Imagine this, you finally board your bus, it’s going along on its route, you press the bell to signal your stop but the bus continues on. It makes a few turns causing you to wonder where you are and why the bus driver is being a pain today of all days. Frantic to get to your destination, as you hurriedly exit the bus to start your walk back to your intended stop, you notice the customary orange construction cones.
This was my fortunate discovery while riding the Jamaica bound Q4 down Linden Blvd a few weeks ago. I usually take another bus, but I do take the Q4 bus every now and then because of its frequency. From flyers posted in some Q4 buses, it is stated that from 6AM November 20, 2006 to November 2007, the bus route would be rerouted for a number of its stops to a wide residential street a few blocks away from Linden Blvd.
In Cambria Heights and nearby communities, orange cones dot many quiet, residential as well as busy, main service streets. Over the last few years, Cambria Heights’ residents have been seeing a lot of construction on their streets. Although this is good news to some neighbors, to others it’s a major annoyance and inconvenience.
“All the construction is a good thing for the neighborhood,” said Tiffany Bates, 21-year old resident, “we are getting our tax dollars put to good use in our own community.”
With construction, traffic interruptions are expected and even tolerated to a certain point. However, when open ditches with pipelines exposed are left for weeks at a time, newly paved streets are bumpier than before, and blocked off streets with no relief in sight, and construction vehicles and orange cones are left on residential streets with no construction workers seen for weeks, some residents are seeing red.
“They would not be able to get away with this in white neighborhoods,” said an outraged Angela Webb, a 20-year resident, “cars are being put through the ringer every time drivers are forced to drive down those streets.” Newly paved gravel streets ruin tires on cars, while deep ditches cause unsuspecting drivers to swing out into oncoming traffic. Complaints have been circulating among neighbors for years on the lack of respect and professionalism the construction people have shown.
“They have dug up all of Linden Blvd and will continue to do so in the surrounding areas,” proclaimed Tiffany Bates, “because there is no adequate sewage system in the area.” The accuracy of her statement is questionable, but apparently she and perhaps others feel that all this construction is just another showing of upheavals the neighborhood will continue to have to bear until the city feels that the neighborhood is up to city standards.