Don’t Pave Paradise To Put Up A Parking Lot

By Ruth Gabay

I am reaching out to all of members of the Great Neck community to make you aware of the industrialization of Great Neck by the Board of Education (BOE), who wants to build a 97-car parking lot on my street. It will affect the entire area, so that high schoolers can park their cars in comfort.

I reach out to all of you, despite the fact that the PTO or the BOE never reached out to the neighborhood, the Shared Decision Making Committee or sent a letter to discuss our neighborhood concerns. Instead, they wrote a letter asking all of its members to come out and rally for our parking lot in numbers at the next BOE meeting. To be fair and balanced, the BOE needs to address the neighborhood that is impacted by this decision.

I am disappointed that the BOE is not acknowledging that even the local police department has come to PTO meetings to share concern that the current drop off, pick up and parking of the current 80-car lot is a disaster waiting to happen.

I never expected a Walmart-style parking lot next to my home and my children walking. They are destroying the greenery in Great Neck that we try to keep pristine, only to destroy it when it’s convenient.

Just because there is a field for sports that they want to convert, doesn’t mean it should be converted or could be converted.

There are serious safety concerns that are not being considered from a traffic perspective. On the street outside the school, there is a roundabout and a single lane in each direction. It is not designed for this type of traffic safely.

There are other options to park half a block away, at no expenditure or without threatening the safety of our children and our community.

I ask the BOE to respectfully reconsider this plan, and take safety, the water flow issue in rains, as well as our quiet streets being flooded with so much traffic, into consideration.

Many thanks.