Inflammatory words, but Ojile’s selling outside the Met, not a Mets game. She and co-owner Derek Hunt are banking on a steady stream of sophisticated visitors to make up their rent, the highest of any mobile vendor in the city (just under $110,000, with the price increasing 10% per year). At just $3 per cupcake and $5 per milkshake, Ojile and Hunt have their work cut out for them. That’s why they’re banking on their products to sell themselves.

For cupcakes, there’s Tropicalia, a Tahitian vanilla cupcake with pineapple mousse and salted caramel frosting. There’s the Rich Guy, a mandarin orange cupcake with fig mousse and candied walnut cream cheese frosting. Then there’s the London Lilly, Earl Grey spiced teacakes with sarsaparilla mousse and tangerine butter crème, among other offerings.

Cake and Shake's Derek Hunt and Gina Ojile Test-Baking Their Goodies at LIC. (Pic: Cakeandshakeny.com)

You can also try the milkshakes, where Chef Hunt’s passion for frozen drinks is called into play. His creations include real-fruit offerings like mango and raspberry, as well as ingredients like salted caramel, Arabica espresso and Valrhona chocolate. And if you don’t have a sweet tooth, you can also sample their savory fare, lunch cakes with delicious fillings like ham, chicken and turkey.

Hunt and Ojile also run Culinary Engineers, a consultancy that helps restaurants streamline their business and develop their products and menus. The couple’s combined expertise with business and baking spurred them explore the idea of mobile cupcakes. “I love to bake,” Ojile gushes. “Some people run, I bake. I call it ‘bake therapy.’ So, it’s a natural progression for me to be in baked goods,” she laughs.

Hunt and Ojile designed a menu that would not just be unique but also green-friendly, with all-organic ingredients. “We care enough to buy products that are safer than any other products that are out there,” Ojile says. She added that not only are organic flour, milk and eggs standard ingredients in their creations, you can also be sure the packaging is biodegradable and compostable. And their products will all be housed in two solar-powered carts, one outside the Met and the other hawking its goods at Washington Square Park.

Menu decided, locations picked, biodegradable products procured, the couple is now test-baking their goodies at the Artisan Baking Center, a shared commercial baking space in Long Island City. “I am a big fan of Warm Glow,” Ojile says, referring to the spice cake with carrot pastry cream, golden raisin and coconut cream cheese frosting and candied walnuts. “And last week it was a toss-up between Rich Guy and Whatchamacalit (milk chocolate cake with nougat frosting)…I really don’t know how many calories are in that,” she laughs.

This piece first appeared in Edible Queens.

Image: Wikimedia

The bullet shattered her kitchen’s upper window and narrowly missed her son, who had just risen from the table. “It sounded like a bomb,” Peters recalled, adding that while no one was hurt, the entire family was shaken.

“My five-year-old grandson kept throwing up all night, saying ‘I don’t want to be shot nanny, I don’t want to be shot.’”
Peters was one of the 50 residents that showed up at a rally on Thursday at Latimer Gardens Community Center, to protest the rise in gang activity that led to the shooting, drug dealing and prostitution in the area that is bordered by 34th and 35th avenues, Linden Place and Leavitt and and 137th streets.

Longtime residents milled angrily outside the newly renovated community center whose top window too had also been blown out in the April 3 shootout.

The apartment complex was built in 1970 and consists of four 10-story buildings with more than 400 apartments and 700 residents. The residents stated there had been a “360-degree change” in the amount of crime in the complex. “What a change it has been,” said resident Joan Snowden, who has lived in the complex for four decades. “It was a beautiful place, nobody would bother you. But now, no one can even go to the playing area.”

Snowden’s sentiments were echoed by resident Lorna Dotson, who said that shootouts like the one Peters experienced were becoming increasingly common. She claimed residents heard gunshots as often as twice a week. Others like Carol Pagan alleged it is not just gang activity outside, but that people also regularly break into the building’s main lobby. She said prostitutes in the area come in and use the hallways and elevators as bathrooms. “The prostitutes make a mess all over,” Pagan said. “And the building takes a long time to fix it.”

Another resident complained that 34th Avenue is unsafe once the sun goes down, adding it is very easy to get caught in the gangs’ crossfire. Others said that a new hotel built right outside the complex also made matters worse as the prostitutes often use it as a base.

With the drug dealers, prostitutes and increased gang activity, more than one resident compared the current situation at Latimer Gardens with the movie “New Jack City” — a 1991 crime thriller in which drug lords convert an entire apartment complex into a crack house.

Latimer resident Donald Wiggins, who helped organize last week’s rally with Councilman Peter Koo’s office, said the police are investigating the April 3 incident, adding the incident is “not unusual and not unexpected either.”

At the rally, residents complained to Koo and asked for increased police patrols in the area. “We need them to come and walk the premises,” Dotson said. “They say we are a low-crime area and that we don’t need protection. But we do.”
Residents allege that illegal occupants in the building deal drugs, causing a lot of strangers to troop in and out. “We have kids here, running around,” said one resident. “Do we really want them to see all this?” she asked, referring to the drug activity.

Currently two officers from the 109th Precinct patrol the area, but residents say they still feel unsafe; asking instead for protection from the Housing Authority. They said complaints to NYCHA and the precinct often go unheeded.
Koo, meanwhile, said he is going to petition NYCHA to install security cameras in and around the buildings, explaining that “security cameras would discourage gang activity. It won’t solve the problem, but it will discourage troublemakers.”

He added that building residents also should take greater responsibility and in some cases, stop harboring troublemakers. “Drugs and prostitution are not good for any area,” Koo said. “We want role models, not drug dealers.”

The 109th Precinct did not comment on the issue, despite repeated calls.

This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle

In Queens, the MTA proposed not just eliminating the W subway line and numerous bus routes, but also city-wide cuts in Access-a-Ride and the termination of 585,000 subsidized student MetroCards. Jay Walder, the chairman of the MTA and other board members sat stoically through the hearings as disgruntled commuters held up signs protesting the proposed cuts and chanted “Enough is enough” and “No more tolls.”?

Local politicians, including Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) urged the MTA to consider other alternatives, apart from service cuts and fare hikes — asking the transit authority to make better use of federal stimulus money to bridge the budget gap.

The agency has received more than a billion dollars in stimulus money, but a chunk of that cash has already been earmarked for a variety of projects, including upgrading stations in Brooklyn, completing the Second Avenue line and building the Fulton Street transit center in Manhattan.

Earlier in the day, Quinn and other politicians delivered a petition signed by 41,000 commuters to the MTA, protesting imminent fare hikes and service cuts.  “People are sick and tired of paying more and more and getting less and less,” she said.

Councilmembers Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) and Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) were among the Queens politicians who stressed how their districts were going to be hit.  “How dare you toll and tax our bridges and beaches when you are giving raises and free rides to family and friends,” Vallone said.

Talking about how 7 train service cuts were damaging commerce in Western Queens, Van Bramer said the “continuous disruption of the trains is a window into our nightmare.” Referring to the cuts in Access-a-Ride, he said: “Locking our disabled and senior citizens in their homes is just not right.”

However it was Jimmy Vacca (D-Bronx), chairman of the council’s Transportation Committee, who elicited a raucous response from the crowds as he rattled off zingers like: “Mass transit is no longer for the masses.” “We are headed for a train wreck,” he said as people chanted “Enough is enough.”

However, the hearing took on a more somber tone when commuters went to the microphone. “How do you have the audacity to eliminate student fares,” one resident asked, “when 65,000 MTA employees each gets a free ride?” referring to a newspaper report that indicated the MTA handed out almost 15,000 MetroCards to its retired employees and several thousand more to its current employees, costing the agency millions of dollars each year. The resident complained that with the MTA also reducing the number of personnel at each station, the city was losing its vital “eyes and ears.” “We have had so many foiled terror plots,” he said, adding “why would we even want to think of that?”

Another Queens resident, Julio Mora, sat observing the heated proceedings, clutching a yellow piece of paper that indicated he had signed up to speak at the public hearing. The Flushing resident spends more than an hour and a half each way commuting from Queens to Tribeca every day and was particularly agitated by the proposed elimination of student MetroCards that would affect his family’s finances. Mora’s daughter, who attends Bayside school, was hit by the service reduction on the Q31 bus route. “Who was the genius that wasted 6 million dollars renaming the Triborough Bridge when we could have used the money for the MTA?” he asked.

Jacob Laite, a resident of Rego Park, sat in the back of the room with his buddies — waiting to make his voice heard about the proposal to discontinue the Q74 bus. Recovering after an operation on his spinal cord, Laite said he would often wait long periods for the bus. A political science student at Queens College, Laite said he was often late to class and had started resorting to hitching rides from friends now.

But the most emotional protest was made by 17-year-old Flushing resident, Aleksandr Rozentsuit. Suffering from a speech impediment, he begged the MTA via the sign-language interpreter to reconsider the service cuts, especially in the disability service Access-a-Ride. “I have a few friends who use the service,” he said. “Sometimes the vans are not clean and they get left in places a little short of their destination. They feel very scared,” he added, making it clear that the service cuts would strike a huge blow to anyone looking to get anywhere in the city.

This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle

Julian "Julie" Wager, affectionately known as "Mr.Steinway Street" passed away this month. (Pic Courtesy: Queens Gazette)

Those who knew Julian “Julie” Wager would agree that Frank Sinatra’s classic tune “My Way” reflected perfectly Wager’s life — a life lived on his own terms. Wager, affectionately dubbed “Mr. Steinway Street” for his involvement in the thoroughfare’s evolution, died Jan. 6. He was 80.

Friends describe Wager as tenacious and always willing to take on big challenges.

“He was an exceptional person, with a great can-do attitude,” said Tony Barsamian, editor of the Queens Gazette, where Wager worked for some time. “The greatest lesson he taught me was that nothing is impossible. If there is an obstacle, there is always a way around it. … He was driven by an inner desire to achieve.”

“If you knew Julie, you would have loved him,” said longtime friend and associate George Stamatiades. “If you didn’t know him, you were at war.”

On Friday, an estimated 300 people packed into the Astoria Center of Israel synagogue to bid final farewell to Wager. Many people at the services didn’t know him personally, but they appreciated his contributions in making Astoria what it is today.

The founder of the Queens Festival in 1979, a 30-year member of Community Board 1 and the founder and president of the Central Astoria Local Development Coalition (CALDC), Wager understood the relationship between community and business.
“If the community does not have a viable business district, then the community will die,” said Stamatiades, executive vice president of CALDC. “And if the business community does not have a thriving community, then the business will die. It’s a partnership. And Julie made sure everyone understood that.”

Stamatiades referred to the parking lot on Steinway Street between Broadway and 31st Avenue as a good example of that understanding. He said Wager recognized that for customers to shop on Steinway Street, it was important to have good streets and better parking.

“He intimidated my father,” recalled Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), whose father, Peter Vallone Sr., served on the Council from 1974 through 2001. Wager reportedly called the former councilmember ten minutes after he had been elected.

“Julie took my dad up and down Steinway Street, saying it didn’t need to be repaved, but redone,” said Vallone. “Thanks to Julie’s tenacity, instead of throwing some asphalt, they went three feet down and made a new road.”

Not just new roads, Wager also brought together business establishments in the area under the common umbrella of the CALDC so businessmen would have a stronger voice and better bargaining power against City authorities.

Wager wasn’t all business, though. He was also instrumental in setting up Central Astoria’s waterfront concert series and movie nights.

“The movies on the waterfront was a big hit,” said Marie Tornielli who worked with Wager at the CALDC. “A couple of thousand people showed up when it was set up.” She added that “when he saw a need for something, he went out and got it.”

The Independence Day fireworks at Astoria Park were also something Wager held close.

“The fireworks show — that’s Julie’s baby,” Vallone said. “When we were told by the mayor’s office that it would not happen, Julie politely suggested I try harder. And that’s when it happened.”

Julie did not know the meaning of “no,” said Stamatiades. “He would wear people down till he got what he wanted, and he wanted the best for the community.”

In 2000, Wager was paralyzed by a spinal cord injury, but that did not slow him down. A native of Astoria, he continued to serve the organizations in his community. He was president of his synagogue, Astoria Center of Israel, and worked as advertising director of the Queens Gazette.

In 2008, The Powhatan and Pocahontas Regular Democratic Clubs honored Wager’s tireless efforts for “this, that and what was the other thing.” State Sen. George Onorato recognized Wager’s leadership with a proclamation which joked that Astoria would have to be renamed “Wagerville” if Wager chaired or joined any more boards, committees, clubs and associations.

“You missed out,” said Stamatiades, referring to people who did not have a chance to meet the robust community leader. “But he would have also made you crazy.”

He would have, after all, as Sinatra sang, be doing things his way.

Wager is survived by six daughters and nine grandchildren.

This piece originally appeared in Queens Chronicle

Astoria's L'Incontro has been rated by Zagat as having the best Italian food in NYC. Eat dust, Manhattan!

Eat this, Manhattan!

Astoria restaurant L’Incontro has been rated by Zagat as having the best Italian food in NYC. The restaurant at 21-76 31st St. in Astoria topped the Zagat 2010 NYC Restaurants Survey, which was released in October.

The list includes more than 300 other restaurants in the five boroughs, of which just slightly less than one-third are from Queens, writes yournabe.com

In addition, Woodside’s Sripraphai, at 64-13 39th Ave., was ranked in the survey as the best place for Thai food in the city.

L’incontro and Sriphraphai have both been cited several times in the Michelin Guide as two of the borough’s best places to eat.

Yum! Now, we know where we are eating over the weekend! Have you eaten at these spots? We would love to hear what you ordered and what we should get! Drool alert.

As the 7 train climbs overland and clatters noisily into Queens, the demographic shift in the subway car is perceptible. Skin tones get darker, hemlines lower and necklines higher.

The car slowly fills with Koreans, Hispanic families and middle- aged Indian men reading the newspaper.

Incomprehensible chatter fills the air and boils down to a babble as the train pulls into Roosevelt Avenue stop.

The train empties out as groups scurry into their different enclaves to either enjoy a lazy afternoon or get down to business.

No Habla Espanol!
As I get off the Roosevelt Avenue stop and walk across the rows of Mexican and Colombian restaurants, young panhandlers try to sell me fruits that I have never seen or Arepas I have never tasted.

I ask an old man minding a newsstand for directions. He responds in rapid Spanish. He notes my expression of total and utter incomprehension and waves me away from the Spanish side towards the Indian Side of Jackson Heights that starts at 74th street.

Is it just me, or does this place smell like Home?!
I knew I hit home-base, when I see the chaos on the streets. If we are what we drive, then the random parking, the honking and the abject jaywalking showed me the reassuring presence of less civic minded Indians.

A harassed looking traffic cop, explained to me as she wrote out a ticket to a protesting young Indian male ‘They would rather park on this one crowded street than go down three blocks and find some empty places’. Sounds just like home!

Loud Punjabi music blares in "Little India" - Jackson Heights (Pic: Smriti Rao)

The air gets thicker with music at each step. Loud Punjabi music blares from outside shops selling the latest Hindi, Punjabi and devotional music. A turbaned Sikh man hands me a leaflet for newly opened Mehak Beauty Parlor and says, in what can only be interpreted as a reprimand “Eyebrows- Wax!”  I pass.

The market on 74th street, with the South Asian shops pulses and pounds like any other market from back home. This could be Delhi, Dhaka or just plain Jackson Heights.

With an estimated 250 small and medium-sized businesses – the South Asian community (including Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshi and Nepalis)- works within a two block radius from 74th street to 76th street.

A relaxation of the immigration policies during the Kennedy Administration led to a sharp increase in immigration during the 1960’s. Thousands of Asians and Latin Americans arrived on the scene making Jackson Heights their home.

It prompted some people to call this section of Queens ‘The Ellis Island of the 20th century’. By 1965, South Asian and Latino immigrants settled into their neighborhoods giving rise to ‘Little India’ and ‘Little Colombia’

On 74th street, my greedy eyes spot a Kebab King in the corner, zoom into Jackson Diner which is ‘world famous in New York’ and then settle on Delhi Heights – one of the many places where one could drop by for authentic Indian Cuisine.

The choices have now expanded to include restaurants that serve Afghan, Tibetan and Nepali cuisine.

If you would rather whip up your own Dal Makhni or make a mean Paneer Tikka, then Patel Brothers is a virtual Wal-Mart of spices as you try and pick all the ingredients that go into a home cooked Indian meal. Patel Brothers also boasts of a clientele that comes in not just from  New York City but also New Jersey and Connecticut.

God Tussi Great Ho!

Eagle Theatre in Jackson Heights screens all the latest Hindi movies

But apart from the food and shopping, Little India’s cultural aspirations would be miniscule if it did not include a large bit of Bollywood. At Eagle Theatre, visitors and residents of Jackson Heights get their weekly dose of drama and fantasy song and dance sequences.

Audiences sigh and clap and indulge Bollywood’s absurdity as two long lost brothers unite half way across the world thanks to matching tattoos on their arms.

Hard core hindi movie buffs can hop off the ‘7’, trade popcorn for samosas and immerse themselves in 3 hours of magic and mayhem.

Beneath The Business
Beneath the frantic throb of business on 74th street however, there’s a hum of anxiety. Rising rents and a lack of proper parking space on the main strip worries traders.

At the JMD Mall, which proclaims to be the first South Asian mall in New York – the tension is tangible. K K Sharma, a long time employee points outside the window to a parking meter.

‘It’s a big market, but there’s no open parking. Customers want to shop, but they double park on this street, then get tickets. They have no place to park their cars’.

3 stores down, Mudassar Khan of Khan Electronics agrees with Sharma. He adds skyrocketing rents as one of the other reasons why business on 74th street is floundering. Thanks to the high connectivity with Manhattan and the rest of New York, real estate values in the commercial area have shot up, increasing rents to a level that’s unaffordable to most of the small Mom and Pop stores in the area.

As a result, many of them have shut shop. Sitting in his small shop stacked with electronic goods, Mudassar points out that he pays $6000 a month as rent and barely makes a profit.

The existence of the Jackson Heights Traders Association is crucial to these businesses. It provides them with not just a means of redressal in an area, dominated by traditional rivals – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; but also allows the traders to formulate programs that promote cultural harmony.

Mudassar says he looks forward to the Diwali program – which not just has DJs and hindi music, but also draws in a huge expat crowd from across NYC and New Jersey. It’s not just great entertainment but also good business.

Together, But Separate:
But despite the South Asian community coming together for trade and cultural purposes- just a few blocks down- The Latino side of Jackson Heights, with a mixed population of Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, stays on its side of the fence.

Traders from both sides don’t mix and don’t see any reason to. Bill Rubino, of Stanley’s Home Furnishings on the Latino side of Jackson Heights has worked in the area since 1961. He says he never goes over ‘to the ‘other side’ except to get his ‘hair cut and eyebrows done’.

Part 2 of “In Jackson Heights” will have more about the neighborhood and feature the  famed Garden Apartments.

The MTA is getting set to eliminate the Queens bound W train, drawing howls of protest from Astoria residents (Pic Courtesy: The Daily News)

The “W” line that runs from Astoria, Queens, to Manhattan’s South Ferry is the quintessential middle child. It has trouble attracting attention and competes with its three other siblings, the N, Q, and R lines.

The elimination of the “W” line drew howls of protest from local commuters who take the train to and from Astoria, but what about commuters downtown – who take the train from Manhattan to South Ferry?

Kiwi Grady, who commutes from New York University to Whitehall each day, says she could easily take other trains if the “W” doesn’t show up. “As long as the “R” runs I will take that. I can also take the 4 or 5 which are faster but more crowded.”

Grady believes the elimination of the “W” would hit commuters to Queens the hardest. “Down here in Manhattan, you have a lot of options. But for those in the outer boroughs, they’ll be hit hardest”. Fred Willis, who hopped on the “W” at 42^nd Street, agreed. “I don’t think, it makes a big difference downtown,” he said, adding, “it is just a convenient connector.”

The axing of the “W” line is just one of the several service reductions outlined in the MTA’s 2010 budget. The “Z” train and 24 bus routes are also to be canceled, and free student MetroCards will no longer be offered. The cuts are meant to close a $383 million budget gap.

But for commuters on the downtown “W” line, crowds are not a worry. “It is crowded only in rush hour,” said Davawn Cassidy, a package delivery man from Brooklyn who rides the train more than ten times each week. “The R train runs on the same line, and the N is an express – so no worries,” Cassidy smiles and draws his big bag of packages around him in a car that has only two other people in it.

So, will commuters downtown miss the “W” when it is finally guillotined?

“I missed it now,” puffed Maria Bido, as she watched the train pull away from the platform.

Read more:

Commuters in LIC/Astoria protest “W” train cuts.

Why the “W” should stay

Traffic problems, noise and trash dropped by party goers annoy Norwood Gardens', Astoria, residents ( Pic courtesy: Donnelly Marks)

For the last couple of months, Norwood Gardens, Astoria resident Helen Carter has been waking up on weekends to find broken liquor bottles in her backyard. Donnelly Marks, another Norwood resident filled an entire bag with trash found on her block even as she walked her dog one Saturday morning.

The long time Astoria residents have been noting with increasing dismay the deteriorating quality of life in the quiet Astoria neighborhood of Norwood Gardens- thanks to a huge influx of bars and drunken visitors on 30th Avenue between 36th and 37th Street.

“People treat the street as their own private trash cans,” said Marks, referring to the bar-goers on 30th Avenue. “They empty their ashtrays on the street, dump trash, and broken bottles. People who come here don’t have any investment in the community,” she said

Over the last two years, Astoria’ 30th Avenue has seen a huge spike in the number of outdoor cafes, bars and restaurants. While the neighbors have welcomed the commercial activity in the area, they are annoyed by increasing noise levels in the area and the inconsiderate party-goers.

“They are waking working families at 3 and 4 a.m. with their street brawls,” said Marks, who lives off the busy commercial avenue. “They rev their engines, speed day and night and are destroying our private property, she said, adding a resident’s dog had been run over by a speeding SUV.

During the first six months of the year, noise in Community Board 1, which includes Astoria and parts of Long Island City, sparked more than 3,400 complaints to the city’s 311 line.

Precinct #114 that patrols Long Island City, Astoria, Jackson Heights and Woodside went as far as assigning a task force to monitor holiday revelers over Thanksgiving at 30th Avenue and Steinway.

While two bars were issued summonses over the Holiday, residents are skeptical of the task force’s efficacy in the long run. “The task force is not a band aid that can fix this problem in one weekend,” said Marks.

“It is a complex set of issues,” she said. “We don’t want to be adversarial,” said Marks referring to the business establishments in the area. “But if you are a business owner, you have to be responsible about your patrons,” she said.

“It is a double edged sword,” said Astoria resident Benjamin Duffey, echoing Mark’s sentiment.

“We’re trying to keep Astoria family friendly and business friendly,” he said, emphasizing the residents in the area were not anti-commerce.

Meanwhile, Frank Arcabascio of the 30^th Avenue Area Merchants Association says noise and activity go hand in hand. “I feel for the residents, I really do,” said Arcabascio, who runs a hairdressing salon on 30^th Avenue, “But when you have a busy street, you get trash,” he said. “You have to make an effort to address the issue, sure, but when you have a vibrant street, this is what you get,” he said.

“Sometimes, customers do get noisy,” admitted Athen’s Café manager Jimmy Naula, “they start smoking inside, and then I have to send them outside,” he said, adding once they are out of the restaurant, it is up to the customers to behave themselves. The café is one of the many locations that serve liquor on 30^th Avenue.  Jimmy’s views are echoed by Mike Degnan, who works as a bartender in the area. “When you are a bartender, you can only control the bar,” he said, adding “You can’t control what goes on outside.”

Residents also worry about the number of new liquor licenses being handed out to business establishments on 30th Avenue. “There has been a dramatic increase in the number of establishments that serve liquor,” acknowledged Edwin Negron of the NYPD Community Affairs Unit that handles Precinct 114. There are over 24 establishments in a four block radius that serve alcohol on premises. “There has been increased enforcement on our part,” he said, adding merchants were already approaching the police with requests for permits to operate all night on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

“The challenge is to balance this [commercial activity] with the right of homeowners to peace and quiet,” said Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria). “I plan to work with the homeowners and merchants to carve out a balanced solution,” he said.

Precinct 114 has also promised increased vigilance. “We will be patrolling [the streets] more often,” said Officer Negron. “There will be zero tolerance for outdoor consumption and public urination,” he said.

But more than the noisy bars, the lack of parking spaces and the party goers, residents say they are just asking for a little consideration from the revelers even as they mourn the loss of their neighborhood’s character.

“When I came here,” recalls Maloney, “it was called Doctor’s Row, because everybody worked in hospitals and what is now Mt.Sinai, Queens. No matter what the time, people walked around. It was extremely safe then,” she said, adding wistfully “It was such a pretty block.”

Read more here.

This piece originally appeared in Queens Chronicle

Residents rally for safer streets on Astoria's 21st Avenue; a lack of stop signs and traffic lights from 21st St to 28th St make crossing the roads impossible

Astoria residents are hopeful that 2010 rings in not just new tidings but also better traffic safety regulations on 21st Avenue. A seven block stretch on this Avenue, from 21st Street to 28th Street has been the object of much concern over the last two years as rising accidents have made residents nervous for their safety.

A lack of stop signs, speed bumps, or street lights in the area cause traffic to fly by – leaving residents to cross their fingers as they cross the road. They are now hopeful that a recent plea made by Community Board 1 to the Department of Transportation will see a change in status quo.

In 2008, there were 18 accidents in that stretch. 2009 saw 18 car accidents and four deaths – including the fatal accident of 65 year old Konstantinos Stayropoulos. He was killed in November, crossing the street at the intersection of 21st Av and 23rd Street.

Long time Astoria resident, Robert Giunta was a witness. He recalls seeing the elderly Stayropoulos cross the street, only to be hit by an SUV. Mr. Giunta said the detective handling the case told him the driver was not arrested, as Mr. Stayropoulos was “crossing the street at the wrong place.” “What is an elderly person supposed to do,” asked Mr. Giunta, referring to a lack of crosswalks in the seven block stretch. “Is he supposed to go up three blocks or walk down three blocks, just to get across,” he said.

Residents point out that it is not just concern for elderly folks but also children in the area that is pushing them to ask for better traffic calming measures. There are two schools in the area – PS 122 and St. John’s Prep – plus Kid Krazy day care center. “As a mother, you get anxious,” said Kimberly Lancial, an active proponent for better safety measures on 21st Avenue who also has a seven year old son. “There are schools, the day care center and also a lot of Apartments on 21st Avenue.”  She pointed out that in summer, youngsters speed their motorcycles down the Avenue as it presents a clear street for their “crotch rockets.” “Luckily, they haven’t had any fatalities, but this clear stretch is really dangerous,” she said, adding that drivers also use 21st Avenue as a bypass to avoid the traffic of Ditmars Boulevard, effectively rendering it the speed lane of Astoria.

In December, concerned residents and community leaders held a rally for a safer 21st Avenue. Democratic District Leader Costa Constantinides, who helped organize that rally pointed out that the community had warned the Department of Transportation of the unsafe stretch. “Instead of being proactive, the Department of Transportation just waited for something bad to happen,” said Constatinides, referring to the fatalities on the stretch. “Hopefully this time, they realize that there needs to be some traffic calming measures on this stretch.”

Robert Piazza, who is on CB1′s transportation committee said that a petition signed by 400 residents was submitted to the CB and the Department of Transportation. “When we look at the area, you will see there is no place an older person can take his time to cross the road, or someone in a wheelchair, or a lady with a baby,” he said.

While the Department of Transportation considers the CB’s request, Constantinides hopes action will be swift. “It will be a victory for us, if the DoT puts in lights and signs,” he said, adding “I don’t want to look at the next victim’s family and tell them we have failed.”

This piece originally appeared in Queens Chronicle

Day laborers gather at Hart Part, Queens for a hot breakfast given by a local soup kitchen. Residents are angry at the increasing crowds milling outside the park (Photo: Smriti Rao)

On any given day, you would find day worker Jose Manuel at Hart Park, 69th at 37th Avenue, Jackson Heights. The painter from Mexico comes to the park each morning hoping to be picked up for work. On Tuesdays, a mobile soup kitchen run by St. John’s Bread and Life provides him and his friends with a hot breakfast of pasta and beans that makes the wait, which has gotten longer, a little more bearable.

“I have been coming here for a long time now,” said Manuel, eating his breakfast. “Earlier they weren’t this many people,” he said referring to about 60 day laborers still waiting for work at 10.30 in the morning. “But now there are no jobs,” he continues, adding “maybe in January it will get a little better.”

As Manuel and his friends mill outside Hart Park waiting for work; across the street, Stathis Amides, the superintendent of the building across the Park is seething. He stands with a small camera in his hand to record any digressions the workers make.

“I have been seeing this for a year now,” says Amidis, referring to the mobile soup kitchen. “They feed the people, then the workers take their platters to Roosevelt Avenue, and litter all along the block,” he said, adding he was normally up at about 6 am each day to clean up after the workers. “This is a very big problem for me,” he fumed.

Amidis is not alone in his anger towards the workers. A group of irritated residents went as far as posting on a neighborhood blog, their complaints against the soup kitchen and the workers.

Amidst calls for the soup kitchen to move elsewhere in Woodside, the angry residents, who were unnamed on the blog wrote: “Their [the soup kitchen] intrusion into our neighborhood is unwanted and unneeded. None of the residents ever take food from them.” Saying the soup kitchen feeding immigrants was a “creepy intrusion,” the residents worried about their children being exposed to the workers, complained about the bathrooms in the park getting dirty and said the soup kitchen and the day laborers both contributed in reducing the quality of life in the neighborhood.

St.John’s Bread and Life says it is bewildered by the open hostility. “We have been doing this [running the soup kitchen], at the same site, for the last two years now,” said Anthony Butler, Executive Director of the program that feeds roughly 300 laborers at Hart Park each Tuesday and about 3000 others city wide. “But the complaints started just two months ago. It’s kind of xenophobic, really,” he said, adding while undocumented labor was a big issue in the Country, people were being scrooges at this time of the year. “So, should we only feed people who are legal,” he asked adding there was a great deal of racism when it came to to the complaints. “We have seen a 20-30% increase in laborers because of the recession, and we have also seen an uptick in anti-immigrant sentiment. The undocumented [laborers] get blamed for everything,” he said.

Meanwhile, Amides, who has to deal with the workers on an everyday basis, said he wasn’t against the workers, only their attitudes. “Everyday, they bother the tenants,” he said, referring to the workers, “they tease the young girls, “Yo mamita, Yo mamita,” he mimicked.”I understand they are looking for jobs, but I can’t understand them bothering the little girls.”

Residents also complain that they feel unsafe for their children when the workers are milling about Hart Park.”We don’t mind them staying in Woodside, but not on the playground,” said another resident who wished to be unnamed. “They [the soup kitchen] are welcome to stay in Woodside,” she said, “Just move three or four blocks in either direction.”

A request that Sister Kathy Byrnes of St. John’s Bread and Life says, is untenable. “Some neighborhoods want immigrants to disappear,” she said, “We came here because the workers gather here, it’s not the other way around. We try to serve those most in need.” She said that since the soup kitchen clarified park rules,  workers have been notified not to enter Hart Park, as it is against the rules to enter the park without children. “Now, they don’t go into the park, but they can use the bathrooms,” she specified, much to the chagrin of the residents.

As the soup kitchen and the residents battle it out, workers like Jose and his friends admit to a few bad apples in their crowd. “Sometimes, some workers drink in the park in summer,” Jose said, “we tell them not to, but they still do it,” he added. He said the workers were warned by the local precinct to behave and added that it was a  shame that some workers didn’t play by the rules. “This is where we have to meet everyday,” he said, referring to the pick up point. “If they [residents] kick us out from here, where will we go?” he asked, as he finished his breakfast and started another long wait in the biting cold – hoping to be picked up for work.

This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle