By The TimesLedger
History was made last week. The hopes and dreams of the people of Queens are now represented in city government by an entirely new slate of elected officials, including the first African American woman to hold the position of borough president and first Asian American to serve on the City Council.
While the members of this crew remain untested and unproven in their new responsibilities, most, like Borough President Helen Marshall, have been involved in public service for decades. They take office at one of the most challenging times in the history of this city. After long years of prosperity, the city faces at best a difficult and uncertain fiscal future.
Mayor Bloomberg has taken the first painful steps to confront this crisis head on. Whatever slice Queens gets, next year's pie will definitely be smaller. It's nice to talk about doing more with less, but with a deficit looming of more than $2 billion, it seems inevitable that Queens will have less.
Hopefully Marshall will be able to forge the kind of working relationship with Mayor Bloomberg that her predecessor enjoyed with Mayor Giuliani. Together Giuliani, Shulman and City Council Speaker Peter Vallone proved that party affiliation means little when it comes to the bread-and-butter issues in Queens.
The mayor has said he will not do anything to jeopardize the gains that have been made in the area of public safety. The new administration should give equal importance to building new schools. There is already a critical shortage of classroom space in nearly every school district in Queens. If growth continues here, the problem will get much worse before it gets better.
The Queens delegation and Marshall must make education priority no. 1.
Editorial: Spirit of compromise
Kudos to City Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis) for his role in forging a compromise between his constituents and the School Construction Authority regarding the building of several new public schools on the Creedmoor campus.
The site already under construction will include an elementary school, serving Districts 26 and 29, an intermediate school and a high school. As we have noted, the classroom space is urgently needed. No one disputes that. But residents living near the campus were concerned about the impact of suddenly bringing more than 3,000 students into their neighborhood.
A meeting in November with the SCA only left the community more frustrated. As councilman-elect, Weprin met with the SCA and arranged for a second meeting where critical issues regarding security, parking and busing were addressed.
Now that the community has been heard, the SCA can move forward with this important project that will benefit all of Queens.
Editorial: Spigner's last hurrah
It is hard to imagine political life in southeast Queens without City Councilman Archie Spigner (D-Laurelton). Hardly a week has gone by that councilman's name did not figure prominently in our coverage of southeast Queens.
Whenever an issue affected you, he was there. As a councilman and later as the Deputy Majority Leader, Spigner has fought tirelessly for the interests of his constituents. There is no question that southeast Queens is a better place to live today than it was when he first took office 26 years ago.
A casualty of term limits, Spigner left his office for the last time. His longtime aide, Leroy Comrie, has replaced him. Although at 73 Mr. Spigner has earned the right to take a rest, we expect – and hope – that he will continue to play a role in the future of a community he has served with such dedication.
