At Queens Community Board 1, which meets monthly at Astoria World Manor, street safety is a hot-button topic.
BY COLE SINANIAN
cole@queensledger.com
ASTORIA — “My name is Gloria Maloney and I just wanted to know if anybody wanted to buy my car,” began the 78-year-old during the public testimony portion of last week’s Community Board 1 meeting at Astoria World Manor. “It’s a 2016 Jeep Cherokee, very low mileage.”
Maloney’s sarcasm drew chuckles at first, but her tone shifted as the testimony went on; she was here to draw battle lines over an ongoing debate with no end in sight.
“Even though I haven’t ridden a bike in over 40 years, I think I’m going to have to sell my car and get a bike so that I can go slower than most of the mopeds, scooters and bicyclists in the neighborhood,” Maloney continued. “Apparently, we’re now going to be a car-less city, so I have to get with the program. You know, at 78 years old.”
The context, of course — as those who’ve been paying attention will know — is the ongoing debate over how to make Astoria’s crowded and congested streets safer. The 31st Street protected bike lane, whose construction 11th District Judge Cheree Buggs halted in December after several nearby businesses sued, has spurred passionate discussion in Community Board 1.
Legislation known as Sammy’s Law, meanwhile, was passed in 2024 and reduced speed limits from 25mph to 20mph in designated streets, though the city has been slow to implement the law.
Research has indicated that risk of pedestrian fatalities drops significantly from 25mph to 20mph.
“I’m really not happy with the bike lanes. I’m not happy with the traffic mileage going down lower than 25, it’s already slow enough as it is,” Maloney said, raising her voice slightly.
“You have to look when you cross the street, take your head out of your phone and look,” she said. “They come from some kind of city, from a town somewhere else where they don’t even have traffic lights. We have traffic lights for a reason.”
But little did Maloney know, behind her at the podium Community Board 2’s First Vice Chair Rosamond Gianutsos waited at the ready with a blistering rebuttal:
“I have to say, with respect,” Gianutsos said, gesturing to Maloney, who had returned to her seat. “I’m 80, but my bike is right outside. So yes, join the program.”
Gianutsos is a doctor and member of the national advocacy group, Families for Safe Streets. She explained that through her work doing home visits to people who’ve suffered traffic violence, she spent years talking to families who’ve lost loved ones to car collisions, an experience that has fundamentally altered her view of the bikes-vs-cars debate.
She had come to CB1 to testify in support of lowering speed limits in the area, which she argued would be beneficial to not just bikers and pedestrians, but to drivers too.
“Furthermore, it’s not just bicyclists and pedestrians that are hurt,” Gianutsos said. “It’s also drivers. If you look at the data, there are lots of people who are killed and injured as passengers or drivers of cars.”
She concluded: “So anything we can do to prevent the travesty of traffic violence and pain to families, please do support it.”
Sammy’s Law was named for Sammy Cohen Eckstein, a 12-year-old Brooklyn boy who was killed in 2013 after being struck by a distracted driver.
