Photo essay: Election Day in Flushing, Queens.

Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Lim Wui Liang in Politics and Government

A voter inside a booth at the Active Learning Elementary School in Flushing, Queens, which was used as a polling station. All photos: Lim Wui Liang

 A sign inside the Active Learning Elementary School caters to the diverse community in Flushing.

Publicity material from Democrat Yen Chou’s campaign sits along an alley outside her office. Chou is the first Asian woman to run for City Council District 20. 

Volunteers hand out publicity materials and flyers along Barclay Avenue, just before the polling station at John Bowne Elementary School. Any form of publicity must be done 100 feet away from the polling station.

Bernadette Koo, 56, gives out flyers to passers-by along Barclay Avenue to get them to vote for her husband, Peter Koo, Koo, 57, who is president of the Flushing Chinese Business Association, is a Republican candidate running for City Council in District 20. 

Peter Koo chats with a staff member at a polling station in John Bowne Elementary School. Koo eventually won the election, edging over his closest competitor, Yen Chou, by just over 800 votes.

Evergreen Chou, 48, gives out flyers along Kissena Boulevard. Chou is an independent candidate from the Green Party and is running for City Council in District 20

Barbara Rogers, Cat Lady

Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Lim Wui Liang in Living

By: Lim Wui Liang

Barbara Rogers, 62, grips the wire mesh fence at the back of Flushing Town Hall, presses her face close to it, and meows into someone’s backyard.

A man walks by and stares. Across the street, another nods his head as Rogers turns and smiles at him. Soon, feral cats scamper from out of nowhere and into the parking lot at the back of the Town Hall. They are hungry and Rogers has set out cat food in aluminum trays waiting for them.

For more than 15 years, Rogers has been looking after feral cats in Flushing. Besides feeding them daily, she also traps and sends them to be neutered.

“It’s a crisis,” she said. “There are so many unspayed, unneutered cats in Flushing. There are colonies everywhere.”

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) estimates that there are up to five million owned and stray animals in New York City. In 2008, their Mobile Clinic Program spayed and neutered more than 23,000 animals, a 63% increase over 2007.

Lois McClurg, assistant TNR (Trap Neuter Release) director, NYC Feral Cat Initiative, said it is difficult to determine the exact number of feral cats in New York City. They only keep track of colonies that have been neutered and registered by volunteers, and this is not representative of the total number of cats on the streets.

Rogers migrated from Australia more than 30 years ago, where she said she “learnt respect for all the animals” as a child growing up in the rural areas of the Pacific continent. She got married twice and her second husband died several years ago. .

“My theory is that if you’re going to have small animals or small children, then don’t expect to have your house beautiful,” said Rogers. “I think that’s when people get disgusted and they put them out.”

She feels that there is not enough education about the responsibilities of pet ownership and hopes to start such a program in public schools one day.

Rogers remembers the night that she first became involved in animal rescue. She was on the 7 train “many, many years ago,” heading home after a long day at the office. Three teenage girls sat opposite her with a kitten in a brown paper bag.

“They were holding on to it and squeezing it and hurting it,” said Rogers. “So I growled at them and said, ‘No, no, no honey, this is not the way you hold a kitten.’”

She walked over and took the kitten from them. When the train stopped, the girls ran out.

So she brought the cat home and “had her for a good few years and she went over the rainbow bridge.”

She has taken in more cats since that night – more than 200 over the last 15 years. She quit the corporate world nine years ago.

Today, Rogers has six cats in her one-bedroom apartment along Northern Boulevard in Flushing. They sprawl lazily on her kitchen table and window sills. Photos of previous cats she owned adorn the shelves in her kitchen and hallway. Every now and then, she gets on her knees and shoos out a feline from beneath a wardrobe.

Rogers traps feral cats and sends them to the Humane Society of New York, an animal welfare organization, to be neutered. She then takes them home and puts them in cages to recover. After a few days, she releases them where they were trapped. The process of ‘Trap, Neuter, Release’ ensures that births among feral cats are kept in check.

Rogers believes that people either love or hate cats.

“There is no in-between,” she said.

Often, passers-by would come up and ask her why she is feeding them.

“I ask them if they plan on having breakfast or if they plan on having an evening meal, and they say ‘yeah,’” said Rogers. “Then I say, ‘Well, the little kitty needs to get fed too. And the little kitty also needs to have a drink of water.’”

“And that usually keeps them quiet for a little bit,” she said, laughing.