Editions

• Breaking

Police are searching for a burglar who illegally entered a home by 46th Avenue and 192nd Street in Auburndale on Aug. 7. 

• Breaking

There are but two weeks to go before Labor Day weekend! Here are just five late-summer activities Queens is offering this weekend — maybe one or more are just what you were looking for as the season winds down.

• Breaking

The New York City Police Department and the Department of Transportation (DOT) today issued an alert that with beautiful weather forecast for this weekend, the Vision Zero “Warm Weather Weekends” safety campaign would be in effect. This weekend’s weather forecast calls for sunny days with highs in the 80s on both Saturday and Sunday, very similar to last weekend’s weather – when New York City saw six fatalities in five different crashes in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.  Preliminary investigations show that most of last weekend’s crashes involved motorists or motorcyclists traveling at excessive speeds.    

Can things be looking up for long-neglected Charles Park, the neighborhood playground and ball field at the foot of Old Howard Beach under federal jurisdiction?

Complaints about the condition and safety of the park on 165th Avenue between 95th and 99th streets are nearly as old as the park itself, which was put under the control of the National Park Service in 1972.

The founder of Success Academy Charter Schools has told the Chronicle that the group’s one middle school in the Borough of Queens is nearing its capacity, and is accusing the city of dragging its feet in the effort to secure more classroom space for fifth- and sixth-grade students.

Eva Moskowitz, who founded Success Academy in 2006, made the assertion on Aug. 8 during a sitdown interview at the Chronicle’s offices.

• Featured

The Department of City Planning last week released a 61-page study on storefront business vacancies in the five boroughs, presenting data and snapshots from 24 communities, including Astoria, Jackson Heights and Laurelton in Queens.

Both the city’s study and an informal canvass by the Chronicle reached almost identical conclusions — the challenges for small business are more complicated and more numerous than just rising rents.

The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is conducting its third adulticide treatment of the season tonight, spraying pesticides that affect mosquitoes to prevent the spread of West Nile virus.

Trucks will spray in sections of Queens on Thursday, Aug. 15, between 8:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. the following morning, weather permitting. The dispersal will take place in Auburndale, Corona, Flushing and Kew Gardens Hills.

• Featured

A law prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of religious garb seemed so in keeping with life in multicultural New York, most legislators always figured there had to be one on the books already.

But that turned out not to be the case.

A developer has filed an application with the city to construct a 24-story apartment building at the corner of Archer Avenue and Guy R. Brewer Boulevard in Jamaica. The filing for the property at 92-33 Guy R. Brewer Blvd. was first reported by New York YIMBY, a news website that specializes in coverage of the city’s the real estate industry.

It would be built on what had been the site of a building that housed a succession of grocery stores that has been demolished. The reported owner is BRP Companies, which already is involved in major apartment construction in Jamaica.

• Featured

An unknown number of victims of child sex abuse this week got the chance to bring their case to court under a new state law that went into effect on Wednesday.

The predicted onslaught of lawsuits could be so large that the bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn said it may have to file for bankruptcy.

Gracie Mansion is about 1,000 yards from Astoria’s Halletts Point apartments —but to get from one to the other, you’d either have to swim across the East River or commute via two buses and a subway for about an hour.

Western Queens officials and advocates believe there’s a simpler way: extending the NYC Ferry system to the apartment buildings. “When you’re such a great city, such a big city, you forget that we’re really a city of islands,” U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn) said on Saturday. “And a great way for us to get together is through the ferry system.”

Jamaica’s Down to Earth Farmers Market had some tips on selecting and preparing healthy food last Friday at the pedestrian plaza on Parsons Boulevard by the Parsons-Archer Avenue subway station.

Above, Chef Sia Pickett sautes a dish made from zucchini, squash, lemon and basil she purchased from farmers at the market.

by Michael Gannon, Editor

Residents of Old Astoria long had wanted the city’s Department of Sanitation to initiate weekly street cleanings, but neither side could agree on numbers.

by David Russell, Associate Editor

There’s finally a blueprint to improve the facilities for the men and women in blue.

The 105th Precinct Community Council gave away more than hot dogs and hamburgers at its annual National Night Out Against Crime celebration on Aug. 6.

by Maud Newton

My neighbor stopped me on the street the other day to say that she liked my pollinator garden. “Garden” is a lofty word for the clump of plants growing along the sidewalk, next to the street, where a tree used to be. But the tiny patch seems to make the bees and butterflies happy.

The six-story apartment building at 40-66 Ithaca St. in Elmhurst will not have a working elevator for four months.

by Michael Gannon, Editor

The state last week advanced the puck for the New York Islanders in the team’s effort to have a new arena in Belmont Park for their 2021-22 season.

Borough President Melinda Katz is again collecting new backpacks and school supplies this month for needy students.

The FDNY is in the process of notifying more than 10,000 patients who have been treated or transported by department EMS personnel that their personal information — including Social Security numbers in an estimated 3,000 cases — may have been potentially compromised when an employee’s external hard drive went missing.

Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) sponsored his Seventh Annual Summer Blood Drive at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center last Thursday, in conjunction with the New York Blood Center.

Westbound drivers looking to access LaGuardia Airport from the Grand Central Parkway need to be alert for new ramps that opened this past Saturday morning. The changes were made to accommodate the ongoing $8 billion reconstruction of the airport.

by David Russell, Associate Editor

Getting some exercise can improve not only people’s physical health but their mental health as well.

by Peter C. Mastrosimone / Editor-in-Chief

The man who allegedly stabbed his wife to death in front of multiple witnesses at her Jackson Heights workplace was charged on Monday with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, the Queens District Attorney’s Office reported.

by Ryan Brady / Editor

New York leaders on Monday blasted the Trump administration after it published the final version of a rule that would make it easier for the federal government to deny green cards to legal immigrants considered likely to use public benefits like food stamps. 

By David Russell / Associate Editor

• Breaking

Charles Vavruska, education director for Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village), says he was hit by a car while protesting against Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza’s opposition to the Specialized High School Admissions Test in Bay Ridge on Tuesday.

by Michael Gannon / Editor

• Breaking

The FDNY is in the process of notifying more than 10,000 patients who have been treated or transported by department EMS personnel that their personal information — including Social Security numbers in an estimated 3,000 cases — may have been potentially compromised when an employee’s external hard drive went missing.

Police precincts across the city held their National Night Out Against Crime celebrations with residents Tuesday. In South Queens, the 102nd Precinct hosted its party at Victory Field in Forest Park, while the 106th Precinct held its event at Addabbo Playground in Tudor Park. Both drew crowds that had a great time, tightening the bonds between the police and those they serve.

The NYPD celebrated National Night Out Against Crime on Tuesday night, with the 103rd Precinct event taking place at Rufus King Park in Jamaica and the 105th hosting festivities at Cabbell Park in Cambria Heights.

by David Russell, Associate Editor

The area once known as “Lake Edsall” has been improved, with the New York City Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection announcing Tuesday the completion of work to alleviate ponding on the avenue in Glendale.

The 112th Precinct hosted its National Night Out Against Crime on Tuesday at the Forest Hills Jewish Center.

The 23rd annual Jamaica Arts and Music Summer Festival was its usual smash success on Aug. 3.

All things being equal, Habitat for Humanity — the 43-year-old nonprofit organization — would prefer to renovate old houses and turn them over to first-time homeowners in need of family housing.

by Allan Rosen

They promised us a safer Woodhaven Boulevard, up to 30 percent quicker bus trips with Select Bus Service and smoother traffic due to reduced merging. Did they deliver?

by David Russell, Associate Editor

Police are asking the public for assistance in finding two men who are responsible for a half-dozen violent July robberies in the 110th and 115th precincts in Queens, all but one in Corona.

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