These strobing lights are no party for locals.<\/p>\n
Constant flashing from city-operated street lights in Queens have distracted drivers and irked nearby residents for weeks \u2013 and was only fixed after a social media post exposed the issue, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n
Constant light flashes on city-operated street lights in Queens have distracted drivers and irked nearby residents for weeks. Edward Pastore<\/p>\n
Complaints about the strobing lights on the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk along the Shore Front Parkway date back to at least Dec. 29 \u2014 but the flashing only stopped Sunday night thanks to \u201ctemporary repairs\u201d from the Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n
The DOT is still working to continue the maintenance work, an agency rep said, adding the flickering lights were caused by cable damage. The agency did not return a request for comment regarding when it became aware of the matter or when the repair work is set to end.<\/p>\n
Rockaway Beach resident Edward Pastore blasted the weeks-long delay in repairs, arguing the neglected issue poses a security risk to both distracted drivers and locals taking a nighttime stroll. Estrella McDaniel\/NY Post<\/p>\n
Residents living near the boardwalk blasted the weeks-long delay in repairs, lamenting to The Post that the neglected issue poses a security risk to both distracted drivers and locals who enjoy nighttime boardwalk strolls.<\/p>\n
\u201cLights are security: when people want to walk on the boardwalk, especially when it gets really dark \u2014 you know, darker earlier \u2014 people still want to walk,\u201d said Rockaway Beach local Edward Pastore. <\/p>\n
The 20-year resident claimed the neighborhood has consistently been on the receiving end of slow fixes from the city when there\u2019s an issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a normal problem in Rockaway [Beach], is things not being done in a timely manner,\u201d Pastore, 68, said. \u201cEspecially now that it\u2019s winter, nobody really cares.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a problem, because it means the infrastructure is wrong,\u201d said Marian Brewer, a 49-year-old barista at Rockaway Roasters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI live\u00a0right on the boardwalk, I see everything,\u201d she added. \u201cThey\u2019re not on top of it: If they were on top of it, it wouldn\u2019t keep happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a problem, because it means the infrastructure is wrong,\u201d said Marian Brewer, a 49-year-old barista at Rockaway Roasters. Gabriella Bass for NY Post<\/p>\n
The NYC Parks Department, which maintains the boardwalk, was notified of the defective lights in late December, and utility company PSEG\u2019s crews subsequently inspected the issue on Jan. 13, city councilmember Joann Ariola\u2019s office told The Post.<\/p>\n
After PSEG determined its own equipment was in working order, it contacted the city\u2019s Department of Transportation, which is responsible for maintaining the Big Apple\u2019s streetlights.<\/p>\n
A now-viral X video<\/a> from a WNYC reporter further boosted the issue on Jan. 16 \u2014 weeks after the bizarre light display began. Two days later, temporary fixes from the DOT appeared to stop the flashing, according to a social media update.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThank you to whatever hardworking people figured out how to fix them,\u201d the update reads.<\/p>\n The DOT is still working to continue the maintenance work, an agency rep said, adding the flickering lights were caused by cable damage. Edward Pastore<\/p>\n But not all New Yorkers were amused with the light display.<\/p>\n \u201cThese agencies decided to play a weeks-long game of volleyball with this, bouncing it back and forth and eventually dragging in PSEG, when it was obviously a DOT issue from the start,\u201d Ariola fumed to The Post.<\/p>\n The DOT has received about 90 streetlight-related 311 complaints for the area surrounding the boardwalk since 2020, according to a Post review of city data. While most are resolved within days, one recent complaint took nearly a month to close.<\/p>\n The most recent 311 complaint, made Oct. 15 regarding a damaged lamppost on Beach 98th Street, remains in progress.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that under the new commissioner, the DOT finally starts taking some accountability and begins understanding what they are responsible for,\u201d Ariola said. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened on the boardwalk was ridiculous, and it should not take a call from a city councilmember to get people to do their jobs,\u201d she added. \u201cWe all deserve better, and I thank the community for their patience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These strobing lights are no party for locals. Constant flashing from city-operated street lights in Queens have distracted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5459,57,9,24,197,56,63,65,64,122,294,23565,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-107439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-department-of-transportation","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-life","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-queens","18":"tag-rockaway-beach","19":"tag-rockaways","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}