Congressman Joseph Crowley
Fighting for the People of Woodside

• Protecting residents by fighting for $500,000 in Federal funds for traffic and safety improvements on Queens Boulevard



• Personally visited neighborhoods hit by the July 2006 power outage, as well as worked with community groups to provide information, secure assistance from the City and ConEdison, and work for more lenient and responsible reimbursement policies for affected residents



• Secured $14,700 for the anti-crime/anti-graffiti activities of Woodside on the Move



• Successfully persuading the VA to open a Veterans Outpatient Health Clinic in Sunnyside, at 41-03 Queens Boulevard, as well as convinced the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs to keep the four VA hospitals in New York City Ð St Albans, Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn Ð open, operating and accepting patients



• Secured $650,000 in Federal funds to help in the construction of an environmental and pollution shield along the south side of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) between 64th Street and 61st Street in Woodside



• Passing legislation to bring an additional $6 million over 3 years to Woodside schools in support of the Magnet School Assistance Program



• Delivering over $64 million in Federal funding for research to combat the Asian Longhorned Beetle as well as replanting of downed trees in the community

Woodside

Woodside is a neighborhood in northwestern Queens, adjoining Long Island City. The area was settled in the late seventeenth century by Joseph Sackett. During the American Revolution a dry ridge known as the Narrow Passage lay near what is now Woodside Avenue and 37th Avenue, and provided a route for troops and couriers; high ground that is now the site of Public School 11 was used by the British as a bivouac area and lookout. Between 1830 and 1860 John Kelly, William Schroeder, and Gustav Sussdorf (all of Charleston, South Carolina) and Louis Windmuller moved to the area and built mansions. The name is derived from a series of articles entitled "letters from Woodside" written by Kelly's son, John Andrew Kelly. In 1861, the railroad was extended to the area, providing a connection with Manhattan. A village was developed and laid out in 1867 by Benjamin W. Hitchcock; his success encouraged other developers during the 1870s and 1880s. The population was further boosted after the trolley lines were extended in 1895 and a trolley terminal was built (now the Clock Tower Shopping Center). The last open land disappeared during a period of rapid development in the 1920s. A large number of Irish families moved to the neighborhood from cramped quarters in Manhattan.

After the Second World War, some older housing in Woodside was replaced by apartment buildings, notably Big Six Towers on Queens Boulevard and 60th Street, a cooperative housing development sponsored by New York Typographical Union no. 6. The large Irish population was complemented during the 1980s by immigrants from China, Colombia, Korea, and the Dominican Republic, and to a lesser extent from India, Ecuador, the Philippines, Guyana, Peru, and Ireland. The nonprofit organization Woodside on the Move has promoted the revitalization of Roosevelt Avenue, the neighborhood's principal commercial thoroughfare.