⚖️Family Of Deceased Rikers Inmate Sue City+ Ferry Expansion Concerns

Good morning, Queens! 🤩

• ⚖️ The family of a man who died in City custody while detained at Rikers Island, have filed a $25 million wrongful death suit Wednesday alleging gross negligence.
• ⛴ Members of the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy have major concerns over the city's $12.2 million plan to move and expand the NYC Ferry landing in Hunters Point South Park.
• 🎨 Artists listen up! The Queens Art Fund — which offers cash grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 to Queens-based individual artists and nonprofit organizations — is opening its Fiscal Year 2023 application cycle on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

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👌 Nice with 🤓☀️ brilliant sunshine. High: 67 Low: 53.

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Here are the top stories today in Queens:

1. The family of Segundo Guallpa, who died in City custody while detained at Rikers Island, have filed a $25 million wrongful death suit Wednesday against the City of New York and several Department of Corrections (DOC) officers. The family allege both the City and the DOC staff were grossly negligent in failing to interfere and offer aid to Guallpa who, according to video surveillance footage from Aug. 29 , 2021, was acting distressed in the several hours before he died. The federal complaint asserts that DOC employees failed to conduct regular and required rounds to verify signs of life, and that they also falsified records to say these rounds were made, even though they were not. Guallpa was one of 15 people to die in custody in 2021, while 18 people have died at Rikers Island so far this year.

AM New York Metro

2. The Hunters Point Parks Conservancy (HPPC) have major concerns over the city's $12.2 million plan to move and expand the NYC Ferry landing in Hunters Point South Park that would place a 262-foot docking area directly in front of the park's main waterfront promenade. Members of the HPPC say they were blindsided by the proposed plan which was publicized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers without any community or stakeholder communication or input. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), which oversees the NYC Ferry operation, has scheduled a meeting with the HPPC that will take place Friday. While the HPPC says the larger landing will prevent waterfront access and thus ruin sweeping views of the East River and Manhattan skyline, the NYCEDC has other priorities. "The Hunters Point South landing is reaching the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced, but constructing a ferry landing in this area poses significant challenges given the Amtrak and Queens Midtown tunnels directly under the park," an NYCEDC Spokesperson said. "The proposed location, chosen in close coordination with the NYC Parks Department, will allow a new landing to be constructed safely, and offer a landing to the community that allows for docking of 350–passenger vessels and will be fully ADA compliant."

Queens Courier

3. The Queens Art Fund — which offers cash grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 to Queens-based individual artists and nonprofit organizations — is opening its Fiscal Year 2023 application cycle on Tuesday, Nov. 8. QAF provides project-based funding to small, local arts and culture nonprofits, individual artists, and unincorporated art collectives in order to invest in and bolster the cultural vibrancy of Queens. In order to qualify for the grant, applicants must publicly present this work in some way, either virtually or in person. Last year, QAF awarded 34 grants to "small-budget" nonprofits based in Queens and over 100 grants to artists.

Hyperallergic

4. Julie Powell, the food writer who died last month, first launched her "Julie/Julia Project," the blog that catapulted her to food-world fame in 2002, from her self-described "hideous apartment" in Long Island City. This apartment, with its "crappy outer borough kitchen," was where Powell spent a year trying to cook every recipe in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," then blogging the results. The blog ended up amassing 400,000 page views by the end of 2002, a New York Times profile in 2003, and even inspired the famous Nora Ephron-directed film adaptation released in 2009. During this time, the "hideous" Long Island City apartment took on a kind of mythic status, and though some of Powell's later writing proved controversial, her Julie/Julia blog has been credited with inspiring a generation of home cooks to expand their repertoire.

Patch

5. Over the past four years, Sampson Dahl, 27, has transformed a former Maspeth laundromat into an electic space and a performance venue of sorts that he is proud to call home. He admits, however, that the space is "New York's most poorly run laundromat for sure." Dahl has densely adorned every surface of the $1,850-a-month, 800-square-foot space with gifted and found objects, many of which he acquired from his job in set design. Dahl's friends, some of whom partake in the musicals, film clubs, painting nights, group songwriting sessions, plays and performance art he has hosted at the location, live in the rear unit behind him, and a family lives in the residential apartment above. Before leasing the laundromat, Dahl formerly lived in a bus, and before that a 3,000-square-foot Chicago warehouse he shared with about 12 others.

New York Post

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

• Queens DA discusses bail reform during 102nd Precinct Community Council meeting in Richmond Hill (Queens Courier)
• NYC 'Duck Sauce Killer' widow gets legal win in Queens court (New York Daily News)
• Handyman Pleads Guilty in Duffel Bag Killing of Queens Mother That Shocked NYC (NBC New York ; New York Daily News)
• Queens Man Celebrates $2 Million Lottery Win with Ticket Ordered on Jackpocket App (PRNewswire)
• Egg-Themed Indian Street Foods Chain Lays Its First Restaurant in NYC in Queens (Eater NY)

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🗓 To Do Today in Queens:

• Love & Hiking Date For Couples (Self-Guided) (7 a.m.)
• Queens Hospital Center Farmers' Market (8 a.m.)
• Volunteer at 9 Million Reasons / Evangel Food Pantry (8:45 a.m.)
• Adult Open Badminton (12 p.m.)
• Exhibition - Living with The Walking Dead (2 p.m.)
• Art Lab for Kids: Make Your Own Emoji (2:30 p.m.)
• Queens Hip Hop 101: A Master Class (4 p.m.)
• New York Chinese Chorus (5 p.m.)
• LGBT Network: TGNCNB Peer Support Circle (6:30 p.m.)
• What About APEC's Future? - Alley Pond Environmental Center (7 p.m.)

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🗣 Queens Chatter:

• 💥🎃 Not sure what to do with your leftover Halloween pumpkins? Get smashed: "♻️ Repurpose pumpkins + add them back into the closed-loop of organics recycling! ⁠🎃 Smash 'em at #QBGPUMPKINSMASH at Lou Lodati Park, LIC this Sat,11/5! Sign up: https://pumpkinsmash2022.event... ⁠ " (Queens Botanical Garden via Facebook)
• 🤔 What might be brewing at the Queens Museum: "🌐 The clock is ticking, something new is coming. 11.04.2022" (Queens Museum via Facebook)
• 🧑‍💻 Join the Queens Women's Business Center for an enlightening and motivational webinar: "Please join the Queens Women's Business Center for this free webinar on November 10, where you will be able to meet with a panel of lenders from different organizations to go over what you need to get money for your business! Panelists include banks, micro-lending institutions and federal government products to meet the needs of all business owners from all stages. You will get an introduction from each of the organizations along with a description of the different amounts of money, terms and additional requirements that each lender can offer your business." (Queens Economic Development Corporation via Facebook)
• 📚🤓 Queens schools gets state-of-the-art upgrades: "From hydroponic labs at schools like P.S. 62 to state-of-the-art technology to infrastructure upgrades, you better believe the nearly $11 million I'm investing in #Queens schools this year will go a long way toward improving the education of our children. Check out QNS for more about our investments." (Queens Borough President Donovan Richards via Facebook)
• 🧠 Every CUNY student deserves access to mental health care: "Our city must provide an appropriate workforce of mental health professionals to facilitate the well-being of every student at @CUNY. On today's joint hearing with @EricDinowitzNYC , I asked how we can ensure the prioritization of mental healthcare on our campuses." (Council Member Linda Lee via Twitter)

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Now you're in the loop and ready to head out the door on this Thursday! I'll see you around.

— 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