andrea-grymes

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) —  It may be summer, but a March winter storm still has many Queens homeowners at their wit’s end with the city. They say they’ve been waiting more than four months for the city to fix damaged sidewalks in front of their homes. Damaged sidewalks in Queens that residents say haven’t been fixed since March. (credit: Senator Tony Avella) One homeowner said never in his wildest dreams did he think he’d be dealing with this dangerous problem into July, but he is, and he’s not alone. The huge slabs of concrete look like they belong at a construction site. Instead, the slabs are at the corner of 32nd Avenue and 168th Street in North Flushing. Residents say the sidewalk has been destroyed since March when the city removed the trees damaged by winter storms, but never fixed the sidewalk. “It just lets us know that we’ve been forgotten in this neighborhood,” said resident Kathleen Reilly. In nearby Beechhurst a huge chunk of the Vigliotti’s front sidewalk on 14th Avenue is literally on their front lawn. They say it’s been like this since that same storm some four months ago. “It’s frustrating, very very frustrating, especially with all the kids, and there’s a big park right here, we’re close to the water, and people are always coming and walking down this street over here,” said resident Mike Vigliotti. It’s a similar scene at the intersection of 13th and 14th Avenues and also in front of Pat Dimaio’s home on Cryders Lane. “It’s kind of hazardous and the city is not doing their job,” said Dimaio. Queens State Senator Tony Avella said all these trees were not on private property, but on city property along the road, so the city Parks Department is responsible. “The only response I got after I complained, complained, complained was, ‘well, we’re seeing if we can work with other agencies to fix this’, and even that was months ago,” said Avella. So we called parks trying to get some answers and told them about the sidewalks destroyed in multiple locations. A representative asked to us email them the spots and they would look into the problem. “To let it go for 4-5 months is shameful,” said Avella. There are more than 100 of those sites citywide, with the majority located in Queens. The parks department says due to the number of sites and the nature of the construction, they’ve enlisted the city’s Department of Design and Construction to help address repairs. It wasn’t immediately clear when repairs would be completed.

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‘It’s Frustrating:’ Queens Residents Still Dealing With Winter Storm Damage