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Science and Resilience Institute will focus research on sustainability by Domenick Rafter Editor
Plans are in the works for a state-of-theart research and learning center dedicated to the environment and sustainability, and the city says the Rockaways will likely play host to the institution. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urba n Development Sh au n Donova n announced the creation of the new Science and Resilience Institute, which will be operated by the City University of New York, at Riis Landing in the Rockaways on Monday morning at a press conference with Mayor Bloomberg, National Parks Director Jonathan Jarvis, City Parks Commissioner Veronica W hite, Rep. Greg Meeks (D-Jamaica), Acting CUNY Chancellor Bill Kelly and Peter Madonia, chief operating officer of the Rockefeller Foundation, who will be providing some of the funding for the new institution. As part of the general management plan signed in 2011 between the Department of the Interior — which operates Gateway National Recreation Area, the parkland that includes much of Jamaica Bay — and the city, the new institute will be established first at Brooklyn College, but will move into a facility that is planned as of now to be built in the Rockaways in the coming years.
City Parks Commissioner Veronica White, left, National Parks Service Director Jonathan Jarvis, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Mayor Bloomberg, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Rep. Greg Meeks at Monday’s announcement of CUNY’s PHOTO BY DOMENICK RAFTER new Science and Resilience Institute to be built near Jamaica Bay. “The institute will focus its research on protecting and preserving urban ecosystems f rom development and f rom the effects of climate change and thereby making urban areas more resilient as well,” Bloomberg said. “The institute will work
in partnership with other schools, nonprofit organizations, government partners and city agencies and will serve as a coordinating body for the research fieldwork taking place around Jamaica Bay and providing lab spaces for students and researchers.”
The cost and time frame of the construction of the brick and mortars institute is still unknown, according to Parks Commissioner Veronica White, and a committee is being formed to scout a location and identify the price tag. For decades, Jamaica Bay was notorious for its pollution and for a time seemed hopeless. But in the past few decades, starting with the creation of Gateway in 1972, the bay has seen a natural renaissance. Jewell said the institute will serve as a tool for resiliency and sustainable environments nationwide and the once-polluted Jamaica Bay will be at the center of that. “Connecting the community of New York to these green spaces that are a public transit ride away is going to change lives,” she said. “You just don’t get assets like this close to a population center. It’s going to become a great laboratory. Jamaica Bay is going to be a perfect place for the whole country to learn about resilience and science and how these natural ecosystems combined with man-made ecosystems interact.” Though CUNY will operate the institute, it will be as leader of a consortium of other institutions of learning and research including Columbia University’s Earth Institute and its Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Cornell University, NASA continued on page 19
Page 5 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, August 15, 2013
CUNY to build green school at Jamaica Bay
Take ‘A’ train to reach the games Subway stop at Resorts World opens by Domenick Rafter Editor
Resorts World Casino NYC President Edward Farrell greets the audience at Tuesday’s official opening of the casino’s subway station.
to the station at the edge of the Resorts World parking field, only steps from a gate at Pitkin Avenue, where residents of the nearby community can access the subway. Many commuters in the area of Ozone Park adjacent to the station take buses to Rockaway Boulevard to access the subway. “We applaud Resorts World for providing the skybridge for its patrons and for delivering an elevator-equipped, accessible access point to the city’s subway system here in our community,” said Community Board 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton. The station was originally due to open more than a year ago, but took longer than expected because of the amount of work that had to be done at the decaying stop, which opened as a subway stop in 1956, but existed for decades before as part of the Rockaway Beach Long Island Rail Road line. There are plans to expand the station to serve Rockaway-bound trains, but those have not gotten
A Manhattan-bound A train arrives Tuesday at the Aqueduct Racetrack station in Ozone Park, which now is a full-time station connected to Resorts World PHOTOS BY DOMENICK RAFTER Casino New York City via an enclosed skybridge. far yet. In the meantime, patrons com ing f rom Man hat t an and Brooklyn can access the casino by getting off at Aqueduct-North Conduit and walking or hopping on a Manhattan-bound train.
Farrell said there are plans to rename the station after Resorts World since the MTA changed its policy last month to allow naming rights to stations, but those plans Q are still in the early stages.
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Twenty months after opening for business, Resorts World Casino New York City has opened its link to the New York City subway. The enclosed skybridge that was built in 2011 also opened for business this week, directly connecting the casino to the Aqueduct Racetrack station on the A line.
The stop was inaugurated with a celebration on a rainy Tuesday morning in which many patrons utilized the new skybridge to escape the elements. The celebration included performances by the Knicks City Dancers and rapper Doug E. Fresh at the casino’s main stage at Bar 360. “More than 12 million people visit Resorts World each year,” said Edward Farrell, the casino’s president, said at the celebration. “Now many of them can come directly by train.” The station predates the casino, but was renovated in the last few years. It has only one platform, serving Manhattan-bound trains, and only operated on race days until this month. It is only about 1,000 feet nor th of the full-time Aqueduct-North Conduit station, which has access to the racetrack parking lot next door to the casino. Resorts World invested $15 million into the station and the skybridge. There are two stairs leading