Queens Is Burning: Flushing

FDNY members operated on scene of a 7-alarm fire earlier this morning at 136-15 37th Avenue in Queens. pic.twitter.com/MKgcr8jzwi

— FDNY (@FDNY) January 9, 2021

 

 QNS

 Firefighters on Saturday morning extinguished a seven-alarm fire that started late Friday night in a Flushing storefront and extended into an adjacent building, according to the FDNY.

After receiving a call just before midnight on Friday, Jan. 8, regarding the blaze at a three-story building located at 136-15 37th Ave., approximately 50 units and 200 FDNY personnel responded to the scene to fight the fire.

 Seven firefighters sustained minor injuries while battling the inferno and have been transported to local hospitals.

While a collapse zone has been established, units were still operating at the scene at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9, according to the FDNY. The fire was extinguished just before 9 a.m., according to the FDNY.

Impunity City 

Rent at an apartment above the store that got engulfed in flames was for 2,600 a month. 

 

President Richards gives the thumbs up for rezoning in Sunnyside

  

Queens Post

  proposal for a seven story affordable housing complex in Sunnyside is one step closer to becoming a reality.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards has come out in support of a rezoning application put forward by Phipps Houses, a non-profit developer, which seeks to construct a seven-story, 167-unit building at 50-25 Barnett Ave.

All of the units in the building would be “affordable” and there would be space on the ground floor for a community facility.

The borough president’s recommendation comes one month after Community Board 2 voted to approve the controversial project by a vote of 28 in favor and 13 against—subject to a series of conditions.

Those conditions centered around Phipps Houses’ questionable history as a property manager in Sunnyside, which many say should disqualify it from developing the new building.

One of those conditions requires Phipps to conduct a series of repairs to the 492-unit Sunnyside Gardens Apartment complex it manages on 39th Avenue over the next six months.

City finally orders closing of sleazy Kew Gardens hotel following murder and pandemic parties

 

 

    NY Post 

A notorious Queens hotel that was the scene of the city’s first shooting homicide on New Year’s morning — and which has long been considered a danger and nuisance by neighbors — has closed.

The Umbrella Hotel in Kew Gardens Friday night had “hotel closed” signs posted at the lobby entrance, informing neighbors and potential customers that it is no longer in business.

The hotel — at Queens Boulevard and 82nd Avenue — is located across from Borough Hall and near the Queens courthouse.

After months of complaints, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday he was moving to shut the hotel after a triple shooting early New Year’s morning left 20-year-old Robert Williams dead and two others injured and hospitalized.

Neighbors filed more than 100 complaints to authorities and local lawmakers, saying the hotel had become a hub for drugs, prostitution and violence.

They also complained the hotel housed illegal clubs set up by partygoers who rented rooms at cheap rates during the pandemic.

A shooting took place at the Umbrella over the summer; the local 102 Pct. had been stationed outside virtually 24/7 for months.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and local legislators had joined neighbors in calling for the hotel to be shut down.

Get your vaccines on

 

 

Queens Post 

Three COVID-19 vaccination sites will open in Queens next week, the New York City Health Commissioner announced Wednesday.

The sites will open on Friday, Jan. 15 and health care workers — along with others who qualify — will be able to receive the vaccine. The sites will be open seven days a week, by appointment only.

The three “vaccine hubs” are located at schools in Long Island City, Springfield Gardens and on the Rockaway Peninsula.

The announcement of the three sites comes two days after the DOH said it would open its first “vaccine hub” in Queens this Sunday at Hillcrest High School in Jamaica Hills. That site is now accepting appointments and will be open daily.

 LIC Post

The city plans to open a COVID-19 vaccination site for frontline workers in South Ozone Park Monday — despite the fact that the state has not approved frontline workers to be vaccinated yet.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will be ready to open vaccination sites prioritized for frontline workers in each of the five boroughs, including a site at John Adams High School in South Ozone Park.

John Liu forgot what 9/11 was like

Seeing the Twin Towers crumble is no longer the most frightening moment of my life.

— John C. Liu (@LiuNewYork) January 6, 2021

Update:

NY Post 

A New York lawmaker from Queens is getting big blowback for tweeting that since Wednesday’s Capitol riots, the 9/11 attack is no longer his most frightening memory.

“Seeing the Twin Towers crumble is no longer the most frightening moment of my life,” tweeted state Sen. John Liu (D-Queens).

The tweet, which Liu sent at 4:26 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, as the Washington, D.C., riot unfolded, is still being blasted as tone-deaf days later.

 Liu told The Post on Saturday that he was just swept up by the emotion of the moment when he hit send on Wednesday’s tweet.

“My tweet was an emotional response that failed to provide a fuller context and was not meant in any disrespect, especially to those who died on 9/11 and their families,” Liu said, adding, “9/11 is by far the most horrific and outrageous thing I’ve witnessed.”

Still, the Capitol attack “evoked emotions of outrage, horror and fear that I haven’t felt since Sept. 11.,” 

“What happened on that day 20 years ago was by far the most horrific thing I saw in my life and can’t be compared, but watching on TV the American people’s house be attacked — not by terrorists but by other Americans — was frightening,” he added.

Liu was a candidate in the primary elections which were canceled by the 9/11 attacks. He went on to win, becoming the first Asian American elected to the City Council. He was elected to the state Senate in 2018.

“On Sept. 11, 2001, after they canceled the primary election that morning, I returned home in time to watch the towers fall, and I remember feeling the horror and the outrage and the fear, which I, nor any of us, will ever forget,” he said.  

 Maybe you should have wrote your belated (and lame) excuse on a thread following your initial faux pas, dummy.You just wanted to see how many likes you were gonna get.