NEW YORK — Five-year-old Jonathan Hill has to traverse a mangled section of sidewalk along 102nd Road if he wants to stay out of the street while riding his scooter.
“It’s hard to go over it,” Jonathan said.
What You Need To Know
- More than a half dozen residents in Queens say they’re still waiting — more than a year later — for sidewalk repairs
- Homeowners say it’s the city’s responsibility to make repairs because city-owned trees caused the damage during Tropical Storm Isaias
- Local advocates say they’ve reached out to the city but to no avail
Hill said while he and several other neighborhood children still use the sidewalk with caution, they try to avoid it because they’re afraid of getting hurt.
It’s nearly impossible for Daniel Hill, 16, to avoid the damage, which made up of more than a dozen jagged pieces of sidewalk, because it’s located right in front of his Ozone Park home.
“I’m worried someone is going to fall. I’ve already fallen here in the winter time,” said Daniel Hill, who is related to Jonathan Hill but both live in different houses in the same neighborhood.
In fact, Daniel said the sidewalk was damaged when a tree toppled over during Tropical Storm Isaias in early August 2020.
“The sidewalk has been broken for exactly 414 days,” he said.
Advocates who work on behalf of neighborhood resident told NY1 that the damage in front of Daniel’s home can also be found at another half dozen homes in the area.
Sam Esposito, the president of the Ozone Park Block Association, provided NY1 with a list of properties in Ozone Park and South Ozone Park where the same kind of damage remains.
Each individual home owner said they have tried contacting city agencies and their political leaders several times, and in several ways, over the last year in the hope of finding a solution.
“We’re tired of the excuses and we’re tired of the city not doing what they’re supposed to,” Esposito said.
Outside Alina Muszynski’s home, also on 102nd Road, the damage is by far the worst seen in the neighborhood. In fact, it appears when the tree in front of her home was uprooted, part of the home’s foundation crumbled.
The property has been in her family for more than 60 years, but she worries she could lose it and everything else if someone gets hurt and sues her.
“Who do they go after? They go after the home owner…but it’s the city,” Muszynski said about who she believes is responsible for fixing the damage.
Muszynski and Daniel told NY1 because city trees caused the damage, they believe the city should be responsible for fixing the ruined sidewalks.
While NY1 did observe what appeared to be newly spray painted markings showing where repairs needed to be made, residents say the damage has already been here long enough and they are furious the issue still hasn’t been resolved.
“As soon as we had the tree go down and everything, I’ve been calling and, you know, they give you a number and that’s as far as it gets,” Muszynski said.
NY1 reached out to New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) representatives on Wednesday afternoon seeking a response to homeowners’ concerns, but, as of 9:30 p.m., we did not receive a response. DOT officials did acknowledge receipt, but said Wednesday night that they were still looking into our request.
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