Mayor Adams normalizes censorship

 

Reclaim The Net 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has used this month’s Buffalo shooting to call for more social media censorship.

Speaking live on PIX11’s Morning Show, Adams was asked by the host Hazel Sanchez what could be done about regulating social media.

“Governor Hochul, she was on PIX11, demanding social media platforms be held accountable. Now, you’ve been calling for that since the suspected Brooklyn subway shooter, Frank James, allegedly posted racist rants online,” Sanchez said. “But social media’s been around and unregulated for a long time. So what kind of change can you see happening?”

Mayor Adams responded, saying that it was time for social media platforms to start using “artificial intelligence to identify words, identify phrases, to immediately remove and censor some of this information.”

Mayor Adams likened the censorship techniques to the removal of President Trump’s Twitter account; “We did it to Donald Trump on Twitter. He was dangerous to the country. So why aren’t we doing it to the everyday people who are using it and is dangerous to our neighborhoods and communities?”

Likening his censorship demands to his similar demands for social media platforms to censor some forms of rap on social media, Adams stated, “The type of violence that’s being promoted on social media is beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed before.

“Particularly in some of the drill music that actually taunts and threaten people. There’s a direct correlation. That’s the type of social media monitoring we believe the social media companies should do.”

South Queens electeds re-assemble another task force to improve Jamaica

Queens Chronicle

 

Two months after touring Jamaica to learn more about issues in the area, Borough President Donovan Richards launched a task force last Thursday to help improve the downtown hub.

The Downtown Jamaica Improvement Council, which is co-chaired by Richards and Councilwoman Nantasha Williams (D-St. Albans), also consists of U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica), state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St.Albans), Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica), Council Majority Whip and Transportation Chair Selvena Brooks-Powers (D-Laurelton), Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman (D-Springfield Gardens) and Councilman Jim Gennaro (D-Hillcrest).

The purpose of the task force is to streamline communication with stakeholders, which also include city and state offices and agencies, business improvement districts, chambers of commerce, the Greater Jamaica Development Group, York College, the Association for a Better New York and Community Board 12, to fast-track projects that would support the area’s commercial hub, enhance the quality of life for residents and upgrade transportation, according to the BP’s Office.

“We carefully listened to the Downtown Jamaica community about the issues impacting the quality of life in the neighborhood and are committing to make sure they are addressed quickly and comprehensively,” Richards said in a prepared statement. “Our Downtown Jamaica Improvement Council will work diligently to ... make it an even better place to live, work and visit. The Council will not rest until Downtown Jamaica reaches its fullest potential as a thriving commercial, residential and transportation hub.”

Williams sees the task force as a way to make Downtown Jamaica thrive as a place where people want to work, play and dine.

“Jamaica is one of the most important economic hubs in Southeast Queens and plays a vital role in New York City’s economy,” Williams said in a statement. “This is an opportunity to improve Downtown Jamaica by leveraging our collective resources. I look forward to ... make sure this vibrant part of our borough is even better than what it already is.”

Queens Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Grech is excited about the task force.

“As a board member of both the Rufus King Manor House and the York College Foundation, I know all too well the challenges that we face in this area of downtown Jamaica,” Grech told the Queens Chronicle via email. “I see it and sense it on my regular visits to the area. As we turn the corner on the pandemic we continue to beat the drum of public safety first and foremost among all things. We firmly believe there can be no prosperity without public safety.

“All the pieces of the economic puzzle are in place; we just need to assemble them properly efficiently and equitably.”

The Southeast Queens Chamber of Commerce also wants the downtown area to be prosperous.

“The SEQ Chamber of Commerce’s number one priority is to improve the health and wellness of our community,” SEQCC Executive Director Roxanne Simone Lord Marcelle told the Chronicle via email. “That encompasses the cleanliness and safety of Southeast Queens.”

The Jamaica Center Business Improvment District is thrilled to be a part of the task force.

This is probably the 999th task force to figure out how to improve this area. Apparently all that new tower overdevelopment has not translated to the streets. It's stories like this that make me miss Joe Moretti's legendary blog Clean Up Jamaica Queens.

 

Governor Kathy's Clown's Word Police Squad

Reclaim The Net

New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday tweeted that her office would come up with a comprehensive plan to deal with domestic terrorism.

As part of this plan, Hochul announced, the state would introduce more stringent gun laws, but also launch investigations into social media platforms that the governor says “promote” violent extremism.

This is happening in the wake of the Buffalo shooting, when 18-year-old Payton Gendron, who described himself as a white supremacist and has in the meanwhile pleaded not guilty to first degree murder, is charged with killing ten people in a racist massacre.

In comments cited by the New York Times, Hochul, a Democrat who is hoping to get reelected later this year, said that the state is now “doing something” in response to this type of crime.

In addition to making New York’s strict “red-flag” law on guns even tougher, the focus is on the internet, where Gendron is said to have been “radicalized.”

The governor’s executive order (obtained for you here, though note that the signed EO incorrectly lists the date of the shooting as being March 2022, instead of May 2022) instructs the State Police to establish a “dedicated unit within the New York State Intelligence Center (NYSIC) to track domestic extremism and increase social media monitoring at the Intelligence Center.”

“The unit will be responsible for developing investigative leads based on social media analyses focused on radical extremist activities motivated threats by identifying online locations and activities that facilitate radicalization and promote violent extremism,” it says.

Caption this smoking citibike rider

Back the unvaxxed blue

 

NY Post

The city’s vaccine mandate has been put on “pause” for the NYPD so the force can avoid losing nearly 5,000 cops and employees as the weather — and crime — heats up, The Post has learned.

Currently, 91 percent of the NYPD’s uniformed cops and other personnel are vaccinated, City Hall says. That leaves an estimated 4,659 NYPD employees unvaccinated despite a deadline to get the shots by Oct. 29. 

“In a nutshell, no decisions will be made, no further members will be forced to leave until further notice,” said a veteran NYPD sergeant, explaining the unwritten rule. “There hasn’t been any memo, just basically keep everything status quo and if issues arise we will revisit it down the road.”

Last month, an undisclosed number of officers received final notices rejecting their requests for religious or medical exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees.

But an unspecified number of requests remain pending, letting cops and others in a state of limbo keep working.

 

Biking to work on Queens Boulevard

It was bike to work day Friday so I thought I would see if other riders would be making the trek on the longest bike lane in Queens. Considering how perfect the weather was, very little decided to participate. Which is how it is every day on this route.

421A-holes

 

THE CITY 

The clock is ticking on the final days of a likely-to-expire tax break real estate developers rely on to build new apartments — and the rush is on to get foundations in the ground before June 15, when 421-a will end unless the state legislature passes an extension.

In Astoria, Queens, the second phase of the Durst Organization’s massive Hallett’s Point development will have laid all its foundations by the middle of next month — allowing those buildings to qualify for the lucrative property tax incentive. But Phase 3 and its 800 more apartments will be shelved if 421-a expires, says the developer.

“The only place we could build a market rate apartment building without 421-a is near Union Square or maybe in a few other slices of Manhattan,” said Jordan Barowitz, a company vice-president.

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Two Trees Management Co. has begun constructing 350 Kent as part of its equally massive Domino development, which will add 400 units — 30% of them designated as affordable, or rented to households earning specific incomes, under the city’s inclusionary housing program. But a rep for the developer says the future is “cloudy” for another planned building at Domino and the first two structures planned at its newly approved River Ring site because they may not be able to pour their foundations before the deadline.

New units issued permits soared to 4,091 in March, according to Census Bureau’s building permits survey data analyzed by THE CITY, compared with 2,678 in January and February combined. Sources who have seen preliminary data for April and early May say the surge has continued.

The war on cars is being won by criminals

 

 NY Post

 New York City car thieves have shifted into high gear, with auto thefts soaring 61% so far this year, according to the latest disturbing statistics.

There have been 4,467 car thefts so far in 2022, as compared to 2,769 in the same time period in 2021. The crime category has jumped a whopping 97 percent compared to 2020, NYPD data show. 

The Ford Econoline is the preferred vehicle of the sticky-fingered set, followed by the Honda Accord, Honda CRV, Honda Civic and Toyota Camry, according to the NYPD.

Bronx motorists have been hit the hardest: 1,437 vehicles have been boosted so far this year in the borough, the most in the city, and a 70% spike from the same time last year, when 845 cars were stolen, the stats show.

In Brooklyn 1,183 vehicles have been ripped off in 2022, compared to 806 in 2021, a 47% surge.

Auto larceny in Queens is up 63% in 2022, with 1,107 incidents to 678 the year prior, and has jumped 62 percent in Manhattan, which saw 604 thefts to 2021’s 373 incidents, the data shows.

Even Staten Island, the so-called “cop borough,” isn’t safe. While The Rock has logged the fewest car
thefts in the city this year which 136, that number is deceiving — it’s an 103 percent increase from the 67 vehicles snatched last year.

Kew Gardens tower jail already is a pain in the ass

 

NY Post

New York City is ramping up construction of a new jail in Queens as part of its plan to phase out problem-plagued Rikers Island — sparking outrage from residents, The Post has learned.

The presence of a lockup became more tangible for Kew Gardens locals recently when the Department of Design and Construction sent out a notice that it was restricting access to the area around Queens Borough Hall to lay the groundwork for the jail.

“We are upgrading the infrastructure in your community. These temporary access restrictions are necessary to facilitate preliminary work for the offset of a 48” Trunk Water Main for the Queens Borough Based Jail in the above-mentioned location,” the DDC said.

The community bulletin was a gut punch for many residents who said they don’t want their neighborhood to house accused criminals.

“I oppose the jail. It’s simply a safety issue,” said 31-year-old neighbor Michael Brocking.

Yan Lin, a mother of three boys ages 7 to 14, added: “We don’t need the criminal element around here.”

  don’t like the jail. We have a good community. I love this community,” the concerned mom said.

Howard Cohn, a 75-year-old retired school teacher, said, “I don’t want to be living next to criminals.”

“A jail is going to lower the property values here,” he added.

Mayor Eric Adams had promised to deliver on former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $8.3 billion plan to shutter Rikers Island’s troubled jail complex and replace it with four smaller, more humane high-rise lockups in each of the city’s boroughs but Staten Island.

Update:

This was found at one of the borough tower jails development site in Chinatown. The DDC is being quite defiantly defensive about what they are doing.

City construction notice signs are now editorialized… pic.twitter.com/oxFPFiiEx3

— Reza Chowdhury (@RezaC1) May 16, 2022

The Department of Transportation Alternatives figurehead screws up speed camera negotiations

 

 NY Daily News 

An off-the-rails trip to Albany last week by city Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez put at risk the city’s push to run red light and speed cameras around the clock, according to DOT sources and lawmakers with knowledge of his meetings upstate.

Before the May 3 trip to the state capital, Rodriguez and DOT staffers had prepared to brief lawmakers on legislation to permit the city’s speed and red light cameras to issue tickets beyond the 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. window currently authorized by state law.

But Rodriguez went off script, DOT sources said, by pressing for even more speed and red light cameras across the city — a proposal that was previously floated by Transportation Department staffers and shot down by lawmakers.

“They prepped for extending the current cameras, not brand new ones,” said a source, who described Rodriguez’s trip to Albany as a “total f--- up.”

DOT staffers had already asked lawmakers for “home rule” for the city’s traffic camera program, which would allow the city to put as many eyes in the sky as they want without state approval.

Mayor Adams and Rodriguez have for months called for the provision, but legislators have made clear they don’t buy into the idea. It’s no secret that home rule for cameras was off the table weeks before Rodriguez’s visit, said a City Council official who asked not to be named.

But, to the surprise of lawmakers and his staffers, Rodriguez during his trip pushed for home rule for the camera program anyway, sources said.

Ydanis didn't go off script, he's doing what Danny Harris and his Transportation Scientology cult is telling him to say and do.

wE neEd mORe pROteCtEd bIkE lAneS

AMNY 

Almost $200 million in Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) repair funds may be shifted out of this year’s city budget if Mayor Eric Adams gets his way — raising concerns among local lawmakers that City Hall is kicking the can down the road when it comes to keeping the highway’s crumbling triple-cantilever section safe.

The mayor’s Executive Budget proposes to cut $180.5 million from the Department of Transportation’s spending on BQE fixes this year — a drop from $225.1 million to just $44.6 million — and moves those funds into later years, according to a City Council briefing document from Thursday.

City Council Member Lincoln Restler, whose district includes the Brooklyn Heights waterfront area with the deteriorating section of the highway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street, accused the agency of moving the project over to the slow lane.

“The dramatic reductions in funding by upwards of $180 million that should have been spent this year… is of grave concern and, frankly, is indicative of the lack of urgency the DOT is placing on making the necessary repairs at this location,” said Restler at a lengthy May 12 Council budget hearing on transportation.

The city still plans to spend the same $1.5 billion overall through 2031 on BQE repairs, according to the brief, but Restler warned that holding off on short-term repairs could hamstring a larger revamp of the highway. 

“I am disappointed and concerned about the safety of our community, about our ability to preserve the lifespan of the triple-cantilever for these 20 years, so that a bolder, more transformative solution can take place,” the pol said.

The funding shift was first brought up by the Council’s Finance Committee chairperson Justin Brannan, who also questioned the move.

“Has it been determined that, with the cantilever reaching the end of its useful life expectancy, is shifting the planned work from ’23 into the out years safe?” the Bay Ridge lawmaker asked.

DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez assured the politicians that the structure remains sound.

“There is no issue related to safety,” Rodriguez said. “None of this decision to move money puts anything at risk.”

City neglects park space on the Maspeth side of the Kosciuszko Bridge

Queens Post 

At the Brooklyn base of the Kosciuszko Bridge a gleaming new park attracts visitors from around the world. On the Queens side they have anger and frustration.

Residents of Maspeth who were promised some green space instead got a bridge to nowhere.

In late 2008, as part of a project to reconstruct the Kosciuszko Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens, state officials determined a park could be built at the base of each side. Initial projections said it would be done by 2020.

The state Department of Transportation completed the $873 million renovation of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway’s span over Newtown Creek in 2019.

Last year, officials cut the ribbon on the Under the K Bridge Park in Greenpoint, on the Brooklyn side of the suspension bridge.

But nearly 14 years after transportation officials identified a space for recreation in the Queens neighborhood of Maspeth, they’re not even close to completing a park there.

“What’s the delay?” said Tom Mituzas, a member of Queens Community Board 2, who has been asking for progress updates for the last two years. “Get it done.”

The designated park space, located on two parcels of land in an industrial area at 43rd Street and between 54th and 55th avenues, is currently shielded by a chain-link fence, a green tarp and signs that warn: “DANGER CONSTRUCTION AREA KEEP OUT.”

 Inside, mounds of rubble and construction equipment reveal scant signs of progress on the nearly one acre site, previously used as a staging area for the bridge’s construction.

Van Wyck plaza has let itself go

Queens Chronicle

 The plaza above the Jamaica Avenue-Van Wyck E-subway station at the edge of Kew Gardens has been in a state of disarray for over a decade, according to Roxanne Simone Lord Marcelle, the executive director and founder of the Southeast Queens Chamber of Commerce, who wants to raise $100,000 and revitalize the space as a thank-you to first responders a stone’s throw away at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.

For years the park-like area has become a haven for the homeless and people using drugs, according to Lord Marcelle, who had to pass it when going to the juice bar she owns when it was located in Kew Gardens. It also suffers from a lack of lighting.

“There are too much disparities and some places end up distressed,” Lord Marcelle told the Queens Chronicle by telephone on April 15. “We need awareness and funding, but awareness first.”

For years Lord Marcelle says she has been concerned for the students, medical staff, families and business owners that have to cut through the park to get to the station, but she had difficulty figuring out which agency manages the park.

“We want to do more,” said Lord Marcelle. “This is such a big area at Van Wyck and Jamaica ... This isn’t about money, money, money. We want to revitalize the area and help it look better.”

She plans to hold a press conference later this month to draw more attention to the issue.

After the Queens Chronicle shared Lord Marcelle’s concerns with the MTA, the agency referred the paper to the city Parks Department, the Department of Sanitation and the NYPD about the issue.

The NYPD did not comment on the concerns, but after sending people to Kew Gardens, the Parks Department said it believes the MTA owns the 3 feet surrounding the escalator at the station entrance and the stairs below. Days later the agency said the remainder of the property might belong to the city Department of Transportation.

Lord Marcelle also reached out to Borough President Donovan Richard’s Office and after days of research of property records a representative confirmed the property has belonged to the DOT since 1993.

Cop's son shot in a ride-by near Maspeth High

  

NY Post

The teenage son of an NYPD cop was shot across the street from his high school in Queens Wednesday afternoon, police sources said.

The 17-year-old, who was hit in the left arm, ran bleeding into Maspeth High School in Elmhurst after the 1:40 p.m. incident and was taken to Elmhurst Hospital as the youth’s girlfriend looked on and was “crying,” according to witnesses and law enforcement sources. 

The teen, a student at the school, was expected to survive, according to police.

The suspects fled down 74th Street on scooters and were arrested shortly after, cops said. 

The shooter was also a student at the school. 

One student, Isaiah Perez, told The Post the victim was with one of his friends and was on the way to the gym. 

“I was inside school on the second floor and they ended up locking the building down completely…I saw [the victim’s] girlfriend crying,” Perez said. 

“I went up to her and asked what was going on. I saw him on the stretcher with the patch on his arm so he was shot in the arm.”

Perez said he was “surprised” because the victim was “not that kind of person to go out and cause trouble like that. I wouldn’t see anything like that happening.”

Rockaway Summertime Blues

Pimp raped and forced teenage girl to sell her body at the Umbrella Hotel

 

Queens Post 

A Brooklyn man who trafficked a 16-year-old girl across Queens for sex—including at the now shuttered Umbrella Hotel in Kew Gardens—has pleaded guilty to an array of sex crimes and is expected to be sentenced to eight years in prison.

Jordan Adderley, 32, pleaded guilty Tuesday to sex trafficking of a child, sex trafficking, rape in the third degree and other crimes for manipulating a 16-year-old runaway to perform sex acts for money.

According to court records, Adderley met the victim in September 2020 and rented a room at the Hillcrest Hotel in Queens where he taught her how to make money by selling her body for sex. He also had intercourse and oral sex with the girl at the hotel.

Adderley, according to the authorities, drove the teen to various hotels in September and October 2020 to meet strangers who would pay for sex.

He was busted by an undercover NYPD unit while prostituting the teen at the now-defunct Umbrella Hotel, which was located at 124-18 Queens Blvd. Cops found him in the parking lot waiting for the victim. When officers nabbed him, he had dozens of glassines of cocaine in his possession.

“No one can undo the trauma inflicted upon this young teenager by this defendant’s callous actions, but as a result of his guilty plea, secured by my Office, the defendant will serve prison time and be held accountable for these egregious crimes,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz in a statement.

Return to the South Richmond Hill Horror

 

Impunity City 

Spring in South Queens is off to a despairingly dangerous start, particularly with targeted muggings of elderly Indian Sikh men in the same vicinity that’s located on Lefferts Blvd near a Guawdara Temple one block west. First was a violent assault on a 70-year-old man going on an early morning stroll and a little over a week later two other elderly Sikh men were mugged and robbed by two men on the same corner around the same time. In both incidents, the criminals knocked their turbans  religious headwear off their heads, giving credence to Sikh community leaders theories of being hate crimes against them.

 

The two men involved in the brutal attacks eventually got arrested after being on the lam for a few weeks, one of them who was involved in both crimes. Yet something caught my eye from the Queens Chronicle report after the young man involved in the second attack:

Two Sikh men were attacked Tuesday morning in Richmond Hill near where a hate crime against a member of the same community occurred last week. One man is in custody and another is still at large.

The incident occurred near the intersection of 95th Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard just after 7 a.m., according to police, a block from the Sikh Cultural Society gurdwara.

Officers found the two men, 76 and 64 years old, with minor injuries to the head and body. A preliminary investigation determined that the victims were approached by two men who struck them both on the head and body with closed fists and a wooden stick. The victims were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.

The assailants removed religious headwear from the men and stole their money. The incident is being treated as a robbery and a hate crime, according to police.

Hezekiah Coleman, 20 years old, who police say was squatting at 95-54 Lefferts Blvd., was taken into custody and charged with robbery, assault, hate crimes and aggravated harassment, officials said.

Police believe the suspect they have not caught also committed last week’s assault against Nirmal Singh, 70, said Community Affairs Officer Scott Adelman of the 102nd Precinct at the Community Board 9 meeting on Tuesday night.

The 102nd has a directed post at 95-54 Lefferts Blvd., which appears to be abandoned. It is believed that both suspects were squatters there.

“That car will not leave until the perpetrator is caught,” said Adelman.

Sukhjinder Singh Nijjar is the chairman of external affairs and the elections commission at the Sikh Cultural Society. He says the society is working with the precinct and hate crimes unit in the aftermath of the attacks.

He hopes to see increased police presence and is working to get a car permanently assigned for the temple area. On Wednesday, he and a group of about 15 community members met at the temple at 3 a.m. to patrol.

“We’re exploring all these avenues to see if we can have this area covered, not only for our local Sikh community, but also many other multicultural communities in this area,” he said, adding that the society will continue to hold elected officials accountable on delivering on their promises.

Strong words indeed, especially to elected officials who continue to remain insouciant to the rapid rise of crime in Queens and the other four boroughs and most of all to the party all the time mayor Eric Adams. But in the case they should hold the Queens Chronicle accountable for getting the address of the house were the suspects were squatting in (twice in the same article). The actual address is 94-54 Lefferts Blvd, and  this house has a sordid past and currently is casting an ominous aura. I covered this house exactly one year ago right after a man was found dead on the porch one morning, a result of being bludgeoned in the head by two other homeless men.

Evidently, this abandoned house has got even worse and more squatters are occupying it even if they can’t get inside. 

 

 

 

COVID hits Kathy Clown

AMNY 

Governor Kathy Hochul tested positive for COVID-19 Sunday, and the state’s chief executive said in a social media post that she did not show any symptoms of the illness.

Hochul’s diagnosis comes as virus cases spike again across New York City — though thanks to vaccinations, booster shots and antiviral pills, most infected New Yorkers are winding up asymptomatic or with mild cases.

“Today I tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully, I’m vaccinated and boosted, and I’m asymptomatic. I’ll be isolating and working remotely this week,” Hochul said in a Tweet on May 8.

“A reminder to all New Yorkers: get vaccinated and boosted, get tested, and stay home if you don’t feel well,” she continued.

 Two booster shots and this fool is telling people to get them. She will not even question how they failed to protect her from contagion. 

8

 

NY Daily News

New York City’s post-pandemic recovery has slowed as just a small fraction of Manhattan’s office workers have returned to work in-person, according to a survey published Monday.

The findings — compiled by the Partnership for New York City, which represents the Big Apple’s largest employers — estimated 62% of Manhattan’s office employees worked remotely during a typical weekday in late April. And just 8% — or one in 12 — showed up to work in-person five days per week, the report shows.

“The longer people worked remotely, the longer they wanted to continue to work remotely,” said Kathy Wylde, the CEO of the Partnership for New York City. “It’s called inertia. The longer people are doing one thing, the harder it is to get them to change.”

It’s a far more sluggish return to in-person work than the organization projected before the omicron variant of COVID-19 first swept through the city. A survey conducted in late October found nearly half of Manhattan’s office workers expected to be in the office by the end of January.

Predictions of a return to normalcy have proved inaccurate for more than a year. A March 2021 survey found employers expected about half of the borough’s office workers to be back in-person by last September.

About 78% of the city’s major employers expect a combination of remote and in-person work is here to stay, the survey found.

 

Man steals tow truck and kills a woman with it

 

NY Post

Police are hunting “a person of interest” in the horrific Mother’s Day mow-down of a Queens mom, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Monday.

Detectives have a photo of the man they suspect stole a heavy truck and slammed it into 49-year-old Florence Ngwu as he fled, leaving her mortally injured on the pavement outside her home Sunday morning, sources said.

As Ngwu lay dying on the ground, her young daughter screamed, “Mommy! Mommy!” video shows.

Ngwu, a mother of four and a nurse at an area nursing home, clung to life with massive head injuries until she died early Monday at Jamaica Hospital, her shattered family said.

The victim’s older daughter, Princess Ngwu, told The Post on Monday that while the family is glad that cops have identified her mom’s suspected killer, “What’s done is done.

“We can’t bring her back,” Princess said. “It doesn’t really change anything.

“It’s tragic what happened, but it is what it is,” she added. ” We’re OK. She trained us all very well. We were her life — her kids, her husband.”

Princess said she wants her mother to be remembered “as a strong woman.”

“She was a fierce woman, the fiercest woman you’ll ever meet,” she said. “All she ever did was just work, come home, care for us.”

NYPD city employee shot to death in her apartment, neighbor also shot and wounded in same building in Ridgewood

Queens Post

One woman is dead and another is critically injured after being shot in Ridgewood Monday morning.

The shootings stemmed from a domestic dispute between a 51-year-old woman and her boyfriend, 55, while they were inside a third-floor apartment at 66-17 Fresh Pond Rd., according to the NYPD.

The dispute took place at around 8:15 a.m. and the woman was fatally shot in the head by her boyfriend, according to police.

A 49-year-old neighbor, who lives on the second floor of the three-story building, heard the gunfire and went to the woman’s assistance but was fired upon by the suspect, according to Deputy Chief Julie Morrill, who gave a press briefing at the scene.

The neighbor then fled back to her apartment but was followed by the suspect, Morrill said. She was then shot in the abdomen and the shoulder, police said.

“There are shell casings throughout the hallway and stairwell,” Morrill said.

NY Daily News 

 

An NYPD civilian employee was shot in her Queens apartment Monday morning and later died, police said.

The suspect, a 55-year-old man believed to have a romantic connection to the 51-year-old victim, fled the scene but not before shooting and badly wounding a neighbor who heard the commotion and ran to see what had happened, police said.

Hotel homeless shelter in Queens tied to agent of the city community affairs commissioner

  

THE CITY

For months on end last year, residents protesting a planned homeless shelter in Queens struggled to get somebody — anybody — at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s City Hall to hear their argument that enough was enough.

The neighborhoods of Queens Community Board 3 — covering East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and North Corona — already hosted four shelters, and several hotels within the district were temporarily housing homeless individuals during the pandemic.

Behind the scenes, LGA Hospitality LLC, the owners of the property, fought back, hiring a politically wired lobbyist firm, James Capalino Associates, to move the project along, obtain all required permits and roll over local resistance.

Today the shelter, located at 112-16 Astoria Boulevard near LaGuardia Airport, is scheduled to open soon, but local leaders are now hoping for a more sympathetic ear from de Blasio’s successor, Mayor Eric Adams. As Queens Community Board 3 Chairperson Frank Taylor put it, “We’re happy to have the new administration and we’re hopeful.”

There might be a problem with that.

The key portal to City Hall for neighborhood residents is the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit (CAU), the division within the Mayor’s Office that helps citizens and community boards navigate the city’s bureaucracy. CB3 worked with de Blasio’s CAU on the shelter issue and planned to do so with Adams’ team.

In January, however, Mayor Adams named as his new commissioner of CAU Fred Kreizman — one of the lobbyists who had been retained by the shelter builder, LGA Hospitality LLC, to seek support from City Hall.

“Wow,” Taylor said when told of Kreizman’s dual roles. “Anytime we’re going into these things, we’re apprehensive because of what has happened. We’ve not been listened to. The only thing we can do is that this administration, if that gentleman has that type of connection, what else can we do but fight? And let the community know why are Black and brown neighborhoods being overburdened with these shelters?”

Neponsit hospital will finally be demolished for a park and LGBTQ community is pissed

 

THE CITY 

 A city plan to demolish a long-abandoned hospital and nursing home in the Rockaways has drawn scrutiny from all sides — including those who want the building to stay up to protect a historic beach haven for New York’s queer community.

The public hospitals agency announced last month that three crumbling buildings comprising the former Neponsit Adult Home on Beach 149th Street would be torn down at the end of the summer season. The land would then be turned over to the Department of Parks and Recreation, and eventually be home to a park, with space for lifeguard facilities and parking, officials said.

“It’s been a community eyesore for a long time, and there really wasn’t a good plan for it for a very long time,” local City Councilmember Joann Ariola (R-Queens) told THE CITY. “I think it’s going to be a positive addition to the community.”

But those who flock to the sands behind the seaside building — including a historically Black and brown community of trans and queer beachgoers, and some nudists — fear tearing down the edifieces that acted as a shield will ruin their “utopia.”

The former hospital’s fence directly borders the beach, where beachgoers have built a monument to the late Ms. Colombia, a beloved NYC queer icon whose legacy they’ve celebrated each year since she died in 2018.

LGBTQ New Yorkers have congregated at Bay 1 — the first beach in the federally operated Jacob Riis Park — since the late 1950s, according to historians. Queer authors including Audre Lorde and Joan Nestle mention the beach by name as a safe haven in their works.

 Many in the community now believe tearing down the hospital and putting in a park where children play would make Bay 1 less of a safe space.

“There are so many places in New York City that we are not comfortable in. Riis is our home, our dance floor, our marriage place and our burial ground,” Ceyenne Doroshow, founder and executive director of Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society, or GLITS, told THE CITY.

Consternation about city bus transportation

QNS 

Residents of Community District 5 heard a local breakdown of the new Queens Bus Network Redesign, with some locals expressing their concerns over the proposed plan during Wednesday night’s virtual workshop hosted by the MTA.

The May 4 workshop is part of the MTA’s three-month-long public feedback period before the agency finalizing the proposal. 

The MTA released a new draft plan for the Queens bus network in March after halting the 2019 project at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The revision offers a total of 85 routes for the borough, with 20 new routes and other extensions, shortenings and consolidations to improve efficiency; there are currently 82 bus routes in Queens. The plan will take away a total of 1,685 stops.

In an effort to shorten the commuting time, the MTA wants to space stops further apart, from about 850 feet to 1,400 feet. This could save 20 seconds of travel per stop, according to officials.

The new bus route is focused on reliable service and faster travel, according to the MTA representatives presenting the plan during Wednesday night’s virtual workshop. However, some residents who live in the district — which covers Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village and Maspeth — argued that some of the adjustments will completely upend their commute.  

One resident, Melissa Ferrara, mentioned that she chose to send her kids to McClancy Memorial High School in Elmhurst because the Q47 provides a simple commute with no transfers.

“Rerouting this will cause them to take two to three buses which will add tremendously to their commute,” Ferrara said. 

The proposed Q47 routing would be realigned at its southern end to serve 69 Street in Maspeth instead of 80 Street. It would also terminate at Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road, serving the M Train at the Middle Village Station.

MTA Representative Ryan Zatlin said that some proposed bus routes will deviate from typical routes and make “specialized school trips.”

“This proposal to realign the route to 69th Street was around our strategies of straightening routes and providing direct connections, in this case to the M Train and Metropolitan Avenue,” Zatlin said. “However, the proposal may not satisfy the needs of everyone, and that’s what we wanted to hear today.”

Pop up party pooper

Queens Chronicle 

 

With summer around the corner, Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village) is asking his colleagues to help him crash some parties — specifically, the increasingly popular pop-up parties that began to proliferate in his district and others last year.

The parties led to numerous complaints from residents — as well as a pair of shootings.

Holden last week introduced a dozen bills aimed at quality-of-life issues. One, Intro. 248, specifically targets organizers of parties, or in some cases the building owners, when vacant storefronts host gatherings without following city regulations or commonsense precautions.

Last summer the old Midville Hardware location at 73-02 Metropolitan Ave. in Middle Village became a host of such parties multiple times. Sites also sprang up on Myrtle Avenue and other nearby sites.

“It would allow the city to place regulations on event spaces that do not have a certificate of assembly, while avoiding any burdensome regulations on legitimate businesses,” Holden said in an interview this week.

“If they don’t have a certificate of assembly and suddenly they’re selling drinks, alcohol or no alcohol, they will be deemed immediately not in compliance,” Holden said.

He added that things like failure to have a liquor license or having unlicensed security guards also could be found to be a violation. Fines, the councilman said, could range from $1,000 to $25,000 depending on the number and severity of infractions.

It, and most of the other bills on Holden’s list, have been co-sponsored by Councilman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn).

“He’s another member of the Common Sense Caucus,” Holden said.

Middle Village residents who feared to give their names last summer gave the Chronicle stark descriptions of what the parties could bring when the revelry or worse spilled out onto the streets during such parties.

Music and loud partying into all hours of the morning were not even the worst. Fights would spill out into the streets. Litter and refuse would cover sidewalks.

Original efforts to crack down on businesses and building owners through the State Liquor Authority and zoning regulations would have had unintended consequences for bars, delis and other legitimate businesses that were playing by the rules on the same block, according to Holden.

He said his bill goes first after the party organizers or those who rent the space.

“If we go in there and people say that person is unavailable, or if someone has no ID, we could fine the building owner,” he said

Elected officials having a DSA rave at Glendale niteclub

 

 

Nowadays, Queens's infamous superfund site adjacent nite club, is holding an event with our favorite infamous fauxgressive and agency captured lawmakers (and future ones too) tonight. Should be a really fun show considering the "headliner" Emily Gallagher. Maybe some folks can ask her about her ally's, who happens to be on her district's community board, vitriolic bigoted rage against immigrant Polish home owners.

The rents are too damn higher by train stations

 

Queens Post 

 The rental market has bounced back—with apartments located within a half mile of a subway station coming back with vigor.

The real estate firm RentHop released a report earlier this week that found that the median rent paid for a 1-bedroom apartment has jumped significantly for those located near subway stations.

The report, which focused solely on 1-bedroom apartments, revealed that the jump was particularly noticeable by major station hubs and near stations where there has been an increase in luxury housing development.

For instance, the median rent paid for a 1-bedroom unit by the Queensboro Plaza station during the first quarter (Jan. 1—March 31) was $3,390, up 28 percent from the first quarter of 2021. The median rent paid for a 1-bedroom unit near the 36^th Street station (E-M-R) during the first quarter was $2,658, up 29 percent from first quarter 2021.

The proximity of the stations to two new developments played a role in driving up prices, according to the report. The stations are near Sven, a 71-story tower located at 29-59 Northern Blvd, and Rise LIC, a 10-story building at 29-17 40th Ave.

The report noted that across the city rents have “skyrocketed at major subway stops,” with pandemic concessions vanishing and gross rents soaring. For instance, at the 72^nd Street in Manhattan the median rent paid for a one-bedroom is up 30 percent year-over-year, to $3,495 during the first quarter.

“When the pandemic first hit New York City, residents fled in droves,” the report says. “Two years into the pandemic, many have returned to the city [and] rental prices have recovered well beyond the pre-pandemic levels.”

RentHop released data showing the median amount paid for a 1 bedroom at each station, as well as the increase.

 

 

The stabilized rent is too damn higher

 

 

NY Post

A vote by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board on Thursday set the stage for what could be the biggest rent hikes in a decade for the Big Apple’s nearly 1 million rent-controlled apartments.

In a preliminary 5-4 vote, the board approved rent increases in the range of 2 to 4 percent for one-year leases and 4 to 6 percent for two-year leases.

If the board’s final vote falls within those ranges, they’d account for the largest hikes since 2013, when the board under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg approved 4 percent increases for one-year leases and 7.75 percent for two-year leases.

The range set was not as large as some tenant advocates feared or landlord groups were hoping for — after a board report estimated owners would need increases of up to 9 percent on two-year leases to make costs.

But the Legal Aid Society is still pushing for a “wholesale freeze” when the board makes its final vote next month, the group said in a statement.

“We condemn the Board for voting to increase rents on some of our most vulnerable neighbors, people from low-income communities of color, especially when New Yorkers are still reeling financially from the pandemic and the local unemployment rate remains one of the highest in the country,” said Adriene Holder, attorney-in-charge of the civil practice.

 

Another woman murdered in her house in Queens

 

QNS

 

A woman was shot and killed inside an Ozone Park home on Wednesday afternoon.

Police from the 106th Precinct in Ozone Park answered a 911 call regarding the shooting at 94-59 109th Ave., one block east of Cross Bay Boulevard just before 2:30 p.m. on May 4. Upon their arrival, officers discovered the woman inside the two-story brick home unconscious and unresponsive with a single gunshot wound to her head, an NYPD spokesman said.

 The NYPD released surveillance images of the man who was wearing a light-colored hooded jacket, a dark baseball cap, white pants and dark sneakers.

Update: Suspect turns himself in.

NY Post

The mother of an NYPD officer was fatally shot at her Queens home on Wednesday afternoon after answering her door – and her alleged killer surrendered to police about an hour later, authorities said.

Anna Torres, 51, was shot twice, including in the head, by a gunman who drew her to the door of her two-story single-family home at 94-59 109th Ave. in Ozone Park at about 2:30 p.m., cops said.

Torres was pronounced dead on scene. Two of her relatives were inside the home at the time of the fatal shooting, NYPD Deputy Chief Jerry O’Sullivan said at a Wednesday night press conference.

 The suspect in Torres’ death, Giuseppe Canzani, 41, fled the scene after the shooting in black Chevy Traverse.

Shortly before 3:30 p.m.,Canzani pulled up to the 106th Precinct in the same vehicle before exiting and placing a .45-caliber silver firearm on the sidewalk, O’Sullivan said.

Eric Ulrich is commissioner of the Department of Buildings

 

NY Post

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday named an ex-City Councilman as his Buildings Commissioner and an ally of disgraced state lawmaker Hiram Monserrate to be the Big Apple’s next sheriff.

The two appointments came as Hizzoner traveled to California for a technology-related conference.

The new buildings chief, Eric Ulrich, was first elected to represent Queens at City Hall in a February 2009 special election and departed last year under the term limits law.

Adams initially hired him in January as a senior adviser, where he helped vet candidates for other key positions in the administration.

 

99 and a half will do and more

NY Post 

It’s good to be the Mayor!

Eric Adams’ office made out the best among the Big Apple’s more than two dozen major city agencies, scoring a 25 percent bump in his recently unveiled $99.7 billion city budget proposal, a Post analysis found.

Adams has requested $204 million for his 1,400-strong executive operation, up from the $163 million de Blasio allotted to his office during his final year running the city.

“One of the easy criticisms of the de Blasio administration was growing the Mayor’s Office budget,” said Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). “Everyone can see litter in the street and understand the need for more sanitation workers, so what’s the plainly obvious reason for this?”

Most of the $41 million boost is dedicated to a major expansion of the division of the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, which reviews spending agreements and tracks vendor performance.

Adams’ budget would increase MOCS’s budget from $26.5 million to $59 million and add another 47 employees, expanding its headcount from 197 to 244 employees.

Kathy Clown racial profiles new LG pick

 

NY Post 

Hours after signing a bill that she lobbied Albany Democrats to pass — legislation allowing her to boot her indicted running mate Brian Benjamin from the primary ballot — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced his replacement, Rep. Antonio Delgado, as New York’s next lieutenant governor. 

Hochul acknowledged Delgado’s selection was preceded by a “difficult couple of weeks” as she introduced the Democratic lawmaker at a press conference as her new No. 2 — a choice that will remove the Schenectady native from a competitive swing district House race as Democrats try to hold onto their razor-thin congressional majority in the midterm elections. 

“I believe that New Yorkers deserve a government that is fully staffed, fully functioning and fully committed to delivering for New Yorkers,” she told reporters in Albany, alluding to Benjamin’s recent resignation. “They deserve a government to work around the clock relentlessly to deliver results. They deserve a government that is laser focused on leading New York’s next great comeback and building a brighter, better future, a more equitable future for every New Yorker.”

“To do that, I need someone by my side who I can rely on for wisdom, guidance and advice,” the governor added. “I’m really proud to say I found that person.”

“I know we got it right,” Hochul said of the second time she has chosen a lieutenant governor, following the “rushed” vetting process that ended in her missing previously reported red flags on Benjamin. 

City contractor insurance company stiffs homeowners following reckless infrastructure repairs

 

QNS

After a major construction project along 74th Street and Penelope Avenue in Middle Village damaged multiple people’s property, local residents are calling on the city to look into why some homeowners were compensated and others were not. 

Construction began in 2016 to improve stormwater drainage and upgrade the city’s infrastructure system. The $32 million project, contracted by CAC Industries Inc., consisted of replacing the water main, reconstructing sewers, installing catch basins, manholes, sidewalks, roadways and more.  

The liability insurer for CAC Industries, Travelers, settled 11 claims from homeowners concerned about property damage after construction ended in 2020. However, an additional 13 claims were denied, leaving homeowners with thousands of dollars in damages that many cannot afford. 

Councilman Robert Holden got involved and sent a letter to the Department of Design and Constriction (NYC DDC), which previously oversaw the construction, to ask them to audit the project.

“My constituents deserve more transparency and an understanding as to what evidence was used in denying or approving the claims of homeowners,” Holden said. “Auditing the 74th Street sewer project will not only be useful to the homeowners who suffered property damage but will also help ensure future projects are conducted more responsibly.”

A DDC spokesperson told QNS that they plan to respond to Holden’s letter after reviewing the project and subsequent claims. 

One resident, Danny O’Neill, was previously compensated for damage to his water heater but denied payment for cracks sustained to the front stoop and his home’s foundation.

“There was massive machinery here every day, pounding the ground over and over again. Our houses were rattling and shaking,” O’Neill said. 

After incessant pounding, O’Neills water heater burst. CAC Industries took responsibility and O’Neill was compensated $1,000 for a new water heater. However, O’Neill’s damaged front stoop, only a few feet away from the construction, was not covered.

De Facto borough tower jail

THE CITY 

One Saturday last May, an elderly man stood on the sidewalk outside a Maspeth Federal Savings Bank branch on a quiet block in Fresh Meadows, Queens, when a stranger walked up to him and punched him square in the face.

This kind of unfortunate incident happens occasionally on the streets of New York City, but in this case an important detail had broader implications: the man arrested and charged with assault gave the police his address as 61-27 186th St., a hotel around the corner from the bank.

That hotel houses inmates released from Rikers Island and state prisons, as it has since the start of the pandemic as part of the city’s effort to curb the spread of the virus. The arrestee was one of those former inmates.

And he was not the only one. Last year, 42 individuals arrested for a wide variety of crimes gave 61-27 186th St. as their address, according to a search of NYPD records performed by Deputy Inspector Kevin Chan, commanding officer of the 107th Precinct where the hotel is located.

Alleged crimes committed by individuals listed at the 186th St. address included robbery, burglary, grand larceny, petit larceny and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the NYPD.

“Forty-two is a large number of people who used that address,” Chan told THE CITY. “It’s one location. They’re former inmates. They have been arrested before. I don’t want to assume that everyone who’s been arrested before gets arrested again, but it does happen that in some cases they continue committing the same crimes.”

Residents report an uptick in crime in the area, and a CVS behind the hotel has been hit repeatedly by shoplifters in the last year. Prior to that, the store experienced only occasional theft, workers say.

 

Another cold blooded murder in Forest Hills

NY Post

A hard-working Chinese food delivery man was shot and killed while on the clock in Queens Saturday night — and now cops are probing whether the gunman is a disgruntled customer who had “multiple disputes” with the restaurant over his orders, sources told The Post.

Zhiwen Yan, 45, was on his scooter and making a delivery near 108th Street and 67th Drive in Forest Hills around 9:30 p.m. when he was blasted once in the chest and mortally wounded, police said on Sunday.

Sources said cops are now eying a 50-year-old customer who has an ongoing beef with staff at Great Wall on Queens Boulevard, allegedly menacing them with a gun in January and twice vandalizing their vehicles.

One witness told police the angry customer drove off from the Forest Hills restaurant in an older model Lexus RX3 SUV after one encounter — the same type of vehicle spotted fleeing the scene of Saturday’s shooting, the sources said.

One less friend at the QNS

 

 Queens Ledger

Former New York City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has stepped down from her position as chairperson of the board of Friends of the QNS, a nonprofit organization that she founded to advocate for expanded commuter rail-based transit across the borough.

Crowley said her decision to step down was made in order to focus fully on her candidacy for New York State Senate District 17.

“It has been an honor to serve as the chair of Friends of the QNS,” Crowley said.

The “QNS” proposal was introduced by Crowley to improve transit within her former Council district. Specifically, the plan sought to revive the former Lower Montauk rail line, which stretches nine miles from Hunters Point in Long Island City, through central Queens neighborhoods including Middle Village, Glendale, and Ridgewood, to the Jamaica hub.

This portion of central Queens is commonly referred to as one of the City’s “transit deserts,” since no passenger rail currently serves many of these neighborhoods.

In a 2018 report from the Department of Transportation, it was confirmed that the defunct rail line could be converted to include passenger service at a fraction of the cost of other major expansion projects like Manhattan’s 2nd Avenue Subway.

The New York State Senate district seat that Crowley is currently running for would include a vast majority of the former Lower Montauk Line within its boundaries. It was recently created by state lawmakers following the 2020 Census and will include Glendale, Maspeth, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood, Woodhaven, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Ozone Park, and Greenpoint in Brooklyn within its boundaries.

But while Crowley is stepping down from her position as the board’s chair, she said she vows to continue to advocate not only for the QNS rail but for a greenway along the QNS line, if elected.

“Queens has been growing at a tremendous pace, especially Long Island City,” Crowley said. “For this borough to keep up with its growth, we need to provide better transit to our residents. It’s not ambitious, it’s common sense.”

This proposal to restore the former commuter rail is similar to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 14-mile IBX plan, which seeks to add a train line from Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to Woodside, Queens.

Both use existing, underused train rights-of-way, converting them to passenger service from strictly freight service.

Crowley also indicated that she would work to include a dedicated bike lane running parallel to QNS, because “an intolerable” number of bicycle accidents and fatalities have been occurring in recent years.

“If we want people to use alternative transportation, we want them to feel safe as they do so. A slightly revised QNS ‘rail and trail’ plan would help that goal,” Crowley said.

Fake doctors have been making vaccination advisories at the Department of Health

How the left is losing me 

Toggling seamlessly between bikini and lab coat, Dr. Risa Hoshino’s Instagram persona embodied the millennial feminist: a pediatrician treating covid patients on the front lines who could still show off her body and build her profile as a lifestyle influencer. A vaccine advocate who collaborates with nationally renowned physicians, yet also finds time to talk about her favorite lipstick stain. A physician who manages to create science-education content for free in her downtime, then complains about being so underpaid and overworked that she asks her followers to contribute $5 each to her personal “coffee fund” (hundreds of her followers obliged).

After Dr. Hoshino unsurprisingly grew her Instagram to 113,000 followers in a year-and-a-half, Medical Marketing + Media  dubbed her one of “The top 12 physician influencers” on that platform.  Beckers HR called her a "top 10 physician influencer" and The Scientist lauded her as "a veteran of using social media to debunk scientific falsehoods.”

The only problem? She crafted her entire “covid health hero” persona on half-truths and exaggerations.

If you’ve been active on social media during the pandemic era, you may have noticed doctors and public health experts rising from obscurity and swiftly developing large followings.  Posting prolifically about masks, vaccines, and other covid-19 mitigation measures, these physicians and scientists flaunt their credentials including the prestigious institutions where they studied, establishing their credibility and, in turn, their respective brands as serious authoritative voices. A posed profile photo in a white lab coat (stethoscope optional) often helps add a final veneer of gravitas.

These doctors, who mark themselves with hashtags such as #medtwitter or #tweetiatrician, almost exclusively push a narrative emphasizing the dangers of Covid-19 infection, even among children who are statistically at very low risk.  At the same time, their social media posts minimize any potential harms or side effects from either non-pharmaceutical interventions – such school closures or masking toddlers –  or vaccines.  

A corporate media invested in promoting a government public health narrative plagued by inconsistent messaging, combined with an ever-growing reliance on smartphones and other devices, created a perfect environment for these social media medical personalities to thrive.

Enter the Instagram Doctor, MD:  Youthful, often conventionally attractive, always prepared to answer your questions. Their social media feeds burst with the concise messaging and advice laypeople craved throughout the pandemic, presented in simple terms with colorful infographics, catchy taglines, and viral hashtags.

Dr. Hoshino is a typical case. Hoshino had been building her brand since mid 2020, focusing primarily on Instagram until March 2022, when Twitter began aggressively promoting her tweets such as the one shown below.  She describes herself in her Twitter bio as a board-certified pediatrician in Public Health and “vaccine expert.” Her posts depict a stylish young physician, exhausted from heroic work treating covid patients on the front lines.

 

Department of Transportation Alternatives only give two open streets to east Brooklyn nabes

 

Patch 

  A new Open Street on its way to the Brownsville Community Justice Center is so far the only car-free street this year in Brownsville and East New York, according to 2022 locations unveiled by the city.

The Open Street — which will close traffic on a Watkins Avenue block in the summer — is the only spot in the two neighborhoods on a list of 150 locations across the city that will take part in the program, which started in the pandemic as a way to give more room for pedestrians, cyclists and outdoor activities.

Brownsville and East New York previously had at least four Open Streets on Blake, Livonia, Williams and Stanley avenues, though studies showed that they were rarely active, likely given the lack of a designated organization to keep them up and running.

Transportation officials did not answer questions from Patch specifically about why the previous Brownsville and East New York Open Streets were not returning, but did say that several former locations were not on the 2022 list because "community partners" who had run the sites did not reapply.

The Open Streets program accepts applications for sites on a rolling basis, meaning more locations could be added as the year goes on, a spokesperson said. The city is working with nonprofit Street Lab to find partners in neighborhoods that have not had Open Streets yet and will offer help to those that join the program.

The city gives $20,000 in funding and a package of barriers, locks and other materials to each nonprofit running an Open Street, according to the department. (Even with the funding, many Open Street organizers have had to set up fundraisers to bring in the thousands of additional dollars needed to run the Open Streets each year).

"Since summer 2021, DOT has been providing full barrier operational support, sanitation, and horticultural maintenance at over 20 Open Streets across the city," the department said. "This precious resource is already being deployed in underserved communities and DOT plans to continue to grow this type of support, which will enable the agency to have a more equitable Open Streets program."

The DOT added that it helped provide local nonprofits and organizations with funding for metal barriers, traffic signs, programming, and movable furniture. The exact hours for each uptown Open Street are not yet set.

"On Earth Day and every day, we are showing the nation how to reimagine our public space at scale and build a greener, healthier, and safer city," New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a news release. "My administration's commitment to the Open Streets program remains steadfast."

 And 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights has 25 blocks of D.O.T. support 24/7/365 and is run by a top member of Transportation Alternatives.