Community Corner

🌱 Queens Housing Largest Share of Asylum-Seekers + Taxi Debt Relief

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

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(Patch Media)

Good morning, Queens! 🍀

  • 🏠 As of Wednesday, Queens is housing the most asylum-seekers of any borough.
  • 🚕 There was a City Council hearing on the Taxi and Limousine Commission, which recently inaugurated its $225 million taxi medallion debt relief program.
  • 🏝 An iconic LGBTQ landmark at Jacob Riis Park is set to be demolished by the city to make way for a park. Feelings about tearing down the landmark -- an abandoned tuberculosis hospital -- are mixed.

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Here are the top stories today in Queens:

1. As of Wednesday, a total of 14,777 asylum-seekers have been placed in emergency shelters around the city, according to data compiled by the Department of Homeless Services. Of that number, 4,782 people, or 32% of the total, have been placed in Queens, which is housing more asylum-seekers than any other borough. "It's a powder keg in Queens at this point," said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. He added: "We open our arms to everyone but we definitely need resources." While Richards is indeed correct that the situation in Queens is a "powder keg," a term I had to look up (it means a volatile situation), this is also true for every borough. In an email Thursday, City Hall spokeswoman Kate Smart wrote: "As the mayor has said, all communities and each borough must come together as we manage this unprecedented humanitarian emergency, which is exactly what these numbers show."

New York Post


2. For decades, the beach-going LGBTQ community has flocked to a certain section of Jacob Riis Park located directly in front of a long-abandoned tuberculosis hospital. This patch of sand, known as 'The People's Beach,' has long been a sanctuary for the NYC queer community, and the decrepit building has become a landmark of sorts. Now, however, the city has plans to demolish the structure to create a park on the site."We would like to be assured that we will continue to have this space, which has always been our space, where people from the queer community always end up," said Victoria Cruz, 76, who has been coming to the beach since the 1960s. The public hospitals agency has not announced any specific plans for the site, or when major demolition will begin, but said in an email this week that it aims for completion before the 2023 beach season.

NBC News


3. The City Council's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held an oversight hearing on Thursday to discuss the progress and future plans of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, and its $225 million taxi medallion debt relief program. The program began on Sept. 19 and since then 2,200 taxi medallion owners have signed up, and 1,500 owners have been processed and their debts reorganized. For many, this relief program has been life-changing. Also discussed at the hearing was the upcoming increase in taxi fare rates, and issues around the commuter van industry.

PIX11 New York News


4. Since it opened in Sunnyside 45 years ago, the Thalia Spanish Theatre has remained the first and only Hispanic theater in Queens. It is one of 9 theaters across NYC that produces plays in both English and Spanish. Angel Orrios, the artistic and executive director of Thalia, spoke with New York Living about the theater, which is considered a leader in the Spanish Theatre movement. "We select the plays that make sense of contemporary issues for our community," Orrios said. "Most of the productions we do here are world premieres or American premieres of the best writers and composers from Spain, Latin America or Hispanics in the U.S."

PIX11 New York News


5. Michael Dirda, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post Book World, recently visited "the city." (People who aren't from the city sometimes poke fun at this tendency of New Yorkers to call NYC just "the city." And while I understand why, to others, this might be annoying, or superior-seeming, or whatever, I will, as a born and bred New Yorker, continue to call the city just "the city" until my dying breath.) While in town, Dirda stayed with a friend in Kew Gardens, the Queens neighborhood where Kitty Genovese was famously murdered in 1964, and where comedian Rodney "I get no respect" Dangerfield grew up. During his stay, Dirda visited a few iconic New York book stores, admired many books, and went to several events and exhibitions.

The Washington Post


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

  • South Queens Residents Prefer Train Alternatives Over New Park Project (Patch)
  • NYPD brings murder charge in hit-and-run that killed Queens mom (New York Daily News)
  • Local filmmakers gather for 12th annual Queens World Film Festival preview (Queens Courier)
  • Queens student arrested for bringing loaded gun to school (New York Daily News)
  • Inflation Affecting 2022 Pumpkin Prices In Astoria, Long Island City (Patch)

🗓 To Do Today in Queens:

  • Volunteer at 9 Million Reasons / Evangel Food Pantry (8:45 a.m.)
  • Queens Farm Farmstand (11 a.m.)
  • The Amazing Maize Maze (12 p.m.)
  • Movie Night: Little Shop of Horrors at Queens Botanical Garden (7 p.m.)
  • Live at Culture Lab LIC: Minglewood (7 p.m.)
  • Queens Theatre Presents Romeo & Juliet: A Production by The Acting Company (8 p.m.)
  • "The Swinging Sounds of Coleman Hawkins" featuring Lew Tabackin and His Ensemble (8 p.m.)
  • The Ridgewood Asylum Haunted House (18+) (8 p.m.)

🗣 Queens Chatter:

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Now you're in the loop and ready to start this Friday off right! See you tomorrow morning 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 Journalism School.

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

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