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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

State Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman (D-Springfield Gardens) was at a meet-and-greet Monday with Paul Hendel, a Rosedale McDonald’s owner and operator who also serves as the president of the New York Tri-State McDonald’s Owner/Operators Association.

While Hyndman was learning to make a Filet-o-Fish sandwich at the fast-food joint located at 244-10 Merrick Blvd., Hendel pointed out that all of the McDonald’s restaurants in the city were owned and operated by independent franchisees and that the hundreds of eateries across the city have many changes underway.

The fast food restaurant giant will be transforming 14,000 of its restaurants around the United States, with the most upgrades taking place in New York City, according to spokeswoman Amanda Pisano.

Pisano said that within the five boroughs there are 209 McDonald’s, 52 of which are in Queens.

The enhancements are meant to increase service and convenience and will include self-order kiosks, as well as table service and mobile ordering.

Of the more than 200 restaurants in New York City, 75 have already have been augmented, including 20 in Queens.

Dozens of McDonald’s are slated for improvements later this year and throughout New York City and all of the 14,000 restaurants within the United States will have updates by 2020.

From January through March 2018 the company made several other bold announcements.

The company intends to serve all of its goods in renewable, recyclable or fiber-based packaging from certified sources where no deforestation occurs by 2025. Within that time frame, the fast-food chain plans to finish enhancing all of its menu offerings at all of its restaurants.

In 2022 all Happy Meals at McDonald’s 120 markets with have healthier options with a calorie intake equal to or less than 600.

This will also include making kid-sized fries which have a lower sodium count than the small fries, less sugar in chocolate milk, and more bottled water will be offered.

The company also wants to cut its use of greenhouse gases by 150 million metric tons by 2030.

It plans to do so by responsibly sourcing food, promoting renewable energy and recycling.

This year it will also cut its time frame for awarding tuition assistance its Archways to Opportunity program for staff and managers attending college and increase its scholarship offerings.

Instead of receiving tuition assistance in nine months, employees can receive it in 90 days of working at McDonald’s. Eligible staff will get $2,500 annually instead of $700 and eligible managers have access to $3,000 annually instead of $1,050.

Since 2015, 60 Rosedale employees of Hendel have received $67,000 in tuition assistance.

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

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By Merle Exit

TimesLedger Newspapers

Flushing Town Hall will play host to a dynamic perofrmance as the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company returns to perform Sunday, April 15, at 1 p.m.

Collaborating with Queens College Dance Program, the company will present a lineup for CrossCurrent V, featuring an upcoming work by Yin Mei, the coordinator of the program. The dance will incorporate projection and visual art. Mei will be performing her new work in progress, titled Rhetorical Act.

Mei is a director, choreographer and visual artist known for creating dance theater works that bridge geographic, technological, artistic and cultural differences by presenting a unique brand of theatrical imagination. She is currently at work on a dance theater program joining themes that stem from The Peony Pavilion, culled from her own experiences growing up in China as a young dancer.

The hour-long program also includes choreographer-dancer Huiwang Zhang, and some new works of Nai-Ni Chen.

Zhang, a dancer, choreographer, and screen dance artist, is also a current member of the Bill T. Jones/Annie Zane Company. His work has been presented at the Beijing Dance Festival (2016) and 12 Minutes Max in Salt Lake City (2017).

Zhang also incorporated edited film excerpts taken from Joris Lvens, Jan Svankmajer and CCTV in his new work, titled “About petroleum: Chinese socialism and the postmodern agenda.”

Executive Director Andrew Chiang, along with Chen, co-founded the dance company in 1988. Chen came to the United States from Taiwan more than 30 years ago to obtain her master’s degree here in New York.

“I was so excited about the dancing in New York that I decided to stay rather than teach in Taiwan,” she said.

Chiang spoke to Chen about her success in dancing, at which point they decided to form the company where Chen would both dance and choreograph.

“We are excited to see these amazing dance artists that are rising in Queens, and we feel that Flushing Town Hall should be a place where they can feel at home,” said Ellen Kodadek, the executive and artistic director of Flushing Town Hall.

For the entire company, the ability to collaborate with fellow creative artists makes this event so satisfying.

“We are especially delighted to work with excellent artists of this caliber because it represents the quality and passion immigrant artists can bring to our community, through contemporary dance. This is the reason we established CrossCurrent dance series,” Chen said.

A panel discussion moderated by Kodedak will follow the one-hour performance, which is set to kick off at 2 p.m. Flushing Town Hall is located at 137-35 Northern Blvd.

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By Naeisha Rose

TimesLedger Newspapers

Queens Village’s own Cayla Kumar will receive a resolution on the state Senate floor April 30 by Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) for winning Miss New York’s Outstanding Teen contest last week and for her countless hours of volunteer service.

“Cayla is a remarkable individual who has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to her family, her community, and her passion for making a positive impact on the lives of those suffering from pediatric cancer,” said Comrie. “I was proud to help bring attention to her tremendous accomplishments and advocacy by putting forth a congratulatory resolution in the State Senate.”

Before capturing the title Saturday, Cayla volunteered 4,100 hours in community service over the course of four years and raised $25,000 in cancer research for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as its first youth ambassador (2012).

“I’m very excited and I’m honored,” said Cayla. “It’s a bit overwhelming, because so many people are supporting me now and it’s just an amazing feeling to have a team behind me and my community supporting me,” added the 15-year-old, who was teased for being naturally thin at school.

As the local winner of Miss Bronx’s Outstanding Teen, the contest open to everyone in downstate New York to represent the city, she spent her spare time cooking meals for families with Ronald McDonald House charities, a nonprofit that helps sick children, and raising funds for children’s cancer research with her “Gold Ribbon Project: Curing Pediatric Cancer” platform.

She will have a shot at representing the Big Apple from July 24 to July 26 in the preliminaries for the title of Miss America’s Outstanding Teen at the national finals in Orlando, Florida.

The final night of the competition is July 28.

“Now I will be competing against the other 49 states [and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico],” said Cayla. “I’m even more nervous, because I already set my goal in what I wanted to achieve with my platform, which was to advocate [for childhood cancer] a lot more.”

Miss America’s Outstanding Teen is a scholarship-based sister program to the Miss America Organization, according to missny.org. It encourages scholastic achievement, creative accomplishment, a healthy lifestyle and community involvement.

“I walked into school this morning and everyone was walking around saying ‘Congratulations, Cayla, Congratulations, Cayla, I’m so proud of you!’” said the pageant queen. “Now everyone is asking about volunteering with me.”

Since her win six classmates have approached her to learn more about the organizations that she volunteers with.

“They want to help give back and be apart of [my] journey,” said Cayla.

Cayla won Miss New York’s Outstanding Teen competition after completing a fitness routine, a Bollywood fusion dance, an evening gown segment, an interview section and an onstage question.

As the winner of Miss New York’s Outstanding Teen Cayla won a $1,000 cash scholarship and a $2,000 scholarship from the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. She gets to choose a $12,000 tuition to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy College, or a $2,000 tuition to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy High School Summer Program or accept both tuitions.

Cayla was classically trained in Indian dances from the Sadhanalaya School of Dance and the Natraj Center for the Performing Arts. She hopes to become a dance teacher and to use her passion to pay for medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland to become a pediatric oncologist.

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

Community Board 11 voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to oppose new rules that no longer require the Landmark Preservation Commission to seek the input of advisory boards within the city before making a decision on designating a property or district.

CB11 joins organizations across the city, including Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan), who oppose what the LPC called an overhaul of rules to “increase transparency” in their effort to maintain a public oversight in matters of designation.

Henry Euler, first vice president of the Auburndale Improvement Association, pitched the resolution to the community board at the Monday meeting in which members discussed the advantages of giving input their in these decisions, even as only an advisory board.

“Now the Landmark Preservation Commission has decided they don’t want to have input anymore from community boards and that they want to make all these decisions in-house,” Euler said. “I don’t think that’s correct. I think it’s very important that the community and the community board get an opportunity to weight in on these matter. So I asked [CB11 Chair Christine Haider] if it would be OK to write a resolution calling on the [LPC] to change this new rule [to exclude] the community and the community board to participate in the decision-making”

Johnson issued a letter to LPC Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan praising their efforts to bring changes to comply with other potential needs, such as barrier-free access, energy codes, and resiliency mandates, but asking the city agency to back down from the this rule change.

“The participation of the public adds value to our civic processes and, in the case of LPC, ensures that the commission’s determinations are based upon the best possible information,” Johnson said in the letter. “Contrary to the stated goals of the Statement of Basis and Purpose, the Proposed Rules will not increase transparency, but rather will reduce it. Under the Proposed Rules, there is no provision for any kind of public review of these delegated determinations.”

Part of the LPC’s reasoning for the rule change is to speed the landmarking decision process in light of increased number of applications.

The discussion period revolved around the designation of Douglas Manor, which happened in 1966, and was supported by the community, which wanted to preserve their neighborhood’s appeal and protect it from development.

One CB11 member from Douglas Manor said they would like to continue keeping the community board’s involvement in decisions based on the history of neighborhood support for landmarking of the area.

Bayside Historical Society President Paul DiBenedetto pointed out that even though the community board may have a voice in the matter, it is only an advisory board with no real stake in the decision, but he voted in favor of the resolution anyhow.

An organization known as Human Scale NYC formed a coalition of groups within the city, with Queens Preservation Council among the 24, and expressed doubts about the need for the rule change. But it said if there must be a rule change, the LPC should involve preservation organizations in the best alternative to seeking community support as it currently is.

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

Embattled NYCHA Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye was conspicuously absent when Mayor Bill de Blasio came to the Queensbridge Houses for a rooftop press briefing last week. She was on a family vacation, the mayor explained, but on Tuesday Olatoye announced she would depart the post at the end of April.

“While the challenges facing public housing are significant — I’m incredibly proud of the leadership team we’ve assembled and the strides we’ve made over the last four years to speed up repair times, reduce crime, launch a major development program to bring NYCHA into the 21st century,” she said at the Ocean Bay Bayside Apartments in Arverne.

The mayor had come to Long Island City to announce that all 26 roofs at the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City have been completely replaced for the first time in more than 30 years.

The nearly $56 million replacement project will benefit the complex’s 13,000 residents by reducing mold, which can cause asthma and other respiratory diseases, and end the chronic leaking, which can cause damage to the building’s physical structure.

“Residents may never see the roof over their heads, but they will feel the difference,” de Blasio said during a rooftop press briefing last Friday. “We are targeting a major source of leaks and mold, making kids healthier and helping parents sleep easier. With the right resources, we can deliver real-time improvements to the quality of life for thousands of families.”

In addition to the new roofs, the de Blasio administration has also installed free Wi-Fi throughout the development, 360 closed circuit security cameras and 858 security lights. The crime rate at Queensbridge has fallen 21 percent since 2013, according to City Hall.

Thirty-nine more NYCHA roofs were replaced around the city as part of the project’s first phase and another 78 roofs will be replaced during the $100 million phase two of the project, which will be completed by June 29.

After De Blasio said the project at Queensbridge Houses was completed on time and under budget, he then took some shots at Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has made four highly publicized press appearances at NYCHA complexes around the city in recent weeks. The governor also signed an executive order last week creating a new independent monitor to oversee $250 million in the state budget for necessary repairs at NYCHA developments citywide.

De Blasio accused Cuomo of treating NYCHA residents like a “political football” instead of disbursing more than $250 million in funding previously allocated to NYCHA in the 2015 and 2017 state budgets.

“There are some politicians who suddenly believe it is stylish to visit NYCHA,” de Blasio said. “I’ve been visiting public housing buildings throughout my entire career, all the time, throughout my mayoralty. I’ve been highly involved trying to help our public housing authority which, bluntly, for decades didn’t get enough help from the city, didn’t get enough help from the state, didn’t get enough help from the federal government.”

When asked if he was referring to Cuomo, de Blasio said “of course, I’m talking about the governor. He hadn’t been to a NYCHA development for five years [prior] to his recent tour. Let’s be real.”

Meanwhile, residents at the nearby Ravenswood Houses were celebrating the end of a major quality-of-life issue that has plagued that complex for more than two decades. City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) said the city Department of Sanitation had finally found a location for its garbage trucks that have clogged 35th Avenue between 21st and 12th streets for years.

“It wasn’t just a nuisance, it was a danger,” Van Bramer said. “The residents of Ravenswood Houses won a very big victory here that shows you can beat City Hall.”

Van Bramer and Ravenswood Tenants Association President Carol Wilkins took Mayor de Blasio to the DSNY depot at 34-28 21st St. to complain about the double parked trucks during a blizzard in 2016. During a town hall meeting in Long Island City last May, de Blasio announced he had allocated $143 million to relocate that garage.

“That will still take a couple of years, but last week we received a letter from Sanitation that they finally found that location to store the trucks, and Monday they were gone from the streets around Ravenswood Houses,” Van Bramer said. “It’s a huge victory. The people fought for their dignity, and they won.”

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

A follow-up report on Rikers Island said the prison complex can be closed before the 10-year timeline Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last year with a few additional amendments to the plan.

Last year the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform released the report, “A More Just New York City,” which outlines a plan to close down the infamous prison within 10 years that was adopted by the mayor. In an updated report, “One Year Forward,” the commission said thanks to changes in policy since its last report, the jail population has dropped by nearly 10 percent, showing that the goal can be accomplished even sooner than originally thought. The commission said with state approval of designs, Rikers can close as soon as 2024.

Former New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, who is chairman of the Independent Commission, said although there have been significant improvements in the last year, that is no reason to be complacent.

“Despite this progress, there is still much work to be done,” he said. “The people affected by our criminal justice system are overwhelmingly black and Latino, and the nine deteriorating and dysfunctional jails on Rikers remain a stain on our city, leaving a permanent mark on everyone they touch. That’s why it’s imperative that we not rest on our laurels, but build on this momentum for closure. By the time the mayor and the City Council speaker leave office, progress should be irreversible.”

The commission, which called the jails on Rikers “brutal and obsolete,” said that to complete a more humane borough system by 2024, the city must continue to cut the number of people in jail and make significant strides in the construction of smaller, modern facilities in the five boroughs. According to the commission, by the end of de Blasio’s second term, construction on at least two sites should be well underway, with design and possibly construction in progress in the others.

The report said transitioning to a borough-based jail system promotes safety, successful re-entry into society, and better access to courts and family members. The report also claims that with design-build authorization from the state government and continued focus from city government, the commission projects that a modern, borough-based system could be constructed in six years. This new timeline would lead to $700 million in cost savings compared to the initial projections, which was an upfront cost of $10.62 billion.

The commission said Albany needs to step up and pass legislation on a state level to limit the use of cash bail. Bail reform legislation that would have limited the use of cash bail was not included in the 2019 state budget, or reforms in the areas of discovery, speedy trial, and parole, the report said. The commission noted that if Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Legislature can enact these reforms by the end of session, it could have a meaningful impact on improving criminal justice and accelerating the time line for closing Rikers.

The report also recommended community engagement in the design process for the borough-based facilities and redesigning the infrastructure on Rikers Island to be potentially used for expansion of LaGuardia Airport. It also suggested interim uses as the jails are phased out, such as developing the solar, energy storage, and composting facilities that are necessary for the city to meet its ambitious clean energy and zero waste goals.

Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Hillcrest), who serves as chairman of the Committee on the Justice System, said this plan can work, but only if de Blasio commits to expanding supervised release, improving the mechanics of paying bail, and investing in the criminal justice reforms proposed by both public defenders and district attorneys.

“As the report spells out, too many people are needlessly run through our court system, predominantly brown and black New Yorkers; too many people are stuck on Rikers, solely because they are too poor to pay bail or cannot pay bail in a timely manner; and too many people are left waiting to have their day in Court,” he said.

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

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