Donestock Store

As I was coming home today, I was thinking about how we as residents of our district can understand more about what we need to be doing to improve our area. Without even leaving the borough, Queens provides ready examples where a combination of concerned citizens, proactive civic groups and political leadership have already brought the kinds of changes we seek here. Take for example Business Improvement Districts (BID) zones which I have already discussed before in a previous blog. Sunnyside will soon have its very own, but Steinway Street has had one for years, so has Austin Street in Forest Hills and Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica. Communities within communities have taken it upon themselves, for the most part, to bring the benefits of the BID to their slice of the borough. Economic development does not exist in a bubble; therefore, the better one area of Queens does, I do believe the entire economy of the borough is raised. I was fortunate enough in the past two years to have visited each part of the borough extensively, marveling at the differences in community economic activity with my own eyes, and also the state of cleanliness and order. I found Fresh Meadows to be, by far, one of the nicest and cleanest parts of the borough, though they have some issues with the lack of public transportation when compared to Western Queens. I saw the greatest improvements being made in Flushing, particularly the area around Main Street, with new bank branches, new office spaces, new homes and a plan for the future, which becomes clear merely by riding the No. 7 train into the terminal station. The point being, a leisurely stroll through any one of the many neighborhoods of the borough helps not only to compare what is happening in our district as opposed to others, but the visits themselves offer up ideas for us on how to deal with pressing needs and long term goals. My friends, nothing I have seen or heard since I have come back to New York, barring few exceptions which I will highlight in future postings, are all that original or unique, regardless of how hard some people insist they are. Someone, maybe one of you, might have planted the seeds for our future in someone else's mind, and it then eventually landed into my consciousness. I certainly did not invent the BID, nor was I the first to call for one on Roosevelt Avenue, but I hope that through this candidacy, those great ideas that are already in the public domain make their way to tangible programs in the district. What we can all be certain of is that our community has some amazing people doing amazing things, thinking of great ideas that could positively impact our lives if they were channeled into a plan for action. I hope I can be the person in our community who moves these goals forward.