a dead tree limb speared an automobile (and here, and here, and here).
That just as easily could have been a person. This past year a tree branch fell killing a man in Central Park. Last year it was a woman in Philadelphia. Could these deaths have been prevented with better maintenance?
