Author: metanet

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) and Councilman Francisco Moya (D-East Elmhurst) are expected to join members of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Tuesday at the Corona branch of Queens Library of Three Kings Day.

The celebration will take place at 38-23 104 St. from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., according to Queens Library President Dennis Walcott.

More than 300 kids are expected to attend the festivity, which celebrates the Three Wise Men, also known as the Three Kings or Magi, library spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon said. The event is considered the conclusion of the winter holiday season in several countries around the world, especially in Latin communities.

According to 2016 data from censusreporter.org, Crowley and Francisco represent parts of Community District 3 (East Elmhurst, Corona, Jackson Heights), where Latinos comprised i66 percent of the population.

The event will have a story time, live music and presents for the children.

Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4573.

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

An 81-year-old man was fatally stuck by a car just blocks from his Dutch Kills home last week, police said.

Soliman Leano, who lived on 37th Avenue near 21st Street, was crossing 31st Street, when he was hit by a car traveling southbound on 31st Street across 37th Avenue around 9 p.m. Dec. 21, according to the NYPD.

The NYPD’s Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad determined the 34-year-old driver of a 2003 Chevrolet Suburban had a green light when he struck Leano, knocking him to the ground just south of the crosswalk. The operator then swerved left and struck a support column for the elevated Astoria line subway before coming to a stop, investigators said.

Police from the 114th Precinct, responding to a 911 call of a motor vehicle collision, discovered Leano with trauma to the head and torso. EMS responded to the scene and transported the victim to Cornell Hospital, where he was pronounced dead Friday, Dec. 22, police said.

The driver remained at the scene, police said. There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Zach Gewelb

TimesLedger Newspapers

Sports have always been a big part of Queens and 2017 has been no different. From tennis to baseball to some hoops, there have been plenty of big stories throughout the year.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit some of the top stories of the year.

Monsignor McClancy duo selected in MLB Draft

Two members of the Monsignor McClancy baseball team took a big step toward reaching their dreams.

Crusaders standouts Quentin Holmes and Charlie Neuweiler both heard their names called in this year’s MLB Draft in June as both were selected in the second and fifth rounds by the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals, respectively.

It was a historic moment for the program. Holmes became the earliest New York City selection in over two decades on the first day of the draft Monday night. Neuweiler’s phone call Tuesday put a cap on a season that was nothing short of dominant for the duo.

“It was just utter excitement,” Holmes said after the draft. “I couldn’t think of who to thank first. I had my close family and friends there with me and the first thing I could do is just jump for joy.”

Neuweiler was just as thrilled.

“We [were] going to have my family come over afterwards, just because I wasn’t sure how crazy it was going to get,” Neuweiler said. “I wasn’t really sure where I was going to end up. I’m not the guy who was going to be upset if I didn’t get picked today, but I didn’t want to have people over and have them feel like that. I just kind of wanted to wait for it to happen.”

It was a whirlwind of a spring for both Neuweiler and Holmes, who drew a small army of Major League scouts every time they suited up for the Crusaders.

On a related note…

McClancy outfielder ready for next step, signs with Cleveland Indians

Holmes made his pro-baseball decision rather quickly when he officially signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians.

He was quick to point out after the draft that he wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted to sign — he had committed to play college ball before his junior year — but also admitted the phone call from the Indians left him with a lot to consider.

Holmes’ straight-line speed was the highest of any prospect — high school or otherwise — and his ability to track down fly balls in the outfield or steal a base was unparalleled.

The highest New York City draft pick in over two decades, Holmes pairs his speed with a strong bat — he hit .411 with seven home runs and 33 RBI this year.

Holmes reported to the Single-A Arizona league, the first step in a career he hopes is successful. He saw a familiar face in that league in Neuweiler, who signed with the Royals after being selected in the fifth round.

“It’s definitely crazy and it’s amazing that we were both able to do something like that,” Holmes said. “It makes me really happy that Charlie was able to get drafted in that spot as well. It just shows how good a program McClancy is.”

Terriers back on top: St. Francis Prep tennis captures city title

The St. Francis boys’ tennis team defeated Iona Prep to clinch the program’s first CHSAA city championship in the last five seasons.

It’s the 10th time the Terriers have wrapped up the season with a title, but after a few years falling short, this one felt particularly special.

“We hadn’t won for five years and for us that was a long time,” Prep coach John Brennan said. “I was obviously very happy to win this. You have to have some players and you have to have the commitment. I’d always like more commitment and players, but we had just enough this season.”

Action: Cardozo’s Naclerio ready for his closeup

Ron Naclerio’s resumé is packed with games and victories and history. It now also includes something he never quite expected – an acting career.

The longtime Cardozo High School basketball coach made his on-air debut earlier this month, appearing in a NY Lottery commercial and an April 13 spot on the CBS drama “Bull.” Naclerio didn’t quite plan on having an acting career, but he’s already anxious to book a few more gigs. After all, he’s still got some space on that resumé.

“I got a phone call saying they liked the stuff I did,” Naclerio said of his stint on The Cash Court commercial. “It was great.”

Naclerio’s transition to TV started because of his basketball ties at ‘Dozo. One of his former players, Ryan Williams, has built a career as a basketball body double, working with Slam Dunk Bookings, LLC, and playing hoops or doing stunts when TV shows and movies need a bit of an athletic spark.

Williams spoke to his boss, Susan Torres, about the possibility of using Naclerio when bookings needed a coach. It it only took a few phone calls for Torres to realize he was the perfect man for the job.

“[Ryan] said, ‘I think you should maybe check out my coach from high school’,” said Torres, who owns Slam Dunk Bookings. “I called him, we talked a little bit, and I said ‘OK, you do have a personality and maybe I could start using you for print work, commercials, TV and film.’ ”

Those few phone conversations became a brand-new job, and Naclerio quickly found himself standing on an outdoor basketball court in Manhattan with money raining down on him.

Stanners sophomore sparks squad in Brooklyn-Queens title game

The top-seeded Archbishop Molloy boys’ hoops team cruised to an 80-67 victory over Bishop Loughlin in the BQCHSAA boys’ basketball championship game at the end of February.

Sophomore guard Cole Anthony finished with a game-high 32 points as he controlled the tempo from the opening tip.

“I was feeling pretty good during the game, I had my adrenaline pumping and everything just clicked,” Anthony said after the game.

The Stanners took a 10-point lead into the break and never felt particularly challenged against Loughlin.

Molloy led by as many as 19 points in the fourth quarter and cruised to victory.

Dreaming big: Bowne star makes PSAL history on wrestling mat

It was quite a season on the mats for John Bowne senior Brandon Nunez.

The 99-pound standout became the first PSAL wrestler to clinch a Division-I state championship, winning a 5-3 decision at the Times Union Center in Albany in March.

Nunez’s road to the state championship was far from easy. In fact, when he first arrived at Bowne, he often found himself practicing by himself – simply because there was no one else his size on the team.

“When I first started on the team, the lowest guy that was there was like 180 pounds,” Nunez said. “So I wasn’t practicing with anyone my weight or anything. I just had to catch on quick.”

Despite his less-than-traditional start, Nunez saw success immediately, placing fourth in New York City as a freshman. He earned a state championship berth as a sophomore and finished sixth upstate as a junior.

Still, he was far from satisfied. Nunez wanted a title and in his final season on the mat, it was championship or bust.

“It was all about having that gut check feeling,” he said. “I knew I placed sixth and I wanted to do even better this year. I knew I could place, but I was always gunning for first”

Nunez dominated throughout his senior year – taking a title at the Eastern States competition and compiling a perfect record during the regular season – and he couldn’t have asked for a better end to his high school career than his championship match.

There were several other big sports stories in Queens, but these were the best of the best. Now, we prepare to head to 2018, which promises to deliver more big moments.

Reach reporter Zach Gewelb by e-mail at zgewelb@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4539.

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Queens and the rest of the city are on track to have the lowest crime rate in more than half a century and the lowest prison population in 35 years.

At a news conference at One Police Plaza in early December, the mayor and the police commissioner touted the sharp drop in felonies in 2017 and record lows in overall crime.

“We’ve seen the lowest number of index crimes here since the ‘50s and we’re – with informed, engaged, and empowered communities — we’re going to keep pushing those numbers down even further,” Commissioner James O’Neill vowed.

As of Sunday, the number of murders in Queens South totaled 37, up 12 percent from 33 the year before and went down by 7.1 percent in Queens North to 13 from 14, according to the latest NYPD data. The total number of homicides for the city as a whole reached 284 as of Dec. 24, down nearly 14 percent from 329 during the same span last year.

“Overall crime [is] down over 7 percent [and] almost 8 percent compared to last year,” Mayor de Blasio told the December news briefing before the latest numbers were in.

Crime is so low that as of Wednesday the prison population had fallen below 9,000 to 8,783.

“We’ve been carrying out a multi-pronged effort over the course of my first term to shrink our jail population, and today we see the results: a jail population lower than it’s been in 35 years,” said de Blasio.

In Queens South, which covers the 100, 101st, 102nd 103rd, 106th, 107th, 113th and 105th precincts, there was a 7.4 percent decline in robberies from 1,524 to 1,411 compared to early December of last year, according to CompStat. There was a 4.2 percent drop in felony assaults from 2,163 to 2,072, and a 14.8 percent decline in burglaries from 1,472 to 1,254. Grand larcenies declined by 5.9 percent from 3,314 to 3,118.

Queens North saw a 2.6 percent decline in robberies, bringing that to 1,327 from 1,363. Felony assaults dropped by 2.5 percent to 1,607 from 1,649. Burglaries declined by 10.5 percent from 1,706 to 1,527. Grand larcenies fell 10.2 percent from 4,911 to 4,409.

Queens North includes the 104, 112, 108, 109, 110, 111, 114, and 115 precincts.

Throughout the press conference Mayor de Blasio questioned police officials about specific headline-grabbing crimes that took place over the year.

Two Queens incidents that sprung up in the conversation were human trafficking and a disastrous fender bender, which became lethal.

During a vice sting, which police treated as a human trafficking rescue, a suspected Chinese prostitute named Yang Song, who allegedly approached an undercover officer to perform a sex act in exchange for money, jumped to her death while trying to evade arrest on Nov. 26, according to the NYPD. The Downtown Flushing operation was at the Tian Cheng Spa, located at 135-32nd Road.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said he would address the issue of human trafficking in northern Queens by working with the Federal Bureau of Investigations in a joint task force and reorganize the Vice Squad to focus on more crimes of that nature.

“We’re identifying locations throughout the city,” Boyce said. “We have Asian human trafficking, we have Central American [and] we also have gang members who are doing it as well.”

Song’s family and advocates from the Sex Workers Project took issue with the NYPD’s version of events and held a rally to get justice for her on Dec. 17, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Song’s mother, who flew in from China to attend the rally, told protesters she believed police were responsible for her daughter’s death. She said a plainclothes officer from the 109th Precinct had recently harassed her, but while at the precinct to point him out, her daughter was instead approached to be an informant, which she declined to do.

Another major incident that was brought up was a Richmond Hill parking dispute, which led to a Far Rockaway man being arrested for allegedly killing his friend and injuring five others in what started out as a fender bender, according to investigators.

Adrien Harry, 22, was charged with murder, attempted assault, assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon after he allegedly bumped his car into a BMW, got into a fist fight with the other driver and then jumped into his Hyundai to ram into the operator and those helping him.

Not only did he allegedly injure the other operator and bystanders, but he killed his friend Richardo Chattergoon, 23, in the process in front of the XS Hookah Lounge at 127-10 Liberty Ave on Dec. 10.

One of the factors in bringing down crime across the city was the Neighborhood Coordination Officer programming, according to O’Neill. He said Chief of Department Carlos Gomez, the highest ranked Hispanic officer in the NYPD, was the brainchild of the program and thanked him for his years of service. Gomez will retire at the end of December.

The NCO program was an initiative that was started four years ago to encourage residents and community leaders to work with local precincts in their area to bring down crime, according to the mayor.

“Increasingly, it’s the good who are strengthening their relationships with the NCOs – neighborhood coordination officers,” O’Neill said. “People are calling 9-1-1 or waving down police cars when they want to report something. They’re calling or texting their NCOs on their cell phones when something isn’t right.”

Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com.

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Source: Times Ledger

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Queens went to the barricades in 2017, protesting threats to women’s rights, President Trump’s travel ban on Muslims and the borough’s breakaway Democrats who have allied themselves with the Republicans in Albany.

It wasn’t exactly a revival of the Sixties, but Queens found its voice as residents spoke out about what they feared were Washington’s plans to deny fair play to women and immigrants.

On Jan. 21,thousands of Queens women crossed into Manhattan to join the 400,000 protesters who put on their pussy hats to send a message to Trump that they would fight any administration effort to curb reproductive rights or diminish their civil liberties.

But six days later Trump signed an executive order temporarily barring immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations. The move sent volunteer lawyers racing to Terminal 4 at Kennedy airport, where a number of travelers were detained. Many of the borough’s outraged lawmakers rushed to the airport to support the hastily assembled legal teams as thousands of protesters gathered outside.

The Trump action hit a raw nerve in Queens, where nearly half the population is foreign-born.

Several federal judges temporarily blocked the order, but the battle lines were drawn and as the year went on Queens faced ICE incursions in courtrooms, along the No. 7 subway line and a failed attempt to enter one elementary school. Mayor Bill de Blasio stood firm behind New York as a sanctuary city and the protections for most Queens residents held, although there were a number of deportations.

The borough’s Dreamers – undocumented residents brought here as children – became bolder and publicly protested their vulnerable status as Trump weighed their future. In September Trump repealed the DACA program introduced by President Obama and left 800,000 Dreamers in limbo.

Some anti-immigrant sentiments were heard in the borough, but Queens residents were in full agreement on the MTA: Fix the subways. The Summer of Hell became the Fall and Winter of Hell as years of delayed maintenance ran head on into heavy ridership on the failing system.

Politics brought out some sharp elbows. State Sens. Tony Avella and Jose Peralta — the two Queens members of the renegade Independent Democratic Conference — faced protesters who berated them for collaborating with the Senate Republicans as Trump sat in the White House. Each is expected to face strong Democratic rivals in November.

The power of protest and engagement has fired up Queens, which is on high alert as the new year begins.

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By Gina Martinez

TimesLedger Newspapers

2017 was a year filled with notable Queens deaths, from politicians to entertainers to civic leaders.

In January Flushing-born philanthropist Max Kupferberg died at 97. Kupferberg and his family have been active in the Queens community, donating millions throughout the years to multiple causes and running their family business out of Flushing. Kupferberg and his twin brother Ken were born in 1919 to Romanian parents who came to the United States in 1903. Their father was a cabinetmaker and mother was a homemaker, He had six siblings in total. Max loved to give back to his hometown. He donated money and resources to Flushing Hospital and Medical Center, where he served as chairman of the board; the Queens Botanical Garden Society, the YMCA, Queens County Savings Bank, New York Community Bancorp, and many other organizations. In total Kupferberg supported over 40 local organizations

He and his wife Selma donated $10 million for programs, exhibitions and renovations at the former Colden Center at Queens College, which was renamed the Selma and Max Kupferberg Center for the Visual and Performing Arts in 2006. It includes the Colden Auditorium , the Godwin-Ternbach Museum The Arts Center and the Louis Armstrong House Museum and Archives.

In March Helen Marshall, who served as Queens borough president for 12 years after many nearly two decades as a Democratic lawmaker at the city and state levels, died in California at 87. Marshall was the first African-American borough president of Queens and the second woman to occupy the post in the most ethnically diverse county in the country.

Born in the Bronx on Sept. 30, 1929, she was educated at Queens College and taught until she became the first director of the Langston Hughes Library in Corona. She served as a state assemblywoman from 1983 until 1991, then ran for a seat in the City Council, where she served from 1992 to 2001. Marshall also directed the affairs of Queens County from Borough Hall for three consecutive terms from 2002 to 2014. She is survived by her two children, Donald Jr. and Agnes Marie. Her husband, Donald, died recently.

The entertainment industry was shocked in June when Queensbridge rapper Prodigy, one half of the famous rap group Mobb Deep, died in Las Vegas after a brief hospitalization. The 42-year-old rapper, whose real name was Albert Johnson, battled sickle cell anemia for years. He was in Las Vegas for a Mobb Deep performance at the time of his death.

Prodigy rose to fame in the early ’90s alongside rap partner Havoc. They released their first album, “Juvenile Hell,” in 1993, but reached success with their sophomore album “The Infamous,” which featured the hits “Shook Ones Pt. 2” and “Survival of the Fittest.”

The group became part of the hip-hop elite and collaborated with Wu-Tang Clan, 50 Cent and fellow Queensbridge rapper Nas throughout the years. In 2007, Prodigy was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm. He was released in 2011 from Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, N.Y. After a brief break-up, Mobb Deep reunited in 2014 to release their final album “The Infamous Mobb Deep.”

In September colleagues were saddened when state Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz (D-Flushing) died after battling an unidentified illness for years. Simanowitz, 45, had represented the 27th District, which covers College Point, Whitestone, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens Hills, Electchester, Pomonok, Briarwood, Kew Gardens, and Richmond Hill since 2011. Prior to being elected to the state office, he served as the chief of staff to Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn for 15 years until her retirement. Simanowitz is survived by his wife Jennifer, four children, his parents and his brothers Barry and Alan.

Simanowitz, a lifelong resident of Forest Hills, studied at Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe as a child. The assemblyman was a proud Orthodox Jew who often stood up for the Jewish community in the Assembly.

Simanowitz also served as a board member at the Yeshiva of Central Queens and contributed to the Queens Jewish Historical Society, the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives, Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills and the 107th Precinct Community Council.

The following week in September, Long Island City mourned when civic leader Theresa Adams died of heart failure at the age of 75. Adams grew up in the Hunters Point section of LIC in the Vernon Boulevard home of her grandfather. She became a dedicated volunteer working for the betterment of the evolving neighborhood after she retired from the U.S. Navy in the early 1980s, where she was an operations supervisor.

Adams worked tirelessly on housing and care for seniors and veterans, pushed for more schools and community space and advocated for the waterfront parks. Adams began campaigning for a public library for the neighborhood in the early ’90s and she watched joyfully as the new $40 million state-of-the-art Hunters Point Library began rising along the waterfront on Center Boulevard. The library is scheduled to open in 2019.

Adams is survived by her son, Brian, who also grew up in the Vernon Boulevard home.

Reach Gina Martinez by e-mail at gmartinez@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4566.

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