Ozone Park
South Queens Blogger, Preservationist and Political Activist
“Most people are very apathetic at best, but somebody’s gotta get out there and speak up. I’m not afraid to speak up.”When David M. Quintana started his blog a year and a half ago, it was just a simple way for him to replace an e-mail list he used to distribute information in his neighborhood. But more than 80,000 hits later, he’s become one of the most recognizable faces of South Queens. His blog, Lost in the Ozone, is one of the most prolific in the borough and a hot destination for South Queens community advocates.
Community Character:
Quintana has focused much of his energy on raising awareness about the preservation of Ridgewood Reservoir, Jamaica Bay and other parks around the borough.
“At one point in the city budget, parks was 1.5 percent of the total city budget,” Quintana said. “Now it’s under one percent.”
Quintana isn’t shy about criticizing officials responsible for the parks either. He said efforts to preserve and maintain natural havens in the borough over the last few years have been inadequate.
He pointed to a community forum held where he said that although 90 percent of the attendees opposed changes at Ridgewood Reservoir, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation went ahead with proposals to change the historic park anyway.
“It seems as though the parks department has trouble with letting people know the truth,” he said. “I think they had a pre conceived agenda going in and they hoped that the public would conform to that with some suggestions. They saw that the public wasn’t but went ahead with their plan anyway.”
As a member of Community Board 10 and South Queens’ unofficial blogger, he’s no stranger to confronting authorities when he sees conflict with the community’s interests.
The stalwart progressive has set his sites on State Sen. Serphin Maltese (R- Glendale), who he said no longer represents the community, but the political interests of the senate’s Republican majority.
He’s also confronting Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s development and education agendas.
“Overdevelopment has been terrible,” he said. “The public is being spun by the City Hall. These people aren’t telling the truth.”
