New chairman has first CB 4 meeting

Two members of the board’s Executive Committee have had to recuse themselves because they are applying for the post, Walker said. The members are Robert Rothschild and Al Perna.

During Walker’s first meeting as chairman, a variety of issues were introduced to the board, though perhaps none got as much attention as when Jackson Heights resident Alfonso Buffa, raising concerns over pigeon poop at the 37th Road Plaza near the Jackson Heights 7 train stop, mentioned that he partially blamed Jorge Munoz, nicknamed the Angel of Queens.

Every night, Munoz distributes free home-cooked food to anyone who would like it on Roosevelt Avenue near the plaza beginning at around 9:30 p.m. But Buffa said the resulting trash from uneaten food added to the area’s uncleanliness.

“Guys don’t consume it,” Buffa said of the food. According to him, they throw out the food everywhere, including in his own frontyard.

But some board members immediately rose to Munoz’s defense, noting that the Colombian bus driver had been awarded the President’s Citizen Medal by President Obama in 2010 for his good deeds.

While it’s squarely in Jackson Heights, Buffa said the 37th Road Plaza borders three community boards: 2, 3 and 4.

By and large, he blamed the Department of Transportation for the poop problem, as he said the DOT’s closure of 37th Road and subsequent creation of the plaza now blocks the Department of Sanitation from accessing the poop-ridden area, including a triangle dotted with stones nearby.