Tributes poured in last Friday for Ed Koch, the three-term mayor who personified New York City from 1978 through 1989, and who died early that morning at age 88.

They came unsolicited from elected officials across the city, and were echoed on the street by the people of Queens.

U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan) had little trouble fending off her three challengers in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, garnering slightly less than 58 percent of the vote in the race for the new 7th Congressional District, which includes Woodhaven and parts of Maspeth.

The 10-term congresswoman landed 57.5 percent of the vote, while Councilman Erik Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn) received 31.8 percent, Manhattan economist Dan O’Connor garnered 8 percent, and Sunset Park district leader George Martinez won 2.6 percent of the ballots.

Candidates seen as the front runners in congressional primaries across Queens — whether incumbent lawmakers or party establishment choices — all won their nominations by wide margins Tuesday, according to preliminary results.

When Woodhaven Democrats head to the polls for the primary on June 26, they will not be able to cast their ballot for a candidate from their neck of the woods —but the three individuals running for the 7th Congressional District said they will focus on their Queens constituents, no matter how small a sliver of their area the borough constitutes.

U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens), who already represents a small portion of Woodhaven; Councilman Erik Dilan (D-Brooklyn) and Manhattan economist Dan O’Connor are vying to represent the 7th CD, which was recently redrawn during the state’s redistricting process to include such communities as parts of Maspeth, Chinatown and Williamsburg.

Democrats in much of Queens — and Republicans across the entire borough — will go to the polls June 26 to vote in primaries for their party’s nominees for Congress.

On the Republican side, the race pits U.S. Rep. Bob Turner (R-Queens, Brooklyn) against Manhattan attorney Wendy Long and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos, who each are seeking the nomination to run against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) for a full six-year term. Republicans across the state will be voting in the primary.

Now that Woodhaven has been swallowed by a Congressional district which includes communities quite unlike the Queens neighborhood —hipster-heavy Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Chinatown in Manhattan, for example —what is in store for constituents who will, no matter how this year’s election goes, definitely not be represented by someone from their neck of the woods?

According to one Democrat running for the 7th Congressional District —which much of Woodhaven is now a part of —and an individual representing the district’s current legislator, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens), residents getting used to their new political lines need not worry. The new area that covers Woodhaven, which had been part of U.S. Rep. Bob Turner’s (R-Queens, Brooklyn) 9th Congressional District, was born from the recent redistricting process, which happens once every 10 years and determines which neighborhoods fall within which Congressional, Assembly and state Senate districts.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney threw her hat into New York’s newly drawn 12th Congressional District election on April 17. Maloney turned in 9,482 signatures, or 10 times the amount required.

If elected, this will be Maloney's eleventh term in Congress. There are no other candidates running in the district.

Before new Congressional lines were finalized in March, a group of residents held a rally in downtown Brooklyn against the proposed districts and waved signs with such statements as “Where is Ozone Park?” and “Howard Beach and Bed-Stuy — why?”

Flash forward a month later, as the Congressional races are heating up, and South Queens residents are worried those running to represent them could be asking the same questions as the protesters, considering neighborhoods like Howard Beach, Ozone Park and Woodhaven have been placed in Brooklyn-heavy districts.

   Devon O’Connor, who started a Whitestone business group last year, wants to expand it to include the residential community, but he’s finding some bumps along the way.

   O’Connor, who runs a party planning store, organized Welcome to Whitestone last June and now has about 70 members from the business community.

He’s only 19 years old, but Whitestone merchant Devon O’Connor has already collected enough money to get a new welcoming sign for his community and finds time to raise funds for charitable causes.

The sign war has begun in Bayside.

A Sunnyside man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of an off duty paramedic during an argument in a bar.

The impact of 9-11 continues to have a far reaching effect across this country. In countless small towns and big cities people try to preserve the memory of those who lost their lives for both personal and historical reasons.