Village: streets are for everyone

Thousands of people drive, walk, run, bike or use other modes of transportation to get around Valley Stream. Some areas, like those with a high concentration of businesses, or near train stations or schools, see a high volume of people throughout the day.

To help make the roadways safer for everyone, the village board adopted a Complete Streets policy last month after local residents worked with village officials to get the plan rolling.

“Complete Streets is a planning and design process that ensures most roads are planned, designed, constructed, operated and maintained for the safe access for all users, regardless of age, ability or mode of transportation,” said Stefanie Seskin, deputy director of the National Complete Streets Coalition.

Village Trustee Vincent Grasso initially brought Joanne Antun, the former mayor, and David Sabatino, president of Envision Valley Stream, together about two years ago, and they began reaching out to others and working on the Complete Streets proposal. They recruited Tim Lines and Ted Orosz to join the committee with the goal in mind to get a village policy adopted.

During the time that village officials were looking into the idea, the Town of Hempstead adopted its own Complete Streets policy. “There’s been comprehensive safety improvements throughout the county, the town, and we wanted to bring it here to Valley Stream as well,” said Tom McAleer, the superintendent of buildings, who wrote the village’s policy.

The locally-led committee reached out to other organizations with experiences in Complete Streets for some guidance on sculpting a policy. Ryan Lynch, the associate director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a non-profit transportation policy watchdog organization, said he first met Sabatino about a year and a half ago through a mutual friend. Lynch said that other communities he’s worked with that have adopted similar policies have been very happy with the results.

“If Valley Stream takes a real lead at the local level,” Lynch said, “residents, business and people that live, work, recreate and spend dollars in downtown Valley Stream will be very pleased with the results.”