CB 6 supports street renaming for Ferraro

   While Ferraro spent the last several years of her life in Manhattan, she resided in Forest Hills Gardens for decades.

   “She raised her children here,” Koslowitz said at the CB 6 meeting last Thursday in Kew Gardens. “She loved going shopping on Austin Street.”

   Koslowitz selected Ascan Avenue at Austin Street for the renaming because it is close to Ferraro’s former home in the Gardens, where renamings are not allowed, and near the commercial hub the councilwoman remembered Ferraro so enjoyed.

   “This is the first woman this will be done for in Community Board 6, and that’s a wonderful thing,” CB 6 Chairman Joseph Hennessy said after the board unanimously threw its support behind Koslowitz’s resolution.

   Hennessy remembered Ferraro as a “pioneer” who inspired many women to seek a life in politics.

   The council is expected to vote on the resolution this summer, Koslowitz said.

   Koslowitz also addressed Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed budget during last week’s meeting.

   “The budget is very, very bad,” she said. “What the mayor wants to cut is not what the council wants to cut. Things are bad but our priorities in the council are teachers, schools, education, seniors, childcare slots, and libraries.”

   Koslowitz said legislators are particularly concerned that Bloomberg’s budget includes axing about 6,000 teaching positions, including more than 4,000 through layoffs.

   “There are other ways to save money,” Koslowitz said. “We could stop outsourcing.”

   Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), who represents a small portion of CB 6, also condemned the mayor’s budget at the meeting.

   “Nobody wants to see those teachers laid off,” Crowley said. “Kids do better with smaller class sizes. You lay off teachers, you increase the class size.”

   Crowley also criticized the mayor’s proposal to eliminate 20 fire companies in his budget.

   CB 6 members also received updates on schools in their area from District 28 Superintendent Beverly Ffolkes-Bryant and Queens Metropolitan High School Principal Marci Levy-Maguire.

   Ffolkes-Bryant said the schools are doing well, though they were concerned that there was a drop in elementary science test scores in the district.

   To change that, Ffolkes-Bryant said she is “actively looking for grants to make sure all our schools have science labs.”

   Levy-Maguire said Metropolitan HS, which opened in September 2010, has had its fair share of ups and downs over the past school year.

   “It’s a brand-new building, so we have issues like needing door knobs or the temperatures in the rooms,” Levy-Maguire said. “But we’re getting there.”

   She also noted that school officials are doing everything they can to ensure a seamless transition for the Maspeth High students who will be temporarily housed at the Metropolitan campus next year.

   “Maspeth will go in one specific area of the school, a corner of the school,” she said. “They’ll share our gym and possibly our cafeteria space.”