Street Criminals

Dear Editor:

I am a member of the community board Transportation Committee. I was at the meeting where the issues in the Beach Channel High School/ Scholars’ Academy area and Waterside School were discussed.

There are several problems with the Department of Transportation’s plans for the area. The first is that they are in clear violation of Article 145, and specifically Section 7202 of the state Education Law. Kate, who reported on their activities, said that none of the people involved in the project’s planning had state Professional Engineer licenses. That is a felony. Second, there doesn’t appear to be any reason to believe that their plans will make the streets safer. Finally, when the matter of educating the students on how to behave, they reported that they visit 500 schools annually out of over 2,000 schools in the city. Clearly, they don’t visit every classroom, so there is very little education of students on how to behave on the streets. Half a century ago, when I attended NYC public schools, teachers would discuss traffic and street safety several times a year. Education should be the first line of attack at these locations, followed by criminal prosecution of DOT employees violating the law.

Eugene Falik