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By Gina Martinez

TimesLedger Newspapers

A report by the NYC Department of Investigation reveals that homeless families in the city have been housed in hotels where criminal activity, including prostitution, has been taking place.

The DOI report, released last week, has led the Department of Homeless Services to re-evaluate its vetting process for places where homeless families are sheltered. Homeless Services, according to the report, did not consider criminal activity before placing families with children in certain hotels.

Last year, protests broke out in Queens after families were housed in various borough hotels.

The investigation released last week found that from Jan. 1, to Aug. 10, arrests took place at 34 of the city’s 57 commercial hotels housing homeless families with children. Among the arrests, 59 were prostitution-related, 34 were assault-related and 11 were made for controlled substances. The DOI said that the existence of red flags at these sites does not call for a closing but does “demonstrate a need for DHS to perform safety assessments.”

The DOI’s investigation found that simple internet searches of the Bronx Days Inn and Bronx Super 8 Hotel addresses with key words such as “escort” would result in several links to websites promoting prostitution. DOI Commissioner Mark G. Peters said the department was pleased that DHS has recognized these concerns and is working with DOI to put measures in place to solve these problems.

Homeless Services Commissioner Steven Banks said the safety of homeless New Yorkers is his top priority and thanked the DOI for shedding light on these issues.

“Upon being notified of safety concerns requiring immediate action, we took immediate action, relocating families or occupying locations entirely, as the DOI recommends and recognizes in this report,” he said. “We are working closely with our NYPD management team to evaluate remaining as well as new locations to ensure the safety of our homeless families as we phase out the use of commercial hotels once and for all.”

DHS has agreed to the DOI’s recommendation to enhance its approval criteria for housing families with children to include a public safety component that will identify possible criminal activities occurring at prospective hotels. Whenever possible, Homeless Services will reserve an entire hotel, rather than a portion, to eliminate the possibility of DHS clients sharing locations with criminal behavior.

Using hotels as temporary housing for homeless families has been a center of controversy for Mayor Bill de Blasio. While none of the shelters listed in the report were in Queens, the borough currently has 40 shelters, more than any in the city.

Last year, major protest erupted after the mayor had housed families in various Queens hotels, most notably a Maspeth Holiday Inn, without informing the community. That August, Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village), then the president of the powerful Juniper Park Civic Association and a member of the Maspeth-Middle Village Task Force, led a much-publicized protest every weeknight for nearly four months, prompting the landowner to step in and forbid a shelter at the hotel.

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

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

The Regional Plan Association, an urban research and advocacy organization that creates plans to help improve the prosperity of the tri-state area, included the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation as a major source for its idealized view of Downtown Jamaica’s economy 22 years into the future.

The Greater Jamaica Development Corporation is an economic development group that dedicates itself to revitalizing the Downtown Jamaica area, and its plans for mixed-income affordable homes, reasonably priced hotels, a shopping district, better transportation and establishing the area as a global food hub was incorporated in the RPA’s 2040 vision for the region.

GJDC President Hope Knight was pleased that the RPA saw the economic development group’s $1 billion investment in Downtown Jamaica as a boon for the region.

“RPA’s recommendations dovetail with GJDC’s mission,” Knight said, “and provides validation from a highly respected organization that our economic development efforts with the public and private sectors are headed in the right direction.”

The RPA envisioned Jamaica with the potential to be an interconnected cultural and commercial mecca on par with Brooklyn and Manhattan, but with a more affordable and diverse local flair.

According to the RPA, the Jamaica of 2040 will have more of the same amenities of the other two boroughs, like theaters, art festivals, bike lanes, pedestrian greenways, and diverse mom and pop restaurants with food from around the world. It will also have a light industry (consumer production of small goods and products).

The research group saw a Jamaica that remained diverse, had affordable homes and low-cost hotels, and created jobs near an improved and linked subway, bus and airport system with help from GJDC.

GJDC’s plan to tie the expanded job growth with the expansion of John F. Kennedy International Airport was included with RPA’s development ideas for Jamaica.

RPA saw a future in which foot traffic at the expanded JFK doubled from 59 million in 2016 to 118 million, and the hotels being built by GJDC will become a major resource for job creation and economic sustainability.

Instead of Jamaica residents and international travelers spending their money in Manhattan, their disposable income could be retained in the Downtown region with shopping centers GJDC has built, according to the advocacy group.

Preserving JFK’s terminals and runways to make way for freight facilities if the Aqueduct Racetrack was redeveloped for small goods manufacturing and distribution was seen as another basis for revenue for the RPA and GJDC.

The RPA saw GJDC’s plans to create mixed-income apartments that were affordable as a great way of retaining Jamaica’s diverse immigrant population, especially to help establish an international food hub with these people as potential small-business owners.

In the RPA’s view, “regional downtowns in the tri-state area can be developed, thrive and provide good jobs and affordable communities with policies that promote mixed-use development near transit services, maintain neighborhood diversity and improve the overall quality of life with safe streets and green spaces.”

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

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Gina Martinez

TimesLedger Newspapers

New York City dads will now have the opportunity to change their babies’ diapers in public buildings.

This week, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a bill that requires new or recently renovated public buildings to provide diaper-changing stations in all restrooms, ensuring that all parents have access to these stations regardless of their gender identity.

The bill, sponsored by Councilman Rafael Espinal (D-Brooklyn), will make New York City one of the first cities in the nation to make this enforcement in new or recently renovated buildings, a move de Blasio believes further solidifies the city as a national leader in improving gender equity.

“As a dad, I know firsthand how frustrating it can be to handle diaper emergencies in public without a changing station,” the mayor said. “This new law will ensure that all parents will have access to these stations in public buildings regardless of their gender, and help make New York City a fairer place to live.”

The bill, which goes into effect in July, requires that diaper-changing stations be available to everyone regardless of gender identity on any floor where public restrooms are available in gathering spaces or spaces where merchandise is sold. These locations include theaters, bowling alleys, shopping malls and museums.

This requirement will apply only to new construction or locations with substantial renovations. Enforcement of the law will be complaint-based, and the civil penalties for failing to comply will range from $300 to $1,600.

Chirlane McCray, the city’s first lady, serves as co-chairwoman of the Commission on Gender Equity, an agency that reviews policies and their impact on women, transgender and intersex individuals and men “in order to achieve greater gender fairness in the city.” She said this bill is an important step toward making New York City more family-friendly for all parents, regardless of gender.

“Too often, fathers and gender non-conforming parents are excluded from the resources aimed at supporting families,” she said. “That has to change. I am proud that this administration has emphasized equity, and put the experiences and needs of all families front and center from the very beginning.”

Laura McQuade, the president of Planned Parenthood of New York City, said the bill recognizes that families come in all forms.

“No one should have to struggle to find a place to change their child’s diaper when they’re not at home because of their gender,” she said. “Parenting isn’t the responsibility of just one gender, and it’s time our laws caught up with people’s daily lives. This is another step toward ensuring that New Yorkers have access to the resources they need to care for their families.”

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

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) railed Tuesday morning against President Donald Trump’s remarks on immigration, remarks that have been called racist and that have dominated the national news cycle for nearly a week.

During an unrelated news briefing at Vaughn College, Crowley also took aim at Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul for suggesting that Trump’s Queens upbringing led to the president’s views when he said, “It got sort of a Queens saltiness coming out, and then I think people have misinterpreted it that’s he’s a racist” on a Sunday morning national news show.

“I took umbrage with my friend Rand Paul when he made reference that (Trump’s) from Queens,” Crowley said. “I’m from Queens, and that’s not what we say from Queens, and I take extreme umbrage with that particular statement.”

After Paul’s remarks Sunday, Crowley elaborated on his disappointment.

“Queens is one of the most diverse places on earth, comprised of some of the hardest-working, most self-sacrificing people you’ll find,” Crowley said. “Donald Trump and the Republican Party are the ones to blame here, Donald Trump for being a racist and the GOP for enabling him.”

As for Trump’s supposed comment that set off the imbroglio and a torrent of formal protests from governments in two hemispheres, Crowley, a son and grandson of immigrants from Ireland who grew up in Woodside, explained why he was angry.

“Wherever you come from is very special to all of us, our history,” Crowley said. “We may look back nostalgically and say it would be great to go back to the old country, but we also recognize that those old countries had large problems, be them political, religious strife, economic strife or governmental strife. But they are still the old country — it’s the place you come from and you have tremendous pride in your ethnicity, the traditions, the religion — it all becomes part of the fabric that makes America the mosaic it is today, and that was all spat upon by the president.”

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin continues to assert that last week, Trump complained that America was taking too many immigrants from “s–thole countries,” though two Republican colleagues dispute Durbin’s recollection.

“I believe that what he said was racist and I believe that it has no place in American society,” Crowley said. “Certainly, it’s not reflective of Queens County.”

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 Gina Martinez

TimesLedger Newspapers

State Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) will now be the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Education Committee.

Addabbo, a member of the Senate Education Committee since being elected in 2008, was chosen by Senate Minority Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins to serve as the conference’s point person on education funding and policy issues for the legislative session.

The Education Committee will be deeply involved in reviewing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2018-19 executive budget, which is scheduled for presentation to the Legislature on Jan. 16. Addabbo said his priority would be funding New York City public schools adequately and ensuring support for children attending religious, charter and other types of schools, while providing special-needs students with every opportunity for academic success.

“As the father of two children attending New York City public schools, I have both a personal and public policy perspective in making sure that our students receive the best possible education,” Addabbo said. “Achieving this goal involves many moving parts, including adequate funding for schools, thoughtful education policy, support for teachers and school administrators, and ongoing communications with parents and other stakeholders.”

In addition to serving as the ranking member on the Education Committee, Addabbo will continue as ranking member of both the Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security, and Military Affairs, and the Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering.

Besides critical educational challenges facing the state during its coming budget negotiations, Addabbo said another major issue the Senate Education Committee might monitor is the ongoing enactment of the Next Generation Learning Standards, which make up revisions to the Common Core requirements that have been hotly debated in recent years.

“In the past, I held town hall meetings and have spoken in the district on Common Core to talk directly to my constituents and education professionals about the over-reliance on standardized testing, issues surrounding teacher and principal evaluations, and other concerns,” Addabbo said. “Some of these issues are being addressed in the new standards, and I will be paying close attention to how the changes impact our school children and educators.”

Addabbo called this “an excellent opportunity to have even more involvement in ensuring a quality education for all of our schoolchildren.”

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

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Three Jamaica siblings, inspired by Spike Lee’s display of Brooklyn on his Netflix series “She’s Gotta Have It,” curated their own pop-up art show Saturday, “Queens Gotta Have It,” which featured 10 artists who live or went to school in Queens. The show took place at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.

Khaair Morrison and his sisters Tunisia and Tariqua Morrison were all hands on deck as they greeted guests and welcomed the artists at the center, at 161-04 Jamaica Ave.

The art show was put on by the siblings’ youth organization, V.O.Y.C.E. Inc. (The Voice of Youth Changes Everything).

The siblings wanted the art show at the Jamaica Center to help fill the gap in culture in the southeast region that often left artists and art connoisseurs in the area going to northwestern Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan to meet their artistic needs, according to Khaair Morrison.

“Even though we are not artists ourselves, part of us creating the organization was — how can we be a bridge for other people?” he said. “A lot of people say there is no place in Queens to host an art space, unless you are going to Astoria or Long Island City. We decided to put it on ourselves to do something here in Jamaica, Queens, where we are from.”

As hip-hop and R&B music played in the background, with DJ Milhouse setting the mood, Tunisia Morrison, the middle child, reiterated those sentiments.

“ ’Queens Gotta Have It’ was curated and created for Queens,” she said. “Spike Lee’s ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ had a really great traction on Netflix, because of what it stood for in DUMBO, and everything that it incorporated with the ‘New Brooklyn.’ I felt like it was time we had a ‘New Queens.’”

Tunisia Morrison said she wants young artists and young adults to have a place to socialize.

“We felt that Queens needed something like that,” she said. “Millennials here feel like they do not have a place in the new Downtown Jamaica for us to sit, for us to chat. Yes, Starbucks just came, but we also have lives and we want a night life. We don’t have anything that feels like it is for us.”

Among the artists who were featured at the show were Raheem “MellowArt” Richardson, who lives in Rosedale, and Cadeem “Phil V.” St. Aubyn, a Brooklyn resident who attended Cardoza High School in Bayside.

Richardson’s work included painted pop-up art and collages. Aubyn’s work had Polaroid photos of artists from a variety of media, including rap super stars like Drake and Jay-Z, whose music could be heard on DJ Milhouse’s turntables.

Kia Cain-Cacho, who came to see the art show, was happy to find a place where young people could appreciate art.

“I think this is different,” Cain-Cacho said. “We should have more stuff like this where we don’t have to go to Downtown [Manhattan]. This makes it more convenient for the community.”

Cain-Cacho, mentioning a Queens rapper, even had a favorite piece that she was considering to purchase.

“I’m a fan of Nas, so I might buy that painting over there!”

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

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Mark Hallum

TimesLedger Newspapers

The building occupied by Bank of America in Bayside’s business district was purchased for $13.5 million and will now belong to Forest Hills resident Hersel Sonbolian, the brokerage firm announced.

Cushman & Wakefield negotiated the purchase from the old owner, Midwood Investment & Development, for the building that has not only the bank but also Waggers Dog Daycare and Erawan Thai Cuisine.

“42-31 Bell Boulevard presented the buyer with an exceptional opportunity to acquire a fully leased, zero-maintenance property,” said James Nelson of Cushman & Wakefield. “The property is located in a prime retail destination in Queens and offers the potential for significant expansion.”

Bank of America and Erawan have leases through 2024, while the dog day care’s lease expires in 2019, according to a release.

The 10,000-square-foot building has a 20-car parking lot and up to 22,000 square feet of air rights.

Cushman & Wakefield is a global real estate services firm that operates in nearly 70 countries.

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

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

It was announced on Monday that the Temporary Protected Status of 200,000 El Salvadorans in the United States has come to an end, and they will have to leave the country by Sept. 9, 2019, according to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.

“In a word, this is cruel,” said Bitta Mostofi, acting commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. “Last week, Mayor de Blasio joined mayors across the country imploring the Trump administration to save the nearly 200,000 Salvadoran TPS recipients that live and work across the U.S. But the president’s anti-immigrant agenda continues to hurt our city’s residents and set our economy back.”

In New York there are more than 4,000 people from El Salvador.

In 2017 the University of Notre Dame published a book called “Latinos in New York,” which reported that most Salvadorans in the city live in Queens, because of its diverse immigration population.

Salvadoran residents can be found in Jamaica, East Elmhurst, Corona, Flushing and Far Rockaway-Bayswater, according to the book. Census data shows they also make up the largest immigrant group in Long Island.

Homeland Security determined that Salvadorans could go back to their country now that infrastructure is no longer a problem for the designees, said Nielsen.

Salvadorans were granted protected status in the U.S. in March 2001 under President George W. Bush’s administration after two earthquakes rocked their country in January and February that year. More than 1,200 people died, 150,000 homes were destroyed and 1.6 million were left homeless, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

“The original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes no longer exist,” Nielsen said. “Under the applicable statute, the current TPS designation must be terminated.”

Immigrant activists say gang violence erupted in the wake of the earthquakes, and San Salvador, the nation’s capital, is considered the seventh most dangerous city in the world, according www.worldatlas.com.

Not only has gang violence plagued El Salvador, but the country, along with Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras, can’t supply enough food for 3.5 million Central Americans because of a drought, according to www.oxfam.org, the website of OXFAM International, an organization working to combat poverty worldwide and trying to help El Salvador build a drought resiliency plan.

The World Bank’s data indicates that the combination of drought and gang violence has prevented the country from growing economically. El Salvador has a 61.3 percent deficit of gross domestic product and is the weakest country fiscally across all of Central America, which means that the 200,000 people deported in 2019 will be going to a country with no jobs.

“Over 4,000 Salvadoran New Yorkers with TPS have known our country as home for nearly two decades, and today the White House has decided to force them from their families, their jobs and their communities to return to a country that is simply unsafe and unable to absorb them,” Mostofi said. “Congress must pass a permanent solution for TPS recipients.”

According to MOIA, 30 percent of TPS holders are homeowners, 11 percent own businesses and they are parents to 192,000 children born in the United States.

Many immigrant activists and officials think the next country on the chopping block is Honduras, which has more than 86,000 people under TPS, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Honduran designees were originally supposed to leave the country on Jan. 5, 2018, but in order to give them enough time to leave in an orderly fashion, the timeframe was extended by six months to July 5.

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

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Mark Hallum

TimesLedger Newspapers

Ron Naclerio, a coach for Cardozo High School’s basketball team, tweeted out a letter on Martin Luther King Jr. Day memorializing his father’s role as the surgeon who intervened in a near-death experience by the Civil Rights activist.

At a 1958 book signing in Harlem, King was stabbed with a letter opener by Izola Ware Curry, a black woman who would go on to spend the next half century in a series of institutions.

The blade lodged itself near King’s aorta and required a delicate surgery to extricate.

The surgeon was Emil Naclerio, Ron Naclerio’s father.

King wrote a personal letter to Naclerio thanking him for “preserving” his life.

“Your skilled surgery, coupled with your genuine concern for me as a patient, combined to bring me from a very low ebb in my life to blooming health again,” the letter said. “Please know that I will always remember your gestures of goodwill so long as the cords of my memory shall lengthen.”

King later said he bore no animosity to Curry, who died in 2015 at 98, for the assault.

The younger Naclerio said his father, as a thoracic surgeon, not only saved King in his lifetime, but was also helped pioneer the method for installing pace makers.

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

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Source: Times Ledger

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By Bill Parry

TimesLedger Newspapers

A straphanger on board a No. 7 train was slashed Sunday afternoon in Long Island City.

The 37-year-old male victim was riding on the southbound 7 train just before 2:30 p.m. when he got into a verbal dispute with another passenger that turned violent, police said.

During the fight, the suspect stabbed the victim once in the back of the right hand with a knife and fled the train at the Queensboro Plaza station, according to the NYPD.

The victim was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he received five stitches for the laceration on his hand, police said. The NYPD described the suspect as a Hispanic man in his 40s who was last seen wearing a purple hooded sweatshirt, a black vest and blue jeans.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.

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