Nov. 1, 2023 By Bill Parry The NYPD is investigating a vandalism incident that occurred on Monday, Oct. 30, at a Murray Hill church that caused tens of thousands of dollars worth or damage to a nearly 110-year-old statue. Police from the 109th Precinct in Flushing responded to a call around 5 p.m. at St….
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Nov. 1, 2023 By Ethan Marshall Crime continues to rise in northern Queens, although it remains flat in the southern portion of the borough, according to the NYPD’s latest crime statistics released Oct. 29. The number of major crimes — murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny of automobiles — increased…
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Oct. 27, 2023 By Ethan Marshall There was a drop in the median price and sales across Queens during the third quarter of 2023 when compared to the previous quarter, according to a report from the MNS Real Estate firm. Quarter-over-quarter, the median price per square foot of units in Queens dropped 1.7%, from $1,298 to $1,276. Additionally, the median price paid decreased 7.5%, from $832,524 to $770,000. Over this same period of time, the total sales volume of units in Queens dipped 13.35%, from $257,170,075 to $222,843,811. To go along with this drop in sales volume, the amount of…
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Oct. 27, 2023 By Ethan Marshall Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into a law a legislation authorizing a tax abatement program to provide improvements to affordable housing on Monday, Oct. 23. The legislation was sponsored by Queens state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky and Assemblymember Edward Braunstein. This legislation is meant to improve upon the J-51 Tax Abatement Program, which provided a property tax discount for co-ops and condos that needed to make certain capital improvements, while also helping to offset costs. The J-51 Program expired on June 29, 2022. The J-51 Affordable Housing Rehabilitation Legislation improves upon the program by increasing…
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Oct. 26, 2023 By Iryna Shkurhan For the second time, Council Member Vickie Paladino partnered with School District 25 to distribute thousands of books to children in Flushing. The Spook-tacular Family Book Night on Tuesday, Oct. 24, in Browne Park brought out thousands of costume clad parents and children ahead of Halloween. Costumes based on…
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Oct. 26, 2023 By Rachel Butler A pair of famed international actors who are known from their work on the stage and on screen recently participated in a Q&A event about their upcoming play at Queens Theatre. Lupita Ferrer, a Venezuelan theater actress who has starred in movies such as “Mariana de la Noche,” “The…
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Oct. 26, 2023 By Ethan Marshall Queens is the most sought-after urban location for renters to live in across the country, according to a new report. The real estate firm RentCafe released its October rental activity report that found that the borough attracted the most engagement from apartment hunters in the month than anywhere else in the nation. Queens, which ranked third place in September, climbed ahead of Arlington, VA, and Kansas City, MO, to move to the top spot in October. This climb to the top was months in the making, as the borough has been making its way…
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Oct. 26, 2023 By Ethan Marshall It takes the typical homebuyer in New York state more than eight years to save for a deposit on a house, putting the state in fourth place in terms of the length of time needed to build a nest egg for a house, according to a study released by SelfStorage.com. New York ranked behind Massachusetts, Montana and Hawaii in terms of the amount of time needed to raise a 10% deposit, based on the cost of living and incomes in each respective state. SelfStorage.com conducted the study by determining the median household income of…
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Oct. 25, 2023 By Rachel Butler A charity bowling event will be hosted at Jib Lanes in Flushing on Saturday, Oct. 28, to raise money for Memorial Sloan Kettering, the cancer treatment and research institution, and to honor the memory of award-winning news anchor Ruschell Boone, who died last month. This will be the second annual “Strike for a Cure” event, which is presented by NYPD Community Affairs in partnership with Municipal Credit Union. NYPD Officer Genecea Johnson co-founded Strike for a Cure last year with NYPD Detective Patrick Blanc and emphasized the importance of raising funds as well as…
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Oct. 25, 2023 By Ethan Marshall The NYPD released the crime stats for the 28-day period of Sept. 24 to Oct. 22 in northern and southern Queens and, while the numbers show there was little change year-over-year in major crimes, there was an overall increase in crimes across the borough. Some of the notable trends…
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