Austin Street and Continental Avenue (Queens Post)
Nov. 1, 2017 By Tara Law
FOREST HILLS — A Forest Hills resident has started a fundraising campaign to bring back the lights that have gone up on Austin Street every holiday season for decades.
Cat Rakowski, a local resident, started a GoFundMe campaign Oct. 31 after she learned that the Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce that funds them doesn’t have the money to pay for them this year.
Rokowski, who launched the campaign with a goal of raising $5,000, had raised $570 by Wednesday afternoon.
“The lights are festive and beautiful; they promote neighborhood pride,” Rakowski said today in a direct Facebook message. She said that she hopes the funds raised through the campaign will be enough in combination with what the Chamber has on hand.
Leslie Brown, president of the Chamber, said that she was happy to see someone making an effort to bring back the lights, but is skeptical the effort will actually work.
The Chamber must have the funds within two weeks, Brown said, otherwise it will be too late to get a contractor to put them up in time for the holiday season.
In order to hang the lights, the Chamber must sign a two-year contract for $32,000— meaning that this year, the Chamber must obtain $16,000. The funds have historically been raised by local merchants and property owners.
In recent years, only two or three merchants annually donated to the lights, with most of the funding coming from property owners.
This year, the funds collected were not enough to cover the cost.
Brown said that she does not blame local business and property owners, since some of them may not have been able to afford to contribute. She’s frustrated, nevertheless, that few responded after she distributed flyers about the lights.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Brown. “If every store owner contributed $100, we would have more than enough funds.”
Rakowski said she hopes that between her campaign and what the Chamber has raised there will be enough money. “The burden should not fall fully on the community members,” she said.
Brown has proposed that the Chamber fund red and white holiday banners instead, which could decorate the streets at one-quarter of the cost of the lights. The sponsor’s name would run along the bottom of the banner.
Brown said that she hopes that if the lights do not go up this year, store and property owners will realize that the lights are important and bring them back next year.
“Maybe people will see it’s important to continue,” she said.
To contribute to the GoFundMe campaign click here
Featured Events
4 Comments
Yes the lights should come back
We must call up Chamber of Commerce.Find out who is the President of Chamber of Commerce and talk to him/her. It is not acceptable that Austin Street will not get the Holiday lights!!! It’s the center of Forest Hills and shouldn’t be overlooked.We should also try and call Karen Koslowitz. She is the best bet.She’s running for reelection and she should do something for Forest Hills,her own neighborhood.
There are a lot of vacancies on Austin Street which may be part of the problem. Many, if not most, of the businesses decorate their own store fronts. The lights are nice and make for a festive atmosphere. However, they go up way too early and the last several years have been accompanied by seasonal songs and music playing over speakers. This is just annoying. Between the increased traffic volume, horns blaring and pedestrians jaywalking it’s all become too much. I don’t think the lack of holiday lighting is going to make a difference to the commercial enterprises on Austin Street.
Given recent events, it would be better to donate $32,000 to the Puerto Rico hurricane relief fund. Imagine how many meals, bottles of clean water and medical supplies that could enable! Holiday lights are nice, but should be funded by the Austin Street merchants who will benefit from the increased traffic they generate. The best Forest Hills Christmas display would be to remain dark as a protest to our insufficient national support for three million Americans in Puerto Rico. That, not support of consumerism, would be in the true spirit of Christmas