Astoria Reddit Group Fights For Safer Streets After Girl's Death

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Ava Vitali has been living in Astoria for more than 10 years, and she’s never seen so many neighbors at the local precinct's monthly meeting.

Vitali is one of the 55,000 members of Astoria’s Reddit group, which helped mobilize a massive presence at the 114th Precinct meeting on Tuesday night at the Astoria World Manor, she told Patch.

Concern, anger, and disappointment were some of the feelings many residents expressed at the meeting as they grieve the death of Dolma Naadhun, the 7-year-old who was fatally struck by a driver at an intersection in Astoria last month. Still, hope and communion remained.

“Knowing where the issues are and facts can help turn feeling into action,” Vitali, 39, told Patch. “Nobody wants to say that they want more police on the streets, but we do want police more focused on certain areas.”

Residents in Astoria are coming together to hold the NYPD accountable for their policing in the neighborhood, hoping the city’s law enforcement will prioritize pedestrian safety amid several tragic incidents in the last year.

Vitali had been coming to the precinct’s meetings before the pandemic wreaked havoc in the city, and she came back for the first time in February as users on Reddit started expressing concern over issues regarding reckless drivers, street redesigns, and other mobility issues.

With about 40 people at the meeting, Deputy Inspector Kenneth Gorman updated the community on the precinct’s overall crime statistics in the last 28 days.

A string of residents then asked him about how the precinct was addressing pedestrian safety, drivers constantly running red lights, and the 21st St. redesign bus lane issues.

Gorman provided residents with several ways to contact the precinct to report any concerns and jotted down recommendations from residents to make the precinct’s online statistics page more transparent.

Residents also suggested focusing their efforts on one hotspot at a time when submitting multiple reports to the Department of Transportation. Several people pointed at the intersection of Hoyt and 31st St. as one of those hotspots.

In 2022, two pedestrians were struck on the same day in separate incidents on 31st St., leaving one of them dead.

The uproar at the meeting is part of a larger movement to make Astoria streets safer. Just a month before the 7-year-old’s death, a bicyclist was killed in Astoria as she was riding between parked cars and a cement truck driver struck her.

Dolma’s 11-year-old brother started a petition earlier this month asking the Department of Transportation to install a traffic light in the same intersection she was killed.

Council Member Julie Won, Council Member Tiffany Cabán, and Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers sent a letter to DOT making the same request.
Dozens of people showed up at a candlelight vigil organized by the 7-year-old's school P.S. 85Q. to honor Dolma on March 2.

The next NYPD 114th Precinct meeting is scheduled for April 25th.