Resorts World Casino New York City named two Queens residents as its Supervisor and Employee of the Year, lauding the two as playing crucial roles at the South Ozone Park institution. Doreen Chan, the assistant customer relations manager at the casino, was named Supervisor of the Year, and Christopher Santana, who works at the facility’s RW Prime Steakhouse, is the Employee of the Year. Chan has an extensive background in customer service, which casino officials said has fostered the acquisition … Continue reading
Joe Abate is a freelance photographer from Long Island currently working for a health organization on Austin Street in Forest Hills. When not working, he often wanders the streets of Queens to capture on camera the neighborhoods he has come to love. He penned the following essay after spending time photographing the morning light on Forest Hills’ fire escapes. Some people say the sun is brighter in the spring. I do not know if this is really true. I do … Continue reading
Following the recent high-profile controversy surrounding spending and oversight at Queens Borough Public Library, a group of elected officials gathered on the steps of Borough Hall last week to announce the introduction of legislation that they said would reform the library’s Board of Trustees and overall governance at one of the busiest library systems in the country. The move last Thursday came after reports that Queens Library CEO Thomas Galante made a six-figure salary while jobs were being outsourced. Additionally, … Continue reading
Walking into the Broad Channel library, it could, at first, be easy to miss – a cart stacked with mostly white binders perched to the side of a more, comparatively speaking, imposing bookshelf. But, a cursory glance through one of the binders and never again will one – history buff or history layman – obliviously walk by these glimpses into years long gone. The books, part of a collection launched by the Broad Channel Historical Society in the mid-1990s, are … Continue reading
After leading the Queens Museum as its executive director since 2002, Tom Finkelpearl is bidding Flushing Meadows Corona Park adieu to fill his new role as the city’s Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday. Hailing Finkelpearl as someone with more than 30 years of experience in museum management and arts education, de Blasio said the former Queens Museum director brings a deep commitment to inclusiveness and community engagement and will be tasked with … Continue reading
Should Congress approve a proposal to increase the size and weight limits for semi-trailer trucks, Queens residents already worn down by thousands of trucks passing through such neighborhoods as Maspeth would further see their quality of life deteriorate, borough leaders said. “It’s crazy – we have trucks coming up residential blocks now; our streets can’t stand all this weight,” said Roe Daraio, president of the COMET – Citizens of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together – Civic Association – a group that … Continue reading
Queens preservationists are partnering with the Mets to save the New York State Pavilion, an iconic structure built for the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows Corona Park that has severely deteriorated over the years. A portion of each ticket purchased for the Mets’ home game against the Giants on Friday, Aug. 1 at 7:10 p.m. will be donated to the People for the Pavilion, an organization dedicated to preserving and reusing the site. Additionally, purchasers of the tickets online will receive a … Continue reading
Federal officers busted a man from Trinidad who was allegedly carrying more than seven pounds of cocaine in frozen goat meat tucked into his luggage while traveling from Port of Spain to JFK International Airport, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Monday. Yudishtir Maharaj was arrested March 20 and is being held on drug-smuggling charges after authorities said they allegedly found a white powder that tested positive for cocaine in three large packages of frozen goat meat in his … Continue reading
The number of rent-regulated seniors receiving tax relief throughout the state is expected to increase dramatically, elected officials announced this week in Forest Hills. State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing) and City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) paid a visit to the Young Israel of Forest Hills Senior League Tuesday to celebrate the broadened Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption, which gives seniors over 62 years of age a tax credit. “This tax relief for seniors is long overdue,” Stavisky said. … Continue reading
It was another celebration of firsts for the new Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School in Forest Hills. The school’s speech team competed its way to the state championships in Delhi, N.Y. over the weekend after a successful performance at the Brooklyn Queens Catholic Forensic League’s regional qualifier in February. Coach and 10th grade English teacher Adam King said the crew was thrilled to see five of its own high schoolers qualify for the statewide competition. “To compete on this level is … Continue reading
A Far Rockaway officer died, and a Howard Beach officer is fighting to survive, after responding to a fire allegedly set by a teenager in his Coney Island apartment building Monday, officials said. Dennis Guerra, 38, a married father of four from Far Rockaway, was pronounced dead at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx at 6:50 a.m. Wednesday morning, the NYPD said. Rosa Rodriguez, 36, who lives with her family in Howard Beach, has been in critical condition at New York-Presbyterian … Continue reading
Bundled up in coats protecting them from the still-cold spring, the volunteers – young and old, from Queens and throughout the city – spread out across the beach at Jamaica Bay Sunday afternoon, picking up items scattered across the sand that, to those who left them there as religious offerings, represented beauty and prosperity and renewal. Once lovingly handled by worshipers on the South Queens coastline, colorful statues of such Hindu gods and goddesses as Vishnu, Lakshmi, and Ganesha line … Continue reading
Civic leaders and elected officials gathered in Rockaway last week to voice their appreciation to Mayor Bill de Blasio for extending the ferry – but stressed that the boat service should become a permanent one to allow the peninsula’s residents better access to the rest of the city and tourists an easier way of getting to an area in need of an economic boost. “We need this ferry,” Danny Ruscillo, a member of the Committee to Save the Rockaway Ferry, … Continue reading
After years of battling the city to get rid of high-risk sex offenders living in a homeless shelter a stone’s throw from an elementary and middle school in South Ozone Park, Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) said at last week’s Community Board 10 meeting the men with pasts that raised serious red flags for area residents have been moved from the facility. Most recently, 39 level two and three sex offenders had been living at the Skyway Hotel homeless shelter at … Continue reading
After four young people were killed when their car plunged into Steinway Creek in Astoria Friday, police are investigating speed and rain as potential causes of the fatal accident and the city is expected to conduct a review of roads leading to water throughout the city following a request by a Queens lawmaker. The victims, Jaleel Feurtado, 20; Crystal Gravely, 19; Jada Monique Butts, 19; and Darius Fletcher, 21, died after their car flipped over into the creek after the … Continue reading