20,000 tourists is considered a lot

From NY1:

"We get about 20,000 visitors a year here. And 20% or so are international visitors and they come from over 50 countries," said Jennifer Walden Weprin, director of marketing for the museum.

The borough's culture and diversity have become big draws. NYC & Company says more than 12 million people visited Queens in 2014 — with more from foreign countries than the U.S.

The city says tourism is helping to boost the borough’s economy, employing about 50,000 people.

Will term limits improve community board process?

From the Gotham Gazette:

At a hearing of the City Council's Committee on Governmental Operations Thursday, issues of community board function will be taken up through bills to introduce term limits for board members and to add professional urban planners to board staff.

The term-limit bill, introduced by Council Member Daniel Dromm in December last year, would allow community board appointees to serve up to six consecutive two-year terms. Currently, there is no limit on how many terms a community board member can serve. The bill, co-sponsored by Council Member Ben Kallos, who chairs the government operations committee, would enact the six-term limit starting for members appointed in April 2016.

The bill provides exemption for current board members who would be grandfathered along current no-limit rules. Community board members are appointed by borough presidents; there are 59 boards in the five boroughs.

"This is just one of the areas in which community boards should be reformed," said Lauren George, associate director of good government group Common Cause New York. "In terms of increasing representation, this will be a big step in improving the way community boards represent the changing dynamics of the city. When experienced members basically get a lifetime membership, they tend to have entrenched interests. They don't reflect the neighborhood, age and ethnic diversity, or sometimes even gender diversity."

George also said recruitment to community boards is extremely challenging, which is especially true in certain parts of the city, and term limits could encourage new people to join.

Vibrant and diverse street signs

From the Queens Courier:

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Dalia Hall, the Queens Borough Commissioner of the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT), revealed the new Welcome to Queens street signs, which include the tagline describing Queens as “The World’s Borough.”

The phrase is meant to reflect the cultural diversity in the borough, which is home to residents representing more than 120 countries and speaking more than 135 languages, according to a statement released by Katz.

“You haven’t really seen New York City unless you have experienced the diversity that is in Queens,” said Katz, adding that the new signs with the slogans will help “to get that word out.”

DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg praised the signs and said they “proudly highlight the level of diversity making Queens unique among the five boroughs and also nationwide.”

Yes, in case you haven't gotten the message yet, our borough is diverse! (So please excuse its appearance.)

And how about a caption for this photo gem...

3 politicians bought a small order of buffalo wings at Queens Restaurant Week?

Diversity Plaza is a little too vibrant

From DNA Info:

Two police officers have begun patrolling Diversity Plaza in response to complaints about vagrants, loud music and other safety issues, according to the precinct's commander — good news for those who say the plaza has become a scourge in the neighborhood.

One officer is stationed on Broadway and 37th Road and another on 74th Street and Roosevelt Avenue, with a focus on "proactively addressing any of the conditions [at Diversity Plaza] as well as making contacts with members of the community and partnerships w/the community," according to Deputy Inspector Michael Cody of the 115th Precinct.

He made the announcement at Community Board 3's June meeting, which was held outside at the plaza.

"Right here in Diversity Plaza, there's been a lot of complaints of vagrants, loud music, running the gamut," he said. "I know it's a very vibrant area and it's used for a lot of great purposes for the community."

Most of the complaints have been for drinking in public and sleeping on the ground among other things, he added.

The officers are on patrol from 2 p.m. until 6 a.m., Cody said.

Prepare to be blockbusted

From the Daily News:

The City plans to attack economic segregation in its affordable housing plan — placing the poor in middle-class neighborhoods and the more affluent in high-poverty spots.

Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Vicki Been said the plan to build 80,000 new affordable apartments and preserve 120,000 units would create a more diverse city.

“We really have to make economic diversity a cornerstone of that plan,” she said at a City Council budget hearing Wednesday.

“That means that in some neighborhoods that have mostly middle or upper-income housing, that we would need to put affordable housing at the very lowest income,” she said.

“But in some communities where we have a great deal of poverty . . . we would try to bring more moderate (-income housing) into those neighborhoods, to try to achieve the kind of diversity that we want,” Been said.

NYC schools are pretty segregated

From Crains:

New York state has the most segregated public schools in the nation, with many black and Latino students attending schools with virtually no white classmates, according to a report released Wednesday.

The report by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California at Los Angeles looks at enrollment trends from 1989 to 2010.

In New York City, the largest school system in the U.S. with 1.1 million pupils, the study notes that many of the charter schools created over the last dozen years are among the least diverse of all, with less than 1% white enrollment at 73% of charter schools.

"To create a whole new system that's even worse than what you've got really takes some effort," said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project and an author of the report.

He and his fellow researchers say segregation has the effect of concentrating black and Latino students in schools with high ratios of poor students compared with the statewide average. Black and Latino students who attend schools that are integrated by race and income level perform significantly better than their peers in segregated schools, the authors note.

The study suggests that New York's segregation is largely due to housing patterns, but that it could be mitigated through policies intended to promote diversity.

Predictable article from NY Times doesn't say much about South Ozone Park

From the NY Times:

On a recent Saturday afternoon I set out to explore South Ozone Park in Queens, in particular a stretch whose racial composition — according to recent census data, about a quarter white, a quarter Asian, 10 percent black and 11 percent biracial, with 30 percent of residents belonging to the statistical category of “other” — makes it one of the three most diverse patches of the city. Ethnically, too, it contains multitudes: Dominicans and Puerto Ricans live alongside Ecuadoreans, Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese and people who look as though they might be cast in the production of anything succumbing to Italian-American caricature.

What had prompted my visit was, in a sense, a tourist’s curiosity about how integration of this kind might actually be lived and how, in the midst of a mayoral race, political conceptions in such a place might be evolving.

There were instances of inspiration to be found, encounters with a New York of one’s gorgeous mosaic fantasies. A barbershop called E Place, owned by an Uzbek immigrant named Eric Dzhuray, caters to Trinidadians and Guyanese — who make up a considerable share of the community in South Ozone Park — and at least one young white suburbanite who had grown so devoted to the shop when he lived in neighboring Howard Beach that he continued his patronage even though he had married and moved to Long Island.

The fact that a catering hall called La Bella Vita, owned by a man named Tony Modica and steeped in Pompeii aesthetics, was full of black patrons on the day I wandered in suggested that a certain kind of social progress had been made since the divisive days of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” two decades ago.

Both the barbershop and catering hall were to be found on Rockaway Boulevard, the primary commercial thoroughfare in South Ozone Park. Though it seemed as if it should be a busy place, full of pedestrian traffic and businesses servicing varied cultural interests, it has the bloodless feel of a Sun Belt village lost to misbegotten visions. The area itself is not poor; in the particular census tract I was visiting, median family income stands at $63,000 a year, above the figure for the city on the whole. But whatever vitality the demographics might suggest is so obviously lacking that one longtime resident mentioned that he hoped simply for a McDonald’s to energize the slackened mood.

So NY Times reporters are now recording in print that they consider themselves tourists who check out census stats before heading out to the far reaches of Queens where they are prepared to have orgasms over the vibrant! diverse! mix of cultures found here. When are they going to get some new shtick already? If you can make it through the rest of this dreck, you'll see that the conclusion made by the author is that casinos bring bad things to neighborhoods. Which may be true, but this particular neighborhood had plenty of pawn shops before Resorts World moved in. And now onto some real news...

From CBS New York:

The New York State casino expansion bill being negotiated behind closed doors included a new provision Saturday, which would expand gambling even if voters reject the proposal to build more casinos.

A copy of the revised bill obtained Saturday by The Associated Press includes a provision that would authorize video slot machine centers in the outer boroughs of New York City, and as many as three or four places upstate. The bill provides for the video slot casinos with up to 5,000 machines at each center.

Previously, New York State Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said discussions for the casino plan included a proposal for video slot machines run by off-track betting agencies in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Hours after refusing to discuss the bill, Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed his proposal through a spokeswoman.

“If the casino referendum fails, we will propose offering more high-end (video slot machines) to combat the loss of revenue to neighboring states and secure new funding for our schools,” said Cuomo spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa.

Avella & Comrie make borough president candidacies official

From the Times Ledger:

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has decided to throw his hat into next year’s race for Queens borough president, the lawmaker told TimesLedger Newspapers Monday.

Avella was rumored to be mulling a run for months, but made up his mind in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, he said, after witnessing the borough being passed over for recovery resources that went to Manhattan and Brooklyn instead.

“I thought we should have had a much more active borough president and much more of a coordinating effort from the office of the borough president,” Avella said. “That convinced me Queens needs a voice.”

Avella is fresh off winning re-election to his northeast Queens seat earlier this month, where he captured nearly 60,000 votes, according to records from the city Board of Elections, a number the lawmaker believes makes capturing the boroughwide spot viable.

From the Queens Chronicle:

There are many things the three-term lawmaker and head of the Queens delegation has on his agenda. First and foremost, after witnessing the effects of Hurricane Sandy and hearing that meteorologists are predicting that such a storm could hit twice a year in the future, Comrie is naturally concerned about disaster preparation.

He wants to re-examine the flood zone maps, and possibly revamp them to better reflect the likelihood of more communities being in a storm’s path. Also, Comrie wants to make sure there is a strategy to quickly and effectively deploy assistance to those affected.

“Even our B areas can be impacted by an A Zone,” Comrie said, referring to the city flood zones where residents were not evacuated as they were in Zone A. “Superstorm Sandy created a high tide situation for 24 hours and impacted our B areas.

We need to work with the state and federal government to fight for the best courses of action to protect the shoreline and fortify resources.”

One cannot talk about the borough of Queens without mentioning its cultural diversity, something Comrie said should be celebrated publicly and spoken about more in schools.

In addition, Comrie wants to create more opportunities to educate Queens communities in an effort to make people more sensitive to different ethnicities. Part of that effort includes promoting volunteerism and parental participation in education as well as hosting public forums and other culturally-oriented events.

Hindu rituals threaten Jamaica Bay ecosystem

From the NY Times:

As the Hindu population has grown in Queens over the last decade, so too has the amount of ritual debris — clothing, statues, even cremation ashes — lining the banks of the bay in Gateway National Recreation Area.

But to the park rangers who patrol the beach, the holy waters are a fragile habitat, the offerings are trash and the littered shores are a federal preserve that must be kept clean for picnickers, fishermen and kayakers. Unlike the Ganges, they say, the enclosed bay does not sweep the refuse away.

The result is a standoff between two camps that regard the site as sacrosanct for very different reasons, and have spent years in a quiet tug of war between ancient traditions and modern regulations. Strenuous diplomacy on both sides has helped, but only to a point.

...as new immigrants arrive, unaware of the rules, and others refuse to change their ways, park rangers have intermittently forsaken good-cop sensitivity for bad-cop force: installing signs, closing the parking lot at night and threatening to hand out $75 fines, to little avail.

“It’s been a mounting problem for years,” said Kathy Krause, the supervisory park ranger. “The breakdown of these items is very, very harmful.”

Cremated remains are a particularly touchy subject. The scattering of ashes in water is among Hinduism’s most sacred rituals, necessary for a successful transition to the next life. The practice has drawn concern from park officials; they issue special permits for spreading ashes on a case-by-base basis, but Hindu leaders acknowledge that some bereaved families do not wait for permission.

Open air toilet in Sunnyside park

From Sunnyside Post:

Many residents have long complained that the throngs of soccer players who come to Lou Lodati Park (43rd and Skillman) each weekend fail to use the bathroom and urinate against the trees and back fence.

This weekend the players – most of whom come from outside of Sunnyside - answered their critics by establishing a makeshift bathroom.

Bloomberg just an Archie Bunker!

From the NY Times:

Since winning a third term in November, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has announced a parade of major appointments: bringing aboard three new deputy mayors and six commissioners and trumpeting most of those arrivals in the Blue Room at City Hall.

All nine are white. All but one is a man.

Those selections are hardly anomalous. Despite a pledge he made when he took office to make diversity a hallmark of his administration, Mr. Bloomberg has consistently surrounded himself with a predominantly white and male coterie of key policy makers, according to an analysis of personnel data by The New York Times.

The city’s non-Hispanic white population is now 35 percent, because of an influx of nonwhite immigrants and other demographic changes in the past two decades.

But Mr. Bloomberg presides over an administration in which more than 70 percent of the senior jobs are held by whites, and he has failed to improve on the oft-criticized diversity record of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Gabe Pressman's Flushing Adventure

I'm not really sure why NBC sent Gabe Pressman to Flushing; I always thought he was more of a political reporter. Well, predictably, there is the typical vibrant! diverse! shtick, but then it gets kind of interesting. But one thing that's puzzling is the title: "Flushing: Diversity on Queens' Western Shore"

Western shore? Did he look at a map?

Bloomberg's rezoning plan: It's all bullshit

From the Gotham Gazette:

Social and economic diversity are critical aspects of true transit-oriented development. Ironically, though, the dense residential development that PlaNYC has encouraged in Long Island City and Greenpoint-Williamsburg through rezonings and "green" mega-developments like Hunters Point South threatens to undermine economic and social diversity in these mixed-use neighborhoods instead of encouraging it.

The Greenpoint-Williamsburg and more recent Dutch Kills rezonings removed longstanding protections for industrial businesses, allowing residential development as-of-right (without planning approval) throughout the neighborhood. Although the rezoning is technically "mixed-use" because light industry can legally remain, even a thriving industrial business cannot afford to pay the high rents that residential and retail can. Industry is being gradually pushed out to make way for condominiums paired with parking, high-end retail and restaurants -- a more profitable mix for developers but a less sustainable and equitable mix for New York.

As Adam Friedman, former director of the New York Industrial Retention Network has said, "If the city is serious about its commitments to reducing its carbon footprint … then the city needs local manufacturers to create green products. … If the city is to cut the income disparity … it needs to create well-paying manufacturing jobs and offer affordable space for industrial entrepreneurs."

True transit-oriented rezonings for Long Island City and Greenpoint-Williamsburg would have helped to keep housing and jobs in the neighborhoods by protecting the industrial and artisan businesses that in the mid-1990s were providing over 60,000 well-paying middle class jobs, according to the Department of City Planning’s 1993 Citywide Industry Survey.

PlaNYC's "transit oriented" rezonings also have failed to adequately protect affordable housing. The affordable units created by the city's inclusionary zoning program (commonly known as the "80-20" because developers receive a subsidy for allocating 20 percent of units to affordable housing) are outweighed by the loss of previously existing affordable units as market rents rise and rent-regulated tenants are pushed out by aggressive new landlords.

While transit oriented development is supposed to encourage socially and economically diverse neighborhoods, the evidence from PlaNYC's rezonings suggests that they are actually achieving the opposite -- displacing industry, local retail, and low and middle-income tenants from neighborhoods with good access to transit.

Lots of absentees on community boards

From the Daily News:

It's one of the least glamorous volunteer jobs in New York City government - a seat on a community board.

More than 600 people in Queens serve on the borough's 14 community boards. That means they often sit through hours of hearings that focus on the finer points of municipal planning and zoning.

But they also have a front-row seat for major projects that move through their neighborhoods, and it can be a dream gig for gadflies, civic leaders and the politically ambitious.

Even so, dozens of board members in Queens failed to show up for more than half of the regular community board meetings last year. And an even larger number barely hit the 50% attendance rate, according to statistics obtained by Queens News.

Almost 60 people missed more than half of their regular board meetings in 2009.

The largest numbers of low-attendees were on Community Boards 3, 4 and 10.

But officials said quietly that some people are reappointed despite poor attendance because they offer vital professional experience or help make the board more diverse.

Many are also reluctant to force out longtime members who are absent for health reasons.

A scary cemetery find

There's some shady business going on under cover of darkness at St. Michael's Cemetery. Visit Newtown Pentacle for the lowdown.

They'll have a gay old time...

From NY Magazine:

Local gay-club impresario Nestor Romero opened the Music Box in 1993, three years after he introduced his across-the-way favorite Friend’s Tavern. Because the layout is identical and the congenial bartenders are similarly inclined to greet you with a handshake and a smile, patrons freely amble between one bar and the other, interrupting their chatter only for the looming rumble of the elevated train overhead. Such is gay life in the well-traversed southwest pocket of Jackson Heights.

Wow, it sounds like gay Mayberry, doesn't it? They forgot to mention that on weekends, Spanish boys take their pants off at 12 midnight and 2am like clockwork.

Something fishy in Flushing

Courtesy of CherokeeSista.

With some fava beans and a nice chianti?

Holy war at Qns. church
By KATHIANNE BONIELLO, NY Post

A Queens church has asked for divine judicial intervention -- in the form of a restraining order -- to keep four excommunicated worshipers away from Sunday services.

The action came after Nam Sik Park, one of four black sheep expelled from the flock at the Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Flushing, railed against Rev. Stephen Kim, calling him a "false prophet" and allegedly threatening to "take out the liver of Pastor Kim, chew it up and eat it," court papers charge.

The banished pariahs keep showing up for services -- shouting during sermons, cursing at church elders and complaining to the congregation, the pastor claims.

Former church deacons Jae Kun Lee, Soon "Sunny" Kwang Hong and Hyun Suh Park were excommunicated in October. They had protested the August reinstatement of a former church elder, accused another elder of taking bribes and threatened to take the church to court, according to papers filed in Queens Supreme Court.

Nam Sik Park said he never threatened the pastor that he would "chew" and "eat" his liver.

Park said he was trying to show his devotion to God, by explaining, "If I didn't believe in Jesus Christ, I would 'take out the liver of Pastor Kim, chew it up and eat it.' "

Vibrant and diverse high school!

From Queens Rules:

...this school is situated in Elmhurst, the most multicultural zip code in the United States, according to the Department of City Planning. Newtown has more than 3000 students who represent over 100 countries and speak 60 different languages.

“Newtown is a typical United Nations,” explained Mary Wang, an associate principal at the school. Facing a wall map of the world in her office, she described how this internationalization helps her wards adapt to an increasingly globalized world.

That's all well and good. But would you want to send your kid to this school?

To be sure, Newtown has had its share of tensions. Students say some classmates belong to gangs and occasional fights break out.

Only one line about this, eh?

City to take over former Jackson Heights Catholic school

From indiejourno.com:

For many students in Queens, overcrowded schools are a constant reality. Each day they jostle and push through crammed hallways, squeezing into classrooms designed for fewer occupants.

Some students in Jackson Heights, however, may soon be granted a reprieve, as the city has acquired the Blessed Sacrament School building at 34-20 94th St. and will be turning the facility into a public school, set to open in September 2010. The new school is expected to eventually house 700 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

After months of speculation, the school was finally acquired from the Catholic Diocese, which had shut down Blessed Sacrament as enrollment levels at the Catholic school dropped to a precipitous low of 180 students in January 2009.

On Thursday, members of CDEC 30 brainstormed what the new curriculum for the school ought to be, with five educators from across the city presenting proposals.

Jacqueline Coombs, who has been an educator for the last 17 years, also supported the idea of having the curriculum reflect the diversity of the neighborhood.

“For example, Friday would be ‘game day,’ and we can use this day to learn how math across the world is different and how different cultures add and subtract differently,” Coombs said, alluding to the use of the abacus and other counting instruments that would be used to enhance the learning experience.

Ok, students don't need "game day" or to be taught how math is learned in other countries. Here's a crazy idea...how about concentrating on teaching them how to read, write and count so they have skills necessary to become successful in this country? Get your priorities in order. You're doing a disservice to these kids.