By Dee Richard
The end of the political season is upon us — in fact just two weeks away. It’s wall-to-wall scrambling for all parties concerned.
Tuesday started off at 7:30 a.m. Mayor Michael Bloomberg greeted Long Island Rail Road riders at the Bayside train station. While we were there, we saw state Assemblyman Mark Weprin, state Sen. Frank Padavan, City Council candidate Dan Halloran and Betsy Seideman. That’s a busy train station.
On Tuesday evening, the East Flushing Civic Association held its monthly meeting at St. Andrew Avalino’s Church in Flushing. The main concerns seemed to be the proliferation of bars in the neighborhood, particularly ones with black windows and a lack of signage in English. An additional issue of concern was how to go about achieving landmark status in the area.
Speaking of the East Flushing Civic Association, the former president, Mary Anderson, died Monday. She was a longtime Flushing resident and activist. Mary was lots of fun and a regular at our girls’ night out. Rest in peace, Mary.
The Broadway Flushing Home Owners Association held on Thursday a meet the candidates night at the Church on the Hill, also in Flushing. The candidates were Borough President Helen Marshall, Halloran and Kevin Kim. The moderator was Paul Graziano. It was an informative meeting, especially Marshall enumerating all the things she has done in the past and is planning to do for Queens. It sounds like lots of good stuff.
On Saturday afternoon a coalition of activists held a march down College Point Boulevard from 20th to 14th avenue to protest the beating of College Point resident Jack Price by two men outside a convenience store in College Point. Apparently the reason for his attack was he was openly gay. In this day and age, in the most diverse of the five boroughs, a hate crime is intolerable.
You would expect support from the gay community as well as all its organizations, but everyone was so outraged just about everyone showed up, including U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner; Sen. Toby Stavisky; state Assembly members Nettie Mayersohn, Rory Lancman and Mark Weprin with Council members Christine Quinn, Tony Avella, David Weprin, Jim Gennaro, Peter Vallone Jr. and John Liu; Borough Presidents Marshall and Scott Stringer; and city Comptroller Bill Thompson.
Thankfully Price is recovering in the hospital and his prospects look good for a speedy recovery. Get well soon.
On Saturday night the Kissena Corridor Park Conservancy honored five people at a buffet dinner at Cascarino’s in College Point. The honorees were Marshall, Padavan, Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski, Mayersohn and Assemblywoman Grace Meng.
All proceeds will go toward the design and planting of a meditation garden in Kissena Corridor Park, in the former parking lot of New York Hospital Queens. The garden will be open to the public and offer a respite for patients, friends and the family of the hospital’s Oncology Department. It will benefit the whole community. President Chuck Wade is to be congratulated.
On Sunday morning the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center held a ribbon-cutting grand opening at Queensborough Community College in Bayside. The purpose is to make sure no one forgets the Holocaust. Such indifference to the survival of a group of people cannot be forgotten.
The resource center is providing teachers throughout the nation with programs that teach children the devastation brought about through hate and help history by keeping alive a period of time.
It has come to my attention that a new group of community leaders is being established. As a concerned group of citizens they intend to act as one voice, reaching out to all residents in the community to insure political leaders hear their voices and act regardless of political affiliation, ethnic background, religious belief or neighborhood location.
Their belief is if a political candidate is going to represent a community, he or she will be an individual who has walked the area’s streets, attended area schools, enjoyed area parks and patronized area businesses.
That’s it for this week.
I look forward to hearing from you with information on people, parties and politics or gossip.
I like receiving your voice mails at 718-767-6484, faxes at 718-746-0066 and e-mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Don’t forget to check out the Focus on Queens page.
Till next week, Dee.
