A strip of Paerdegat Avenue North will be going soon from grim to green.
The unpaved strip, located just south of Flatlands Avenue, on the east side of the street, near Paerdegat Avenue’s intersection with Paerdegat 1st Street, has been an “eyesore” in the neighborhood for years, said Assemblymember Alan Maisel, who has spearheaded the effort to have the area beautified.
Addressing members of the United Canarsie South Civic Association (UCSCA), gathered at the Hebrew Educational Society, 9502 Seaview Avenue, for their September meeting, Maisel said that a total of $300,000 had been assembled from city and state funds to provide the money to create a Greenstreet where dirt and trash used to be, in an area that, he pointed out, functions as a gateway to the neighborhood.
Maisel said he had allocated $100,000 in state funding. In addition, he said, City Councilmember Lew Fidler had allocated $100,000 in city funding, and State Senator John Sampson had allocated another $100,000 in state money for the project.
The total funding, Maisel added, “should be enough,” so that the city can “start work on it by April.
“It should look nice if we can get it accomplished,” he went on.
Maisel first started trying to get the area rehabbed about three years ago, he recalled. He first tried to get the city’s Department of Transportation to pave the area, which has been a source of complaints for years.
Among the issues that have been raised regarding the area was that it has been a dumping ground, as well as a potential health hazard, because it could be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and thus for West Nile virus.
“It was pretty disgusting,” Maisel stressed.
