🌱Queensbridge Traffic Safety Measures+ Participatory Budgeting Process

Good morning, Queens! 🏆

• 🏁 City Council Member Julie Won is calling for additional safety measures to be implemented on the stretch along 40th Avenue between 10th and 12th streets, a road notorious for car accidents.
• 💰 Queens Borough President Donovan Richards welcomed dozens of civic-minded Queens residents, and a large number of young people ages 11 and up, to partake in New York City's first-ever $5 million citywide participatory budgeting process.
• 🧼 Councilwoman Joann Ariola is planning to sponsor several cleanup events throughout the Rockaway peninsula.

---

🌴🌧 Tropical rainstorm. High: 71 Low: 51.

---

Here are the top stories in Queens today:

1. A deadly street outside the Queensbridge Houses, where at least 22 people have been injured, two fatally, in crashes since 2011, must be redesigned with safety in mind. The stretch along 40th Avenue between 10th and 12th streets is a hotspot for car accidents — 19 crashes have occurred there since 2011, according to city data. In an effort to bring the city to address the dangerous road, City Council Member Julie Won wrote a letter on Oct. 13 to the Department of Transportation requesting two new speed bumps along those two blocks and a stop sign on the corner of 10th Street and 40th Avenue. "After receiving community feedback, I am strongly advocating for these safety measures to be implemented, which will increase community and traffic safety, preventing the number of vehicular accidents surrounding Queensbridge," said Won. Residents of Queensbridge told CBS2 that additional safety measures were badly needed as drivers constantly ignore an existing stop sign on the corner of 12th Street.

Patch

2. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards welcomed dozens of civic-minded Queens residents, as well as a large number of young people, at a Borough Hall gathering on Nov. 10 to explain how they could be more involved in how their hard-earned tax dollars are spent by the city government. "Sometimes people come to us, and they're like, 'fully fund this,' and we have to work with specific agencies to get that done," Richards said. "I love this process of educating the public on how things actually work in this city." This gathering was part of New York City's first-ever $5 million citywide participatory budgeting process — a program through which all New Yorkers, ages 11 and up, will be able to decide how to spend $5 million of mayoral expense funding to address local community needs citywide.

Queens Courier

3. Councilwoman Joann Ariola is planning to sponsor several cleanup events on the Rockaway peninsula, and will also team up with local merchants and small business owners to host events and increase commerce. "These new merchant groups will help to improve commerce and beautify these vital corridors for years to come," Ariola said. "With these in place, Rockaway's business people will be able to work together to host events and pool money for important projects that will make their streets better, more attractive destinations for both residents and visitors alike." Through the cleanup events throughout Rockaway, Ariola will further her mission of creating better, more aesthetically-pleasing areas for shoppers to enjoy.

Queens Courier

4. A Queens-based break dancer has her sights set on victory at this Saturday's Red Bull BC World Final, a global one-on-one competition that brings together the world's best breakdancers, at the Manhattan Center. Grace Choi, known as "Sunny," has been involved in breakdancing since college, when she saw some people dancing late at night, and they encouraged her to take a free breakdance class. Choi immediately fell in love with the art form. "I tried a couple things and I realized this is it, this is for me," she said, referencing break dancing. Choi is currently in the process of leaving her full-time job at Estée Lauder in order to commit herself fully to competitive dance, which itself is a full-time job all its own, requiring practicing, dieting, building strength, and conditioning nearly daily. Breakdancing as an Olympic sport debuts in Paris in 2024, and Choi hopes to represent Team USA. "I want to show the world who I am," she said. "Show the world the journey that I've been through."

FOX 5 New York ; Andscape

5. Tim Weah, a member of the U.S. men's national team set to play in the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, spent his childhood in Rosedale, a neighborhood in the far southeastern corner of Queens. Located between John F. Kennedy International Airport and Nassau County, Rosedale is part of a thriving Caribbean community in NYC — nearly 30 percent of Rosedale's total population of just over 26,500 was born in non-Hispanic Caribbean countries like Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago, and another 10 percent was born in Guyana. Tim started playing soccer before he could walk, says his uncle, who oversees Rosedale Soccer Club's recreational program, which is still hosted on the same turf field where Tim got his first taste of soccer. As he grew up, Tim began playing on Rosedale's travel teams, progressing to the point where he needed a higher level of competition, which he found in BW Gottschee, a club from Ridgewood, Queens. From then on, Tim has moved from strength to strength on the soccer field, starting in Queens, now up going to Qatar, and surely moving only onward and upward from there on.

The Athletic

---

🗞 Hankering for more headlines? 👀 Look no further:

• Veterans Day: Queens Hosts Ceremony At Borough Hall, Kew Gardens (Patch)
• Teen charged in fatal shooting of Queens high school student Mark Greene (New York Post)
• First-Time Buyers Face a Brutal Housing Market (The New York Times)
• Woman Tied Up During Queens Home Invasion; Police Search for Suspects (NBC New York)
• In Queens, faithful followers throw a birthday party for Santa Muerte (WNYC)
• Newly elected progressives in western Queens reflect on support of successful campaigns (Queens Courier)

---

🗓 To Do Today in Queens:

• Love & Hiking Date For Couples (Self-Guided) (7 a.m.)
• Vinyl Revolution Record Show (11 a.m.)
• Ric Flair (Public Signing) Big Event (12 p.m.)
• KIDS Stop Motion Animation (2 p.m.)
• Debate: Baldwin vs Buckley at the Queens Theatre (3 p.m.)
• New Works Reading Series by Caribbean American Artists (3 p.m.)
• Giggle Juice Comedy (5 p.m.)
• Best International Saturdays: Reggar, Soca, Hip-hop (8 p.m.)

To Do Sunday:

• Interfaith Community Breakfast (8:30 a.m.)
• Bayside Historical Society Vintage Car Show 2022 (9 a.m.)
• Vinyl Revolution Record Show (11 a.m.)
• Thunderbird American Indian Dancers Present Autumn Dance Celebration (2 p.m.)
• Live in Concert: SwaranjalI (3 p.m.)
• The New York Winter Lantern Festival: Illuminate the Farm (5 p.m.)
• "Crossing the Seas" Chamber Music with Japanese Drums by Midori Larsen (5 p.m.)

---

🗣 Queens Chatter:

• 🏳️ Queens has the most veterans of any other borough!: "#Queens is a borough of possibility and opportunity because Queens is a borough of veterans — over 42,000 strong, more than any other borough. Happy #VeteransDay to all who have served this nation. There are no words to properly describe your selflessness or our gratitude. To that end, please join us at Borough Hall on Tuesday at 11:30am for our annual Veterans Day Observance Ceremony, as we honor the countless Queens residents who have worn America's uniform. RSVP: queensbp.org/rsvp." (Queens Borough President Donovan Richards via Facebook)
• 🎁 Get ready for wreath making: "On Sunday, 11/27 bring your bestie to one of two holiday wreath making workshops! Create your own festive holiday wreath using fresh cut pine, fir, and other evergreens to display for the holidays. All materials included. Recommended for adults and children ages 10+ (accompanied by participating adult). Tickets: https://qbgholidaywreaths.eventbrite.com/?aff=socialmedia #DIYHolidays #DIYCraft #HolidayWreaths #PrintMaking #HolidayDecor" (Queens Botanical Garden via Facebook)
• 🎨 Emerging artists to watch: "The Queens Museum is thrilled to announce the artists selected for the 2022-24 In Situ Artist Fellowship and the 2022-23 QM-Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists: In Situ Artist Fellows: Cameron A. Granger, Nsenga Knight, and Catalina Schliebener Muñoz QM-Jerome Foundation Fellows: Sonia Louise Davis and Emilie Louise Gossiaux Learn more about each Fellowship below, and join us in congratulating our fellows! : https://qnsmu.se/fellows" (Queens Museum via Facebook)
• 🎥🍿 Check out this amazing film tonight at MoMI: "Francis Ford Coppola's directorial vision truly pops in THE COTTON CLUB ENCORE, restored and extended from its original release. #SeeItBig tonight and Sat, 11/12 http://bit.ly/3Uvgnop" (Museum of the Moving Image via Twitter)
• 🚗 Protect your catalytic converter: "Please join Patrol Borough Queens North for a "Combat Catalytic Convertor Theft" etch program. November 18, 2022 from 10am-2pm, in the US Army parking lot of Fort Totten." (NYPD 111th Precinct via Twitter)

---

More from our sponsors — thanks for supporting local news!

Events:

• Office Furniture & Home Furniture Warehouse Liquidation Sale (November 12)
• Healthy & Wealthy Expo (November 12)
• Bibi: Benjamin Netanyahu and David Rubenstein in Conversation (November 13)
• Veteran's Day Remembrance Concert (November 13)
• Berkeley College Open House (November 19)
• Add your event

---

You're all caught up for today. 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