______________ VALLEY STREAM _____________
HERALD Vol. 34 No. 52
Hofstra fueled for CAA win
Breakfast with Santa
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Page 9
DECEMBER 21 - 27, 2023
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Sylvan splendor: Holiday party has fun for a cause By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
Melvin Mammen/Herald
Neighbors on Sylvan Place throw an annual festive block party that attracts dozens of visitors and raises thousands of dollars for the ACHOR Program fund and the Sunrise Association. Above, 4-yearold Jackson Fountain with Santa Claus.
For over three decades, neighbors on Sylvan Place have bathed their residential street in the glow of holiday lights. The rivalry between houses was fierce. According to Alex Carr, who has lived on Sylvan Place with his wife, Sheryl, for decades, neighbors would pull their cars out of their driveways and make a deliberate crawl down the street to survey one another’s houses and dream up ways to outdo one another. Eventually, the holiday house decorating competition grew into a community event that has drawn hundreds of visitors. Since 2014, a traditional block party has emerged for a celebration in the truest sense: Hot dogs and hot chocolate are served, gifts are given out, and Santa is invited to share in the festivities. These days, the village closes off the street, with barricades and auxiliary police at the end of each block, and the Valley Stream Fire Department lets families explore the trucks. CONtiNued ON PAge 5
Approved smoke shop near schools faces backlash By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
Wedged between a deli and Home Goods store, on the corner of a commercial strip facing busily trafficked West Merrick Road, is an empty storef ro n t wh o s e w i n d ow s a re papered over. A sign, which seems to have toppled over, had been duct-taped to the glass that read: Coming Soon: American Choice Smoke and Vape shop. Its name, spelled out in official lettering overhead, erases all doubt about its claim to the space. A smoke and vape shop is expected to make its immi-
nent debut on the street. The business is one of the hundreds that have boomed in popularity nationwide, lining their shelves with vape and e-cigarette products. For several parents who live near the commercial strip, it’s a hard reality to stomach. The store is just a five-minute walk from Shaw Avenue Elementary School, to the north, and a stone’s throw away from Clear Stream Avenue Elementary School, to the south. Families echoed fears that students and young people may flock to the store, and others like it, in hopes of getting their nicotine fix given its visibility
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think it’s just a bad idea to have it so close to school . . . Kids think vaping is OK, but it’s dangerous. StEVEN MAltENfoRt resident and proximity to the nearby schools — or, at the very least, turn them on to the idea of smoking. “We don’t want it here,” said Steven Maltenfort, who lives on the nearby avenue. “I think it’s just a bad idea to have it so
close to school, a bad influence on everybody. Kids think vaping is OK, but it’s dangerous. There’s a lot of kids that walk home with their parents, and they go past those stores.” “ B e fo re I d ro p o f f my 12-year-old kid at school, I see a lot of kids and teens hanging around that corner deli next to the vape shop to eat,” said Tau-
qir Rizvi, who argued that young people often have trouble discerning right from wrong and can be pulled toward vices like smoking more easily. Others, like Junior Florvil, are concerned for his 11-yearold daughter, who enjoys grabbing pizza at the corner deli store but might be exposed to CONtiNued ON PAge 10