Council Member Constantinides speaks to ACE workers | Council Member Costa Constantinides Office
Aug. 29, 2019 By Allie Griffin
Council Member Costa Constantinides has pledged $299,000 to keep the streets of Jackson Heights and Astoria clean over the next year, he announced today.
The money will fund a number of organizations that will sweep the sidewalks, empty garbage cans, remove graffiti from walls and enhance natural plantings along the streets.
“Litter and graffiti shouldn’t plague our streets on a daily basis,” Constantinides said. “Thanks to the Cleaner NYC initiative, we’ve been able to bring more cleanup resources to western Queens to keep our streets livable. These investments will continue our mission of keeping our communities clean for all.”
The biggest payout went to the Association of Community Employment Programs for the Homeless (ACE) which got more than $225,000 for sidewalk sweeping throughout Astoria.
“Councilman Constantinides and his team are true community advocates, dedicated to the flourishing of District 22,” said James Martin, Executive Director of ACE. “These allocations for community beautification are significant investments to keep our neighborhoods clean and safe for residents, businesses and visitors.”
ACE is based in western Queens and helps recovering homeless men and women by providing employment and support services. Workers currently sweep parts of 30th Avenue, Ditmars Boulevard, Shore Boulevard, and Hoyt Avenue North and will continue to do so as a result of the funds.
Council Member Constantinides with members of ACE | Council Member Costa Constantinides Office
“Through this initiative, the Council Member has also opened up meaningful employment opportunities for men and women who are overcoming histories of homelessness, incarceration and substance use disorder,” Martin said.
Another $35,000 went to the Central Astoria Local Development Coalition for continued neighborhood beautification efforts. It previously beautified 30th Avenue following an 8-month subway shutdown that left surrounding businesses to languish with past funding.
The Queens Economic Development Corporation received $20,000 once again for continued graffiti removal and the Department of Sanitation received another $10,000 for extra garbage pickups near Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Street.
Lastly, Constantinides allocated $9,000-plus to the Jackson Heights Beautification Group to support its work in the area, advocating for a greener, more sustainable and healthier neighborhood for more than 30 years. It organizes gardening events on Saturdays throughout the year to enhance areas surrounding the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
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16 Comments
This article title is highly misleading. This guy apparently pledged $9,000 to JH. That is not even a drop in the bucket compared to $299,000.
Try reading it
We need much more than $9k to clean up Roosevelt Ave… don’t think streets in Astoria are as dirty as Roosevelt Ave. When would local politicians seriously tackle this problem!?
This is positive news…but
Maybe it would be more effective if cops simply enforced the law.
When businesses start getting fines for keeping their sidewalks and streets clean…and people get nice fat tickets for casually leaving their food trash on doorsteps, planters and tables…things will change quickly.
Diversity Plaza was beautified with new trees and lush flower beds. Great! But how do people treat it now? .. it’s back to being a place to eat and leave your trash to vermin.
Just the other day a homeless guy was using those flower beds as his literal bed.
The sad blunt truth is ( I’m South Asian so I know our not so dirty secret) that most people are coming from countries with no sense of civic responsibility or pride. To clean up after oneself is for suckers, to not spread germs by hocking up phlegm onto the sidewalk, is a foreign concept. Public spaces are someones else’s responsibility.
To educate people is a fools errand…most will roll their eyes and simply ignore you.
The hippy dippys out there may not like this…
NO amount of community beautification or outreach will truly rectify the problem.
Fining and ticketing people will! Losing MONEY is really the only thing that will grab and keep their attention. Will show them they are not except or above the law!
Using a public place…mean treating your surround environment with a some basic level of respect.
Amazing, you might be one of the first truly insightful and honest commentators that I have seen on JP. Partisan hacks(of both sides) or really childish arguments is what you usually get on here. I could have not said it better myself.
$9k for Jackson Heights? That’s an appallingly low amount. Very disappointing when you see how our streets look each day. He’s our council member? I hope he’s up for reelection soon. Time to go.
It may not be a lottery-level windfall of cash, but when you consider that he’s not even our district councilman (he’s East Elmhurst/Astoria’s) and he’s giving us money, that’s a great thing. Don’t be so pessimistic/greedy.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know how much Dromm gives for comparison?
Danny Dromm gives over $50,000 for his pride parade each year to a group that fund raises anyway. What a waste of city money!
that is the correct way to answer to this greedy person
correction he is not our council member he is for Astoria so what ever amount he designate for Jackson heights is something better than our elected senator and congresswoman got your attention
Dog owners need to pick up the dog poop, not just leave those little baggie of fecal matter
What will the NYC Sanitation dept be doing ?
It’s time to clean the trumpers out of our streets to make Jackson heights a socialist utopia
Be careful what you wish for, Trump will buy up Jackson Heights and turn it into the neighborhood it once was.
Use that $9K to help deport all of the illegal aliens who are invading our beautiful country and destroying it. They are the ones making Jackson Heights a mess in the first place.
…”socialist utopia”
oxymoron