Jackson Heights

In front of an audience of about 60 residents at I.S. 145 last night, city representatives and advocates answered questions about traffic safety in Jackson Heights. The forum was held in the wake of the death of 11-year-old I.S. 145 student Miguel Torres, who was run over by a dump truck driver at Northern Boulevard and 80th Street while crossing with the light.

In separate crashes in Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx, city motorists killed five pedestrians between Christmas and New Year's Day. Four of the crashes, which took the lives of a child and three young mothers, were hit-and-runs.

We interrupt our post-Sandy coverage to bring you these pictures from Halloween last night at the 78th Street Play Street in Jackson Heights. The Jackson Heights Green Alliance put on the event, "Trick or Treat in the Street," and Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson sent over these photos. This is the kind of thing residents can do in the neighborhood after a successful grassroots campaign to permanently repurpose this block, which used to be a through street for motor vehicle traffic, as a public space.

On Thursday, Queens Community Board 3 voted to support a more sophisticated way to price on-street parking on commercial streets [PDF], supporting DOT's proposal to bring the PARK Smart program to Jackson Heights.

Clarence snapped a photo of the construction sign at Northern Boulevard and 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, which earlier this week displayed the wrong speed limit. Motorists should no longer be under the impression that they should drive faster through the work zone.

Business owners in Jackson Heights have done more than just take over maintenance of the plaza on 37th Road. They've rechristened it "Diversity Plaza," and they staged a community celebration that concluded on Monday to mark Eid-ul-Fitr, the breaking of fast at the end of Muslim holy month Ramadan. It seems the plaza was anything but empty that night. Eid Mubarak to all!

A group of business owners who decried the 37th Road pedestrian plaza in Jackson Heights after it opened have come around and launched a group to act as stewards of the new public space. This turn of events comes after persistent work by Council Member Danny Dromm’s office and local merchants, who are now working together to ensure the plaza is a long-term success. The plaza's undeniable popularity as a gathering place also hasn't hurt.

"It's just a street. It's asphalt. It doesn't look like anything," said Jackson Heights resident Donovan Finn of the block of 78th Street between Northern Avenue and 34th Avenue. "But it feels like something." Finn's neighbors, it seems, agree.

What is it with the New York Times and the Jackson Heights pedestrian plaza?