Political Arena

Traffic stops coming to Broadway Corridor

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Two new traffic lights will be coming to the Broadway Corridor, as part of an effort by local politicians to make the street safer for pedestrians.

“There’s no place for pedestrians to cross,” Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said in a phone interview. Currently, there is a traffic light on W. 242nd Street and Broadway, another one on W. 251st Street, but no signals in between – “So, that’s a very long stretch,” Mr. Dinowitz said. 

He said the new lights—one adjacent the northernmost exit of the 242nd Street station of the subway and the other near Aesop’s Bench in Van Cortlandt Park—should be in place by the end of October.

The Broadway Corridor “is heavily trafficked by motorists but I think at least as important—if not more important—are people, there’s a lot of people there,” Mr. Dinowitz said. “It’s really a dangerous area, there have been serious accidents on Broadway in previous years.”

The assemblyman said the deal with the New York City Department of Transportation is the result of years of requests from residents and local politicians alike, and that he is happy to have made such progress.

“I have no doubt that lives will be saved; I mean, people have been in fatal accidents on Broadway in the past,” he said. “It’s just not that big of a thing to ask people to stop at a light—that’s if the light’s red. If it’s green, you can go.”

PS 7 gets playground grant

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz announced last week that he had secured a $125,000 capital grant for improvements to the playground at the Milton Fein School (P.S. 7) in Kingsbridge.

“I’ve allocated to several of the schools in my district funding for … various priorities, and what P.S. 7 needed was updates to the playground,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s not that old actually but it was really a great addition to the area.”

Mr. Dinowitz added that the playground would contribute to the neighborhood as well, giving children more safe space to play.

“In the Kingsbridge area there’s not really a lot of recreational space for the kids,” he said. “This playground is really very important.”

While it is not clear when the project will come to fruition, Mr. Dinowitz said he is excited for the coming changes, which he announced at P.S. 7’s fifth-grade graduation ceremony.

“I don’t think we will actually see the work done for a while,” he said. “It goes from the Assembly Ways and Means [Committee] … then it goes into a final state of approval.”

End-of-session rage 

Rep. Eliot Engel, whose district includes parts of Riverdale and Kingsbridge, attacked House Republicans on a range of issues before summer recess.

From a failure to bring a range of gun control laws to a vote, to the passage of the Conscience Protection Act, Mr. Engel expressed frustration with the Republican-controlled house last week.

“Today, House Republicans left for a seven-week recess without addressing the most pressing issues facing our nation,” he said in a statement on the Republican blockage of a vote for proposed laws, such as the “No Fly, No Buy” bill that would prevent people on terrorist watch lists and no-fly lists from purchasing guns.

An effort by House Democrats to force a vote on the bills came to head on June 22, when they staged a sit-in on the House floor. The protest lasted 26 hours, ending when Democrats decided to try to force a vote again after the July 4 recess.

“When I was younger, I remember being taught how a bill becomes a law. A member of Congress would introduce a bill, then Congress would vote on it, and if a majority of members supported it, it would pass. But that’s not what happens in the House of Representatives any more,” Mr. Engel said in his statement, echoing a speech he made during the sit-in. “The GOP’s failure to hold votes on these life-or-death issues is shameful. None of these problems can wait until November.” 

The congressman also razed the passage of the Conscience Protection Act, which would allow employers to deny their female employees insurance coverage for abortions by citing moral or religious beliefs.

Doctors and other health workers can already refuse to perform abortions on such grounds, but the new bill would allow employers to decide whether or not to include abortion coverage in their health plans.

“The Conscience Protection Act would take this concept to a new extreme, expanding opportunities for employers to discriminate against women based on their reproductive health choices,” Mr. Engel said. “I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve come to the floor during this Congress to defend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions – a concept that, frankly, shouldn’t need a defense at all.”

Elliot Engel, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Broadway Corridor, Conscience Protection Act, No Fly No Buy, Anthony Capote

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