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Bloomberg’s $68.7B budget seems geared to please, but Staten Island Council trio wary (SI Advance)
02/3/2012Staten Island's Council Members give their thoughts on the Mayor's preliminary budget. read more
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Behind Politics: ‘Hyper-local’ is mantra for Staten Island’s Oddo (SI Advance)
02/3/2012The SI Advance previews the Council Member's 2012 agenda read more
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New initiative looks to dial back speeding (SI Advance)
02/1/2012From Mark Stein of the Staten Island Advance:
read moreThere’s an unfortunate reality, said Councilman James Oddo, that streets of all sizes have speeding problems.
“Any time a Staten Island driver sees 150 feet of open asphalt, he thinks it’s a sign to hit the accelerator,” Oddo said last week.
That said, Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) and other local councilmembers are in the process of filing applications with the city Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish “slow zones” in locations plagued by speeders or those registering “above-average accident rates” — especially spots near schools and senior centers.
The program seeks to reduce the speed limit from 30 to 20 mph and adds safety measures within a select area. The aim? To change driver behavior.
Neighborhood Slow Zones are established in small, self-contained areas that consist primarily of local streets. Signs and gateways announce the presence of a Slow Zone.
The Zone itself is a self-enforcing, reduced-speed area with speed bumps, markings and other traffic-related relief. Implementing Neighborhood Slow Zones can result in the loss of some on-street parking. The deadline for this round of applications is Friday.
Oddo, along with City Council members Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore) and Debi Rose (D-North Shore) linked up with Community Education Council (CEC) Safety Committee Chairman Michael Reilly to apply for the DOT Slow Zones through the department’s new program.
Oddo has specifically targeted other schools in his district — PS 11 and PS 52, Dongan Hills, PS 38, Midland Beach and PS 39, Arrochar — as sites where slower would be better. He said his office is backing a dozen spots.
“It seems to me that this program would work extremely well around schools to help prevent speeding and reckless driving and protect kids, and I hope DOT looks favorably on our requests,” said Oddo.
Community Board 2 pointed out additional locations, including Wilder Avenue, Richmond; Rene Drive, Oakwood; Cannon Avenue, Travis; Saxon Avenue (near Laurie Intermediate School and PS 69), New Springville, and Ross Avenue, New Dorp.
“A lot of people reacted with great skepticism to this project,” said Oddo. “Maybe it won’t work, but to me, for the locations I’m supporting, I need to do something, we need to do something. So I need to take a chance on it.”
Oddo expects the city to use speed bumps, 20 mph markers and new striping.
“As cliche as it sounds, at the end of the day, it’s the Staten Island driver that creates most of these problems,” he said.
“I don’t know how you effectively alter behavior, but you have to keep trying.”
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To ease school crowding (SI Advance)
02/1/2012An editorial from the Staten Island Advance. read more
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In Concord school that’s rising, a welcome antidote to overcrowding (SI Advance)
01/30/2012The recent Advance article on the new school being built at the old Doctor's Hospital site. read more
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City commits to a new Cromwell Center on Staten Island’s North Shore (SI Advance)
01/28/2012Tom Wrobleski reports on the new Cromwell Center in the North Shore. read more
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