Community Corner

🔥Excessive Heat Exposure In Queens +Reopen Elmhurst Urgent Care Clinic

The quickest way to get caught up on the most important things happening today in Queens.

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Good morning, Queens! ☕️

I have it on good word that there's something special about this Friday in particular. Here are today's headlines:

  • 🔥 A recent study revealed several Queens neighborhoods to be the worst ranked across the city when it comes to excessive heat exposure and park access.
  • ⚠️ Rego Park residents are not happy with the measures the city put in place to make 62nd Drive a safer road.
  • 🏥 Advocates and locals are demanding the return of Elmhurst Hospital's Expresscare Clinic, one of the only in-person urgent care facilities that offered low or no-cost health services to the uninsured.

☀️ Sunshine. High: 63 Low: 49.

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Here are the top stories in Queens today:

1. New data released Tuesday as a part of transit group Transportation Alternative's partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reveals dramatic spatial inequity in many Queens neighborhoods. According to Spatial Equity NYC, an online tool from Transportation Alternatives, the neighborhoods encompassing Woodhaven, Jamaica and Hollis are among the most prone to excessive temperatures in the city. This makes residents more prone to heatstrokes, asthma attacks, and cardiovascular collapses. Green space would help reduce these temperatures, but the neighborhoods that make up Queens Village, Astoria, and Long Island City were also ranked among the places with the least amount of residents living within walking distance of a park.

Patch

2. Locals are not satisfied with the new street design implemented by the New York Department of Transportation (DOT) in an effort to make Rego Park's 62nd Drive safer. The road is identified as a "high crash corridor," and more than a dozen people have been seriously injured on it over the last five years. To reduce the dangers, the DOT added a protected bike lane on the side of the street, and a new parking configuration in the center. However, neighbors say the DOT's solution made things worse than before — and nearly 100 of them have signed a petition to adjust or remove altogether the bike lane and center parking. "My son was having an allergic reaction and I called for an ambulance. It took them too long to get here because they were stuck in a jam," said Arsen Gurgov, who has lived on 62nd Drive in Rego Park for the past 25 years. "It's either or," Gurgov said. "They either get rid of the side parking, or they get rid of the bike lane. You can't have both. It's too narrow of a street."

PIX11 New York News

3. Advocates and locals are demanding the return of Elmhurst Hospital's Expresscare Clinic, an urgent care clinic which was closed to in-person visits in January 2021 and was turned into a vaccination center. Nearly two years later, the clinic — one of the only in-person urgent care facilities that offered low or no-cost health services to the uninsured — remains closed. Expresscare opened in the fall of 2019 and quickly became popular among residents of Corona, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights, neighborhoods which have the highest rates of uninsured and undocumented residents in the city. Despite Queens having, as of Oct. 18, the highest percentage of residents who have received at least two doses of the vaccine, New York City Health + Hospitals Elmhurst Medical Center has given no indication that it plans to reopen the urgent care clinic.

Queens Daily Eagle

4. Queens Assembly Member Jennifer Rajkumar, Mayor Eric Adams, and DOE Chancellor David Banks announced Thursday morning that Rajkumar is set to introduce a bill that would clear the way for Diwali – the Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhists "festival of lights" – to become a public school holiday. Mayor Adams vowed to make Diwali a school holiday as soon as he took office on Jan. 1, saying that the DOE had already added the Asian Lunar New Year and Muslim holidays of Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha to the school calendar, and it is time to do the same with Diwali. Chancellor Banks said making Diwali a school holiday would provide a useful opportunity to teach students from other faiths and cultures about Diwali and its significance to so many city communities.

Politics NY ; The City

5. Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday, Oct. 19, that Hassan Naveed has been appointed the Executive Director of the New York City Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC). Naveed had been serving as 'acting executive director' of the OPHC, a department he will now officially head. He previously worked as director of outreach for the NYPD inspector general, and had also led community efforts in Washington, D.C. that worked to improve hate crime responses and prevention by the local police department."Combatting the scourge of hate, whether against our AAPI+ community, our Jewish brothers and sisters, our LGBTQ+ population, or any other community that calls this city home, requires a holistic, evidence-based approach," said Mayor Adams. "Hassan Naveed is a dedicated, compassionate leader who has a strong track record of bringing communities together, and I am proud to appoint him to lead this crucial office."

New India Times ; The Official Website of the City of New York

🗞 Hungry for more news? 🍴Snack on these headlines:

  • How to indulge in Halloween spook-tivities without leaving Queens (Queens Courier)
  • Queens Man Pleads Guilty to Killing WWI Veteran In 1976: DA (Queens Patch)
  • World's longest footrace: 5000 km around a New York City school (La Prensa Latina)
  • AOC hears from Astoria residents during community forum (Queens Courier)

🗓 To Do Today in Queens:

  • Love & Hiking Date For Couples (Self-Guided) (7 a.m.)
  • Queens Farm Farmstand (11 a.m.)
  • The New York Hall Of Science - Free General Admission Fridays (2 p.m.)
  • Art Lab For Kids: Make Your Own Emoji (2 p.m.)
  • Poetry In The Park (6 p.m.)
  • Pajama Story Time: Night-Time Mystery at Queens Zoo (5 p.m.)
  • Fall Swap: Circular Fashion & Friends (7 p.m.)
  • String Quartet: Bergafest Celebration Concert at JACK Performance Space (7:30 p.m.)

🗣 Queens Chatter:

  • 🎃 Halloween at the Queens Botanical Garden: "What will YOU be for Halloween? For inspiration, check out some of our favorite costumes from years past at #QBGHalloween! 👻💀🧙‍♀️🧛‍♂️ 🎟 Tickets: https://qbghalloween2022.event... Come dressed for this year's event next Sunday, 10/30, 12-5pm! Included in admission: Trick-or-Treat Trail, crafts, live performances—including a magic show! Adults 21+ can enjoy harvest beers and ciders for purchase. Meet our Compost team to learn about the creepy-crawly organisms that turn our food scraps into black gold! And be sure to support local businesses at our vendor fair!" (Queens Botanical Garden via Facebook)
  • 🌈 I'm Finna Talk at the Queens Museum: "🎉 Join us on 10/22 for I'm Finna Talk's (@imfinnatalknyc) one year anniversary, a day of joyous community celebration featuring a Free Gender Affirming Pop Up Shop for Black and Brown LGBTQIA+ community members, alongside workshops and a variety show. Connect with various mutual aid groups and organizations around NYC; join art and movement workshops; and enjoy live drag, stand-up comedy and music performances. RSVP: https://qnsmu.se/wefinnacelebrate." (Queens Museum via Facebook)
  • 💜 Show your support for Domestic Violence Awareness Month: "It's #PurpleThursday today at Borough Hall, as we help raise awareness of #DomesticViolenceAwarenessMonth and promote healthy relationships. Intimate partner violence alone affects more than 12 million people every year. If you're in need of help, visit http://thehotline.org." (Queens Borough President Donovan Richards via Twitter)
  • 💀📖 Spooky Halloween reading: "#Halloween is almost here—what better time to join us for our Horror Book Club? If you're a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, this month we're reading T. Kingfisher's "What Moves the Dead," a retelling of "The Fall of the House of Usher," on Friday, Oct. 21 at 7PM. https://queenslibrary.org/calendar/qpl-spooks--chill-horror-book-club/003039-0822" (Queens Public Library via Twitter)

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Now you're in the loop and ready to start this Friday. See you all tomorrow for another update!

— Emma Radu Fighera

About me: Emma Radu Fighera is a reporter born and raised in Queens, New York. She studied Literature and Studio Art at Hamilton College, where she helped run the only daily publication on campus, The Daily Bull newsletter. This past spring she earned her M.S. from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Queens Daily? Contact me at queens@patch.com

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