Bayside Jewish Center to be bought by Korean services group

From the Queens Chronicle:

Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York Executive Director Linda Lee spoke to the Northwest Bayside Civic Association last Thursday about the group’s plans to purchase the Bayside Jewish Center.

“We have the only Meals on Wheels program that serves Korean food in all of New York City,” Lee said, telling those in attendance about KCS at the meeting, which was held at the Grace Presbyterian Church of New York in Bayside. The agency, which has offices in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, mainly provides programs for seniors, and mostly serves the Korean diaspora of New York City.

When Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) announced last May that the School Construction Authority planned to purchase the Jewish center, the congregation of which has largely dwindled in recent years, the plan was not greeted warmly. Citing the effect that the proposed eight-story school would have on parking, traffic, property value and other worries, many community members were livid. After a fight led by the civic and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), the SCA dropped the plans last November.

If KCS buys the building, according to Lee, it will use it from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. And most of the seniors served by the nonprofit, she added, use public transportation.

When a member of the civic asked Lee if KCS plans to build onto the building, the nonprofit executive director said that it was not likely. “In our conversations right now, that’s not on our radar,” she said, while not saying outright that the agency would agree never expand the structure. “I don’t think we would even make plans to do that because we would have to have a good reason for doing that.”

However, Lee said, the building would have to be brought up to compliance and its kitchen would have to be renovated. And because handicapped individuals are served by the nonprofit, other changes would have to be made to the inside of the building to make it easier for them to move through it.

Child slavery in Flushing

From PIX11:

The neat brick facade along the tree-lined Queens street gave no indication of the horrific crimes taking place inside, according to the district attorney.

Sook Yeong Park, 42, is accused of holding two South Korean children as slaves for six years, starting when they were just 9 and 11. Park, who faces charges of labor trafficking, among others, forced both children to work grueling hours at the house and at nearby businesses, forcing one child to sleep on the floor with no mattress and the other in a closet, according to the Queens District Attorney.

“According to the charges, the defendant cut off all contact between the two young victims and their parents in Korea," said D.A. Richard A. Brown. Park enslaved the children after one of her relatives brought the brother and sister to the country in January 2010, according to the criminal complaint. She then confiscated their passports and moved into a well-kept home on 196th Street, where she would hold them for years, Brown said.

The children were forced to meticulously clean the house, with the girl working after school from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., during which time she was also expected to give Park lengthy massages, manicures and pedicures, according to the complaint. On at least one occasion, Park allegedly made the girl give her a body massage for five hours while she watched television.

Sometimes she would pull the children out of school for days or even a month while forcing them to work on her home at 43-52 196th Street, according to the district attorney. Along with the work at home, Park made the girl and her brother work at a Queens grocery store for $10 an hour and pocketed all of her earnings, according to the complaint.

Another house to church conversion in Bayside

"Last night my mother & I were walking through the neighborhood and walked by a house that has been under construction for quite sometime now. We were stunned to find out that they were not building a new home but rather a Korean church! As if Bayside needs another Korean church! The property is located on the corner of 208th Street and Horace Harding Expressway."

Koreatown Plaza becomes controversial

From the Times Ledger:

State. Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and community leaders say they are against a pedestrian plaza proposed for the street across from the McGoldrick Library in Flushing.

In 2014, the Korean American Association of Queens applied to the city Department of Transportation to permanently close the street in front of the library on Roosevelt Avenue between 155th Street and Northern Boulevard and make a pedestrian plaza with tables and chairs.

The plaza would also be on Leonard Square, which honors Corporal William A. Leonard, a Flushing resident and World War I veteran.

Avella attended the trial street closure Friday, which he said he learned of only a day earlier and found that the area had too little pedestrian traffic to warrant a plaza and limited room to reroute traffic to avoid congestion.

“I only found out about this on Thursday and my first reaction was, ‘What idiot came up with this?’” he said during a news conference Monday afternoon.

He places the blame on the DOT and elected officials who support the proposal, saying they should know better than to support a plaza in an area with a lot of traffic and without sufficient community input.

He said state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), one of the supporters of the proposal, should be “ashamed of herself.”

“I fault the city and I fault any elected official who tried to sneak this through,” he said.

Mike Favilla, Stavisky’s chief of staff, said the proposal does not concern Avella.

“Tony Avella has made more crazy allegations than Donald Trump and now he’s at it again,” Favilla said in a statement. “Considering that Tony only received 52 percent of the vote in his last primary, perhaps he should spend more time in his own district rather than looking for fights elsewhere.”

At the trial street closure last week, Stavisky and City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) said they were unaware of opposition to the proposal but that they would meet with community leaders to discuss it.

City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) supports the proposal as well.

It's more than a pedestrian plaza with tables and chairs. They also want vendor stalls. Because there's nowhere else in Flushing to buy cheap junk right now.

Bad behavior at fast food joints

From DNA Info:

A manager at a Jamaica Burger King hurled a napkin dispenser at a group of rowdy teens but hit a man ordering food instead, chipping his teeth, according to police and court records.

The incident took place on Nov. 6 around 11:30 p.m., when the 26-year-old victim was buying food at Burger King on Jamaica Avenue, near 160th Street, police said.

At the time, “a group of kids” was “throwing items around the restaurant,” according to the criminal complaint.

The manager, Nancy Fields, 27, of Richmond Hill, threw a napkin dispenser into the crowd but it hit the man instead. He suffered two chipped teeth and severe pain, according to court documents.

Fields was arrested on Dec. 5 and charged with assault and harassment. She is due back in court on February 3.

From the NY Times:

Several Korean-American groups on Tuesday called for the boycott of a McDonald’s restaurant in Queens where a Korean patron was struck this year by an employee wielding a broomstick.

At a rally in front of the restaurant, the groups’ leaders demanded that the restaurant and its parent corporation improve their employees’ ethnic sensitivity training and customer service.

It is the second time this year that Korean community groups have mobilized protests against a McDonald’s restaurant in Flushing, a neighborhood in Queens heavily populated by immigrants from East Asia.

In January, community leaders called for a boycott against a McDonald’s franchise on Northern Boulevard after managers called the police on several occasions to remove older Korean men and women who had turned the restaurant into a de facto clubhouse, hanging out for hours and ordering only cups of coffee. That dispute was resolved when a local official helped broker a détente between the owner and the patrons.

The new protest stems from a 10-month-old confrontation that is the subject of pending civil and criminal cases.

The patron, James Jin Kim, 62, claimed that the employee attacked him on Feb. 16 after he complained about the slow pace of service at the restaurant, a McDonald’s franchise on Main Street, a busy thoroughfare in the commercial heart of Flushing.

According to a lawsuit filed in April in State Supreme Court in Queens, Mr. Kim claimed that after waiting in line for 10 minutes to order a cup of coffee, he complained to the cashier. “Too much time,” he said, according to the lawsuit.

In response, Mr. Kim said, an employee behind the counter retorted, “We don’t serve coffee to people like you,” and added, “Get out of my restaurant!”

According to the complaint, Mr. Kim then took out his phone and recorded a video. The employee, Rooshi Sajjad, walked around the counter, grabbed a broomstick and struck Mr. Kim’s hand, “barely missing his head and eyes,” the lawsuit said.

And in Bayside fast food news, the Bell Blvd McDonald's location has closed.

Koreans push for Flushing pedestrian plaza

From the Queens Courier:

In response to a Flushing group’s demand for more public space, the city is considering a pedestrian plaza for Leonard Square.

Between all of the construction and rush hour traffic, residents and local politicians say there are too few places for people to just stop and take a break.

The Korean association applied to the Department of Transportation’s plaza program. The department will make a decision early next month, according to a spokesman. And if the Flushing square is chosen, city officials would work with local officials and the community to hold public workshops and develop a design.

Flushing Commons construction is a pain in the ass for many

From the Queens Chronicle:

Work on Flushing Commons, the large mixed-use development, has not only affected area businesses but the historic church next door as well.

The house of worship, located at 37-22 Union St., is on one side of the $1 billion project that is also bounded by 138th Street and 37th and 39th avenues. So while construction work — which began officially in June — continues through 2021, the 203-year-old congregation will have to put up with noise, dirt and a definite hemmed-in feeling.

Although 1,144 parking spaces remain during construction, using them is no longer free at certain times. The site previously served as a municipal parking lot and parking was free on Sunday and for some evening hours.

The remaining piece of the former municipal lot is being developed by the church. It has constructed a 14-story, 142-unit affordable housing structure located adjacent to the house of worship.

It was completed months ago, but the city is taking its time in making inspections before giving the project a certificate of occupancy.

More than 40,000 applications were received by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Prior to the start of Flushing Commons construction, Korean stores on Union Street feared a loss of business due to the work.

The city, however, has set up a $2.5 million small business assistance fund for all Flushing merchants that is being administered by Asian Americans for Equality and the city.

But Ikhwan Rim, president of the Union Street Small Business Merchants Association, said on Monday that businesses are closing down. “I’m okay, hanging on, but it’s not too good for business,” the jewelry store owner said.

He blamed the drop-off in commerce to lack of parking, the cost of what remains and additional traffic due to construction. “The developers need to work harder for us,” Rim said.

Update on creepy sign

"The creepy poster referencing terrorism has been removed from the building at Crocheron Av & 162nd Street." - The Flushing Phantom

Tax cut proposed for burger joints that allow seniors to linger (not an early April Fool's joke)

From the Times Ledger:

State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) has proposed a new tax credit for restaurants that allow seniors to hang out in their establishments.

The new tax credit is an attempt to tackle a fight between business owners and seniors who sit socializing in their restaurants for hours on end.

The issue was highlighted when a group of Korean seniors were kicked out of a Flushing McDonald’s by police after spending hours sitting in the franchise after only buying a $1.09 cup of coffee each.

News of the controversy spread quickly all the way to Korea and prompted Kim to broker a compromise between the two groups that would have the McDonald’s extend its maximum sitting times during non-lunch hours, which the seniors agreed to respect. Kim said the spat was indicative of a larger problem that seniors do not have enough public spaces where they want to congregate.

“Older adults don’t want to be confined to one place. Instead of telling them where they have to go, we’ll go to them,” Kim said. “This is one of the possible solutions than can help alleviate the problem.”

A couple weeks after the controversy in Flushing, a group of predominantly Guyanese seniors were kicked out of a Burger King in Richmond Hill for staying too long.

Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Fresh Meadows), whose district includes the Burger King, is setting up a summit so that the Guyanese seniors and the owner of the burger joint can reach a compromise similar to Kim’s.

The lunatics have taken over the asylum, folks.

Ron Kim brokers truce in McDonald's war

From the Queens Chronicle:

Korean-American Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) announced Monday morning that he had brokered a truce between Korean seniors and a Flushing McDonald’s over seating rights.

Kim stepped into the fray and arranged a compromise during a weekend session with the McDonald’s owner, Jack Bert, and 12 of the seniors. From now on, seniors will have extended sitting hours except during high-traffic hours from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; signs will be posted to communicate the change in Chinese and Korean; and Kim will collaborate with area senior centers in offering transportation to and from the restaurant.

Senior centers offer meals, so why do they need to shuttle their clients back and forth to McDonald's?

Let me guess...Kim is going to allocate funding (our tax dollars) for this unnecessary shuttling?

Old Koreans won't leave Northern Blvd McDonald's for some reason

From the NY Times:

For the past several months, a number of elderly Korean patrons and this McDonald’s they frequent have been battling over the benches inside. The restaurant says the people who colonize the seats on a daily basis are quashing business, taking up tables for hours while splitting a small packet of French fries ($1.39); the group say they are customers and entitled to take their time. A lot of time.

“Do you think you can drink a large coffee within 20 minutes?” David Choi, 77, said. “No, it’s impossible.”

And though they have treated the corner restaurant as their own personal meeting place for more than five years, they say, the situation has escalated in recent months. The police said there had been four 911 calls since November requesting the removal of the entrenched older patrons. Officers have stopped in as frequently as three times a day while on patrol, according to the patrons, who sidle away only to boomerang right back. Medium cups of coffee ($1.09 each) have been spilled; harsh words have been exchanged. And still — proud, defiant and stuck in their ways — they file in each morning, staging a de facto sit-in amid the McNuggets.

“Large group — males, females — refusing to get up and leave,” read the police summary of one 911 call placed on Jan. 3 at 2:30 p.m. “The group passed a lot of sit-down time. Refusing to let other customers sit.”

Neither a Burger King nor another McDonald’s, both within a few blocks on Northern Boulevard, has the same allure.

Workers at the restaurant say they are exasperated.

Don't fret, Ron Kim is on it.

Horse stable fights sale to Korean church

From the Queens Chronicle:

Joy Tirado is no quitter.

She’s the owner of the Western Riding Club, a traditional stable in a residential neighborhood of Fresh Meadows, who is fighting to keep the facility open. And now its future may rest with a judge who will determine the outcome.

Since May, more than 1,000 area residents have signed petitions to keep the stable open. State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) tried unsuccessfully to get it landmarked and the Knights of Columbus held a fundraiser so Tirado could hire an attorney.

That’s because her landlord, John Lightstone, 87, who lives in the adjacent house, wants to sell the property to the Reformed Church of America, a Korean congregation. Church members told her they would tear down the barn and turn it into a parking lot and use the house for the church.

“I was never told the property was listed last year,” said Tirado, who has been there for three years. “I only found out in March. We don’t even know the price, as it’s ranged from $699,000 to $800,000.”

She was supposed to be out by the end of July, but the K of C came through with enough money for her to hire an attorney, who filed a legal complaint, and now “everything is on hold,” according to Tirado.

Her lawyer said that Lightstone’s attorney has not yet responded and has 30 days to answer the charges, which include the right of first refusal to purchase as is spelled out in her lease and a good-faith clause, among other issues. It is likely the owner will ask for a 30-day extension beyond that.

With a little breathing room Tirado is hoping to raise funds to buy the property at 169-38 Pidgeon Meadow Road and turn it into a community center and stable. “It would go from the Western Riding Club to It Takes a Village Ranch,” she said.

Staking a claim to community garden

From the Wall Street Journal:

Despite its serene setting and rows of flowers and vegetables, a community garden in Flushing, Queens, has turned into a battlefield.

Violent fights, death threats and shouting matches, sometimes involving fistfuls of dirt, have become routine at Evergreen Community Garden, leading to volunteer guards at the entrance and police patrols. And almost all of the tangles involve elderly Korean gardeners, officials and witnesses say.

The disputes grew out of the city Parks & Recreation Department's decision last year to take control of the 5-acre garden from a Korean-American senior citizens' group, which had transformed the trash-filled public space into a working garden back in the early 1980s.

A fight broke out at a news conference by elderly Korean gardeners upset that New York City took control of their park in Flushing, Queens. Mellad “Sam” Massoud, a member of the Evergreen Community Garden who supports the city’s control of the park, is seen shouting in the video because he was upset that the news conference was taking place. He was injured in the fight and spent three days in a nearby hospital. He said he was "simply reacting to the situation,” adding, "The fighting has gotten bad and we need to stop.”

The parks department—which contends the seniors' group had been improperly selling produce from the city-owned plot and excluding outsiders—turned control of the park over to its GreenThumb network of community gardens and installed a manager last year.

But the older gardeners are still trying to reclaim the land, at times by drastic means.

A year ago, the garden's 75-year-old former manager clutched a lighter and container of gasoline, threatening to light himself on fire if he didn't get his old job back, city officials said. The incident prompted a police hostage negotiation team to respond and two nearby schools to be locked down.

Then earlier this summer, 100 gardeners signed a petition saying they feared for their safety around one of the garden's new managers—and one person took out a restraining order against him, according to court documents. That manager now has a gardening schedule, set by city GreenThumb officials, so he doesn't violate the court order.

Parks officials say they are trying to keep the peace at the garden, located in Kissena Corridor Park.

Arboricide at landmarked mansion

Interesting that the Korean Church congregation (that sold St. Saviour's church and grounds in Maspeth to a developer) that now owns the landmarked Fitzgerald-Ginsberg mansion and grounds in Flushing decided to wait until July 4th to continue their path of destruction. They previously were criticized for cutting trees down on the property, and they're at it again.

Nice collection of violations, too.

Strange collection

"What's the message here?
A Korean store window on Northern B'lvd. around 160th Street featured this.
I dunno...can't figure!" - The Flushing Phantom

Myungsuk strikes back

From the Politicker:

Myungsuk Lee, one of many candidates vying to replace Assemblywoman Grace Meng's soon-to-be-vacated seat, has been battered by a couple recent New York Post articles reporting the existence of prostitution ads in the newspaper he owns, the Korean American Times. But, according to a source monitoring the Korean language media, it seems Mr. Lee is not going to be taking the issue sitting down.

Mr. Lee reportedly held a press conference last Friday arguing that the alleged brothels are, in fact, legal businesses, and said he would seek to file a lawsuit against the Post for defamation and libel. In a translation provided to The Politicker, Mr. Lee further said he would seek a face-to-face discussion with the publication's management, which he said produces articles "against Korean-American community at large."

Of course, defamation lawsuits against political figures are notoriously difficult to prove in the United States as they require significant evidence of malicious intent. But Mr. Lee likely feels that he needs to push back in order to succeed in the September 13th primary, where he is competing against Democrats Ron Kim, Yen Chou, Ethel Chen, John Scandalios and Martha Flores-Vazquez.

DA Brown's selective enforcement

From the NY Post:

Queens Assembly candidate Myungsuk Lee, whose Korean-language newspaper runs ads from “massage parlors,” some of which also peddle prostitution, could be in some legal trouble.

Queens DA Richard Brown says he’s meeting with his vice squad “on this matter” after The Post yesterday exposed the ads and the massage parlors.

From True News for Change NYC:

The Queens DA, who has done nothing to stop sex ads in the Queens Tribune, is going after a Korean candidate for assembly who owns newspaper that also publishes sex ads... Must have something to do with the Tribune joined at the hip with the Queens Democratic Party, backed Brown for DA

Another candidate tied to whore ads

From the NY Post:

A Queens state Assembly candidate who publishes a Korean-language newspaper is profiting from ads for a prostitution ring on the paper’s back pages, The Post has learned.

Myungsuk Lee, 49, the owner of the Korean American Times, is one of several Democrats vying for an open seat in the newly created 40th District.

He trumpets his accomplishments on the paper’s front pages — while the back pages run ads for massage services that serve as covers for prostitution, sex workers said.

At least two of the racy ads soliciting workers lead back to the same building as Lee’s publishing and campaign offices at Prince Street and 35th Avenue in Flushing.

One ad says it would “prefer ladies who just arrived from Korea,” and another says, “Age is not required if look young.”

Women answering telephones at numbers posted on the ads offered callers hourlong massages for $50 and directed them to the building housing Lee’s offices.

A Post reporter who arrived was offered the full menu — an extra $40 above the massage price gets “hand satisfaction,” an extra $60 gets oral sex, and an additional $80 gets conventional sex.

In an interview with The Post at his office, Lee at first denied that the ads were even in his paper.

But when confronted with the evidence, he quickly admitted to it.
“I told my employee not to have this kind of advertisement. I’m strongly opposed [to] it,” he said.

Splitting the vote

From the Queens Courier:

A Democratic Assembly hopeful in a primary race already dividing ethnic lines fears a split Korean community could give the Chinese candidate a golden ticket to the general election.

Myungsuk Lee, who is vying for the potentially open and brewing 40th Assembly District race, expects to face an uphill battle with fellow Korean candidate — and county pick — Ron Kim.

“The Korean community is a little divided between Ron Kim and me,” said Lee, 49, of Flushing. “Their votes are really divided. I don’t think it’s easy to unify them because I will keep running. I won’t give up, and the other candidate won’t give up.”

Kim, a 33-year-old South Korean-born community activist, has the backing of the Queens County Democratic Organization and City Comptroller John Liu. The Flushing resident was an aide to then-Assemblymember Mark Weprin before moving on to work for the city’s Department of Buildings and the Department of Small Business Services, serving also as vice president of the Korean American Association of Greater New York.

Lee, owner and publisher of the tabloid newspaper Korean American Times, is the president of the Federation of Korean American Associations in Greater New York and former president of the Korean American Chamber of Commerce of New York and the Korean American Association of Queens.

While each candidate eyeing the seat will still have to garner enough petitions to make it on to the ballot, Lee and Kim expect to face off with Chinese contender Ethel Chen.

Translation scam at Elmhurst Hospital

From the Daily News:

A Korean-speaking swindler was busted at a Queens hospital after he reportedly tried to fleece non-English speaking immigrants, hospital officials said.

The man had been repeatedly spotted offering to translate between staff at Elmhurst Hospital Center and Korean speakers for a $240 fee, said hospital spokesman Dario Centorcelli.

Hospitals are mandated to provide interpreter service at no cost and freely advertise that fact, he said.