Editions

• Breaking

A month after most of the world celebrated the New Year, traditional Asian culture is celebrating the Lunar New Year, which officially began on Jan. 25.

• Featured

“My daughter, last month, was a victim of sexual assault!” yelled a father from the crowd at the Jan. 16 Community District Education Council meeting at Bayside’s MS 74. His shouts at city Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza sparked a passionate outcry from surrounding parents that proved uncontrollable enough to shut the meeting down early and force Carranza to make a backstage exit.

“Answer this man! His daughter was a victim of sexual assault!” another man bellowed at Carranza, incentivizing much of the audience to join in the shouting.

Community Board 1 on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve making Rikers Island a “public place” after the jails there are shut down in 2026. The advisory panel, though, asked city officials to keep its members apprised of any future developments there — including demolition of the prison complex and any proposed uses that might go there in later years.

“We’re looking ahead and we’re asking them to join us in looking ahead,” said Elizabeth Erion, CB 1’s Land Use Committee co-chairwoman.

Staring at a $6 billion budget gap for the upcoming fiscal year, Gov. Cuomo is proposing to push more of the rising cost of Medicaid — which provides health coverage for low-income people — onto New York City.

At least $2 billion of the projected deficit is money the state has been paying toward the city’s share of the state’s annual $75 billion Medicaid costs.

Brian O’Connell, the founder and longtime principal of The Scholars’ Academy, the highly respected public high school in Rockaway Park, surprised a lot of parents last month when he announced he was leaving to head Lawrence Woodmere Academy, a private school just over the Nassau-Queens border in Woodmere.

O’Connell is the only principal The Scholars’ Academy has ever had. A selective school for grades 6 to 12, it is recognized as one of the city’s elite secondary schools and regularly shows up in the top echelon of rankings in the city and state.

• Featured

Some Rego Park residents were awakened last Tuesday at 1:15 a.m. when a car rolled over on Fitchett Street near 64th Road.

“It’s just a racing zone, day and night,” said resident John Grecco.

• Featured

A woman concerned with losing Q67 service and facing a 25-minute walk to Woodside to get the train to Times Square.

A senior who is looking at a walk of 10 blocks because of changes to the Q38.

• Breaking

After receiving feedback from borough residents, the Queens Delegation of the New York City Council is calling for significant changes to the MTA’s Queens bus network redesign proposal.

The MTA unveiled its draft proposal to redraw bus routes throughout Queens with the agency looking to spread out stops and have fewer turns in order to increase speed and cut down on bus bunching.

• Featured

The seven candidates then looking to fill the nine-month interim role of Queens borough president gathered Wednesday, Jan. 12 for a community-led forum at the Israel Center for Conservative Judaism in Hillcrest.

The forum, organized by the mid-Queens community council, invited City Council Deputy Leader Jimmy Van Bramer, former Senior Executive Assistant District Attorney James Quinn, police reform advocate and former sergeant Anthony Miranda, Councilmember Donovan Richards, community activist and map maker Danniel Sun Maio, former Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley and Councilmember Costa Constantinides to prove why they would be the best choice for the position.

Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village) claims there are incorrect speed signs posted around two area schools but the city’s Department of Transportation says it’s the lawmaker who is mistaken.

The signs outside PS/IS 128 at 69-10 65 Drive and PS/IS 49 at 63-60 80 St. in Middle Village state the 20 mph speed limit is in effect between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Sources within the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have told the Chronicle that those working on the project to redesign the Queens bus system were taken aback by last week’s announcement that the union for the borough’s bus drivers disapprove of the most recent proposal.

The group “was surprised to see the remarks” that were contained in a statement from Mark Henry, president and business agent of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1056. And the agency, reached for comment, was not quite as diplomatic.

A brazen thief snatched $500 from the hand of a woman at Resorts World Casino last Monday, then dashed out before he could be stopped, police said.

Surveillance video at the casino showed a man carrying a shopping bag lurking behind players at slot machines on Jan. 13 at about 10:30 p.m. He then walks up behind an unsuspecting player, grabs something from her hand and sprints off.

by Michael Gannon, Editor

The major landowners involved in the effort to redevelop Long Island City’s waterfront on and around Anable Basin will host another town hall meeting on Monday, Jan. 27.

NYPD Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a man who went on a 45-minute assault spree on a two-bock stretch of Steinway Street in Astoria the night of Jan. 11.

The NYPD is investigating the death of a man found tied up in a burning building in Queens Village in the early-morning hours of Monday, Jan. 20.

by Michael Gannon, Editor

A pair of Queens legislators are claiming victory in their quest to allow legalized electric bikes and scooters in New York State, with Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday saying he will include language doing so in his forthcoming budget proposal.

by Michael Shain, Editor

Text Jimmy Heath, the saxophonist, composer and arranger who launched the jazz studies program at Queens College in the early 1990s and then went on to form the unique Queens Jazz Orchestra, died Sunday at age 93.

by David Russell,

Mike Anderson was hired as head basketball coach at St. John’s in April, making him a veteran on the Queens sports scene given Carlos Beltran and the Mets mutually parted ways 77 days after his hire because of Beltran’s involvement in the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme during the 2017 season.

Queensboro FC, the new pro soccer team that will begin playing in Queens in 2021, is holding a sweepstakes for a pair of cleats signed by soccer legend and QBFC founding partner David Villa.

By David Russell / Associate Editor

• Breaking

Citing “family circumstances,” Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) announced Wednesday that he is dropping out of the special election for borough president, which will be held on March 24.

Katherine Donlevy / Associate Editor

“My daughter, last month, was a victim of sexual assault!” yelled a father from the crowd at the Jan. 16 Community District Education Council meeting at Bayside’s MS 74. His shouts at city Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza sparked a passionate outcry from surrounding parents that proved uncontrollable enough to shut the meeting down early and force Carranza to make a backstage exit.

Katherine Donlevy / Associate Editor

The seven candidates looking to fill the nine-month interim role of Queens borough President gathered Jan. 15, for a community-led forum at the Israel Center for Conservative Judaism in Hillcrest.

By Michael Gannon / Editor

NYPD Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a man who went on a 45-minute assault spree on a two-bock stretch of Steinway Street in Astoria the night of Jan. 11.

by Michael Shain, Editor

Saving Historic Neir’s Tavern from shutting down for good after 190 years came down to a single, precious piece of paper.

by David Russell, Associate Editor

A Safe Haven for 70 homeless people is scheduled to open in July at 81-30 Baxter Ave. in Elmhurst, Community Board 4 District Manager Christian Cassagnol announced during Tuesday’s meeting.

by Michael Shain, Editor

A 21-year-old man arrested for the midnight murder of a 92-year-old woman in South Richmond Hill last week has become a center of controversy in the national debate over unauthorized immigration after it was revealed he was in the country illegally.

by David Russell, Associate Editor

A new Rego Park Library is slated to be completed in 2024, but that could be pushed back, according to John Katimaris, vice president of capital projects for the Queens Public Library.

by Michael Gannon, Editor

An update on continuing government studies of the proposed LaGuardia AirTrain drew well over 100 people to the LaGuardia Airport Marriott hotel on Tuesday — but it did little or nothing to change the views of East Elmhurst homeowners and environmental groups opposed to the project.

by Katherine Donlevy, Associate Editor

The 109th Precinct saw a spike in burglaries for the month of December, totaling 39, from November, which saw 32. The first week of the month saw 14 burglaries, the highest of 2019.

by Peter C. Mastrosimone, Editor-in-Chief

Western Queens saw an unusual number of fatalities over a four-day span within the last week, with twin infants dying along with one man who was shot and another who was shoved down a staircase, in three separate incidents.

By Michael Gannon / Editor

Mayor de Blasio on Thursday released a $95.3 billion executive budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning on July 1.

Unregistered and derelict automobiles are brought up at seemingly every civic, police and community board meeting in Queens — but it may be a while before it’s problematic again in the NYPD’s 103rd Precinct.

by Anthony O’Reilly, Chronicle Contributor

Community Board 1 members and Astorians questioned city officials Jan. 8 on what the fate of Rikers Island would be if a proposed change to the city map to ban jails there is authorized.

The NYPD is seeking the public’s assistance in finding the above suspect in a pair of unprovoked attacks on women in the Woodside area.

by David Russell,

When he took the job, St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson put the onus on returning contributors L.J. Figueroa and Mustapha Heron to provide leadership.

by Michael Shain, Editor

As some anxious parents gear up for a battle with the city’s Department of the Education over how to integrate the middle schools of central and South Queens, a new group is beginning to peak out from the crush.