Sept. 24, 2020 By Allie Griffin The Queens Memory Project, an ongoing community archiving program supported by the Queens Public Library and Queens College Library, will celebrate its 10-year anniversary next week with a Facebook Live event. The project, in which volunteers record interviews with Queens residents, has collected more than 600 oral histories of… Read more »
Sept. 23, 2020 By Allie Griffin More than 9,000 city employees will be furloughed as the city faces a major budget deficit spurred by the coronavirus shutdown, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today. Thousands of managerial and non-union city employees must take five days of furlough between October and March, which will save the city… Read more »
Sept. 23, 2020 By Allie Griffin A motorcyclist is dead after blowing a red light and hitting a pedestrian in the crosswalk at a Middle Village intersection on Saturday. Daniel Fernandez Torres, 27, of Maspeth, ran through a red light on his motorcycle and struck a 43-year-old woman who was crossing the street at the… Read more »
Sept. 23, 2020 By Allie Griffin Parents with children in western Queens public schools are less likely to keep their kids at home to learn remotely than the rest of the city. The percentage of students in western Queens school districts learning remotely is significantly lower than the rest of the city, according to… Read more »
Sept. 22, 2020 By Allie Griffin The Bed Bath & Beyond in Flushing will close by the end of the year along with more than 60 other locations across the country as the company restructures after COVID-19 delivered a blow to the business. The Flushing store inside the Shops at Skyview mall, located at 40-24… Read more »
Sept 22, 2020 By Allie Griffin A Bronx man was indicted on murder charges in Queens Supreme Court Monday for a hit-and-run box truck crash that killed a new father in Middle Village this summer. Ramon Pena, 37, was indicted by a Queens grand jury on a slew of charges stemming from the July 30… Read more »
Sept. 18, 2020 By Allie Griffin Community compost and food scraps drop-off sites are back up and running in Queens after the sites were shuttered for months due to pandemic-related budget cuts. The sites were reopened after the city’s executive budget restored $2.8 million to community composting for Fiscal Year 2021 last minute, the Department… Read more »
Sept. 17, 2020 By Allie Griffin The City Council passed a bill Wednesday that will require the city to explore the use of drones for building facade inspections. The bill, co-sponsored by Northeast Queens Council Member Paul Vallone, will require the Department of Buildings (DOB) to study the safety and feasibility of using drones to… Read more »
Sept. 17, 2020 By Allie Griffin The start of in-person classes at the city’s public schools has been delayed yet again for the majority of students. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the reopening of most school buildings will be pushed back further — on a rolling basis — just four days before they were… Read more »
Sept. 16, 2020 By Allie Griffin Council Member Robert Holden has secured funding to keep the commercial corridors of Ridgewood clean and litter-free. Holden has allocated discretionary funds toward a non-profit organization that is now in charge of keeping the sidewalks on select streets clean seven days a week. The non-profit employs homeless New Yorkers… Read more »