And while many area residents and business owners may be quick to decry the brutal Before – they will also acknowledge the resulting appreciable After.
In the communities that comprise New York City, Before becomes After with the help of the guiding hand of experienced grassroots groups like the Howard Beach-Lindenwood Civic
Those rough-and-tumble Lindenwood roads—155th Avenue at Cross Bay Boulevard; the traffic circle at 155th Avenue and 153rd Avenue—received that much-needed attention last week thanks in large part to the group, and its penchant for staying on top of stakeholders.
Area civic groups work to help make a difference in their communities.
“What this really is is the Civic keeping track of concerns and requests,” Ariola told The Forum. “We’re just continually following up, making sure complaints we receive are referred to the right agency or elected official. It’s not just a matter of making the complaint—we follow up, we follow through.”
Ariola said that working with Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Howard Beach) to get city Department of Transportation Queens Commissioner to visit the community and soak up those Before images of the affected streets and infrastructure was a crucial moment for the community.
“It was so important because she saw [the conditions] firsthand,” Ariola noted. “It was addressed so much more quickly with Garcia as [borough] commissioner.”
Ariola added that social media platforms like Facebook have become somewhat of a digital Town Hall—and a game-changer for the Civic.
Follow up. Follow through.
By Michael V. Cusenza
michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
