The Last Picture Show

Queens Chronicle 

Showcase Cinemas, a global chain that manages movie theaters across the country, has told the Chronicle via email that Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas will cease operations on Tuesday, April 30, about two months earlier than what has been reported over the past few weeks.

“Members of our Starpass loyalty program will receive a special offer as a way to thank them for their many years of movie-going at Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas,” said a marketing and partnerships representative of the chain. “Showcase Cinemas remains deeply committed to our theatrical exhibition business and we look forward to continuing to provide a superior movie-going experience at our U.S. cinema locations.”

When asked why the multiplex, located at 159-02 Jamaica Ave., is closing, the representative said the move follows a failure to come to terms with the landlord on a new lease agreement.

Michael Mattone, CEO of Mattone Investors, LLC, the owner of the building that houses the movie theater, told the Chronicle there was no dispute with Showcase Cinemas.

“Their lease terms came to an end,” Mattone said. “They were there for 20 years and then we gave them an extension. That extension basically expired and they decided not to seek an additional term.”

When asked about the April 30 end date, Mattone said he had been told it was June.

“That’s news to me,” said Mattone, who opened up a JD Sports next door to the multiplex two weeks ago.

As for whether he will work with a different movie chain or replace the business with a retailer, the CEO said he has a couple of things in the works.

“I am not at liberty to get into the details on those just yet,” Mattone said. “Those range from maintaining it as a theater to change of use ... [Details] coming soon to a theater near you.”

Several people were shocked and dismayed on Monday to learn that Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas will be closing.

The move comes on the heels of Brooklyn’s Linden Boulevard Multiplex Cinemas’ closure on Jan. 2 and the announcement that College Point Multiplex Cinemas will close May 7 and eventually be replaced by a logistics center.

According to multiple reports, Showcase Cinemas, owned by National Amusements, which owns all three theaters, has been shuttering movie houses across the country due to the rise of streaming, low foot traffic since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and expiring lease agreements.

“I think another theater would be good,” passerby Javonte Wooten said when asked by the Chronicle if there should be a new business or another moviehouse. “I actually live near where the Linden Boulevard theater just closed. Those are staples in our community.”

 

Caption the congestion pricing stooges

Top official for Mayor Adams crashed at hotel shelter housing ex-cons that donated money to his re-election

 

THE CITY 

 

Three contributors to Mayor Eric Adams’ 2025 re-election campaign recounted in interviews in the past month how they — and in two cases their spouses — were reimbursed for a total of more than $10,000 in donations by hotel and construction executives in violation of state law.

The interviews came during a joint investigation by THE CITY, Documented, and The Guardian US into the presence in the mayor’s current campaign of illegal “straw” donations — contributions paid for by undisclosed sources in a way that masks their identity. Suspicions of such donations spurred the indictment by the Manhattan district attorney of a fundraising group involved in Adams’ 2021 race, which has led to two guilty pleas, and are part of an ongoing federal investigation into whether they’ve been used to veil illegal donations from the Turkish government.

A representative of the mayor’s campaign has decried the use of straw donations generally and said that if any were made to Adams 2025, they had eluded a vetting procedure designed to flag illegal gifts. 

Three of the five reimbursements were linked to the owners of a hotel in Fresh Meadows, Queens, where the mayor’s director of Asian Affairs, Winnie Greco, lived for a number of months in late 2022 and the early part of 2023 — even as the site was operating under a city government subcontract as a shelter for formerly incarcerated individuals.

City Hall spokesperson Charles Lutvak said Greco stayed at the hotel “for parts of late 2022 and 2023, as she recovered from a medical procedure” and that she paid for the room out of her own pocket. He didn’t address how much she paid or why, out of all the alternatives, she recuperated at a shelter funded by city dollars.  

MTA's FUBAR bus routes gets excoriated at community board hearing

 

City Council kills the Mayor's veto of how many stops bill

NY Post

NYPD cops will be forced to report on even their most minor interactions with the public after the City Council on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of the “How Many Stops Act’’ — which he and other critics argued would threaten public safety.

Adams, who fought the bill tooth and nail in recent weeks, failed to sway the two council members he needed to beat the override — which passed in a bruising 42-9 vote.

The Democrat-led council also voted to override Adams’ veto of another bill banning solitary confinement in Big Apple jails.

“These bills will make New Yorkers less safe on the streets, while police officers are forced to fill out additional paperwork rather than focus on helping New Yorkers and strengthening community bonds,” Adams said in a statement after the vote.

“Additionally, it will make staff in our jails and those in our custody less safe by impairing our ability to hold those who commit violent acts accountable.”

Under the NYPD bill, officers will have to record the “apparent” race, gender and age of nearly every person they question — even someone who could just be a potential witness to a crime, or other of the lowest-level encounters.

Adams, a former NYPD captain, and police advocates had been adamant that the bill would bog cops down in a sea of unnecessary paperwork and slow down investigations.

“Today’s override is one more step toward the city council goal: Destroy the world’s best police

department,” NYPD Detectives Endowment Association president Paul DiGiacomo said.

“Thanks to the politicians, the divide between the police and citizens will grow. And so will retirements of our best, most experienced detectives. Heartbreaking.”