During a two-day public hearing on the mayor’s 2024 preliminary budget, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. listened to testimonies from 14 community board representatives, community stakeholders and members of the public on where the money should be spent in Queens. 

The public hearings were held both in-person and via Zoom on Monday, Jan. 30, and Tuesday, Jan. 31, at Queens Borough Hall. The testimonials will be used to develop the Queens Borough Board’s FY24 preliminary budget priorities in the coming weeks. 

Police from the 104th Precinct and Transit District 33 are looking for a suspect in a public lewdness investigation for an incident on an M train at the Seneca Avenue station last month.

A 31-year-old woman was on board a Queens-bound M train on Sunday, Jan. 22, at around 9:20 p.m., when she was approached by the unknown man who proceeded to perform a lewd act in front of her, according to an NYPD spokesman, who could not provide any details about what the lewd act was.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards held a candlelight vigil for Tyre Nichols outside Queens Borough Hall Monday, Jan. 30 after Nichols’ death at the hands of police officers in Memphis, Tenn., made national headlines for the brutality in which the officers beat him.

Almost immediately after news broke about Nichols’ death, the Memphis police officers who beat him to death were fired and charged with murder. The police department released the body cam footage of the fatal beating on Jan. 27, but many people, including some at the vigil, have refused to watch it due to its extremely graphic nature.

In an effort to get more young people involved in civics, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards has created a new advisory panel known as the Youth and Young Adult Council to introduce the “youngest and fiercest” community advocates to both community service and organization.

Members of the advisory body will advocate concerns through means of community engagement by participating in one of two cohorts. The first will be made up of high school representatives between the ages of 13 and 17, while the second cohort will be comprised of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25.

More than 300 community members attended the historic inauguration of Assemblyman Steven Raga as the first Filipino American elected to office in New York state.

Many who attended the swearing-in event at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park wore traditional and cultural attire to the event at the building that once housed the General Assembly of the newly formed United Nations from 1946 to 1950 until its current home in Manhattan became available for the world body.

Jan. 24, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

Council Member Robert Holden, who represents the Queens neighborhoods of Ridgewood and Glendale, says that electric scooters and electric bikes are putting New Yorkers in danger and has introduced legislation that would ban them until they can be properly policed.

Illegal parking, blocked driveways and abandoned vehicles are some of the more common issues at almost every community-driven meeting. The Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village and Glendale communities know all too well that these issues constantly plague their quality of life. 

The 104th Precinct recently shared several posts on Twitter involving the confiscation of illegal motorbikes and the towing of multiple abandoned vehicles. The efforts to thwart these recurring quality-of-life issues increased over the last two months, at the same time Deputy Inspector Kevin Coleman, the commanding officer of the 104, took over.

Ridgewood Garden Associates Inc., a residential co-op based in Maspeth, is filing a lawsuit against the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) and Lyft for their alleged lack of negotiation on alternative locations for the installation of Citi Bike stations near their property.

According to Ridgewood Garden Associates Inc.’s president of the board of directors, George Mandato, the organization sent a letter to Councilman Robert Holden in December 2022 requesting a discussion about alternative locations and dates for the DOT’s installation of the bike stations. However, they were unable to get the chance to do so.

Police from the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood and Transit District 33 are looking for a man who assaulted a woman on board an L train at the Myrtle Avenue and Wyckoff Avenue subway station last month.

The unprovoked attack occurred at around 1:30 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 30.

Jan. 18, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

A city council candidate, library workers and students held a rally in Sunnyside Tuesday protesting the mayor’s proposal to cut millions of dollars from the city’s library system.

A member of Queens Community Board 5 (CB 5) was removed from the board after making racist and anti-vaccine comments during last week’s board

During the Jan. 11 CB 5 meeting, former board member Richard Huber would make a statement in which he questioned the COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness. 

Queens elected officials are expressing outrage after swastikas were discovered in Forest Park on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 15.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force was notified after a 65-year-old man came across the two swastikas that were spray-painted on tree stumps inside the park in the vicinity of Park Lane South between Myrtle Avenue and Freedom Drive in Richmond Hill, within the confines of the 102nd Precinct.

Jan. 17, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

An Irish sports bar in the heart of Woodside has closed after a six-year run.

Jan. 16, 2023 By Bill Parry

When Mayor Eric Adams came to Flushing Meadows Corona Park in August to announce that Queens had been selected for the launch of the nation’s largest curbside composting program starting in October, the first time that an entire borough would receive the service, few could have imagined how wildly successful the program would be.

Jan. 13, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

A Maspeth woman was found fatally shot in the head inside her own home earlier this week — and police on Friday said they are now treating the case as a homicide.

Jan. 12, 2023 By Christian Murray

Cheese of the World, which has been located in Forest Hills for more than 65 years, is closing.

This article was originally published by The CITY on Jan. 11, 2023 By Jose Martinez

The MTA and City Hall are shifting into gear on ways to better connect bicycles and other green forms of transportation to the subways, buses and bridges.

Jan. 11, 2023 By Carlotta Mohamed

Queens Botanical Garden Executive Director Evie Hantzopoulos on Tuesday, Jan. 10, announced an $8 million donation from the Joan N. and Norman Bluestone Foundation, a charitable organization headquartered in Jamaica, that will help support the garden’s educational programs and activities.

Jan. 10, 2023 By Elijah Hamilton

Brooklyn-based electric mobility startup Revel on Jan. 9 announced that it would be developing and opening new high-volume electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Maspeth as a part of their citywide expansion.

Jan. 9, 2023 By Bill Parry

The NYPD is looking for a randy couple who performed a sex act at the back of a Q58 MTA bus last month that a 13-year-old girl inadvertently saw.

Jan. 8, 2023 By Carlotta Mohamed

About 450 Queens residents attended a public ‘visioning session’ hosted by Mets owner Steve Cohen at Citi Field on Saturday, Jan. 7, to share their ideas on future developments around the stadium’s ballpark.

Jan. 9, 2023 Staff Report

Schneps Media, publisher of over a dozen news websites and more than 80 print publications across New York City, Philadelphia and Florida, announced its acquisition of Queens Post — one of the leading local news operations serving Queens and Brooklyn.

Jan. 5, 2023 By Elijah Hamilton

Police from the NYPD’s 104th Precinct are searching for the suspect who is believed to be behind the burglary of a Ridgewood residence on Sunday, Jan. 1.

Jan. 4, 2023, By Carlotta Mohamed

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is currently accepting online applications from qualified and civic-minded individuals who are interested in serving on their local community board.

Jan. 3, 2023 By Christian Murray

The city’s annual Mulchfest is back for another year, giving residents a chance to dispose of their Christmas trees in an eco-friendly way.