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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Jackson Heights resident Evelyn Gomez will celebrate her seventh anniversary of being free from breast cancer by running her fifth 5K marathon at Yankee Stadium April 15.

In 2010, she discovered a lump on her breast while she was pregnant with her first-born and three months after giving birth, she was officially diagnosed — after turning 37 — with Stage 2 triple negative breast cancer, which is a non-hormonal form of breast cancer, according to nationalbreastcancer.org.

Gomez worked full-time at a law firm while taking care of her son Aiden and fighting breast cancer.

She had chemotherapy, followed by a mastectomy and then radiation.

Out of fear of not keeping down her meals, she would bring two lunches to work to stay full.

“It’s hard to describe the feelings something like that brings out,” said Gomez about her experience.

Gomez credits her survival to a Canadian double-blind clinical trial consisting of the drug Metformin, which is an anti-Diabetic medication.

“I count my blessings everyday that I am a survivor,” Gomez said. “Especially considering the fact that the kind of breast cancer I was diagnosed with was very aggressive, with a high rate of recurrence. In addition to that was the fact that I was a first time mom.”

After beating cancer, Gomez looked into many charity events to help fund breast cancer research and stumbled upon a New York Yankees poster for The Damon Runyon Foundation 5K.

“Early on I was terrified every minute of the day that the cancer might come back. Now, I’m comfortable with the fear. It’s just a part of life. And doing things like the Damon Runyon 5K helps me feel like maybe I can turn some of that fear back at cancer,” said Gomez.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation funds cancer research and researchers and 100 percent of any proceeds to the foundation will go to cancer research, according to the organization.

Gomez, a Manhattan transplant who moved to Jackson Heights eight years ago, is also a huge Yankees fan, so running the 5K was a no-brainer.

To train for the 5K, she runs six months out of the year and gradually increases her distance around the two-acre Travers Park in Jackson Heights and her neighborhood.

“I compare raising money to help the bright young scientists that Damon Runyon funds to tying up my steel-toe combat boots and getting ready to kick some cancer butt. And every year, for as long as I can, I’ll keep lacing ‘em up.”

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

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Shortly after President Trump terminated the DACA program March 5, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent out a press release featuring video testimonials of the human faces of the Obama-era initiative, which included former Woodside resident Angie Kim.

Schneiderman as well as 17 attorneys general across the country are suing Trump to protect people like Kim, who are in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program from deportation. The so-called Dreamers were brought to the United States illegally as children.

“Immigrants are the backbone of this country,” said Kim in her testimonial. “We are Americans.”

Kim came to the United States in 1993 from South Korea when she was 9 years old because her father wanted to take care of her grandfather, a naturalized citizen who was paraplegic.

“My parents tried [to help us become citizens] before we even landed at JFK,” Kim said. “They went to a few unscrupulous lawyers, which is a very common story for immigrants.”

In Queens she met people from various backgrounds and although it took a while, her family eventually learned to speak English and later embraced the different cultures in her new community.

“Queens has a very vibrant and diverse immigrant community,” said Kim. “There was an adjustment period, but I was a happy child.”

By the time her family had a real application for them to become a citizen she was in her teens and her grandmother, who sponsored her family died in 2002, a year after they started the initial application process.

The death of Kim’s grandmother meant she was placed in a permanent backlog, which left her in limbo in terms of her status.

“It might take a certain amount of research and knowledge for the masses to understand, but the immigration system is broken,” said Kim. “The law is so outdated it doesn’t do justice to the migration flow we had in the last 20 to 30 years.”

Afterwards her parents divorced and her dad was remarried to a citizen, but when he filed for Kim and her younger brother in 2004, only her sibling was allowed to later become a citizen.

For a child to be sponsored by their parent they have to be under 21, according to Kim.

“It was just 10 days after my father started the application that I had turned 21,” Kim said. “He did not know there was an age cap for a secondary beneficiary.”

After her brother became a citizen he was able to sponsor their mother, but Kim remained an undocumented immigrant and went on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals five years ago.

Kim would later become a community engagement advocacy coordinator at the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium and has been fighting for immigrant rights ever since.

Although she knows the attorney general’s lawsuit is not a permanent solution, Kim is thankful that leaders like Schneiderman are fighting for her.

“It was just nice to have the support,” Kim said. “This is not an isolated issue. You are going to have less doctors, teachers, people serving you at restaurants and first responders. These are people you live and breathe with. What is happening is inhumane.”

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

The Queens District Attorney’s office is looking into the death of a dog on a LaGuardia Airport-bound United Airlines flight to see if animal cruelty charges are warranted.

Sophia Ceballos, an 11-year-old girl from Queens, was traveling with her mother and their French Bulldog named Kokito, when a flight attendant asked them to put their airline-approved pet carrier into an overhead compartment because it was blocking the aisle.

The mother, Catalina Robledo, told the attendant there was a dog in the carrier. Passenger Maggie Gremminger sat one row behind and began posting on Twitter.

“The passenger adamantly pushed back, sharing verbally that her dog was in the bag,” she tweeted. “The flight attendant continued to ask the passenger to do it and she eventually complied.”

Sometime during United Flight 1284 from Houston to New York, Kokito died.

“At the end of the flight, the woman found her dog — deceased.” Gremminger tweeted. “She sat in the airplane aisle on the floor crying, and all of surrounding passengers were utterly stunned.”

A spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said, “We are currently reviewing the facts to determine if there is a prosecutable case.”

United Airlines is accepting full responsibility calling the incident “a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin,” in a statement. The cause of the dog’s death was not immediately known, according to an United spokesman and the airline is investigating the incident and had reimbursed the family for the cost of their tickets as well as the $125 pet cabin fee.

“We have learned that the customer did tell the flight attendant that there was a dog in the carrier. However, our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin,” United said in a statement adding it would implement a new policy in April in which it will issue brightly colored tags to carriers transporting animals

United ranked first in animal deaths among American carriers last year with 18 animals killed and 13 injured, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Meanwhile, U.S. Senators John Kennedy (R-La.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) introduced bi-partisan legislation which calls on the Federal Aviation Administration to block airline from placing animals in overhead bins and impose fines for violation. The measure is called the Welfare of Our Furry Friends Act, known by the acronym WOOFF.

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

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By Councilman Rory I. Lancman

TimesLedger Newspapers

True police reform cannot be done with policies alone; it takes great police officers, too.

In recent years, New York City has implemented a neighborhood policing strategy that focuses on building trust and improving communication between police and the communities they serve.

Officers are no longer simply responding to the calls they receive. They are proactively meeting with community members, learning about specific precincts, and solving problems.

This significant shift in New York City policing required a shift in resources. The City needed to ensure that the police force had the right number of officers needed for community policing, and that those officers were properly trained. In 2015, the Mayor and the City Council agreed to provide funding needed to hire an additional 1,300 police officers.

The results to date have been extraordinary as crime in New York City in 2017 dropped to the lowest level ever recorded. We are all grateful for that.

However, as the City looks to build on the success of neighborhood policing, and push forward with other police reforms, we need to do more to ensure our officers are compensated fairly and want to stay with the NYPD long-term.

Today, there is a significant disparity in compensation between NYPD officers and officers working in other jurisdictions. The maximum salary today for NYPD officer, not including overtime, is $85,292, while the maximum salary for an average non-NYC officer is $100,004. That is nearly a $15,000 gap in maximum annual salary.

Worse yet, the pay disparity exists even among police departments operating within New York City. MTA officers can earn a maximum salary of $100,368; Port Authority officers can earn $100,359; and New York State troopers can earn $99,285. While officers may not join the force in the hopes of getting rich, they deserve to be paid fairly for their service.

Given the salary disparity that currently exists, it is no surprise that the number of officers resigning before they can retire with full benefits has increased by 225 percent from 2009 to 2017. In fact, the number of resignations has risen in each year of the de Blasio administration, and increased 100 percent from the last year of the Bloomberg administration.

I expressed my concerns about the pay disparity and rising number of resignations directly to Police Commissioner James O’Neill at the Public Safety Committee’s preliminary budget hearing. It is obviously not in the NYPD’s best interest to lose officers with experience and training to other city agencies or nearby jurisdictions like Nassau County. These are exactly the kinds of officers we want and need in the NYPD.

We do not know the full extent to which the salary disparity has led to these increased resignations, but we will soon find out. I have asked the Police Department to produce a summation of data from “Exit Forms,” which every departing officer is required to fill out, in order to see where officers are planning to work after leaving the Department.

If New York City wants to continue to have the best police force in the country, then we need to pay our officers in line with what officers working in other jurisdictions and city agencies are making. The path toward continued police reform depends on it.

Councilman Rory I. Lancman

Hillcrest

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By Mark Hallum

TimesLedger Newspapers

Developers at a site in Elmhurst may not be getting the zoning change they need for a 13-story housing complex and Target location if Community Board 4 and anti-gentrification groups have the final say.

The advisory board at Tuesday’s meeting voted against the variance to allow Sun Equity Partners and Heskel Group to build an additional three floors on the proposal site and asked that the city accept their recommendation to downzone the area to further prevent the development from happening.

More than 30 public speakers, including political hopefuls, filled the roster at the March 13 meeting and sitting space in Elmhurst Hospital’s auditorium was exhausted with activists from Queens Neighborhoods United filling the periphery with signs calling to protect their neighborhood from gentrification.

“We all know that communities change, this is New York City, after all. But we do have a unique opportunity here to set the tone for future developments. We are a community in crisis constantly on the verge of deportation, eviction and unemployment,” said Jessica Ramos, claiming the outlet stores moving into the area along Roosevelt Avenue have been hard enough on small businesses. “I want to thank the developers for investing in our neighborhood. We can all agree an empty lot wouldn’t be a good look… [but] we’ve seen how the Gap and Banana Republic… have made it hard for mom-and-pop shops to remain afloat. The Target to be built would exacerbate this issue.”

Ramos is a Democratic candidate running against state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst), who recently has fallen out of favor with some constituents after defecting to the Independent Democratic Conference in early 2017. Many audience members expressed dissatisfaction that Peralta who was in Albany and other elected officials, namely Councilman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights), did not attend the meeting.

“We have four crises in this community. We have an affordability crisis, we have an income inequality crisis, we have an immigrant security crisis and we have a homeless crisis in this city,” said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic congressional candidate challenging U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley. “This development hurts all of those things… These units are not affordable and we know that.”

Attorney Nora Martins, who represented Sun Equity, said under the current zoning the company would only be allowed to build up to 10 stories. But with the goal in mind for 90 rental units, attorneys for the developer were requesting permission from CB4 for a total of 13 floors.

About half the units, which have yet to be laid out in designs, would be studios rented at $1,375 per month, while two- and three-bedroom units would be suitable for families with an annual income of about $61,000.

The area median income of Elmhurst is at $44,000 per year, according to the attorney.

One resident during the public speaking portion of the meeting pointed out that nobody spoke in favor of the proposal while representatives from the developers were seen making snide remarks and gestures at the remarks being said.

The community board eventually voted nearly unanimously against the zoning change that would grant the extra building height with recommendation to lower the zoning to below the current height restriction.

Catalina Cruz, who also spoke at the Tuesday meeting, held a press conference earlier in the day calling on CB4 to vote against the proposal.

Cruz is a Democratic state Assembly candidate and attorney running in the special election for the seat vacated by Moya when he won the City Council seat left open by Julissa Ferreras-Copeland when she declined to run again.

“The proposed development for 40-31 82nd St. by Sun Equity Partners and Heskel Group is reckless and unsafe,” Cruz said at the press conference. “Seeking a zoning change to bring a massive 13-story, 120-unit building into the heart of the Elmhurst-Jackson Heights community demonstrates a lack of understanding of our neighborhoods, its needs, and what makes them special. I urge Community Board 4 to reject this proposed rezoning.”

Cruz also served as Ferreras-Copeland’s chief-of-staff.

Many signs and remarks made at the CB4 meeting looked back reminiscently at the movie theater that used to occupy the space.

Jorge Cabanillas said his family moved to Elmhurst 30 years ago and while they have been driven from the neighborhood by rising prices, he remembered the movie theater as one of the few that offered Spanish subtitles, a place he could go with his parents who were not fluent in English.

(The updated version of this story clarifies that state Sen. Jose Peralta was in Albany at the time of the meeting.)

Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhallum@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4564.

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By Tammy Scileppi

TimesLedger Newspapers

Keep your eyes peeled for this hilarious, upcoming crime comedy feature, “Sure-Fire.”

It is a must-see short film, and you can catch it at the Museum of the Moving Image Friday evening at 8:15 p.m. during the 8th Annual Queens World Film Festival.

In the world of con artistry, you could say acclaimed filmmaker Michael Goldburg’s fictional charlatan Benny Boon — a hapless New York City con man having a mid-life crisis, who stumbles into becoming a movie producer to pay off gangsters threatening him — sits pretty low on the totem pole of “ballsiest” swindlers, compared to the likes of Bernie Madoff and old-time villain Victor Lustig, aka “The Count,” once considered the smoothest bamboozler that ever lived. Low-level prankster Benny isn’t as suave or notorious as “The Count” or Bernie, but he makes up for his less than sophisticated, double-dealing ways, with his outgoing personality and “irresistible” charm, combined with his own brand of colorful chicanery.

Goldburg and acclaimed writer/producer Dave Chan — the founder of Navy Yard Films, an independent, Brooklyn-based film production company — co-wrote the script and said they’re thrilled to present their work, which was inspired by a weird, but true story.

The idea for “Sure-Fire” started several years ago when Goldburg encountered a real-life shady “producer” through an ad he answered on the NYU job board (he was in the Graduate Film program at Tisch). The job was advertised as a paid position. The so-called producer was looking for a screenwriter for a script he was developing.

According to Goldburg, the two met a couple times about the creative aspects of the script — presented as a “raw, gritty drama” — but when getting paid was brought up, the con man literally said, “I paid for your lunch, didn’t I?” The lunch was a slice of pizza. After realizing that he had no intention of paying him other than in pizza, the filmmaker said no to the job, but soon found that he couldn’t get rid of the annoying prankster.

That experience got Goldburg’s creative juices flowing, and he suddenly saw a feature movie in his future. He just couldn’t resist; the guy was such a classic New York hustler type and knew he’d make a great character in a script of his own. Thus, the seeds of “Sure-Fire” were sown.

Surprisingly, Goldburg said he felt a kind of kinship with Benny, “and the tenacity with which he throws himself into the process of making a movie.”

As for a stylistic approach, his creative vision was “to ground the film in a gritty, New York City reality, as well as depict the genuine distress of a small-time con man as he struggles to stay alive.” So he looked to Woody Allen’s crime comedy “Broadway Danny Rose,” with its “hilariously poignant tone, small-time New York City hustlers,” as well as “Gordon Willis’ gorgeous and gritty location photography” as inspiration.

Other comedic influences were “The Producers,” as well as Hollywood crime comedies “American Hustle,” “Get Shorty,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “Pulp Fiction.” Although a comedy, “Sure-Fire” is also inspired by the immediacy and troubled, desperate characters of Martin Scorsese’s and John Cassavetes’ work, according to the filmmakers, who along with their team, assembled an amazing cast.

You’ll get a kick from the comedic shenanigans of Astoria actor PJ Marshall, who plays Boon. The con man needs to come up with $50,000 fast to pay off a gangster — or else. He meets a washed-up actress, Kitty Kinkaid, who’ll do anything for a comeback and claims to have the moolah to bankroll a screenplay. Fast-talking, pinky ring-wearing Benny then poses as a movie producer and hooks her in with a script called “A Woman on the Edge.” But the script doesn’t exist, and Benny has no idea how to write one. So, he places an ad on Craigslist for a screenwriter and puts his scheme into motion.

Marshall has appeared in many films, from “Catch .44” with Forest Whitaker, to “Maggie” with Arnold Schwarzenegger. His recent TV credits include “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.,” “Underground,” “American Horror Story,” and “Marvel’s Luke Cage.”

Other local talent on the short includes co-writer Steve Wisniewski (Astoria); Omar Benjamin, actor who voices the character of Leo, the gangster (Forest Hills); John Timothy, a New York-based actor/comedian, plays Anthony, a young wannabe screenwriter who is conned by Boon into writing a script for him.

Every gritty, big city crime story needs a sexy, man-eating broad like Kitty Kinkaid. Lué McWilliams, who plays the boozy, has-been actress dying to make a comeback, has appeared in “The Pill,” and “Naked As We Came” (to name a few), which garnered great reviews in The Hollywood Reporter and The New York Times.

The short film version of the upcoming feature comedy by the same name has earned accolades on the film festival circuit, while the feature script was a finalist in the 2016 Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest. Sony Pictures Classics saw the short are interested in distributing the feature version of the film, according to the filmmakers, who have already partnered with casting director Chrystie Street Casting (“American Hustle”), and production counsel Jonathan Gray’s law firm (Oscar-winning “Moonlight”), on the feature.

“Sure-fire” is Goldburg’s follow up to the hilariously absurd, award-winning horror-comedy, “What’s Eating Dad?” which is distributed by Amazon and IndieFlix. He also directed “Tragic Relief,” a bleakly funny web series by writers from The Onion and Comedy Central, featured on Funny or Die.

Goldburg cites Woody Allen, the Coen Brothers, Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne, Charlie Kaufman, Edgar Wright and David O. Russell as his favorite comedic filmmakers.

“I like how personal and funny their films are while tackling weightier issues and a diversity of genres,” Goldburg said.

“Sure-Fire” has already screened at many New York festivals, including the Big Apple Film Festival and Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema. The MoMI screening will likely be one of the last public screenings of the short in New York City.

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By Gina Martinez

TimesLedger Newspapers

Long-awaited repairs to College Point’s MacNeil Park Seawall have finally begun.

City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside), Borough President Melinda Katz and the New York City Parks Department announced the start of construction of the $5.2 million project, which will be carried out by AAH Construction Corporation and is slated to be completed by August 2019.

College Point residents have been fighting for repairs to be made to the waterfront path and seawall for years.

According to residents, there are holes in the seawall, which only worsened after Hurricane Sandy. Despite receiving multiple bids to contractors over the years, the Parks Department did not make any serious progress.

Construction on the seawall was initially set to begin in 2015, but nothing was done and the path was fenced off, angering many residents. Then in December 2016, two bidders withdrew their offers when they did not meet a apprenticeship mandate from the mayor’s office, further delaying the search for a contractor.

Last year, environmentalist Kathryn Cervino began a petition page on thepetitionsite.com — which garnered nearly 500 supporters — asking Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski to demand a contract be awarded. In November 2017, Vallone announced that a $4.4 million contract has been awarded to AAH Contractor.

Vallone said the beginning of the construction is a huge victory for College Point.

“These repairs have been needed urgently and I applaud the Parks Department for following through on this community request,” he said. “I look forward to continuing to work with the College Point community so that the dream of a vibrant MacNeil Park with waterfront accessibility is fully realized.”

Katz said MacNeil Park has always been an essential recreational resource for the College Point community, which should soon be able to properly enjoy it.

“The repairs to the MacNeil Park seawall will enable full access to the park’s waterfront to be restored and make the park an even more enjoyable place to visit,” she said. “A vibrant waterfront esplanade will become a reality at MacNeil Park once this vitally important seawall repair project is completed.”

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

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

The Afrikan Poetry Theatre may be down a building for the moment due to an electrical fire, but do not count out the Jamaica cultural arts center just yet.

Despite having to cancel the last leg of its Black History Month film series, which was scheduled to take place at its headquarters at 176-03 Jamaica Ave. on Feb. 17, the art center is already in the process of finding funding for next year’s movie showcase along with a host of other programs its provides for free or for a low fee.

The arts center’s theatre director, Sekou Branch, and treasurer, Kerry Edge, met with the Department of Cultural Affairs and members of Queens’ City Council at Borough Hall Monday about securing funding for the 42-year-old establishment for next year’s programs.

“They understand that [Afrikan Poetry Theatre] is very important to the community,” said Branch. “The programs that we do, a lot of people don’t do it in this part of Queens. They sometimes have to go to Manhattan, but here we provide a lot of our programs for 100 percent free.”

Some of the programs that the Afrikan Poetry Theatre offers are open mic nights, jazz shows and art exhibits.

“This is a pillar and it would be a shame if this place didn’t exist because of the fire,” said the theatre director. “With the development going on in Jamaica… they are concerned with maintaining the cultural arts in Queens.”

As the center tries to secure funding for next year, it will close out its film classes at the Museum of the Moving Images in Astoria, and one of the acting instructors for Afrikan Poetry is scouting a new place in Jamaica for the center’s acting classes.

The electrical fire that occurred on Feb. 17 destroyed the second floor of the Afrikan Poetry Theatre, which included a computer lab, office space and film equipment.

Branch is searching for a new office space for Afrikan Poetry Theatre to operate as insurance adjusters and brokers itemize the damage done to the arts center before it can be rebuilt.

After speaking with a fire marshal about the Feb. 17 blaze that destroyed the second floor of the cultural center, Branch surmised from the conversation that the contractors who were supposed to fix the electrical wiring after an earlier fire in 2007 could have done a better job.

“Some work that was done wasn’t the greatest, that is what I’m learning,” said Branch, who is hoping to find a better contractor for the restoration efforts.

As Branch looks ahead to the future he wants to continue the center’s Cultural Immigrant Initiatives program that teaches theatre to ESL learners while directing them in their native language and English.

He wants to go forward with a Coalition of Theatre of Color program, a theatre program that addresses biases among the Black diaspora among Americans, Africans, West Indians and more abroad.

He also wants to do a horror film program.

“I think that it will be fun,” Branch said. “We are going to get professionals in the industry to teach more about lighting, set design and how to do horror makeup.”

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

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