By Celia Bernhardt | cbernhardt@queensledger.com

Months after the tragic death of Krystyna Naprawa, a crossing guard who was killed by a sanitation truck on Woodhaven Boulevard, a change has come to the intersection where she lost her life.

The city’s Department of Transportation has installed a right turn signal in the lane where the truck that struck Naprawa was turning from. Sam Esposito, head of the Ozone Park Residents Block Association, says he began urging DOT to make the change the morning Naprawa was killed.

“As soon as she died, I went to the scene and I looked at it, and the first thing I saw was that this needed to have a right turn signal,” Esposito said.

Naprawa died on Oct. 20, 2023, working her usual morning shift at the intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue. A vigil was held by the intersection days later, where family, friends, and community leaders gathered to mourn the sudden loss.

“We reached out to our DOT Commissioner. We said, ‘Look, this needs to be looked at ASAP. We don’t want an 18-month study. We want this fast-tracked because we believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg for somebody else that could die,’” Esposito continued. “For once, DOT actually agreed and fast-tracked it. This is the fastest DOT has ever responded to anything we’ve ever asked.”

The new turn signal. Courtesy of Sam Esposito

The turn signal will only flash amber, not green, signaling to cars and trucks to look carefully and move slowly. When other lanes have a green light, the right turn signal will remain red for an initial period before turning amber. Esposito says this delay will give crossing guards more time to get kids safely out of the street if they haven’t yet finished crossing, and get themselves to safety, before cars turn the corner.

“I don’t want to place the blame on anybody, but I think someone dropped the ball when they installed the three lanes—one going right, one going straight, one going left—and they didn’t take into consideration that that’s a truck route,” Esposito said. “There should have been a right turn signal there all along.”

In a Facebook post, Esposito credited Community Board 9 District Manager James McClelland, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, and the block association’s advisor Darma Diaz as particularly helpful in pushing for the turn signal.

“NYC DOT is committed to improving safety along Atlantic Avenue—both in Brooklyn and Queens,” a DOT spokesperson said in a statement to the Queens Ledger. “We will continue to explore future safety upgrades across the corridor.”

Esposito said the block association also requested the Southwest corner of the intersection to be renamed after Naprawa, but that he expected that process to take longer.

Krystyna Naprawa.

By Celia Bernhardt | cbernhardt@queensledger.com

A new mural featuring soft colors and detailed flowers stretches along the main atrium of NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens.

The mural was designed by artist Zeehan Wazed, and brought to life through a community painting party in the hospital. Wazed developed the design with the help of multiple focus groups where community members, patients, and hospital staff gave their input. Named Roots of Medicine, the painting was unveiled on Nov. 15.

The mural is one of nine painted in NYC Health + Hospitals locations just this year. It is part of the Community Mural Project, powered by the hospitals’ Arts in Medicine department. 26 murals were already created in a previous wave of the initiative. According to NYC Health + Hospitals, The Community Mural Project is the nation’s largest public hospital mural program since the Great Depression’s Works Progress Administration worked to commission murals in public buildings.

Wazed himself hails from Jamaica, Queens—he grew up just a few blocks away from the hospital that now sports his artwork. His parents still live there, though Wazed now resides in Astoria.

“I have a personal story with Queens hospital,” Wazed said. “When I was young, my dad took me [because] I broke my fingers. So using the same fingers to paint that mural—it kind of felt like it came in full circle.”

Roots of Medicine speaks to the long history of healing in different human societies, depicting eight flowers used in traditional homeopathic treatments: calendula, lavender, chamomile, echinacea, flax seeds, rose petals, St. John’s Wort, and nasturtium.

A great deal of thought went into the design. Although Wazed himself is not involved in the medical field, his sister is, and he said that his conversations both with her and with the hospital board were critical.

“Speaking to my sister, who’s pretty blunt with me—she was like, we deal with a lot of patients and sickness. To have something that reflects another aspect of recovery or medicine would be great. And also Dr. Stein, on the board of the hospitals, she wanted something that really represented not sickness, but rather life. And jubilance of life, you know? I think flowers are a great symbol of that. I think they’re very welcoming as well.”

Wazed mentioned that the flowers evoke the diversity of communities in Queens, and pointed out the green, vine-like patterned lines criss-crossing through the mural.

“There’s lines that intertwine to represent our communities, and how we’re all kind of connected.”

Wazed is appreciative of his upbringing in Jamaica’s tight-knit Bangladeshi population. “It’s an amazing community,” he said. “You can see this kind of support system that people find within their communities, at their mosque, at their library.”

“I think it’s pretty fitting that, you know, I come back to do something at Queens Hospital where there’s a lot of Bangladeshi staff as well,” he added.

Wazed has been working as an artist for about a decade. Though some of his work is in the world of canvas and galleries, he dove headfirst into public works during the pandemic.

“It’s definitely been a more humbling experience,” he reflected. “We don’t really have galleries out in Queens…but for the time being, it’s been amazing, creating public art for people who would never walk into a gallery, who just happened to walk by it and connect with it in that sense.”

Wazed’s next project is a mural in JFK. Beyond that, he plans to continue painting vibrant, public murals throughout his home borough. “I feel like I have some sort of mission here to help try to beautify Queens.”

Wazed is invested in the bigger picture of the borough’s relationship with the arts.

“I think there’s somewhat of a dearth of art in Queens,” he said, pointing out that there seem to be fewer gallery and museum spaces.

“There’s so much culture here. And I feel like it should be reflected with vibrant art.”