Hundreds rally against beating of a Queens gay man
Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by Lulu Yilun Chen in Crime and Courts, Politics and Government, Queens
Hundreds rally against beating of a Queens gay man from luluyilun on Vimeo.
By Lulu Yilun Chen
Hundreds of people gathered on College Point Boulevard in Queens on a Saturday afternoon to denounce the beating of a gay man whom police say was a victim of a bias crime.
Standing across the street from the protest was about a dozen people who said they were friends of the two men arrested. They protested behind barracks set up by the police and held up signs saying that the public should not rush to conclusions to accuse the suspects of bias.
At about 4:30 a.m. on October 8th two men attacked Jack Price, 49, of College Point, outside a local deli at College Point Boulevard and 18 Avenue in Queens after he stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes on his way home. The two men repeatedly beat and kicked Mr. Price, all of which was caught on videotape from a security camera, according to police.
After the assault, the suspects fled the location, leaving Mr. Price with a shattered jaw, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Mr. Price managed to return to his home and call 911. He was rushed to Booth Memorial Hospital where he is currently being treated. He was able to identify the two suspects and make an account of the crime, according to police.
Police said that Daniel Aleman, 26, was arrested three days after the assault and charged with felony assaults as a hate crime. Daniel Rodriguez, 21, was apprehended in Virginia five days after the attack.
Supporters of the victim marched down College Point Boulevard from 20th Avenue to 14th Avenue, joined by many city officials, including Helen Marshall, the Queens borough president, Scott Stinger, Manhattan borough president, and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who is openly gay.
Daniel Dromm, the Democratic candidate for City Council district 25, led the crowd chanting, “Now is the moment. Now is the time. We say no to hate crime,” “LGBT, we celebrate diversity,” and “Jack Price was under attack. What do we do? Fight back!”
It was a diverse crowd that ranged from moms carrying seven-month-old babies to men with dressed-in-pink Chihuahuas and grey-haired women holding rainbow flags with the printed words “equality.”
About 300 people stopped at the nearby Popenhusen playground to give speeches, according to organizers. Family members of Mr. Price and city officials, including William Thompson, the City comptroller and mayoral candidate, delivered speeches to the crowd.
“The answer when it comes to hate crime,” said Thompson, “The answer is no.
“We are sending out a message of what we will allow in this city and what we will not,” added Thompson. “We will not be silent in any act, in any community. We will come together, we will let those people know it is wrong and you will not get away with it.”
Joanne Guaneri, 42, the sister-in-law of Mr. Price, embraced her daughter, Amanda Guaneri, 15, listening quietly to the speeches as they stood close to the stair-converted-stage in front of the crowd.
Joanne Guaneri then walked to the microphone and spoke in husky voice, “They beat my brother-in-law until near death. For $10. And for a pack of cigarettes.
“Put aside the hate crime on this, they beat a man to near death and that is why I am out here,” said Ms. Guaneri.
The youngest speaker was Jack Price’s niece, 15-year-old Amanda Guaneri, a student at Bayside High School.
“I am proud of him (Mr. Price) to be my uncle. Whatever he is, he is my uncle. I love him and I will stick behind him,” said Amanda Guaneri, “I want to say to the people following Daniel Rodriguez: Why? Why? He did wrong. You shouldn’t be behind him.”
Those words were directed at a group of 14 people, who supported Mr. Rodriguez and rallied right across the street on College Point Boulevard, arguing that the public should not jump to conclusions and define the beatings of Mr. Price as a hate crime.
Marcel Gelmi, 26, who has known Rodriguez for 11 years, said he was not biased toward gay people.
“Why is this a hate crime? Because Jack Price says so? Those cameras pick up no sound,” said Mr. Gelmi, 26. “Danny had a lot of gay friends.”
Hate crimes are not common in Queens, according to Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker.
“The two hateful people who we believe committed this crime are not representative of Queens County or College Point,” said Ms. Quinn. “The two men who did this are a minority.”
The last time an assault related to the gay community happened in Queens was in 2001, when Edgar Garzon was attacked outside of a gay club in Jackson Heights, Queens, and died because of the injuries.
However, incidents motivated by bias based on sexual orientation were up 5.5 percent within the past two years since 2006, accounting for 16.6 percent of hate crimes conducted in the United States, according to F.B.I. reports.
President Obama signed a bill on Wednesday that finally declared it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender and gender identity.
In the past 10 years, the House and the Senate separately approved the hate crimes expansion numerous times. But congressional Republicans repeatedly blocked final passage.
The new policy will expand the definition of a 1968 hate crime law that applies to people attacked because of their race, religion or national origin.
“I think it’s one small part of a large picture which needs to be painted in order to have a world where everyone can be a full person without being physically, psychologically, or legally punished because of their gender or sexuality,” said Marisa Ragonese, head of Generation Q, a program for young gay and lesbians.
Mr. Price underwent surgery for a puncture in his lung last Tuesday and is now in stable condition, according to Ms. Guaneri.
In Glendale, Residents Push for a ZIP Code of Their Own
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by Carolyn Phenicie in Beats Blog, Queens
By Carolyn Phenicie
The Fair, a home goods store in Western Queens, has been around since 1938. But only in recent years, since it moved from Ridgewood to Glendale, have customers had trouble finding it.
“People who use GPS sometimes have trouble finding the mall,” Jake Gerson, an employee at The Fair, said of The Shops at Atlas Park.
There are at least 10 Glendales in the United States. That, plus the lack of its own ZIP code – it shares 11385 with neighboring Ridgewood – has always been a problem for Glendale, but in recent years, the proliferation of GPS technology has caused new headaches. People no longer ask their neighbors and friends how to get somewhere. They ask their cars. And the answers, when it comes to Glendale, are often unclear.
“They may be minor challenges to some, but they are consistent, annoying things that hurt small businesses in the area,” Lydon Sleeper, chief of staff for City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, said in a phone interview.
Ashley Zanzonico, who works at the boutique Stella Gialla, also in Atlas Park, said people still have trouble finding the store, even though it has been at this location since 2006.
In an op-ed in The Times Newsweekly, a newspaper in Ridgewood, Councilwoman Crowley also noted incidents of emergency services from outside the area who were unable to find houses in the neighborhood, as well as online transactions complicated by confusion over whether neighborhood residents live in Glendale, Ridgewood or Flushing, which is the city the U.S. Postal Service uses for the 11385 ZIP code.
“Glendale is like a forgotten area,” Zanzonico, who lives near in Glendale near Atlas Park, said. “People have no idea where you’re talking about.”
The 11385 ZIP code covers a much larger area than those around it. There were 97,524 residents in the 11385 ZIP code, according to the 2000 Census, the most recent data available. Neighboring Middle Village (ZIP code 11379) and Maspeth (11378), had about 30,000 and about 34,000 residents, respectively.
Despite residents’ concerns and the size of the 11385 ZIP code, there are no plans to add a new ZIP code for Glendale, according to Darlene Reid-De Meo, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service.
“I understand some of the Queens residents want their own ZIP code, [but] unless the Postal Service determines it would be more efficient for us to deliver the mail with a new ZIP code, we would not create one,” she said.
Additionally, the total volume of mail nationally has fallen 30 percent, Reid-De Meo said. In July the Postal Service moved the processing of all mail for Queens to Brooklyn, she said.
“It’s not time to expand, it’s time to consolidate,” she said.
Ultimately, though, the issue of separate ZIP codes seems to come down to residents’ belief that Glendale has its own identity and that a real separation from Ridgewood should be solidified with a new ZIP code.
Because the two neighborhoods are in the same ZIP code and community district, government demographic data encompasses both neighborhoods. Yet the differences between the two are clear. Ridgewood has more of a city feel, with more people walking on the street and signs in languages besides English. Glendale, by contrast, is more suburban, with well-maintained single family homes and duplexes that neatly decorated for Christmas; there is little foot traffic.
In her op-ed, Crowley noted Glendale has its own parks, schools, church parishes and community centers.
“Our sense of pride and belonging, coupled with the lack of an official identity creates daily issues for the Glendale resident that could be solved with an additional ZIP code.”
For One Night, Fans Catch a Free Pass at Yankee Stadium
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by Ryan Hatch in Bronx, Money and Economy, Sports, Uncategorized
With one swing of the bat, Alex Rodriguez choked the life out of one stadium and propelled another into a state of euphoria.
“Go, go, go!” Sree Xaiver screamed as she watched A-Rod’s ball ricochet off the left-field fence and Johnny Damon raced home. “Yes! Yes! Go, score!”
He did score.
And the Yankees won moments later, sending the crowd at Yankee Stadium into a frenzy and the Philadelphia Phillies’ park into a dead zone as the boys in pinstripes won Game 4 108 miles down the New Jersey Turnpike in Philadelphia.
Seated along row 14 in section 111, Xavier, 30, and several thousand fans watched as the New York Yankees took one step closer to becoming world champions for the 27th time after a 7-4 comeback win over the Phillies. Game 4 of the World Series was played in Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Sunday night, but fans in New York were invited to come, free of charge, and watch the game at Yankee Stadium on the 6,000-square-foot Jumbotron behind the center-field fence.
“This is great, we never could have afforded to come up here if they hadn’t done this,” said Xavier, who brought her 9-year-old daughter to the game after walking in Sunday’s NYC marathon.
A Brooklyn native, Xavier said it was her first time in the “House that George Built,” which opened its doors earlier this season. A group of four behind her also said it was their first time inside the new stadium. All claimed it was due to the skyrocket ticket prices for not just the playoffs, but most of the regular season. As of Monday evening, the cheapest ticket price on StubHub for Game 6 at the stadium was $420.50 to sit in the upper deck levels. The most expensive were $20,000 to sit right by the dugout. The same seats occupied by Xavier and others in section 110 (field-level down the right field foul line) are listed at $1,100 for Wednesday night’s game.
The high price of tickets to Yankee Stadium has been an issue since the stadium opened in April. Single-game ticket prices for seats directly behind home plate were listed at $2,500. By early May, the Yankees cut those tickets in half to $1,250 due to widespread outrage from fans, but the team continued to suffer a public relations hit when nationally televised games showed still-empty seats despite the “discount.” It resulted in a boycott by many season-ticket holders, which gave way to more Kate Hudsons and Jay-Z’s filling the stadium’s best seats.
In 1970, principal owner George Steinbrenner bought the team and took out an $800,000 loan to cover all operating expenses when outfield tickets cost only $1. He wanted to brand a globally recognized team.
It worked.
Fast forward 40 years to 2010, when purchasing season tickets for a family of four behind the dugout will end up costing $405,000, slightly half of what Steinbrenner paid for the entire organization in 1970.
On Sunday night, Bronx Bomber fans who might not earn $820,000 in a lifetime had a chance to enjoy a game and enjoy seats that will probably elude them the rest of their lives.
“We are the real fans in here tonight,” Teede Williams, 32, said while drinking a $10 Bud Light on the concourse behind section 111. “Most people in here probably can’t afford the prices to get into actual games. But these are the real fans. You can tell they’re the ones who really care.”
Only the field-level sections of the stadium were open to the public — foul pole to foul pole on the lower level. Each seat in the different sections are generously padded, a feature of only the first level.
Jim Ross, senior vice president of business development for the Yankees, said management decided to open the stadium to foment some “camaraderie among the fans and let them watch the game on our spectacular screen.” He declined to speak on why the prices were so high, but said that $1,250 and $1,500 tickets have sold well.
Other Yankee officials in the ticket office could not give an exact head count on Monday since no tickets were electronically swiped when people walked though the gates.
Neighbors Are Shaken, but Not Surprised, by Pedestrian Deaths in Hell’s Kitchen
Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by Candice Chan in Beats Blog, Crime and Courts, Manhattan, Metro
by Candice Chan
In the last eight weeks, two people have been killed in traffic accidents within a 13-block stretch of Midtown, on 8th and 9th avenues: a 22 year-old Asian man and a 37-year-old Hispanic woman.
Neighbors say they aren’t surprised.
The accidents come only four months after a commemorative funeral procession was held for the six pedestrians hit by motorists on 9th Avenue since 2001. Community advocates, including the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association and the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety, organized June’s event to call for more traffic cops. The victim from November 4, who was struck by a bus as he was crossing 9th Avenue, is the fourth this year involved in an accident near the Port Authority Bus Terminal, police said.
New York’s traffic fatalities were at an all-time low in 2007, with 136 out of 271 total deaths attributed to pedestrians struck by vehicles. But even with falling numbers of motorist driven casualties, in 2001 the city had almost 120 more. Pedestrian deaths still comprise more than half of the total vehicle-related fatal accidents per year.
“The area on the weekends is pretty chaotic,” said a law enforcement official from Midtown South’s precinct, who preferred not to be identified because he hasn’t been authorized by his superiors to speak to reporters. “If you walk around at night, especially, you just see how many people are here.”
Mark Swick, 41, an employee of Siena pizza, was working the night a 37-year-old Hispanic woman was hit at the corner of 40th Street and 8th Avenue in early September. He said he believes a darkened street lamp on the corner may have contributed to the accident, but acknowledges that the area is dangerous even when the lights are working.
“Even the EMS guys said there have been a bunch of accidents like this around here,” Swick said.
Some Hell’s Kitchen residents hope that in coming months the city will find a way to engage some of its 30,000 police officers to ramp up traffic law enforcement.
Anthony Lopez, 44, is an assistant manager of World Famous Generations Menswear shop near the corner of 40th Street and 8th Avenue. He can recall the accident involving Fabiola Grande-Coyotl, a 23-year-old pregnant woman who was struck and killed by a truck at 38th Street and 9th Avenue last November.
“There were a lot of flowers and pictures then,” said Lopez. “Everyone was really upset.”
John Liu Wins Election for New York City Comptroller
Posted on 20. Nov, 2009 by Lulu Yilun Chen in Beats Blog, Politics and Government
John Liu, democratic candidate for comptroller and a Queens councilman, last night won the election for New York City Comptroller, the city’s chief financial officer, in a landslide victory, making him the first Asian American elected to citywide office in the city’s history.
Liu beat his competitor, Republican candidate Joseph Mendola, with 75.98 percent of the votes, adding up to 696,330 votes.
“I’m ready to make changes,” said Liu as he greeted voters near Washington Heights on Tuesday night. “It’s been an exciting campaign. It’s been over four years.”
The elections of Liu, as comptroller, along with Margaret Chin and Peter Koo to City Council seats represent a significant political watershed moment: Asian American politicians on the east coast rising to political power.
“Chinese Americans being elected at a city level will change the perceptions of New Yorkers toward Asian people,” said Cynthia Lee, 39, the chief curator of the Museum of Chinese in America based in Chinatown. She explained that Asian Americans have experienced greater difficulty being accepted as Americans compared to other white ethnic groups.
Liu, 42, moved from Taiwan to America at the age of 5. A former actuary who majored in mathematical physics at Binghamton University and graduated in 1988, he was first elected to the council in 2001, and defeated Councilman David Yassky in this September’s runoff election for the Democratic slot in this fall’s comptroller race.
Liu said he plans to implement reforms to the city comptroller’s office within his first six months in office. Some of Liu’s top agenda items, listed on his official website, include dealing with the economic slump, leveling the playing field for minority and small businesses, creating jobs, and eliminating waste from the city budget.
Having had no sleep on the night before the election, Liu began his day at around 7:00 am on Tuesday. He greeted morning commuters in Queens dressed in a black suit and red tie, with his hair waxed and combed back.
“Who needs sleep? Sleep is overrated,” said Liu, with his customary energy.
Crowds gathered around Liu and he acknowledged their handshakes and hugs with a big smile and words of thanks.
“John Liu did well in the eight years he was councilman in Flushing. That’s why I voted for him,” said Zhang Lihong, a Chinese immigrant in Flushing.
Backed by strong support from the Chinese community, Liu boosted his chances of winning by reaching out to different communities and ethnic groups in New York.
“It’s different neighborhoods, but it’s one city,” said Liu. “We’re trying to unify the city and make sure that everyone gets counted.”
Liu is following on the steps of more successful Asian politicians on the West Coast. According to Linda Akutagawa, the vice president for resource and business development based in California, Asian Americans who have done well in elections pay special attention to coalition strategies – reaching out to different neighborhoods.
This has been a challenge for many Asian American candidates in New York, according to Hu Jie, the vice president for the Beijing Association of New York, based in Flushing.
“We know the Asian Americans candidates well, but it’s a challenge for them to let other ethnic groups understand them and trust them,” Hu said in Chinese. “They have to work on that hard.”
During his campaign, Liu not only traveled in different neighborhoods in New York, but also used social networking websites to promote his campaign. Even on the night before Election Day, at around 4 a.m., Liu was responding to Facebook messages and posting links to promotion videos on Youtube.
At around 4:00 p.m. on Election Day, Liu traveled to Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, a predominantly black neighborhood, and greeted commuters as they got off from work.
“His family struggled when he first moved here as an immigrant. He understands what common people need,” said Gregory Collins, 51, who has lived in Brooklyn for more than 40 years.
After numerous handshakes and several photos shot with commuters, Liu rushed off to 125th Street and St. Nicholas Street to join Bill Thompson in Washington Heights, a predominantly Dominican neighborhood. The two Democrats greeted commuters as they traveled down the street and popped their heads into buses parked at stations, urging people to vote.
Liu ended his day’s trip on 43rd Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues in Manhattan where he received the news of his victory.
According to Lee, the Chinese Museum chief curator, the change in demography has played an important role in helping Asian American rise to political power this year.
Asian Americans on the west coast have risen to political power faster than those on the east coast because for a long time Asians were demographically concentrated on the west coast, said Akutagawa, the vice president for the Business Development organization in California.
That is changing now. The Chinese population in New York grew by 19 percent, according to an estimate from 2000 to 2007, while the city’s total population grew only by three percent over the same period, according to studies released by the Asian American Federation.
About 5.4 percent of all New York City residents are from China, up from 4.7 percent from the 2000 Census, according to the federation.
A Stink on 101st Street
Posted on 02. Nov, 2009 by Taylor Brown in Beats Blog, Brooklyn
By Taylor Kate Brown
Sometimes it’s not there for months; at other times, it stays for days. For Bay Ridge residents near Fort Hamilton Army Base, the unexpected visitor is not a barely-tolerated relative, but a pervasive, rotten-egg stink that emanates from sewer grates and basement plumbing.
Homeowners along Fort Hamilton Parkway, from 92nd to 101st Street, continue to cope with the gag-inducing odor after three years.
In 2004, the Department of Design and Construction installed a new sewer along the Fort Hamilton Parkway, in response to years of homeowner complaints of severe basement flooding during storms. After completion, the flooding continued and raw sewage leaked into basements. The contractor, JR Cruz Corp., fixed the flooding, but left the old sewers intact under the new.
Soon after the repairs were finished and the street was closed up, the odor appeared. While residents still have no definite answer from the Department of Environmental Protection, they are convinced the second sewer project is responsible.
The irregular timing is frustrating and perplexing for homeowners.
“It’s not low tide or high tide. It’s not the temperature,” said Christine Mascialino, a resident of the area. “We’ve never found the trigger or the common denominator.”
Mascialino, who wrote a letter detailing the problem to the city’s public advocate in November 2008, says that, though the smell bothers her, she doesn’t have time to be a crusader.
Community Board 10 has a foot-high file documenting the situation, while Councilman Vincent Gentile’s office sent a letter of complaint in July 2009 to the Department of Environmental Protection.
Representatives from the department come dutifully to investigate every time a complaint is made, but the root of the problem remains.
“Myself and a neighbor had the DEP come into our houses to test the plumbing,” said Irene Rivera, who lives on Fort Hamilton Parkway. “Two years later, and we still haven’t gotten a result.”
The reason for the delay? They were told it had to go to the head of the department first.
In November 2008, officials from the department of environmental protection were invited to explain the steps they had taken to find and remove the smell to the community board’s general meeting. According to the community board, no one from the department attended.
“I think DEP thinks the odor is a lower priority than flooding,” Community Board District Manager Josephine Beckmann said, “I don’t share that view.”
Department officials did not return calls or emails for comment.
In early March 2009, the odor became sulfurous, prompting residents to call 911. The nearby Fort Hamilton Senior Center was evacuated. The new smell showed up again on March 23rd.
Community liaison Stephanie Giovinco at Councilman Gentile’s office said officials from the environmental department met with the councilman’s office last month. They had ruled out an accidental sewage connection to the Fort Hamilton Army Base, which borders the street, or open catch basins beneath sewer grates as the culprit.
But they were no closer to finding the source of the smell.
After months of sweet air, Mascialino got whiff of the odor again on October 1st, but she is weary of the formal complaint process.
“Nothing has ever been done about it, so today I didn’t bother,” she said.
