Oct. 15, 2021 By Michael Dorgan A city clean-up initiative that launched in April has removed 600,000 bags of trash from New York streets, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday. The City Cleanup Corps, which consists of nearly 10,000 workers, has also hand-swept more than 50,000 city blocks, repainted 900 defaced properties and cleaned 25,000… Read more »
Oct. 14, 2021 By Max Parrott Several Queens legislators have called on a city panel tasked with overseeing public art and architecture to vote to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson in the City Council chambers as a form of reckoning with his legacy as a slaveholder. The 11-member city Public Design Commission will hold… Read more »
Oct. 14, 2021 By Michael Dorgan A virtual walk celebrating religious freedom and the founding of Flushing will take place Sunday. The event, called the Queens Interfaith Unity Walk, will see residents from different religious backgrounds come together and virtually visit houses of worship in Queens. The walk, now in its 12th year, is being… Read more »
Oct. 14, 2021 By Allie Griffin Six million New York City residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday. “This is unbelievable,” de Blasio said during his morning press briefing. “Six million people who have gone and done the right thing for themselves and their families,… Read more »
Oct. 13, 2021 By Allie Griffin More than 200 women and trans individuals incarcerated at Rikers Island will be moved to state-run jails starting next week, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday. About 230 individuals will be moved to two facilities in Westchester both to protect them and help alleviate ongoing… Read more »
Oct. 13, 2021 By Allie Griffin Several new businesses have recently opened — or are set to open — inside a Flushing mega-development as the city bounces back from the pandemic. Two cafés, a gym, a movie theater and a Japanese retail store are among the new and incoming tenants inside Tangram, a 1.2 million-square-foot… Read more »
Oct. 13, 2021 Staff Report Governor Kathy Hochul announced a major milestone last week in the Kew Gardens Interchange Phase 4 project in Queens. Construction has been completed on two newly reconfigured ramps that aim to enhance safety and reduce congestion along the heavily traveled commuter corridor used by hundreds of thousands of commuters each… Read more »
Oct. 13, 2021 By Michael Dorgan A Flushing couple has been accused of duping hundreds of Chinese nationals out of millions of dollars, by luring them into buying into two failed development projects in Queens — with the promise that their investments would help secure them residency in the United States. Yi “Richard” Xia and… Read more »
Oct. 13, 2021 By Christian Murray Three Congressional lawmakers—including two who represent neighborhoods in Queens—visited Rikers Island Tuesday and called the facility inhumane and urged local and state officials to take corrective action. Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ritchie Torres said the conditions that inmates are living under and prison staff face each day… Read more »
Oct. 13, 2021 By Allie Griffin The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is putting the the controversial LaGuardia AirTrain project on hold. The agency announced Tuesday that it will pause its $2 billion plan to build a 1.5-mile rail line from Willets Point to LaGuardia Airport at the direction of Gov. Kathy… Read more »