For over 10 years community leaders led by Maspeth’s Tony Nunziato have been attempting to divert through truck traffic away from neighborhood commercial areas including Grand Avenue. Back in 2006, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) promised to implement Nunziato’s Maspeth Truck Bypass plan that would do just that. Four years later the community is still waiting while DOT continues to stall. On August 2nd a 12-year old boy was killed on Fresh Pond Road at Eliot Avenue by a truck traveling off the truck route. On August 24th an 81-year old man was struck and seriously injured by a truck on Grand Avenue and the LIE Eastbound Service Road.
At our next town meeting (Sept. 23rd, 7:45pm at Our Lady of Hope Auditorium) the JPCA will discuss scheduling a protest on Grand Avenue to remind the City of New York that our community will not tolerate bureaucratic red tape when lives are being lost crossing the street.