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Images of U.S. law enforcement officials firing tear gas at babies seeking asylum is more dangerous than having an open border, our editorial board writes page 30

Aqueduct Racetrack hosts its biggest day of racing on Saturday, with the Grade 1 Cigar Mile and a stacked undercard page 13

A small but delicious Filipino restaurant in Queens Village is attracting customers from the borough and beyond page 18

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QUEENS politics

SELF-CENSORED

STUNNED COMMUNITY MOURNS SEN. PERALTA'S DEATH

By THOMAS MOODY

By ARIEL HERNANDEZ

John Ciamillo

Sasha Maslov

Mo Kong's Deeply Researched Work Straddles The Line Between Journalism and Art. Using Censorship As A Method, The Long Island City-Based Artist's Stunning Installations Address Themes As Vital As Land Use, Politics, Climate Change And International Affairs.

AN IMMIGRANT’S TALE

Sasha Maslov

By LIUYU IVY CHEN

Queens is home to more than a million people who identify as immigrants. Many of them arrived in the last few years, speak little to no English, and have found refuge in the borough by living in ethnic enclaves that allow them to feel at home, even though they are not in their homeland. We at the Queens Tribune think it is important to tell these stories about our neighbors, delving into both the struggles and circumstances that brought them to Queens and the difficulties they face here. Our first edition in this series of stories features the life of a Chinese immigrant, a talented clothes maker who was forced to leave Zhejiang province and is now trying to make her way in downtown Flushing. Read her story on page 6

UNDREDS GATHERED TUESDAY at Saint Joan of Arc Roman Catholic Church in Jackson Heights to say goodbye to state Sen. José Peralta, who tragically died on Thanksgiving Eve at age 47 due to septic shock. During the funeral, his widow, Evelyn Peralta, fought through her tears to deliver his eulogy. “My husband was an incredible man and no one could ever replace him,” said Evelyn. “I will miss his smile, his scent, his affection.” Evelyn shared the story of their first encounter in 2000 on the 7 train. She said the two had seen each other twice a week for a month before Peralta approached her at the Grand Central train station. “My life changed because I had finally found a partner who was passionate, hardworking, intellectually stimulated and had so many aspirations,” said Evelyn. “José and I were perfect together. We were inseparable.” She went on to share how important family was to him. “His love for his family was indescribable,” said Evelyn. “He looked forward to coming home to us every day, after long days…and believe me, there were very long days. I shared him with his community, but I understood and came to terms with it because I knew this was his passion. He was proud of his two boys, Matthew [21] and Myles [13]. They were the light of his life.” During her eulogy, Evelyn thanked and shared kind words with individual family members and members of Peralta’s office. “José’s passion for politics began at Queens College as the student body president. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2002 and became the first Dominican-American elected to the New York State Senate in 2010, a position he was proud of and worked tirelessly to make sure his district was well represented, even though he had very little resources,” said Evelyn. “José had a humble heart and went out of his way to help those in need.” Evelyn grew very emotional at the mention of the DREAM ACT (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), of which Peralta had been the lead sponsor and for which he pushed for almost a decade. “This was a piece of legislation he was most passionate about,” she said. “I truly hope that the New York State Assembly and Senate will finally pass the DREAM ACT and give my husband some credit for being the main sponsor.” continues on page 4

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

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Who Won The Week HAKEEM JEFFRIES U.S. Congressman As Rep. Joe Crowley exits, another New York congressman (who represents parts of Queens) is going to be taking his place as one of the most powerful people in the House of Representatives. Rep. Jeffries, whose district extends into the Southern Queens communities of Howard Beach and Ozone Park, was elected the House Democratic Caucus Chair this week — meaning he will be the fourth most powerful member of Congress come 2019 (using traditional metrics for these things). More importantly, he has positioned himself as the most powerful young rising star among Congressional Democrats and arguably the favorite to be the next Speaker of the House (if Nancy Pelosi chooses to relinquish the gavel in a few years). So, for taking a huge step up in the political bureaucracy that is the House of Representatives, Rep. Jeffries won the week.

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The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

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Peralta Death

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

STUNNED COMMUNITY MOURNS STATE SEN. PERALTA'S DEATH

Photos by Walter Karling

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Jose Peralta's casket leaves St. Joan of Arc Roman Catholic Church in Jackson Heights.

Earlier this week, Congressman Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan/ Bronx) sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking that the DREAM Act, if passed, be named after Peralta. “On behalf of his constituents in New York City and the greater immigrant diaspora in New York State, he was unyielding in his desire to see the New York state DREAM Act passed and signed into law,” the letter read. “In memory of Senator Peralta, I respectfully ask that when the New York State Legislative Session reconvene on Jan. 9 that both the Assembly and Senate name the [DREAM ACT] in honor of Peralta.” During the service, José’s brother Edgar also spoke, sharing some life lessons he learned from José. “On November 10, 1971, God lent us a wonderful human being,” he said. “Those closest to him knew him as Joe. I had the honor and was lucky enough to grow by his side, learning everything he knew. He taught me many valuable lessons in life. He taught me how to put

everyone before yourself. He taught me how to treat others the way you would like to be treated. He taught me how to be respectful and professional to all people. He taught me the most important lesson in life is that life has no meaning unless you humbly serve others. These are lessons I will carry on throughout my life and that I will pass on.” Edgar said José wasn’t just his brother, but was the brother of everyone in the community. “On November 21, 2018, God had a higher purpose for him,” Edgar said. “He called him up. It was tragic news to all of us, but God needed a man with his tireless effort by his side. I know Joe is looking down at us right now with a humble heart. He is thinking I don’t deserve all this praise; I was just doing my job. Joe, the work of a great leader and a wonderful human being is putting others’ needs first and sacrificing yourself for all.” The devastation of Peralta’s immediate family and friends was evident during

the ceremony, as was that of several constituents, who struggled to contain their emotions. “Whenever I had an issue, I knew if I reached out to my senator, that his office was always going to help,” said Maria, an elderly immigrant who said she lived in the district longer than Peralta had served. “He will always be my senator.” Another Jackson Heights resident said there were times when he was disappointed in some of Peralta’s actions, but he never stopped believing in him. “No one is perfect,” he said. “Peralta brought so much good to our community. I saw him all the time around Jackson Heights in the summer, winter; it didn’t matter. He always asked me how I was doing and whenever I had a question, he took the time to listen. But I think everyone can agree that the one thing he was known for was his big smile. Even when he was trying to get his point across to someone he disagreed with,

he was smiling. He truly cared about everyone in his district, regardless of their color.” Luís, an Elmhurst resident who attended the funeral with his elementary-school–aged son, said there were many years when his family struggled to afford food or necessary supplies, and that Peralta’s turkey drive, school-supplies drive and toy drive “saved our lives.” “If it wasn’t for him, who knows how many Christmases I wouldn’t be able to gift my son or how many Thanksgivings I wouldn’t have a turkey?” said Luis. “To some these things are small, but they impacted my life. And it wasn’t like he did this for a photo op. He actually greeted everyone, interacted with all the kids and showed so much love. His death is devastating.” Last Friday, Evelyn told the New York Post that the city’s medical examiners had determined that Peralta suffered from sudden septic shock, which led to organ failure. Evelyn said that days before Peralta’s death, he had complained of headaches and shortness of breath. But it wasn’t until he developed a fever on Nov. 20 that she rushed him to Elmhurst Hospital, where he died the next day. Peralta’s family created a GoFundMe page for funeral expenses. Within 24 hours, the family’s $25,000 goal was exceeded, reaching more than

$60,600. The Queens Tribune conducted a dayin-the-life interview with Peralta this past summer, where he expressed his pride in serving his community and expressed the paramount importance of family. Reach Ariel Hernandez at ahernandez@ queenstribune.com or @reporter_Ariel

Peralta's wife Evelyn delivered a moving eulogy.

ELECTED OFFICIALS PAY TRIBUTE TO PERALTA QUEENS COLLEGE PRESIDENT FÉLIX V. MATOS RODRÍGUEZ: “The Queens College community deeply mourns the tragic and untimely loss of New York State Sen. José Peralta, class of 1996. José was a true friend to the college, to the City University of New York, and to me. A psychology major, he actively served the Queens College student body as president of its Student Association. Following his graduation, José worked for labor organizations and focused on helping immigrants of all backgrounds obtain needed assistance. Elected first to the New York State Assembly and subsequently to the New York State Senate—the first Dominican-American to be elected to this body—he served on their highereducation committees, vigorously advocating for public highereducation funding and increased student financial aid. Among his many policy passions, his leading role

on behalf of a New York State Dream Act was especially prominent. José's passing leaves all of us empty of his energetic and always upbeat, positive presence. We remain inspired by his enduring commitment to public service in western Queens and all that he did on behalf of his community, and extend our deepest condolences to his family.” CONGRESSMAN JOE CROWLEY: “José Peralta was an enormous figure in Queens. He was dedicated to our communities and neighborhoods, and his lifetime of service will be gratefully remembered by many in New York City. José was a distinct politician—a man who always did what he felt was right, even if it was politically unpopular. That requires a level of courage and bravery we should all seek to emulate. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, including his young children and wife, Evelyn, during this difficult time.”

COUNCILMAN FR ANCISCO MOYA: “I am heartbroken and shaken over the tragic news of Sen. José Peralta’s untimely death. The communities we served together, our colleagues, all of Queens and I are joined in grief today. In private, Sen. Peralta often had a gentle demeanor. But that belied the fierce fighter he was for the people to whom he dedicated his life to representing. He was a tireless advocate for his constituents, our Dominican community and our neighborhoods. At the end of the day, his decisions were always motivated by a drive to bring his community everything it deserved. José was a kind man and a friend. Most importantly, he was a terrific husband and an amazing father. His passing is a reminder to us all of how fragile life is and to give our loved ones an extra hug this Thanksgiving. José will be greatly missed. To his beautiful young family and his loved ones, my heart is with you. Rest in peace, José.”

GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO: "The family of New York continues to mourn the sudden passing of Sen. José Peralta. Sen. Peralta was a tireless advocate for Queens and for all New Yorkers, including our immigrant communities. His support for the DREAM Act in particular has been instrumental in our fight to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to an affordable college education. I am directing that f lags be f lown at half staff in honor of Sen. Peralta and his service to the people of New York." COUNCILMAN DANN Y DROMM: “Deeply saddened by the passing of Sen. José Peralta, my "brother from another mother," as he lovingly referred to me. José was a good man who loved his community and job. Words cannot express my feelings.

My sympathies go out to Evelyn, Matthew, Myles, his mother and family. Rest in peace, my friend.” JESSICA R A MOS: “José Peralta is gone too soon. When I met him in 2003 I saw a world of promise for our community, and though years later we’d disagree on tackling the issues, I know in his heart he loved his community. He was a true public servant. Strength and love to his wife, sons and loved ones.” M AYOR BILL DE BLASIO: “José Peralta was a proud son of Queens and the Dominican Republic. He worked his way up from the grassroots, with heart and tenacity. Chirlane and I are both pained by his sudden loss. Our prayers are with his wife, Evelyn, and his sons.”

Issues

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

What You Should Know About Sepsis By ARIEL HERNANDEZ

The Rory Staunton Foundation was formed following the 12-year-old’s death from sepsis.

The recent death of State Sen. José Peralta, believed to have been the result of sepsis, has led many to ask about this deadly condition that claims more than a quarter million lives each year. Sepsis is the body’s extreme response to an infection, and has been deemed a life-threatening medical emergency by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Queens Tribune spoke with Ciaran Staunton, father of 12-year-old Rory Staunton, who died in 2012 from sepsis. Ciaran Staunton is the co-founder of the Rory Staunton Foundation. “Sepsis occurs when the body’s response to an infection goes wrong and begins to attack other organs and tissues,” said Staunton. “The body releases chemicals to fight the infection, but the chemicals begin to spread inflammation. If it’s not diagnosed early enough, sepsis could lead to tissue damage, organ failure or death.” Common infections, such as pneumonia or a urinary tract infection, could lead to sepsis. “Sepsis kills a quarter of a million of Amer-

icans every year,” said Staunton. “There are no barriers of race, creed or age.” The symptoms of sepsis include a fever above 101, heart rate higher than 90 beats per minute, respiration rate higher than 20 breaths per minute, a possible infection, the chills and fatigue. Staunton said the signs of sepsis are similar to signs of the flu. While symptomatic people generally seek medical care for the flu, they should know of the possibility of a sepsis diagnosis as well. “Fifty percent of Americans never heard of sepsis,” said Staunton. “It’s the number-one cause of death in the United States and it’s the most expensive condition United States hospitals face, costing them over $24 billion a year. It kills more people than AIDS, prostate cancer, breast cancer and opioids put together. It’s easy to detect but it’s killing so many people because they aren’t ruling it out.” Staunton said that whenever you are feeling ill and don’t know what you may have, you should go to your nearest health facility and ask if it could be sepsis. “Rule it out fi rst and foremost,” said Staunton. “It’s so important to ask your medical professionals if you could have sepsis. Don’t be afraid to ask the question and to raise your concerns. Ask about your temperature, respiratory rates, and whether or not your pulse is normal.” Staunton said that unfortunately, health workers don’t automatically test for sepsis, which is why the Staunton Foundation, which advocates for sepsis prevention throughout the country, strives to educate people on the potential severity of the illness. The Staunton Foundation came about after the tragic death of the family’s son, Rory. On March 28, 2012, Rory dived for a ball during gym glass at the Garden School in Jackson Heights and cut his arm. Rather than send him to the school nurse, the gym teacher applied two bandages without cleaning the wound. Shortly after midnight, Rory woke up complaining of pain in his leg. His parents put

him back to sleep, but when he woke up that morning he had a fever of 104. The Stauntons took Rory to his pediatrician, who diagnosed a stomach virus based on Rory’s complaint of stomach pains. The doctor suggested that Rory go to the hospital for rehydration. After the hospital ran tests, Rory was given fluids, prescribed an anti-nausea drug and discharged. The next day when he woke up, Rory complained of pain and had no appetite. His fever was uncontrollable. Although tests were run, the family said the hospital did not follow up to check the results. Bacteria from the infection that developed in the cut Rory got that Wednesday ran its course through his body. On Sunday evening, the Stauntons lost their son to septic shock. Since losing their son, they have been educating the country about sepsis. Last year, they successfully led efforts to include sepsis education in every New York City high school curriculum. “People in high school today learn about obesity, STDs and AIDS, but when you look at what’s killing the most people, it’s sepsis,” said Staunton. As a Jackson Heights resident, Staunton said he had met state Sen. José Peralta a few times, and called him “a gentleman.” He labeled Peralta’s death “tragic.” “I offer his family my sympathies,” said Staunton. Staunton said that although he doesn’t know the specifics of how Peralta passed, the fact that sepsis was involved meant his death could have been prevented. “Twenty years ago, stroke and heart attacks weren’t easy to identify or rule out, and now they are,” said Staunton. “We need to rule out sepsis.” Staunton said the family’s foundation’s goal is to bring the quarter of a million sepsis deaths down to zero by 2020. “It’s an ambitious goal but we can do it,” said Staunton. “We just have to educate people.”

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Immigration

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

All The Crows Are Black THE STORY OF A CHINESE IMMIGRANT IN FLUSHING By LIUYU IVY CHEN

“I don’t have friends here. I spent last Chinese New Year alone,” Annie told me as she massaged my feet. She was in her 50s: small frame, short hair, fair skin. Her reticent air and dull eyes betrayed a bitter past I was eager to unveil. I had arrived at Annie’s massage parlor on a crisp October day. I took the 7 train and got off at the Main Street station, where large casino billboards and two small bible stands competed for my attention. I walked up the stairs and faced a humansize poster of Falun Dafa, a religious sect banned by the Chinese government that preaches truth, kindness and tolerance. As I approached the intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue, I walked past modern buildings covered with busy signs advertising practical goods and services: beauty salons; drug stores; regional restaurants; markets selling fresh meat and produce; travel agencies; tutoring companies; and tax, legal and immigration consulting fi rms. On the curb, I bumped into an old Chinese man handing out fl iers advertising a foot reflexology center. I took one and followed his lead. Walking with a limp, this man hailed from Changle, Fujian province—the hometown of many Flushing residents. He and his wife came to America to join their children and grandchildren; he worked part time while she stayed home looking after their grandchild. Weaving through the crowds, we turned past a Chinese herb market, walked up a narrow staircase and arrived at this stuff y third-floor massage parlor. More than a dozen women and a few men lounged on purple sofas, chatting or staring at smartphone screens. The boss, a skinny man in his 40s, slouched on a center sofa surrounded by masseuses. “Ten dollars an hour, plus a minimum 10-dollar tip,” the boss said in a crude southern Chinese dialect. When Annie walked over, she lowered her head and lifted my feet from the water basin to the pleather ottoman. To initiate conversation, I asked where she was from and found out that we both hailed from Zhejiang province, to our mutual delight. “You are the second Zhejiang person I’ve met in America,” Annie said with a smile, her doleful eyes mellowing. “The other Zhejiang client is a successful real estate businessman making it in America all on his own.” We understood right away that it was a classic Zhejiang story. Zhejiang people are famous for being entrepreneurial, both at home and abroad. Annie is one of over 30,000 Flushing residents born in China, a thread in the tapestry of Chinese transplants in Queens, New York. After I came to the United States in 2011, I mainly stayed in academic and professional circles, rarely interacting with Chinese people like

Annie. The immigrants from Mainland China to the United States have grown more than sixfold since the normalization of U.S.-China relations in 1979, reaching over 2 million in number today. These Chinese expatriates are usually skilled or wealthy, holding F1 student visas, H-1B work visas or EB-5 investor visas, propelling America’s global economy. They present a stark contrast to the often-overlooked Chinese immigrants like Annie, who have commonly arrived through family ties or as asylum seekers, and now work in the service sector in Flushing or other Chinese enclaves. Annie was born in a small village in Zhejiang province along the East China Sea. She ate fish daily as a child, “steamed, braised, fried, dried…three, four different kinds of fish in a meal,” Annie recalled. In an old photo, Annie posed confidently with four high school friends, their thin ankles planted in the muddy ocean. In a popular 1980s’ style, Annie wore a pink cable-knit sweater, a string of white pearls and a pair of blue jeans; her right hand was casually tucked in her blue-jean pocket as she smiled into the camera. In the 1980s, the Cultural Revolution was becoming a memory as the Chinese economic reform delivered unprecedented opportunities. Yet modern education and economic resources were primarily allocated to urban households—excluding rural residents–– and the urban-rural gap widened. Today, China’s overall development still lags. According to a 2016 government survey, less than 6 percent of Chinese people have a college degree. The majority of Chinese employees earn less than $600 a month. In Annie’s rural high school class of more than 200 students, only five were admitted to college. Annie would have had to score at least 60 points higher

than a city student on the entrance exam to enter the same university. Like most of her peers, Annie dared not dream. Instead, she learned to sew at home, making embroidered handkerchiefs, aprons, pillow cases, sleeve covers and shirt collars. Later, the local government acquired Annie’s family’s land to develop real estate, compensating her and her younger brother with assembly-line jobs in a new village factory. Annie worked hard and was soon promoted to a larger factory in the city. “I cried because it was too far away––a 10-minute bike ride from home,” Annie laughed, now half a world away. In this new factory, she met a young man whom she later married at her parents’ request. This would become her most bitter regret. Annie talked more freely outside the massage parlor. “Our ‘three views’ [views of the world, life and values] are completely different,” Annie told me over a bowl of duck blood soup with glass noodles in the New World Mall food court. She tried to break up with him before they married, but he cried and she softened. Annie’s mother also scolded her for attempting to spoil the opportunity and threatened to summon her father to give her a good beating. “It was not until three decades later that I proved myself right. When I realized I had been living a lie, my youth was gone.” After Annie got married, she applied for a reproductive permit at her regional government office in order to give birth to a child. She had a healthy son in 1996. But when she was pregnant again in 1998, government affi liates persuaded her to obey the one-child policy and have an abortion. Annie’s husband was detained for his resistance while she was taken to a hospital for the forced abortion and IUD insertion. Annie suffered from bleeding and depression

afterwards. She tried to take time off work, but was fi red instead––a biased dismissal legitimized by her stained official record of attempting to break the family-planning law. When the onechild policy was relaxed in 2013, Annie and her husband tried again to have a second baby and to save their marriage, but she could no longer conceive. After she lost her second baby and her stable job, Annie opened a factory with her husband, selling molding machines. Although the business was under Annie’s name, her husband managed it while she took care of their growing son. She tried to trust his business acumen, but worried in the back of her mind. “When he described his rosy investment plans, I would give him a cold stare and point out things that made no sense. He felt unsupported and I felt I was talking to a child.” To distract herself from her unhappy marriage, Annie began working out in a gym, and traveled to South Korea and Japan to take sewing classes. She opened her own fashion studio and made it a success. “When a client presented a magazine image, I could make an identical replica using the right fabric, colors and cut.” Annie did not hesitate to share her opinion of fashion with me: “Flushing’s fashion scene is terrible. Manhattan is a lot better. New Yorkers wear a slim fit with simple colors, complementing their self-confidence. In China, perhaps because women are smaller, they wear more baggy outfits with busier colors.” I looked at Annie, still chic in middle age, wearing a pair of wide-rim green glasses, a black linen scarf and a loose denim coat. I encouraged her to open a boutique clothing store in Queens. She had also noticed a lack of designer stores in Flushing: “Most tailor shops here only xiu xiu bu bu [fi x and mend].” But when Annie imagined a future, a streak of fear crossed her eyes: Her legal status, the expensive rent and machines, and the foreignness of America were all uppermost in her mind. To fi nd out what it would take to open a clothing store in Flushing, I took Annie to the nearby Roosevelt Plaza to chat with shop owners. A young Chinese mother received us warmly. She had moved to Flushing with her husband a few years before, following the suggestion of a hometown friend who had settled in Flushing. This young mother had had a stable government job back in China, but she quit it to take a chance in America. Her husband now runs a homerenovation contracting company in New Jersey. “That’s very kind of your friend,” Annie commented, “to invite you to live in America.” “Yes, yes,” the shop owner smiled evasively, lowering her head. “You must be hanging out with this friend quite often now,” I chimed in. Silence. “Once we are here, we are on our own, right?” Annie quickly understood. “Yes, yes.” This young mother showed us an empty storefront for rent across the aisle. Annie could rent it for just over $2,000 a month. Although a green card was not needed, it required a substantial rental deposit. As we stood in the empty room painted in light blue, Annie measured the space with her eyes and arms. She needed three machines and a storage room, and concluded the storefront was not big enough. Annie’s life began to derail in 2014. More than three decades into the economic reform, traditional manufacturing and shipping industries in Zhejiang province suffered a painful slowdown. Exports declined, the currency deflated, the price of labor soared, and the real estate bubble seemed ready to burst. Off the record, many Zhejiang business owners had routinely taken out high-interest loans from family members and friends; others lent money to larger developers; debts and interest snowballed. In a good economy, everyone benefited. When the capital chain ruptured, almost every household felt the agony. Annie’s husband ran her factory into an enormous debt involving her relatives (while sparing his own family) without Annie’s knowledge. The stab of betrayal nearly crushed her. She took over the wreck and sought his support, but he dodged. Annie divorced him. “I told him

that his big head was fi lled with shit,” Annie said, clenching her jaw. Unable to pay the exorbitant loan her husband had stacked up behind her back, Annie was further punished by the authorities. She was prohibited from checking into a decent hotel, booking a high-speed train, taking a domestic fl ight, or making any big purchases to open a new business. In her darkest moments, Annie thought of ending her life. “I told myself that if I ended it here, there would be no more pain. But once I thought of my parents, how they’ve raised and cared for me….I had to pay my fi lial piety.” Annie then gave me a warning: “A woman needs to be in control of the family fi nances. Do not leave it to the man.” I nodded. My own mother is a living example. Born a villager and quasiliterate, my mother escaped the familyplanning policy, moved our family to the city and opened a small factory in the early 1990s, putting three daughters through college. When the Chinese economic slowdown began to hurt Zhejiang entrepreneurs in 2014, I had fi nished graduate school in New York. My mother told me on the phone that several local bosses, bankrupted or blacklisted, had disappeared or committed suicide; numerous family relationships had turned sour; and divorce rates had skyrocketed. My family also suffered, but my mother led everyone to “walk carefully on a thin wire between two peaks” and survived. Annie continued, “Now, weirdly, I feel relieved. Why? Three reasons: I’ve made him see clearly what he is made of, I’ve proved myself right, and I’ve fi nally started to live in truth.” Annie leaned forward. “Isn’t America a country of free speech? Is that why I’m telling you all this?” Annie did not share her feelings with her friends back in China out of fear that they would judge her. She has a niece in America who studies economics at Columbia University. Her niece’s parents are small government clerks dedicated to supporting her education. Annie sometimes invites her niece out to eat in Flushing. Without revealing details about her current life, she shows her niece consistent generosity. In the same spirit, Annie fought hard to pay for my food, and my protest seemed to hurt her feelings. “Oh, I just can’t get used to this clear separation between people,” she murmured as she put away her wallet. “My mother said I have a smart face but a dumb belly—bright but gullible—which is true,” Annie self-mocked, and then turned serious. “After I lost everything in those humiliating years, I felt my life had suddenly become…richer. When I saw the pitiful look in the eyes of my hometown people, including those who I had grown up with, I was speechless. They thought I had been reduced to nothing, and avoided me in case I asked them to borrow money….I realized my

90’S ECONOMIC SHIFT By the early 1990s, China had shifted its collective economy to a market economy for over a decade. Besides managing regional finances, local governments began pulling resources to actively participate in profitable real-estate developments which enjoyed an explosive growth in the following decade. “Turning land into profits” became the norm, and rural residents who lost their land were usually content to receive compensations including cash, property, and stable jobs.

world had become so much bigger.” Once Annie made up her mind to live, the path became clear: go to America. To Annie’s gratitude, her parents were supportive. After arriving in the United States last winter, Annie worked as a maid for her friend’s daughter, who found Annie’s work unsatisfactory and fi red her after a month. “I tried my best, but still lost my job. I was so worried that my hair began falling out,” Annie said as she brushed her thin hair. “Then I realized I was totally alone in America.” Without a work permit or the ability to speak English, Annie resorted to the Chinese community in Flushing. Annie found a temp agent and got another family-service job in New Jersey; she earned $2,000 a month working 90 hours a week as a maid, cook and nanny for a young Chinese family until they moved to Shanghai. Annie struggled to keep up with the endless work and felt relieved when she left. “They tried four different housekeepers in Shanghai but found none as good as me. They said a high-quality worker like me would never become a maid in China,” Annie laughed. Now, Annie wakes up at 7:00 every morning, boils an egg, pours a cup of milk, and stirs black sesame seeds

Immigration

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

ONE-CHILD POLICY Introduced in 1979 and terminated in 2015, China’s family planning policy required each family to have only one child, exceptions may apply. It is argued that about 400-500 million births have been prevented during this time. This policy’s consequences include worsened female infanticide, gender ratio disparity, personality disorders in young people, and birth tourism to foreign countries.

into a bowl of oatmeal to enjoy. She prefers American milk to Chinese milk: “American milk tastes like real milk!” She prepares only light food in her rental apartment in Flushing because her Chinese landlord dislikes a greasy kitchen. She pays $500 a month for a single room with a bathroom in the hallway. After breakfast, Annie studies English on a WeChat app for an hour, but she has fallen behind lately. Around 9:30 a.m., she heads off to work at the foot massage parlor. She works from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; her boss pays her $30 a day in cash, plus tips. On a good day, she has about five clients. Some days she has none. Without a work contract, she can leave at any time, a freedom she enjoys. She is not insured and says, “I have to be careful not to get sick.” Annie recently opened a checking account in the nearby Chase Bank and is learning to use the Chase Blue debit card. Lili Huang, a Chinese banker at the Chase Bank on Main Street, told me that she has many clients who, like Annie, arrived in America with hope and promise but soon faced harsh reality. One of them, an undocumented mother who sends her son to school in Flushing, feels guilty to have left her

daughter behind in China. After doing different odd jobs, she recently secured an enviable full-time position at Xi’an Famous Foods, earning above minimum wage with benefits. Among Lili Huang’s clients are many undocumented Chinese men who run their home-renovation contracting companies out of state––New Jersey and Atlanta are popular destinations. Every year, these men return to Flushing to sort out their fi nances and have their health checked. Working hard in this business can generate over $50,000 a year, enough to purchase a suburban home in cash after a few years. I asked Ms. Huang if her undocumented clients felt anxious under the current administration. She said they appeared calm, taking care of their own businesses. Chinese people seem to have an extraordinary resistance to external disturbance. Recently, Flushing shocked the rest of America with two incidents: the baby stabbing in a Chinese maternity center and the suicide of a Chinese prostitute disguised as a masseuse. Meanwhile, Chinese commoners in Flushing go about business as usual. I asked Annie if she was aware of these current events. Annie shook her head and said no. To her, life in Flushing goes on in the same way every day: noisy but peaceful, carrying on in an endless loop. She occasionally complains about the airplanes buzzing around nearby LaGuardia Airport, and fantasizes about having a suburban home with a garden of her own. We walked past two well-dressed men on Main Street: “That’s the doctor who always comes to our parlor. His black friend comes too,” she explained. I glanced at the Hispanic doctor, who was engaged in an animated conversation with his friend against the backdrop of a crisp autumn night. I wondered what Flushing looked like through their eyes. “Half Chinese, half laowai [foreigner],” Annie answered when I asked about her clientele. Business is good between one and four in the afternoon, at night and on the weekend. On weekday afternoons, lonely seniors visit. At night, local clerks arrive. Annie knows of the underground prostitution often associated with the massage industry. “Our massage parlor is not like that. That’s why I’m still working there.” Annie has never been

coerced to provide sexual services. On this matter, her boss stands up for the masseuses, turning the predators away. Annie has rejected a few laowai clients who took an interest in her, using broken English and body language. I asked Annie about her boss. “He is not a bad person, but he is not always on our side,” she replied. She once had a colleague who performed a two-hour massage and received a five-dollar tip. The colleague complained but their boss didn’t defend her for fear of offending the client. So she quit. Although she can barely make ends meet, Annie feels that massaging feet is much better than being a maid. For the time being, she is undocumented. Today, approximately 12 percent of the 2.3 million Chinese immigrants in the United States are undocumented. Many of them seek asylum in hopes of gaining reproductive, political and religious freedom in the United States. The Trump administration continues to clamp down on this population. Annie is skeptical of the Chinese lawyers in Flushing, who she believes overpromise and overcharge. Through her landlord, she found a lawyer she trusts: “He is a Jewish lawyer with several Manhattan offices.” This lawyer is helping Annie build a political-asylum case on the grounds that she was forced to have an abortion under China’s coercive family-planning laws. He is charging her $10,000 and she has paid $2,000 up front. Annie is now waiting to be summoned for the fi rst U.S. immigration

interview. With another fl ier stuffed into my hand, I visited the “Honest Immigration” agency near Annie’s workplace. This third-floor office has two reception desks near the entrance, a classroom, and an executive office in the back. I asked a receptionist some questions and was received coldly. As I stood up, I peeked into the classroom and saw a young Chinese instructor lecturing to a group of senior Chinese immigrants. I asked the receptionist what they were doing in there. “Test preparation!” she exclaimed, referring to the naturalization test. As I turned to leave, I saw a poster on the wall near the classroom: “Better Than Ever Before!” “Make America Great Again!” I wondered if the elderly American-citizens-to-be inside the classroom could read those English slogans. If they could, would they understand the political and cultural implications? Would they revere Trump in the manner that senior Chinese citizens revere President Xi, whose images and slogans shine on the billboards and red banners covering China’s streets and buildings? When I met the old man with a limp on the street again, I was holding Annie’s arm. “Thank you for fi nding me a friend,” I said to him, smiling. He laughed, showing crooked teeth. “Our boss is stingy,” he complained to Annie, who agreed. He is paid $7 an hour for five hours a day. “Can you fi nd a job elsewhere?” I asked. “No use trying. All the crows are black!”

BLACKLISTING BUSINESSES Beginning in October 2013, the Chinese government started to blacklist local business owners who defaulted on bank loans. This blacklist of debtors heralded the Orwellian social credit system that monitors Chinese citizens’ trustworthiness in realms of finance, commerce, daily habits, and political and social behaviors. One can be unknowingly added to the list after posting sensitive information online or simply forgetting to pay a fine. So far, nearly 10 million Chinese people have been blacklisted, resulting in limited personal, financial and social freedom. The Chinese government plans to “rate” its 1.4 billion citizens with a comprehensive social credit system by 2020.

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Around the Borough

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

QUEENS, NY

ELMHURST

Artist Yvonne Shortt’s Installation Impresses 05

Queens artist Yvonne Shortt—assisted by the NYC Parks Department and artists Joel Esquite and Mayuko Fujino—recently installed the sculptural installation What We Carry in Dunningham Triangle (82nd Street and Baxter Avenue). The artwork celebrates immigrants through a two-part installation. The first element, an aluminum sculpture of a silhouetted woman, is adorned with cut-out designs illustrating the journey of those who come by air, water and land. The woman is holding a bowl that symbolizes what binds us: our family and our community. The second part of the installation comprises a series of flowers. The flowers were co-created by the community members at the collaborative workshops. They were then fabricated in wood and hung around the iron fence, which traditionally sets boundaries but here communicates a sense of togetherness and collaboration. “We may come to the United States in a variety

04 01

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of ways, but once we come, we are the foundation for our community” said Shortt in discussing her work. “We carry our stories and history when we leave one place, and form new traditions once we arrive. Whether we were forced to come or come on our own, from us flourishes strength, hope and unlimited possibility.” In order to capture the stories of immigration in Jackson Heights, Shortt sat in Dunningham Triangle over a series of days speaking and listening to those community members passing through and enjoying the park. “My family came by boat, but I thought by listening to others I could incorporate other influences into the piece” Shortt noted. “Sitting in the park, I learned how some came by plane and others by land. I think it’s so important to remember that in many cases, one doesn’t leave everything behind unless where they are leaving is worse.” –Thomas Moody

Increased Sanitation Services Councilman Barry Grodenchik announced that the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) will conduct more basket collections on commercial and residential corners, and provide more resources to problematic areas in his district. Areas impacted are: Marathon Parkway, which runs from Northern Boulevard to 61st Avenue; Nassau Boulevard, which runs from Little Neck Parkway to Horace Harding Expressway; Horace Harding Expressway, which runs from Marathon Parkway to Douglaston Parkway; Springfield Boulevard, which runs from Jamaica Avenue to Francis Lewis Boulevard; Francis Lewis Boulevard, which runs from Hollis Avenue to Jamaica Avenue; Union Turnpike, which runs from Utopia Parkway to Francis Lewis Boulevard; Cloverdale Boulevard, which runs from Hoxie Drive to 56th Avenue; 56th Avenue, which runs from Springfield Boulevard to Cloverdale Boulevard; Springfield Boulevard, which runs from Horace Harding Expressway to 56th Avenue; Springfield Boulevard, which runs from Horace Harding Expressway to 86th Avenue; Horace Harding Expressway, which runs from 220th Street to 224th Street; Horace Harding Expressway, which runs from Springfield Boulevard to Bell Boulevard; Bell Boulevard, which runs from 73rd Avenue to 75th Place; 73rd Avenue, which runs from Bell Boulevard to 214th Place; Union Turnpike, which runs from Springfield Boulevard to Clearview Expressway; and Douglaston Parkway, which runs from 61st Avenue to 65th Avenue.

SUNNYSIDE

Immigration Attorney Sentenced For Fraud On Nov. 19, Sunnyside immigration lawyer Andreea Dumitru was found guilty of asylum fraud, making false statements to immigration authorities and aggravated identity theft. She could face over 15 years in prison, said Geoffrey S. Berman, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. According to Berman, between 2013 and 2017, Dumitru, 43 , submitted over 100 immigration applications with false statements, including but not limited to applicants’ personal narratives of alleged persecution, criminal history and travel history. Dumitru allegedly fabricated personal stories of purported mistreatment of her clients, forged her clients’ signatures and falsely notarized affidavits.

“Andreea Dumitru, an immigration attorney, scammed the asylum program, which was designed to provide safe harbor for the world’s most-v ulnerable people,” said Berman. “She will now serve time in prison for her crimes.” Dumitru was convicted of one count of asylum fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of making false statements, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison. Dumitru is expected back in court in the coming weeks for sentencing.

Congressman Joe Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) was sworn into the commission that is responsible for planning the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of America’s independence. His inauguration took place on Nov. 16 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and was conducted by the judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the Honorable Noel L. Hillman. “Our nation will reach a pivotal milestone in the next decade, and I’m honored to be

Duane Reade Robbers Caught An uncle and nephew were arrested on Tuesday for a spree of robberies early Monday morning that left a Duane Reade manager severely injured with two gunshot wounds. The suspects were identified as Elgin Brack, 22, and his uncle Scott Brack, 50. According to police reports, Scott has a criminal history for past robberies and an attempted murder charge. According to police, at approximately 3:25 a.m., one of the suspects, posing as a customer, acted as if he were purchasing an item at a Woodside Duane Reade, located at 60-02 Roosevelt Ave. When the 49-year-old manager—whose name has not been released—opened the cash register, the suspect displayed a firearm and demanded money. The manager immediately closed the register and the suspect shot him once in the left hand. The manager attempted to grab the firearm but was too late. The suspect shot him in the face and then f led the scene. Less than half an hour later, another robbery took place at a 7-Eleven located at 50-92 Northern Blvd. The suspect repeated the same method, acting as a customer. When the 32-year-old worker opened

part of that celebration,” said Crowley. “History has always been a great passion of mine, and I look forward to shaping how our country celebrates its anniversary by both recognizing how far we’ve come over the past 250 years and how much more we have yet to accomplish.” The commission includes 16 private citizens and nine federal officials who will plan the celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary in 2026. –Ariel Hernandez

–Ariel Hernandez

WOODSIDE

the register, the suspect displayed his gun and demanded money. This time the worker complied and gave the suspect the money before the suspect f led. Shortly after, the suspect hit a Rite Aid located at 33-01 30th Ave., repeating the scheme. The 26-year-old female worker complied and the suspect f led. The final robbery took place at 5:42 a.m. at another Rite Aid, located at 115-10 Merrick Blvd. The suspect again got away with money. In the course of two hours, the robbers got away with $1,200. “Four robberies by one team in one night is a little out of the ordinary, so it’s good that we got on it as quickly as we did,” said Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea. “Commits the first robbery, shoots an individual, essentially leaves him to die— thankfully he did not. And then goes on in a short period to rob three additional stores. So this is who we’re dealing with. It would not surprise me at all if we connected them to other crimes.” The duo are due in Brooklyn Court this week. –Ariel Hernandez

HOWARD BEACH

Hung Jury In Karina Vetrano 04 JACKSON HEIGHTS Case Crowley Joins Semiquincentennial Commission

05 02

OAKLAND GARDENS

FLUSHING

11th Annual Christmas Lighting Queens Crossing will celebrate its annual Christmas lighting on Dec. 7. The installation for the event was designed by Taiwanese artist James Hsieh. Hsieh’s “Pentagon Invasion” installation will rise up 20 feet, and features a large-scale pentagram star, which he said symbolizes the Christmas spirit. The star is made of plaid wood, plexiglass and LED light. In addition to the star, there will be figurines of alien creatures that Hsieh crafted by hand. “New York City is one of the most culturally di-

verse cities in the world. The immigrants and the ‘aliens’ from all over the world, including myself, bring different vibrant ‘colors’ and energies to the Big Apple,” said Hsieh. “In addition to conveying the joyful holiday vibes by the pentagram star, the concept of alien invasion and the vivid colors also represent the ethnic diversity of the city.” The event will feature live performances, food vendors and pictures with Santa. For more information visit Queenscrossing. com.

FLUSHING

Senators Secure Funds For World’s Fair Pavilion U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced this week that they have secured more than $16 million to repair and replace electrical units at the World’s Fair Park in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The facilities were severely damaged in Hurricane Sandy. “The World’s Fair Pavilion is one of Flushing’s iconic sites. This funding is an important investment that will help repair the electric components of many of the park’s facilities, including the vaults, con-

cession area, boathouse, main area and comfort station,” said Gillibrand. “These fixes are an important step in recovering from the damage that Hurricane Sandy caused and will help revitalize the World’s Fair Pavilion for future generations to enjoy.” The funds, which come in the form of a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will also be used to take steps to prevent future flooding damage at the site.

One of the borough’s most notorious cases ended with a hung jury last Tuesday after jurors stated that they needed more evidence. On Aug. 2, 2016, Karina Vetrano, 30, went for a jog, as she did regularly with her father, Philip Vetrano. That day her father didn’t join her, and he reportedly grew alarmed after his daughter had not returned an hour later. Within two hours, Philip alerted the police and a search party was gathered. Philip was joined by members of the community, the NYPD and helicopters as they looked for Vetrano in Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach. The group reportedly split up, and Philip found his unresponsive and unconscious daughter face down and brutally beaten. In February 2017, Chanel Lewis, 21, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and sexual assault. Since Lewis’ arrest, he has confessed on tape on two separate occasions to the murder of Vetrano, but has repeatedly denied the murder to investigators. It was NYPD Lieutenant John Russo who suspected Lewis was the one who killed Vetrano after spotting him loitering in Howard Beach following her murder. According to Russo, Lewis was spotted wearing heavy clothing during the hot summer and avoided police contact. After his arrest, DNA samples were taken that reportedly matched the DNA found underneath Vetrano’s fingernails and on her cell phone. Half of the 12-person jury argued, in Lewis’ defense, that the police interrogation had been intense. Robert Moeller, one of Lewis’ lawyers, argued that the crime scene was contaminated, and that given that Lewis had been to the park, he could have possibly touched areas in the park that Vetrano touched. “People’s DNA can end up in places that they’ve never been,” said Moeller. Moeller also argued that Lewis’ mental state was not strong enough to endure the intensity of the interrogation. Some of the factors contributing to the split jury included that medical examiners ruled that Vetrano died of strangulation, but Lewis confessed that he drowned her in a puddle; evidence showed trauma to her vagina and rectum, but Lewis denied sexually assaulting her; and Lewis had an arm injury at the time of arrest, but Vetrano’s phone was thrown approximately 40 feet away from her body—and the injury would have prevented him from throwing the phone. “After deliberating for the entire day we are split,” read a letter from the jury to Judge Michael Aloise. “It doesn’t seem like we can make progress. We feel that we have exhausted all of our options.” “As we have said since day one, this case is far from conclusive, and the jury’s deadlock proves this,” the Legal Aid Society, which represents Lewis, said in a statement. “The death of Karina Vetrano is tragic and our hearts go out to her family, but the rush to criminalize our client is not the answer nor is it justice.” Lewis is due back in court on Jan. 22 for a new trial. –Ariel Hernandez

Sports

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

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Transportation

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

MOVING THROUGH QUEENS A look at transportation issues around the borough

SERVICE CHANGES

ROZIC OPPOSES CHANGES TO Q46 BUS BY ARIEL HERNANDEZ After hearing news of service changes to the Q46, Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-Fresh Meadows) expressed her opposition in a letter to New York City Transit Authority (NYCT) President Andy Byford. The Q46 runs from Glen Oaks to Kew Gardens, making stops in neighborhoods that rely heavily on bus service. According to a plan by the NYCT, beginning in January 2019, the Q46’s current morning bus schedule would be changed from its limited service to local service, a plan that Rozic said her constituents are not happy about. “As you may know, I represent a district that does not include a single subway or train station,” the letter read. “We are entirely reliant on bus service on a daily basis. Your agency’s ‘service adjustments’ announcement regarding the Q46 bus line is unacceptable and will only serve to exacerbate the issues faced by my constituents who live in a transit desert. While I am a strong advocate for increasing local AM peak service, it must not be at the expense of riders who rely on limited service.” In the letter, Rozic asked Byford to adjust the proposed 2019 service change to a plan that would improve and increase bus service for everyone who relies on the Q46.

“New York’s two million daily bus riders need service improvements, not cuts,” said Stephanie Burgos-Veras, senior organizer for the Riders Alliance. “On busy routes through dense neighborhoods far from the subway, riders should be able to choose between frequent local and limited bus service. Cutting Q46 limited service will deny riders an efficient means of getting around, forcing them to have longer commutes and spend more time away from family.” Rozic said that the outer boroughs should be a priority for the NYCT, but its actions have shown that this is not the case. “Public transit is this city’s lifeline to opportunity,” said Nick Sifuentes, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “Our subways and buses connect residents to jobs, school and critical services. We need to improve bus service citywide, but nowhere is more important than the neighborhoods that lack subway access and rely entirely on the bus as their main mode of public transit. As the MTA balances the needs of commuters, it’s important to make sure they’re not leaving anyone out—and that includes riders of the Q46, many of whom live far from a subway stop.” Eastern Queens residents have complained to Rozic’s office about delays and lengthy waits for Q46 riders.

NEWS & NOTES COUNCIL INTRODUCES E-SCOOTER BILL It could soon be legal to ride electric scooters and electric bikes around the five boroughs, if a bill put forth in the City Council this week makes its way to final passage. The legislation, co-sponsored by Council members Ydanis Rodriguez, Fernando Cabrera, Rafael Espinal and Margaret Chin, would establish an E-bike conversion program and an E-scooter pilot program in the city. It would also legalize the vehicles in the city. Under the current law passed in 2004, people who operate motorized scooters or bicycles risk getting a ticket and can face fines of up to $500. “We are excited about these bills and grateful to City Council Speaker Johnson, Transportation chair Rodriguez, and sponsors Espinal and Cabrera for their vision and leadership on increasing mobility options and expanding transportation access for New Yorkers across the five boroughs,” said Paul Steely White, director of Safety Policy and Advocacy at Bird Scooters. “Bird created the electric-scooter sharing industry and we are excited to bring safe, affordable and sustainable last-mile transportation to the Big Apple.” It’s unclear how this bill will be received by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has expressed concern with e-bikes in the past, citing complaints from community members.

Due to signal maintenance, the 7 train will board at the Flushing-bound platform at Hunters Point Ave and Vernon Blvd-Jackson Ave. every Wed, Fri and Sat, 12:40am to 5am.

PARKING CHANGES FOR LUNAR NEW YEAR’S EVE

Because of structural improvements Flushing-bound 7 trains will skip 33, 40, 46, 52 and 69 St. stations in Queens. Due to track maintenance, World Trade Center-bound E trains will skip 65 St., Northern Blvd., 46 St., Steinway St. and 36 St. stations in Queens from 11pm on Friday until 5am on Monday.

Councilman Peter Koo’s (D-Flushing) bill to suspend alternate-side parking on Lunar New Year’s Eve was unanimously passed by the City Council’s Transportation Committee on Tuesday. In view of the large population of Asian Americans in New York, Koo said Lunar New Year’s Eve should be added to the existing list of special religious and cultural holidays because it is one of the most important cultural days of the year for the Asian community. “Lunar New Year’s Eve is a time when Asians from all over the world travel home, often across countries and continents, to be with their loved ones,” said Koo. “Here in New York, it is also an intense travel time when families reunite, eat at restaurants, and prepare to celebrate the holiday. Suspending alternate-side parking on Lunar New Year’s Eve is a simple way for the city of New York to respect this important cultural holiday by allowing more communities to share in the great patchwork of cultures, values, traditions that make up New York City.”

Until December 24, Jamaica-bound F trains will be rerouted via the E after 47-50 St. stations in Manhattan to Roosevelt Ave in Queens on the weekends from 11:45pm Friday to 5am Monday, because of track maintenance. Due to station improvements, G service between Nassau Ave in Brooklyn and Court Square in Queens is replaced by free shuttle buses from 9:45pm Friday to 5am Monday. Because of station enhancements through February 2019, Broadway and 39 Ave N W stations are temporarily closed. Because of a track replacement N service is replaced by free shuttle buses between Ditmars Blvd and Queensboro Plaza in Queens from 9:45pm Friday to 5am Monday.

–Ariel Hernandez

CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF QUEENS A look at development and its impact on the borough

CONSTANTINIDES CALLS FOR GREEN BUILDINGS TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE

By MICHAEL GARETH JOHNSON Last Friday, the federal government quietly released the Fourth National Climate Assessment. The 196-page document is troubling: It projects an increase in heat-related deaths, diseases, flooding and droughts. In New York, for example, average temperatures are expected to rise by up to five degrees Fahrenheit by the middle of the century, and up to eight degrees more by 2100. Under the worstcase projections, sea-level rise in NYC would

be about five feet by 2100. The report also estimates that the U.S. economy could face an annual cost of $150 billion in lost labor hours by 2090, if no action is taken to stem climate change—which, left unchecked, could, for instance, compromise workers’ health. In the shadow of this report, Queens City Councilman Costa Constantinides is introducing a bill to combat the biggest producer of carbon emissions in the five boroughs—large buildings, which are responsible for roughly

two-thirds of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. Constantinides’ bill would require buildings of 25,000 square feet or larger to meet new standards on reducing greenhouse gas outputs, forcing them to retrofit with new energy-efficient technology or change their operating procedures. At a news conference on the steps of City Hall, Constantinides said his proposal would be a huge step in helping the city reach its goal of 80 percent emissions reduction overall by 2050. “Climate change is no longer the looming threat of tomorrow—it is a clear and present danger today,” said Constantinides. “The Trump White House’s deconstructive stance on the environment means we are on our own. Our legislation answers that call to action, makes our air cleaner, and ensures the most vulnerable parts of the city are protected from the effects of climate change. I want to thank Speaker Johnson for his support, leadership and partnership, as well as the various stakeholders who came together as a team, because we can all agree New York City has to survive.” City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said, “Mandating energy efficiency for large buildings is a critical next step to combating climate change. I applaud Council Member Constantinides’ proposal to make our environment more sustainable.” Constantinides said his bill will target the worst polluters first, and then will create standards to which all buildings will be held later in the decade. The bill would also set up an Office of Building Energy Performance under the Department of Buildings.

NEWS & NOTES CB7 RAISES WILLETS POINT CONCERN At a meeting back in September about the future of Willets Point, members of Community Board 7 expressed concern about a small detail in the existing deal the city Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has with the current developer of the project, Queens Development Group (QDG). At issue were two acres of land that QDG now owns at the site. The city has a call option to take that land back from QDG, which members of the Community Board requested the city execute before the end of the year. This week, CB7 Chairman Eugene Kelly sent

a letter to EDC and Borough President Melinda Katz asking for an update on their request. The Queens Tribune followed up with NYCEDC, which told us through a spokesperson that “the city will exercise the call option prior to moving forward with the next phase of the project.” The next phase of the project may not begin before the end of the year, but what NYCEDC officials and city leaders said at the meeting in September, and have been consistent about since, is that they have no intention of letting two acres of valuable land slip out of their control.

AMAZONWATCH Cyber Monday Protests Community activists gathered in the rain on Monday to protest the pending arrival of Amazon in the borough, picking Court Square Park as their rallying point because it is in front of the temporary home to corporate employees as the new headquarters is built out on the waterfront, per the deal struck between the company and city and state officials. The group of protesters is holding out hope that it can derail the deal, which provides Amazon with up to $3 billion in subsidies over the next 25 years if the company creates 40,000 jobs. Choosing Cyber Monday for the rally, opponents of the deal said Amazon is a direct threat to local small business and will lead to further gentrification of Queens communities. They also oppose the deal because 1,500 units of affordable housing were originally slated for the site Amazon will be developing. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have said the $3 billion in state and city subsidies given to Amazon will create nine times as much revenue and economic activity during the

next 25 years, helping to provide funding for infrastructure improvements, new parks and new schools. Cyber Monday Profits This week, Amazon announced record-breaking sales for the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend — from Thursday to Cyber Monday, which was the biggest online shopping day in the company’s history. “Black Friday and Cyber Monday continue to break records on Amazon year over year, which tells us that customers love shopping for deals to kick off the holiday shopping season,” stated Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer. Amazon said sales by small and medium-sized business grew more than 20 percent over last year’s Black Friday. Customers ordered more than 180 million items during the Turkey 5 (the five days from Thursday to Monday) Best selling items were: Becoming by Michelle Obama, the Amazon Smart Plug, the new Echo Dot, and the L.O.L. Surprise Series toys.

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

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The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

Super Saturday At The Big A By MICHAEL GARETH JOHNSON

This coming Saturday, Aqueduct Racetrack will host arguably its biggest day of the year. The Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile is the feature, attracting some of the best thoroughbreds in the country for the historic race and huge purse. The class of the field looks to be Mendelssohn, who is rebounding from a fifth place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he set a fast pace before he was passed in the stretch. His main competition from the field of eight will likely will come from Copper Town, a talented colt who has dominated in his last three races, but is making a big leap up in class to compete in a graded stakes race for the first time. Top trainer Chad Brown will send out two live competitors with Grade 2 Kelso winner Patternrecognition and Timeline, who ran third in the Kelso. Also exiting that race is Sunny Ridge, who finished second a half length behind. My pick for the race will be Mendelssohn. This horse has had an up-and-down year in North America that included a dismal performance in the Kentucky Derby. But he’s gotten really good at breaking out of the gate and has calmed a little as he has aged—displaying fewer of the prerace antics he has been known for. In this field, I think Mendelssohn can get to the lead and have enough in the tank to hold off his challengers down the stretch. Underneath him though, I am going to suggest bettors take a look at Stan The Man. The 4-year-old is coming off the best performance of his life, which took place at Aqueduct about four weeks ago, and always runs well at the Big A. He’s likely to be a big price, so an exacta with Mendelssohn should pay you back pretty well. There is some exciting action on Saturday’s undercard as well, including the Grade 2 Remsen, an official 2019 Kentucky Derby prep race that features a wide-open field of competitors. The day also features the Grade 2 Demoiselle, featuring 2-year-old fillies

competing at 1⅛ miles. The field includes one of the best named horses running in the New York circuit—Filly Joel—who has been impressive on the track, breaking her maiden in style last month at Belmont Park. She will likely be the second choice behind the promising filly Enliven, who ran second in the Grade 3 Tempted at Aqueduct at the beginning of the month. The card also features the Grade 3 Go For Wand, a mile race on the dirt for older fillies and mares. Top class sprinter Marley’s Freedom is expected to be the class of the field as she stretches out to the mile distance for the first time. She will face some stiff competition from graded stakes winner Pacific Wind and improving filly Your Love—both trained by Chad Brown. Post time on Saturday is 11:30 a.m. If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch the Cigar Mile, the Remsen and the Demoiselle on FS2 or MSG+ from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Mendelssohn. Photo courtesy NYRA/Francesca Le Donne

Aqueduct Purses Raised Starting Friday, Dec. 7, there will be a bump in the purses for races at the Big A. The NYRA announced that purses for maiden allowance races featuring open company, or horses bred in any state, will increase to $68,000. Maiden allowance race purses for N.Y.-bred horses will also increase to $60,000, a $5,000 increase. “These purse increases represent our continued commitment to maintaining quality racing in New York on a year-round basis. The purse money offered at Aqueduct is competitive with, if not stronger than, amounts offered for top-flight racing across the country,” said Martin Panza, the NYRA’s senior vice president of Racing Operations. “We value and appreciate our local horsemen that continue to support our live racing product into the New Year.” The purses for other allowance races and some claiming races will also go up slightly, giving trainers and owners an added perk for keeping their ponies in New York for the winter. Thanksgiving Weekend Recap Thanksgiving weekend was filled with action for horse racing fans. Aqueduct hosted 13 stakes races over the four-day weekend, kicking off with the Grade 3 Fall Highweight, where Life in Shambles claimed his first graded stakes victory. The 7-year-old mainstay of New York racing was running for the 41st time and got perfect trip with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard. Some other highlights of the weekend included Blamed’s winning gate to wire in the Grade 3 Comely on Friday. On Saturday, Plainsman put in an impressive performance in the Grade 3 Discovery, where he defeated Belmont Stakes runner-up Gronkowski, named after the enigmatic and entertaining New England Patriots tight end. And in the Grade 3 Long Island, also on Saturday, the French-bred Lady Paname outkicked her opponents on the turf to win the $400,000 stake for top trainer Chad Brown, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard her as well.

Undefeated St. John’s Ranked 29th In Country By MICHAEL GARETH JOHNSON

Last Tuesday, down one point to Virginia Commonwealth University with seconds left in overtime, St. John’s sensational junior guard Shamorie Ponds drove down the lane with his defender tied to his hip, exploded upward with a drift away from the basket, and f loated home a game-winning bucket with less than five seconds on the clock. The drive and hoop seemed almost inevitable. Ponds had owned the final minutes of regulation and the five-minute overtime period, using his dribble penetration to break down the tiring VCU defense, hitting f loaters in the lane with defenders draped on him, and finding his teammates for open looks when he was double-teamed.

At the end of the thrilling back-and-forth game, Ponds had 35 points, seven assists and seven steals, and St. John’s grabbed the GotPrint.com Legends’ Classic—an early-season mini-tournament played at Barclays Center in Brooklyn over two days. The night before, the Red Storm held off the University of California 8279, with Ponds leading the way with 32 points and five assists. The two stellar performances earned Ponds Big East Player of the Week honors. The victories brought the Red Storm’s record to 5-0 on the season, and landed them 29th in the country in the new NET rankings—a system implemented this year by the NCAA to bring more transparency

to the selection process for the endof-the-year tournament. St. John’s is currently the top-ranked Big East team in the nation in the new rankings, which take into account record, strength of schedule and several other factors. The past week’s tournament highlighted much of what St. John’s fans have been seeing all year. The team struggles at times on defense against opponents who have offensive-minded big men and accurate three-point shooters. On offense, the team tends to go through stretches where it lacks movement and spacing, making dribble penetration hard and leading to bad shots, turnovers or blocks. But when they are at their best, the Johnnies play high-intensity defense that forces turnovers and generates steals, which lead to easy buckets. On offense, Ponds and Mustapha Heron both seem capable of creating their own shot whenever they want, assuming they don’t run into an easy double-team because of lack of motion. The two offensive leaders can also count on Marvin Clark II and LJ Figueroa to knock down an open shot or make a timely cut to the basket. And in the final five minutes, the team seems comfortable letting Ponds carry them on offense, allowing him to control the pace and pick his spot to drive into the paint and shoot his smooth f loaters, or just blow by his defender for an easy layup. When teams wise up and help, Ponds seems to be able to find the open man with ease. Over the course of their first five games, St. John’s has steadily improved. But on Saturday they will face arguably their toughest test of the season so far when they play Georgia Tech. The Yellowjackets have a 4-1 record, with their only loss coming at the hands of Tennessee, currently ranked sixth in the AP Top 25 poll.

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The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

ARTIST MO KONG’S METHOD OF CENSORSHIP

By THOMAS MOODY

“I’m interested in censorship as a method, rather than talking about it as content directly in the work.”

Mo Kong in front of his work Black Cloud, Thin Ice

“I definitely think way more than I do,” Mo Kong laughs as we near the end of our hourlong conversation, discussing his art, the politics that surround and imbue it, and his method of concealing his own sentiments about these politics in order for his work to provide a multitude of perspectives. “I don’t want my work to give an objective answer,” he tells me. It is a conversation that has rushed by in his Long Island City studio. Mo Kong is an artist utterly absorbed in his art, and his level of preoccupation—the amount of research and information behind every thought and gesture in his work—is just as absorbing in turn. With two installations in this year’s Queens International, Kong occupies a unique and compelling position in the current moment. His deeply researched, investigated and scientific approach to his work straddles the line between journalism and art. In an era in which we are discovering daily the

six years ago, where he received a master’s in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Before turning his mind to art, Kong pursued investigative journalism. Finding the avenues of expression for journalists in China limited, he began to communicate his concerns and research discoveries through a lessovert medium. “The switch to art was a detour of my career, I think,” he tells me. “A lot of the things [in journalism] are out of your control. A lot of what you want to say, you can’t say it...A lot of the information you want to pass to the audience you cannot do as a journalist. And I found art gave me an easier way of dealing with that.” Kong’s work, however, never expresses those concerns directly; rather, the works are coded with metaphorical narratives, a technique he developed by necessity. “The constant awareness of

He Never Saw Ocean, But Ocean Is Dry, coal dust on paper, in the artist’s studio

value of journalism, and the ease of its manipulation, Kong’s bearing in both worlds positions him in an important and enviable venue. His approach also allows him to address topics as complex and substantial as the history of land use, climate change, migration patterns and international political relations with a wealth of authority and jurisdiction uncommon in an artist so young. “I am really interested in the idea of neo-nationalism at the moment” he says. “I see it as a natural cycle: Countries open up; then they close in….At the moment we are seeing them close—not just the United States, but all over the world.” Kong was born in 1989 in Jinzhong, China, an area known for its coal mining. He moved to the United States

censorship helped me encode my work as scientific research and environmental issues.” His piece Making a Stationary Rain on the North Pacific Ocean (to be shown at the CUE Art Foundation in Chelsea in May 2019) depicts the weather patterns of the North Pacific Ocean, where cold and warm fronts of equal strength often meet each other, producing a long-lasting, stationary rain—an analogy for the current economic and political climate between China and the United States. “Science is the ‘big, dumb object’ in my work,” Kong laughs, referring to Alfred Hitchcock’s use of the MacGuffin technique in his films: a plot device that introduces something as vitally important to the narrative early on, only for it to fade into irrelevance as the story

progresses. “Underneath the surface,” Kong continues, “is the political.” What the artist means is that the longer you look at his work, the more you see. Kong never lost his investigatorial spirit, and applies the tenets of good journalism — thorough research, collating of multiple perspectives—to his artwork. Much of his early work deals with the slow-dying industry of his hometown and the complications that its vanishing has caused both the state and local townspeople. For works such as I’m in Death but Can’t Reach the Dark, Kong went about interviewing miners and their families in order to produce a moreinformed understanding of the issues he is addressing. The method is key to Kong’s approach: the deeper his knowledge of a particular subject, the deeper he can bury that knowledge inside the work. This allows him to make more-assured utterances, while at the same time providing him with an invaluable veil under which to smuggle the deeper, metaphorical concerns of the work. I’m in Death but Can’t Reach the Dark, a sculpture installation accompanied by a performance, finds its inspiration in the mining accident in Shanxi, China, in 2009. In order to suppress the true scale of the disaster, victims’ names were removed from the government’s report. Kong saw this as stripping miners of their identity. For the piece, Kong laid out marked boxes filled with black and golden coal. On the inside of each box, the victim’s information was handwritten, but illegibly so. Spiraled cords connect the boxes to lightbulbs. The boxes represent both the miners themselves and the activity of mining. Devastatingly, one box’s absence is outlined in coal dust. The work in large part deals with the increasingly salient issue of censorship. Kong views this censorship not solely through the lens of his Chinese upbringing; censorship, according to the artist, is universal. “Censorship exists worldwide in every nation. It is like a national anthem, sharing the same concept but playing out in different lyrics, melodies and languages. Censorship is diverse and creative. It is the derivative of power and the reason ‘relative freedom’ [as opposed to absolute freedom] exists.” As Kong’s work has developed, he has become more interested in the ways in which his themes can be introduced into his work through metaphor and method. Often, a gesture of Kong’s art—one that at first glance seems quite far removed from the undeclared concern of the work—can encapsulate that concern. “I’m interested in censorship as a method, rather than talking about it as content directly in the work,” he tells me. “I think that is far more interesting.” A feature of this method is self-censorship: “I think we reveal as much about ourselves by what we hide as by what we show.” This selfcensorship often finds its way into Kong’s work as the artist concealing himself within his own art, but has evolved to include other aspects of his approach. Take, for example, Kong’s current pieces in this year’s Queens International Volumes. The only artist to be exhibited in both the museum show and the extension of Volumes into the Queens Library, Kong’s two works—Sticky Lines, Soft Shock and Black Cloud, Thin Ice—deal with

A continuation of the artist’s series in process about honey, bees and migration, Stray, Landing, Seeing Stitches

Mo Kong: “Censorship exists worldwide in every nation. It is like a national anthem, sharing the same concept, but playing out in different lyrics, melodies and languages.”

the migratory patterns of bees. The “American honey bee” is not actually American at all; most honey bees in America are Italian. “The term ‘American bees,’” writes Kong in his statement on the Queens International website, “rebrands the bees with a nationality.” For the project, Kong delved deep into the history of honey and bees. Inspired by a 2012 paper published by the Shanxi Agricultural University in China, which focused on tracing the origins of honey by testing the pollen types in honey samples, Kong began working with the RISD Nature Lab, the Brown University biology lab and Best Bees—a beekeeping company in Boston—to test the DNA of five honey samples. “It turns out that some pollen samples overlap between China and America,” Kong continues in his statement on the website. “U.S. honey is often mixed with honeys from all over the world. ‘American honey made by American bees’ is just a neo-Nationalist selling point.” Underneath the science of honey are coded political, environmental and personal metaphors. “The honey is just a container,” Kong tells me. “It carries with it information, its history and other stories.” One of these stories is that of immigration and identity. Aside from the use of the declining number of bees to symbolize our wayward industrial farming methods, Kong’s piece poses the deeper question of who we are; how and why we are labeled by others; and, in turn, how we identify ourselves. The work addresses Chinese immigration into this country, both direct and the more-nuanced

phenomenon of indirect immigration— that is, the case of Chinese people who first gain citizenship in countries such as Malaysia or Singapore and then immigrate to America. “Chinese honey is taxed by the U.S.A. three times its actual price, so Chinese companies export it to other Southeast Asian countries, who repackage it and export it on to America,” Kong explains. “It is called honey smuggling. I think it’s a good metaphor for immigration.” And, as ever, entangled into immigration is the notion of belonging, the cultural boundaries that are developed and observed by both the immigrant and the native population. “Even second generation [of immigrants] see that there is a boundary—that we identify as ‘that’s your group’ or ‘that’s your group’— and it makes me wonder how long can we be accepted by another cultural environment? That’s what I was looking to ask for in the work. But maybe there is no answer,” Kong laughs. “I don’t think there is an answer.” After living in the United States for the past six years, the last three of those in New York, Kong increasingly identifies as Asian-American: “Month by month, I feel as if I feel my identity changing—not only as I look forward, but also backwards, as I look back into the culture; the more I read and discover about the history of the culture.” While Kong’s work may speak to the uncertainty of belonging and the ever-shifting landscape of identity, he can rest assured that, for the time being at least, he and his extraordinary talent have found a welcoming home in Queens.

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

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The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

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The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

Wreath Making Workshops

H. Latimer House Museum, 34-41 137th St., Flushing. ------------------------------------------------

Create a festive holiday wreath and learn about the types of conifers. All materials included. Starts at 11am. Queens Botanical Garden, 43-50 Main St., Flushing.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 16

A Mexican-American Christmas

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Holiday Concert Two hours of holiday music, contemporary, pop, jazz, and the Dickensian Carolers. Starts at 4pm. Maple Grove Cemetery, 127-15 Kew Gardens Rd., Kew Gardens.

Shoot Hoops for Good

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All are invited to participate in threeon-three basketball tournament. Former Jets Fullback and NFL Hall of Famer Tony Richardson will be play along with teams from the New York Mets, Super Soccer Stars, New York Life, and other entities. Starts at 11am. Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens, 21-12 30th Rd., LIC.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2

FEI Music: A Fusion Music Concert From Zhou Xuan to Michael Jackson, from Jay Chou to Beyoncé, this concert brings East and West together on one stage. Selections range from 1930s Shanghai vintage style to Billboard top 100 tracks from 2018. Starts at 2:30pm. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing. ------------------------------------------------

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company tells the story of an NYC youth with Mexican parents. A dream fuses Mariachi music with Tchaikovsky and folk dance with ballet. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm; Sundays at 4 pm. Thalía Spanish Theatre, 41-17 Greenpoint Ave., Sunnyside.

Holiday Market Trees, wreaths, poinsettias, and unique holiday gifts. Starts at 10am. Queens County Farm Museum, 73-50 Little Neck Parkway, Glen Oaks.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30

CeCe Peniston Former beauty queen Cecilia Veronica Peniston she scored five number one hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/ Club Play in the 1990s. Her signature song is “Finally.” Starts at 11pm. Resorts World Casino NYC, 110-00 Rockaway Blvd., South Jamaica. ------------------------------------------------

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1

Great Northeast Cheese Fest Savor cheeses and learn about them face-to-face from their creators. Pairings include top-rated wines, craft beers, and farmstead ciders. Guests can purchase cheeses from the creameries directly. Starts at 6pm. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd.

Internationally acclaimed marimbist Makoto Nakura presents Leonard Bernstein, David Schober, Philip Lasser and a touch of Bach with guest artists Tara Helen O’Connor (flute), Chie Kitamura (narrator), and Barbara Podgurski (piano). Starts at 7pm. The Church-In-TheGardens, 50 Ascan Ave., Forest Hills. ------------------------------------------------

Marimba Magic Discover how the African marimba has inspired so many composers to write for its resonating tones. Explore how different composers incorporated the instrument into their work. Starts at 4pm. The Church-inthe-Gardens, 50 Ascan Ave., Forest Hills. ------------------------------------------------

Sparrow Film Project 15

Viennese Classic Make an 18th Century Scented Ornament Learn how to make pomanders, a spiced, scented ornament that decorated the home and filled the house with a lovely aroma. Starts at 1pm. King Manor Museum, vicinity of 150th Street and Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica. ------------------------------------------------

Book Reading: Holly’s Hurricane Astoria resident Marie Carter discusses, sells, and signs copies of “Holly’s Hurricane,” which takes place in 2040 after Hurricane Diana wreaks havoc on NYC. Holly Williams, an architect who fled England, has hallucinations in which a mysterious stranger guides her through some of NYC’s forgotten and dramatic past. Starts at 2pm. Greater Astoria Historical Society, 35-20 Broadway, Long Island City.

The NYC area’s biggest Sci-Fi convention with celebrity guests, cosplay, panel discussions, artist alley, children’s event, and more. Saturday and Sunday at Resorts World Casino NYC, 110-00 Rockaway Blvd., South Jamaica.

Based in Queens but international in scope, the Sparrow Film Project is an annual competition of three-minute films. Filmmakers are guided by a different set of criteria based on a new theme. Blocks: Mosaic, 2:30 pm; The Ditty, 3:30 pm; The Sparrow Tavern, 4:30 pm; The LetLove Inn, 5:30 pm; The QED, 6:30 pm; The Bonnie, 7:30 pm. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District.

Live music, art-making workshops, storytelling in Spanish, papermaking, crochet, embroidery, photo booth, Mandingo Ambassadors. Starts at noon. Queens Museum, NYC Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

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Wintercon

The directors, Michael Koresky, Jeff Reichert, and Farihah Zaman, and the James Beard Award-winning writer Mayukh Sen discuss and watch “Feast of the Epiphany,” followed by a reception. The film begins with a simple-but-lovinglyprepared meal a young woman makes for friends. The fun turns to meditations on mortality, and viewers are taken on a roller coaster ride of of emotions, ideas, and grace. Starts at 6pm. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District. ------------------------------------------------

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Makoto Nakura: Bach Meets the 21st Century

Feast of the Epiphany

Corónate

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 3

Religious Conversion Angela Himsel discusses her memoir “A River Could Be a Tree” about her journey from a small rural evangelical community to NYC as a practicing Jew. Starts at 1:30pm. The Central Queens Y, 67-09 108th St., Forest Hills. ------------------------------------------------

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5

Neil Greenberg: To The Things Themselves In-the-round movement and art provoke an experience of the performance moment in and of itself. Shows are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 pm. The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Avenue, LIC. ------------------------------------------------

The Queensboro Symphony Orchestra performs Mozart’s “Toy Symphony” and “Symphony No.45,” “Farewell” by Haydn, and Mozart’s “Violin Concerto No.4” in D major. Starts at 7:30pm. Mary’s Nativity Church, 46-02 Parsons Blvd., Flushing.

Monthly Jazz Jam: Celebrating the Legacy of Louis Poetry Inspired Armstrong by Lewis Latimer ------------------------------------------------

Join David Mills for a reading a workshop of poems inspired by Latimer’s life and work. Mills is the author of two poetry collections—The Dream Detective and The Sudden Country. Starts at 3pm. Lewis

Held on the first Wednesday of every month, this session is a fun way for musicians to hone skills and jam with peers. The house band is led by saxophonist Carol Sudhalter. All are welcome. Don’t play? Come listen! $10. Starts at 7pm. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd. ------------------------------------------------

Food Review

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

Eat the World Queens A Partnership with EattheWorldNYC.com

HI LUCK RESTAURANT A Filipino Kitchen That Belongs To Everyone By JARED COHEE

Dispatch from Springfield Boulevard, Queens Village: A small detached building on a quiet stretch of Springfield Boulevard in Queens Village is the home of Hi Luck. The front is a patchwork of everything happening inside; signs for the law firm above and karate studio below the restaurant compete for visual attention with the year-and-ahalf–old Filipino joint’s picture menu. The sometimes-steamy window also displays the simple greeting “Tuloy po kayo,” a formal welcome in Tagalog that is just a hint of the conviviality inside. If you come to Queens Village via Hillside Avenue, you will pass the Benigno Aquino Triangle in Hollis, a tiny piece of land named in honor of a politician either loved or hated, depending on whom you talk to in the Philippines. The neighborhoods of Jamaica, Hollis and Queens Village, while not as dense with Filipinos as Woodside, have a significant population themselves. Many more have been moving farther out to Nassau County and beyond. This as a whole is the customer base for Hi Luck, although I did see a woman from New Jersey come in to pick up a large order as well. The face of the establishment is without a doubt Leticia, whose head swings towards the door every time she hears it open. Many customers are greeted by name as they walk in, while those she does not know still get a warm welcome. I spoke with her on multiple visits to the restaurant. Besides not being shy about saying her food is worth traveling from afar to eat, she told me it was important to make people feel like this is their kitchen—and even tells them as much. These feelings are similar to the ones of generosity I experienced while traveling around a few of the 7,641 islands that make up the country. This kindness can also be felt from Leticia’s cousin Mina Clemente, the other woman you will always see when dining here. She is the wife of Arsenio Clemente, the man both women refer to as “the boss.” During the week he has a job in New Jersey, so to catch him you will have to be here on a weeknight for a late dinner or sometime on the weekend. However, if you spend any time here it is obvious the real bosses are Mina and Leticia, who not only run the dining room and serve customers, but also cook. The format at Hi Luck is, like the majority of Filipino restaurants in New York City, a turo-turo. “Turo” is the Tagalog word for “point,” and the name originated from the style of ordering: The available items on any day are laid out on the steam table, and customers point to the ones they wish to order. A common order is the combo, which gets you two entrées with rice for $7.99, a massive amount of food for one person. This style of eatery is common on roadsides in the Philippines, where Westerners might awkwardly ask for the menu but never see one. Filipinos themselves are more comfortable without written words, preferring to see, smell and sample the foods before ordering. No matter whether this is your first visit to Hi Luck or you just haven’t tried a particular dish despite being a regular, Leticia is always offering samples to make sure everyone is happy. Formerly an attorney back home and also involved in government, Leticia can speak at least five dialects as well as Tagalog and English, the main common and business languages. The steam table here is usually loaded

with 15 to 20 items depending on the day, but more can be ordered from the kitchen. Aside from a catering menu, I never saw these things written down; regardless, it is likely to be different from one day to the next, so it makes more sense to approach the foods and start a conversation. All manner of meats, fish, stews and soups are available. Famous Filipino dishes like sisig, a sizzling dish of pig parts seasoned with chili and calamansi; and chicken adobo, the de facto national dish marinated in vinegar, soy sauce and garlic, always seem to be around. Leticia calls her beef kaldereta “famous” for good reason: The slightly sweet stew is not to be missed. The restaurant is also home to a lot of Filipino packaged goods stacked near the register and available for purchase. Bottles of banana sauce and Mang Tomas all-purpose marinade are watched over by the portrait of Mina’s mother behind the register. She has not been around for some years now, but her presence as the patron saint of the restaurant is obvious. A beautiful smile lit up Mina’s face when I asked about her. On two recent visits before Thanksgiving, enormous orders of lumpia Shanghai were ready for pickup. These meat-and-vegetable spring rolls seem to be somewhat of a specialty here. One customer was taking them to a pre-holiday gathering of friends, while another was on her way to Brooklyn with an order to share with family. It should come as no surprise that the holiday-obsessed Filipinos have had their Christmas decorations and music going throughout most of November. You start to see signs of this holiday in September back in the country. After the new year, Leticia and Mina will continue to look for another space closer to Queens Hospital in Elmhurst so they can offer their cooking to a larger number of area Filipinos. This move is not set in stone yet—but, like the restaurant’s name, it is an aspiration to good luck in the future if that is where the path leads.

Cousins Mina and Leticia always full of hospitality and warmth

Halo-halo dessert

Turo-turo style pick three with rice

Hi Luck Restaurant 90-49 Springfield Boulevard 11428 Mon., Wed. - Fri. 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.; Sat. - Sun. 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m., closed Tue. captions

Credit cards and cash

FAC T S & FI G U RE S Originally a Spanish colony, the Philippines was ceded to the United States in 1898. It became an independent country on July 4, 1946.

The Philippines is slightly larger than the state of Arizona in land mass. It is an archipelago comprising 7,641 islands, the largest being Luzon, which is home to the capital city of Manila.

During the first part of the 20th century, the Philippines was a U.S. territory, which allowed citizens to immigrate to the United States without restrictions. This wave of immigrants has been termed the manong generation. The immigration wave ended in 1934 when the United States signed an agreement allowing the country to become independent a decade later.

Making selections at the steam table

The Queens Tribune has partnered with the website EattheWorldNYC.com to profile the food and culture of restaurants in all corners of the borough. For more reviews from Queens and beyond, please visit EattheWorldNYC.com.

Classifieds

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

TH IR D

ANNU AL

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Classifieds

Holiday Menu

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

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Movies

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

Courtesy of Rosiya Segondiya

Sobibor: A “Feel Good” Holocaust Movie

Christopher Lambert, right, portraying a German Nazi officer in “Sobibor.”

By RABBI LEVI WELTON

I hate Holocaust movies. It’s not that I want to forget, God forbid, what happened to my people at the hands of the Nazis. After all, I’m a rabbi and my entire life is dedicated to keeping the stories of Jewish history alive in the hearts and minds of our children.

Rather, it’s because I hate seeing my brothers and sisters being herded like helpless sheep into the cattle-cars and massacred at the whim of pure white evil. And make no mistake about it, Hitler was a white supremacist who detested all minorities—just like the synagogue shooter

in Pittsburgh who railed against Muslims, refugees and Mexican immigrants. Nazi Germany perpetrated the ultimate expression of “White Power”; the ideology that launched the entire world into a bloody war was saturated with discrimination against all minorities. That’s why, after they targeted Jews, the 1935 Nuremberg Laws also stripped black people of their German citizenship and prohibited them from marrying “people of German blood.” Yet in 1933 there were only about 5,000 black people in Germany, most of whom were men who came from German colonies in Africa. Since their small numbers didn’t represent a threat to the Third Reich as the Jews, Romani and Slavs did, the Nazis were unsure of how to treat this “inferior race.” Only 20 black Germans were sent to concentration camps, many of them for being musicians of jazz, which was outlawed because “it was invented by black people.” For the Asian community, it got more complicated because Hitler didn’t want to offend the Japanese, who were his allies against the Soviets. Originally, the Nazis wanted to pursue a relationship with both China and Japan—China for its large amount of natural resources and Japan for its more modernized military—and Hitler even wrote in his Political Testament that “I have never regarded the Chinese or the Japanese as being inferior to ourselves. They belong to ancient civilizations, and I admit freely that their past history is superior to our own.” But as the war progressed, Hitler eventually settled on allying with Japan. By the end of World War II, all the Chinese communities in Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen were completely decimated. There were many others who were persecuted, such as homosexuals, people with disabilities, Gypsies, Communists and

other “degenerates.” Yet none was targeted with such zeal as the Jews. American historian Lucy Dawidowicz explains in her book The War Against the Jews that it was only the Jewish minority that were rounded up en masse and systematically murdered in cold blood. Hitler even did things that made no sense militarily, like delaying railcars providing supplies to frontline troops in the former Soviet Union so that Jews could be deported by rail from the USSR to concentration camps. Why this illogical hatred of the Jew? While Dawidowicz presents her own theory in the book, I’d quote a passage from the Torah that I learned in rabbinical school. The third-century Sifrei Bamidbar states, “Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai says, ‘It is a well-known halacha [Torah law] that Esau hates Jacob.’” Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, the foremost halachic authority of the past century, understood this to mean that the hatred enemies have for the Jew is not based on any historical or religious motive, but “...just as halacha never changes, so also Esau’s hatred of Jacob never changes.” In other words, hatred doesn’t need a reason. That’s why the Kabbalists say that “evil exists because it is more powerful than good,” for evil often acts in ways that defy logic. That’s why I hate seeing Holocaust movies, or any movies for that matter that highlight the illogical evil that can lurk in the heart of my fellow human. I go to movies to be inspired and uplifted from my everyday life, not to be reminded of how much worse the human condition can get. Yet when I was invited to the first American screening of the Holocaust film Sobibor, I went anyway. Why? Because the

continues on page 22

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Movies

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

continues from page 21

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massacre in Pittsburgh was fresh in my mind, and I remembered how the president of the United States proclaimed after the shooting, “This is an assault on all of us; an assault on humanity....This evil anti-Semitic attack is an assault on all of us. This scourge of anti-Semitism cannot be ignored, cannot be tolerated and it cannot be allowed to continue.” I’ve personally always felt that Jews are the “canary in the coal mine,” and that what has happened to the Jew throughout history is an indicator of what will befall everyone if tyrants and dictators are allowed to roam freely. Since the times of Sarah and Abraham, the Jew was targeted for worshipping differently, dining differently, dressing differently—just for being the “different” kid on the block of civilization. Plus, throughout history, Jews have passionately taught the democratic teachings of the Torah, which promote freedom, equality and sanctity of all human life: Even the “hewer of your wood and the drawer of your water” is not considered inferior, but “you are all standing on this day before the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 29:9-10). We are not in a hierarchical order, but rather are united together. So I felt going to this Holocaust film might give me some way to deal with the rising sentiment of anti-Semitism I see spreading around the world. The film’s main actor and début director, Konstantin Khabensky, seemed to have a similar feeling when he said, “The film, although set in the past, is still relevant now. Humanity hasn’t learned its lessons yet.” Khabensky, Russia’s most popular actor and a respected humanitarian, has won numerous awards as well as being a philanthropist in his spare time. Although he is best known for his roles in Russian blockbusters, he has also appeared in American films such as Black Sea, Wanted, Unfriended and World War Z. He revealed that he chose Sobibor to be his directorial début “because it was time in my professional life to make a statement.” Phil Friedman, who is a notable U.S. philanthropist, introduced the film by talking about the anti-Semitism displayed in Pittsburgh and Charlottesville, and even made some pointed comments about Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán and Britain’s Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. “My parents were concentration camp survivors,” Friedman said. “My mother was 16 at Auschwitz. It was too painful to talk about. But Jews have a mission: to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.” Before passing the mic to Khabensky, he lowered his voice as he looked out at the New York socialites gathered at the Manhattan National Arts Club and added, “I left the Soviet Union in 1976, and the idea that there’d ever be a Russian movie about Sobibor was unthinkable.” Actually, this is not the first time that a movie about the successful 1943 uprising at Sobibor has been made. Escape from Sobibor was a 1987 British television film that also chronicled the revolt led by Soviet officer Alexander Pechersky. (That version of the film even has an 82 percent score on the popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes.) However, there are a few interesting qualities that make Khabensky’s film different right off the bat: This is Russia’s largest-ever Holocaust film and received funding from the Russian Ministry of Culture, which is a big deal. As Professor Olga Gershenson of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said in the panel discussion at the screening, “In Russian history, the moment a film raised the Jewish Holocaust, it was banned or destroyed. This film is revolutionary because the Jewish story of the Holocaust is an uncomfortable issue in Russia today.” The film became a box-office hit in Russia, grossing over six times its projected box-office receipts—an unprecedented success for its genre, especially for a movie that is notoriously gory. (Plus, Samuel Goldwyn Films just picked up North American rights to the film.) The Russian Federation has submitted this film as its official Oscar pick for this year’s Academy Awards, which is historic in its own right. The content of the film also differs from previous renditions of the film in a couple of ways. First, the film does not shy away from portraying the internal politics in the camp between the Jewish inmates and the “Kapos,” Jews who worked for the Nazis as camp police. There’s even a scene where one of the Kapos is practicing the Nazi salute. Secondly, Khabensky (who spoke in Russian when he introduced the film) said the main character of the film “is the death camp itself.” As I watched, I was reminded of that different take on storytelling as the film f lowed as a collage of vignettes loosely bound together by the story arc of the protagonist. That seemed to feed into a less-developed backstory for each character—with only hints in the dialogue as to where they came from or what they had been through before Sobibor—and instead

opened up the space for Khabensky to focus on the stunning visual cinematography. The lighting and high-definition quality often gave the sky and fog in Sobibor an ethereal feel. Truth be told, I had to walk out a few times, but that was more due to my religious sensitivities regarding the nudity in the film than to the gore. On the contrary, the Ocean’s Eleven-style planning of the revolt and then the action-packed execution of the prisoner uprising have that quality rarely seen in a Holocaust film: Jews defeating their oppressors. As Quentin Tarantino put it when he made Inglourious Basterds, “Holocaust movies always have Jews as victims.We’ve seen that story before. I want to see something different. Let’s see Germans that are scared of Jews.” In Sobibor, we get a similar emotionally uncomplicated, action-packed story of the Holocaust inmates’ winning— only this one is based on a true story. The fact that Holocaust survivors were in attendance during the screening only underscored how “real” this film was. Also among the audience was the extended family of Karoline Cohn of Frankfurt, Germany, who was killed in Sobibor at age 14. The family was contacted about a year ago, when archeologists found Karoline’s pendant buried at the camp. Her closest living relative, Barry Eisemann, recounted that receiving the news in a phone call from his daughter, Mandy, left him speechless. The family cousins say the discovery has brought them together

as a family, since they did not know about Karoline or about each other. One member of the family said she did not even know that she had Jewish roots. But it wasn’t just Jews who attended the screening: The couple sitting next to me were Asian immigrants from Kyrgyzstan who were big fans of “Russia’s George Clooney,” Konstantin Khabensky. Plus, the wife had a grandfather who was a Russian minister, and so was intrigued by the story of a Red Army veteran, Soviet Jewish officer Alexander Pechersky, who freed his people from the Nazis. In 2016, Pechersky was posthumously honored with the Order of Bravery by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The heroes of Sobibor also received official recognition, with trains and streets named after them and their story added to history books. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about Sobibor’s dual legacy during a speech in January 2018, when he appeared with Putin at a commemoration ceremony for the Sobibor Uprising at Moscow’s Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. I think this was the message I took away from the film: Great evil challenges us to be great human beings. And the story of Sobibor is a symbol of the resilience of the human spirit for all future generations. The last few moments of the film seem to express this clearly, as Khabensky shows us the last remaining prisoner, a young teenage boy, escape Sobibor. As the music builds and the video transitions to slow motion, you can see that the boy is desperately hobbling on an injured foot. Then the music fades to almost silence; all you can hear is his deep breathing as the camera pans behind him and you see him running off into a wide, expansive meadow to freedom. Although I would have considered it an abomination to term a Holocaust film a “feel good” movie, I couldn’t help but feel comforted as I watched that young boy escape hell on earth. While it’s true that white supremacism and anti-Semitism reigned supreme during World War II, it is those few who survived who model for us that when we are confronted with evil and horror, we too can reach deep inside our souls, fight back and break free to a better tomorrow. Rabbi Levi Welton is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and a United States Air Force captain.

Issues

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

Crossword

NEW YEAR 2018 - 2019 7:30 PM – 1:30 AM $130.00 pp Including Tax ACROSS 1 Flexible, electrically 5 Crossed ds 9 “--- ! What fray was here?”: Romeo 12 “You’ve got ---!” 13 Irish farewell 14 Checker, perhaps 16 --- Nova 17 Distress signal 18 Parasitic arachnid 19 Impost on asset values 20 Seven, old style 22 Volcanic type buried Pompeii 24 Born female 25 Convert, with “over” 26 Carols 28 Russian peninsula 31 Mozart’s “L’--- del Cairo” 34 Frequency measure (Abbr.) 35 Expressed surprise 36 Pitcher --- Hershiser 38 Observe 42 Not a frequent typo 43 Former Portuguese province on the south coast of China 44 Code-cracking org. 45 Van man who lost his ear 47 Repositories for undeliverable mail 48 Dead center? 49 Like collegiate dicts. 51 Undertake, with “out” 53 Kind of market 54 Habsburg alphabetic device 57 Kind of dance mus. 59 Ant.’s ant. (Abbr.) 60 Accounting major’s deg. 63 Be seeing you, on the web 64 Big bell in London 67 Heavy, durable furniture wood 69 Machu Picchu builder 71 Speed Racer actor --- Hirsch 73 Actress --- Lenska 74 Clout 75 Spokes 76 Polite email wd. 77 Catalina, e.g. 78 “Frozen” reindeer

Last Week’s Answers

DOWN 1 “I wouldn’t send --- out in this.” 2 --- la guerre 3 “--- Boot” (1981 war film) 4 Corns 5 “La Bamba” actor --- Morales 6 Fond treatment (Abbr.) 7 Invisible ditch 8 Super Mario World console: Abbr. 9 Beyond reasonable limits 10 Prohibitory law 11 Shine 12 Simplicity simile 15 Big --- (self-important men, in Southern slang) 21 Queen of Thebes 23 Hydrogen isocyanide formula 25 Large amount of money 27 City near Tashkent 28 King --29 “___ Be Back With You”: Steve Forbert song 30 Carroll of “Spellbound” 32 Black diamond 33 Bows for strings 34 The Dutch Royal Air Force 37 “--- on Down the Road” 39 Chem. finisher 40 Salinger dedicatee 41 Yaba --- doo 43 Evidence of bugs fighting back? (Abbr.) 46 Vietnamese coin 48 Airspace control order (Abbr.) 50 Address to a fella 52 Examine a case 54 Carl Sagan’s subj. 55 Ogle 56 As a whole 58 Mets and Marlins, e.g. (Abbr.) 61 Israel’s Netanyahu, familiarly 62 French cordial flavoring 63 --- noir 64 Tarry 65 Tiger Woods’s ex 66 “In the,” in Italy 68 Egyptian spirits 70 B C Lions’ org. 72 Dallas basketball player, for short

Unlimited Open Bar • Midnight Balloon Drop and Champagne Toast Live DJ Entertainment

COCKTAIL HOUR INCLUDES: TUSCAN ANTIPASTO TABLE Herb Grilled Veggies • Mushrooms • Artichokes • Roasted Pepper Parma Prosciutto • Salami • Soppressata • Mortadella Cheese Board: Swiss • Cheddar • Fontina • Fusilli Salad • Fresh Mozzarella • Olive Medley • Bruschetta HOT BUFFET Fried Calamari • Spicy Marinara • Chicken Marsala • Mushrooms, Rosemary • Baked Meatballs • Marinara, Parsley • Eggplant Rollatini Mozzarella, Pomodoro • Cheese Tortellini ‘Panna’ • Prosciutto, Peas SIT DOWN FOUR COURSE DINNER INCLUDES: WINTER SALAD: Blood Oranges • Hazelnuts • Endive • White Balsamic PASTA: Shrimp Scampi Ravioli • Basil Crema • Pesto Drizzle ENTREE: Surf -n- Turf • Roasted Maine Lobster with Asparagus Gratin Filet Mignon ‘Porcini’ with Potato Croquette DESSERT: Chocolate ‘Symphony’ Decadent Composition of Chocolate Desserts

For Reservations, Please Call

718.224.8787 PRIVATE ROOMS ARE AVAILABLE FOR UP TO 125 GUESTS

63-20 Commonwealth Blvd., Douglaston, NY 11363 718-224-8787 www.TheDouglastonManor.com

Classifieds

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

HELP WANTED

Caring Career Opportunities...

HELP WANTED

HHAs/PCAs

HOME HEALTH CARE COMPANY Are you Compassionate?

Looking for Bilingual Experienced HR, Coordinators, HCA Aides career growth-leading provider of HHA services throughout the Tri-State area, Nassau & Suffolk.

All Shifts Full and Part Time English Speaking or Bilingual Home Health Aides, Personal Care Aides enjoy... • Great Pay! • Vacation and Benefits

HANDYMAN OFFICE CLERK Experienced: Plumbing, Electrical, Repairs, etc.

Computer & Communication skills a must. TOP SALARY & BENEFIT PACKAGE

Call

347-727-7200 Ext 312

WE NEED YOU...CASES THROUGHOUT QUEENS AND LONG ISLAND

HOME HEALTH CARE AIDE

Irish trained woman with 10 years experience and excellent checkable references available. Honest and reliable. Licensed driver with own transportation Please call

516-383-7150

SCHOOL VAN DRIVERS UP TO

$20.75TO START.

Health Insurance, Life Insurance, 401k, Paid Holidays, Attendance Incentives, 12 Month Employment. CDL-C PS License or Will Train. Hempstead Village & Port Washington locations. With attendance bonus.

516.538.5200 516.883.6711

TO PLACE YOUR AD CALL 718-255-5541

HEALTH

MASSAGE THERAPY / RESEARCH STUDY

FALL SPECIAL! Treat Yourself to Simply Divine Swedish, Shiatsu, Reﬂexology & Reiki Healing You won’t Be Disappointed

ROXANNE

(718) 225-3107

7 Days 8am-9pm Off Northern & Bell

LICENSED MASSAGE THERAPIST

I solve problems you don't know you have—in ways you cannot understand— I got your back! Neck, Shoulders, Arms and Legs.

Lisa: 646.523.8139

ELDER CARE

Sexually Transmitted Diseases Dermatology

MEDICAID PROFESSIONALS

Rapid, Effective, Treatment, Conﬁdential HIV Test. Dr. D. Park, MD, Specialist 40-44 82 St. Elmhurst, Queens

KK SPA

· Foot Reﬂexology · Beauty · Hair Cut · Waxing

For your convenience all around.

FULL SERVICE MASSAGE

20% OFF w/10 Massages

14-21 College Point Boulevard, Flushing N.Y. 11356 · ASIAN OWNED

646.251.8828

929-290-3301

WONDERFUL BODY WORK You will feel great 7 Days · 10am - 8pm Astoria, Queens Location

347.948.1567

Suffering from an ADDICTION to Alcohol, Opiates, Prescription PainKillers or other DRUGS? There is hope! Call Today to speak with someone who cares. Call NOW: 1-833-880-6049

718-441-3579

LOOKING FOR A DRIVER

Over 25 years old with clean license to service exhaust systems for restaurants. For late nights and some mornings. Call Mr. Brown

347-598-4660

Email:

jenniferbenny18888@outlook.com

HUNTINGTON COACH

631-271-8931

*Attendance Bonus Included

SITUATION WANTED

Seeking employment for Geriatric Home Care *20 Years Experience* Available Mon thru Fri, 4 Hrs. Each Morning.

Call 347-642-5188 Leave message

Responsible, retired woman looking for P/T work. Experienced delivery driver & general office worker. Call

718-938-8365

Mature Irish Lady Available to Clean Houses/ Apartments.

646-715-9682

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Have an idea for an invention/ new product? We help everyday inventors try to patent and submit their ideas to companies! Call InventHelpÆ, FREE INFORMATION! 888-487-7074

HOUSE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE HOUSE FOR SALE

$749K MAKE AN OFFER! LANDERS REALTY

Agent: Teresa Hubbard 718-318-0948 • 516-658-1634

MIDDLE VILLAGE Semi-detached two family 6 over 5, full basement, large eat in kitchens, private yard, walk to stores and schools. Asking $899,000.00 (neg).

MACALUSO REALTY 718-894-5000 MORTGAGES

EVICTIONS/HOUSE FOR SALE

108-18 Queens Boulevard Suite 801, Forest Hills, NY 11375

DENTAL Insurance Physicians Mutual Insurance Company

CAROL

Checkable references required. Email resume: hr@homesteadretirement.com, or fax:

Best Pay Package in the Industry! Start at $23.62* Bus, $20.61* Van Equal Opportunity Employer Free CDL Training 25 hrs. a week minimum extra work available Full Beneﬁt Package

(718) 575-5700

10 am - 11 pm Flushing Area

347.348.9590

For Assisted Living Facility in Kew Gardens Area Candidate should possess ﬂexibility and be able to multi-task, implementing rules & regulations. Must have upbeat positive personality.

$650 Weekly Working Days: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday Time Schedule: 10am - 3 pm

Legal 2 Family, 3 BR over 2BR Kit/full Din Rm, LR, Granite Countertops, Fin. Bsmt Near All: Transp/Shops/Schools. Lot 20x100, 1900 sq ft. Tax $4089

www.eldercareservicesny.com

Fax Resume: 718.468.4601

HOUSE CLEANER NEEDED

79-21 67th Drive Middle Village, NY 11379

• Over 18 years experience ﬁling Medicaid Home Care & Nursing Home applications • Protect your income, home, life savings • Apply for Medicaid, medical assistance

WONDER ELMHURST LUCKY SPA RELAXATION SPA Massage Therapy 24/7

516-467-9155

JOB OPPORTUNITY: $17 P/H NYC - $14.50 P/H LI If you currently care for your relatives or friends who have Medicaid or Medicare, you may be eligible to start working for them as a personal assistant. No Certiﬁcates needed. (347) 462-2610 (347) 565-6200

Jack Lippmann

(1 blck frm Roosevelt Ave #7 Train) Accept Major Insurance, Credit Cards

Helper Need 1-3 Days/wk For Landscaping Own Transportation Please Call Thomas

MIDDLE VILLAGE

FREE Consultation

718-429-3800

718-441-3579

HELP WANTED

Quit 7 Smoking Smoking 1 8 - 4 3 4 -Quit 090 9

or Fax Resume 718-886-5132

F/T ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR

fax:

Scharome Cares Licensed Home Care Agency 89-44 162nd St, Queens 1729 E. 12 St., off Kings Hwy, Bklyn Call Today! Hiring Now!

718-886-5470

F/T ASSISTANT ACTIVITY DIRECTOR

Must have recent checkable refs. Email resume: hr@homesteadretirement.com, or

Immediate Jobs Full-Time - Part-Time Spanish, Creole, Chinese & Russian

Call

E-Mail: hstark11@hotmail.com

Experience a Must in handling all types of recreation & activities, memory loss experience a plus. Must be mature, responsible & have upbeat personality & enjoy working with seniors.

HHAs: Excellent Pay & Beneﬁts! Paid Time Off, Transit Beneﬁts & Medical Plan Options!

Experienced on conventional lathes, milling machines, & bridgeports. College Point Location

E-Mail: hstark11@hotmail.com

For Assisted Living Facility in Kew Gardens Area

Now We Have CDPAP Plan. YOU CAN HIRE YOUR FAMILY, FRIEND, OR NEIGHBOR TO TAKE CARE OF YOU! No Certificate Needed

MACHINIST & WORKING FOREMAN F/T

Call: 917.449.4301

All Ofﬁce Work including knowledge of computer. Call: 917.449.4301

Fax Resume: 718.468.4601

Email: LVENNERI@TRIMEDHOMECARE.COM

Please send your resume to: dhumphrey-barton@All-Metro.com or lfairweather@all-metro.com Call: 516-887-1200 Darshea ext. 2128, Helen ext. 2107 Farah ext. 2117 or Lisa ext. 2123 Walk-Ins Welcome: 10am-3pm Monday-Friday 170 Earle Avenue, Lynbrook, NY

FULL TIME

SCHOOL BUS/VAN DRIVERS

A less expensive way to help get the dental care you deserve! CALL NOW!

FREE Information Kit

1-855-225-1434

3418 Northern Blvd., #213 l Long Island City, NY 11101

Get help paying dental bills and keep more money in your pocket This is real dental insurance — NOT just a discount plan You can get coverage before your next checkup

1-855-225-1434 Visit us online at

Don’t wait! Call now and we’ll rush you a FREE Information Kit with all the details.

www.dental50plus.com/nypress

Insurance Policy P150NY 6129

MB17-NM003Ec

HOUSE FOR SALE

POCONOS, PA

PEARL RIVER

3 BR, 2 Full Baths, Turn Key. $82,500. Located in the heart of the Poconos in a community dev't with a pool, lake & clubhouse. Perfect Vacation Home! Rosemarie

Pearl River Village 4BR, 2 bths Hse, Lge Wlkout Bsmt to Lrg Prvt yd. Walk to train, shop, schls, Lo Txs, New Gas Heat/Cent AC Sys. $424K

REAL ESTATE

HOUSE FOR SALE

KINGS PARK, SUFFOLK

GLEN OAKS

ARLEIGH COURT EAST NORTHPORT $575,000 Hi-Ranch, 3,300 sq. ft. 3/4 Acres, 4 BR, 3 Bath, Central Air, Gas Heat, 1/2 in / 1/2 out Ground Pool, Hardwood Floor, 1 Fireplace Garage, Low Taxes GREAT for Large Extended Family! Agent: Ann Saraceno Realty Connect

516-524-3396

BROOKFIELD COLONIAL, 24' DR, Lge EIK, LR, Den w/Frplc, MBR + 3 add'l Lge BRs, 2.5 Ba., New Wins, Hwd Flrs, 1GP, $584,900 Agent: Ann Saraceno Realty Connect

516-524-3396

Expanded Cape Near Union Tpke & LIJ Hosp. 5BR, 3 full bath, ﬁn bsmt w/sep entrance. Ask $849K.

631-891-8184

Little Egg Harbor, Ocean County, NJ's newest 43-unit townhome community! Affordable taxes, low association fees & low insurance! Phase II construction now started; be in your shore home to enjoy summer 2018!

www.harborviewestates.com Contact Us Today. Judith Boulware

609.290.5906 • Spring Hollow Realty

TO PLACE YOUR AD IN THE QUEENS TRIBUNE, CALL 718-255-5541

347-242-4443

ST. ALBANS You will love this gorgeous 3BR Brick Tudor

with custom windows, updated kitchen, outside patio, wood beam ceiling, hardwood floors throughout. Come take a look at this beauty. Don't miss out! $499K

718-644-4456 Lic. Agent

Kevin 845-544-3995 MISCELLANEOUS Suffering from an ADDICTION to Alcohol, Opiates, Prescription PainKillers or other DRUGS? There is hope! Call Today to speak with someone who cares. Call NOW: 1-833-880-6049

HOUSE FOR SALE

UPPER GLENDALE

Fully Renovated

Huge brick top of the line, 3 bdrms, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage, 1 block from PS 113 & Forest Park. Must be seen, $799K. CALL

347-798-7579

COOP FOR SALE

BAYSIDE CO-OP

ALLEY POND. Large 1 BR Apt w/ Lots of Closet Space. Washer/ Dryer in Unit. Pull Down Stairs to Attic. Close to All Shops on Union Turnpike. Pet Friendly. TMT Realty - Cindy

347-828-6718

TO PLACE YOUR AD, CALL 718-255-5541

Classifieds

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

HOME SERVICES

REAL ESTATE

APPLIANCE REPAIR

REALTOR

CONSTRUCTION

IRONWORKS

CLASSICAL IRON WORKS INC.

CASC Corp. BOILERS AND APPLIANCE REPAIRS Appliance Sick? Call us Quick! Washing Machines • Dryers • Dishwashers Refrigerators • Ice-Machines • Stoves Convecovens Central Heating • Ventilation • Air Conditioners Expert Boiler & Hot Water Heater Repairs

• IRON WORKS • AWNINGS • FENCES & MORE FREE ESTIMATES Since 1980

"Don't throw it Away, We Will Fix It Today" All Work Guaranteed

718-528-2401

718-773-1111 • 917-287-5027

CLASSICALIRON.COM Lic. #1069538

CONSTRUCTION

AVELLINO

CONSTRUCTION CORP

4 Generations Since 1919

COMPLETE HOME REMODELING

Windows & Doors • Siding & Roofing • Kitchen & Bath Dedicated In-House Project Managers • On-site Foreman • Products To Fit Every Budget • Full-Time Service Department • 97 Years Says It All!

$99 NEW WINDOWS ROOF $199 per month - no interest for 60 months - no money down

Free $50 Gift Card

• • • • •

General Contractor

Kitchens Painting Bathrooms Concrete Sidewalks

• • • • •

Waterproofing • Extensions • Stoops Doors • Pointing Basements • Windows Roofing Licensed & Insured Carpentry

FREE ESTIMATES

w/FREE in-home estimate. No Obligation. Call for details.

917-804-0531

800-504-5001

NUNEZ

· Crack Repair · Brick Work · Kitchen Remodeling · Lic. & Ins.

Peter Fiorentino V.P. New York State Licensed Broker

pﬁorentino@plazaisland.com • www.PlazaIslandProperties.com 718-524-4202 • Fax: 718-228-8643 • Cell: 917-609-0944

VACATION RENTALS

BLUEPOINT WATERFRONT TOWNHOUSE

Private Beach, Boat Slip, Pool, Clubhouse, Gym, Tennis, Florida Room, Fireplaces, Gated Community, $599K. Call owner

917-748-3621

HOUSES WANTED

WANTED, HOUSES WANTED! Fixer Uppers, Estates, Land, As is, All CASH, Fast Close. Top $$'s. Steve 631-796-3530

WE BUY PROPERTIES ALL TYPES – FAST $$$ FREE OFFER 24 HRS

thg.vcardinfo.com

646-625-9565 CONDO FOR RENT

FOREST HILLS

Townhouse. 2BR, 1.5 Ba, Central HVAC, new appls, bsmt & deck. $2400 mo + utils & 1 mo sec.

646-752-4874 718-357-7400 EXT. 131

APARTMENT FOR RENT

Vivian Falconi, 347-577-2885 East Coast Realtor VPFRealty@hotmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS Sebastian, Florida (East Coast) Beach Cove is an Age Restricted Community where friends are easily made. Sebastian is an "Old Florida" ﬁshing village with a quaint atmosphere yet excellent medical facilities, shopping and restaurants. Direct ﬂights from Newark to Vero Beach. New manufactured homes from $114,900. 772-581-0080; www.beach-cove.com

nunezforu.com · member of angies list A rating ONE YEAR WARRANTY ON ALL LABOR

Great Investment, busy street in Glendale. The store is 20X100 and had a full basement. There are two, 2 bedroom apartments one apartment has a roof deck. All units pay their own heat, hot water and electric. The building will be delivered vacant.

718.219.1257

ROCCO'S GENERAL CONTRACTING

917.747.3227

• Complete • Finished • Cement • Sheetrock • Taping &

Kitchen & Bath Renovations Basements All Work Work Guaranteed Work Compound + Painting LIC#1039268

ONE YEAR WARRANTY ON ALL LABOR

Mix Use Property:

Free Estimates Lic# 1001349

SHIVA

CONTRACTING LLC FREE ESTIMATES • FULLY INSURED

917-359-1683

R AND D

ENERGY CORP.

BATHROOMS

DISCOUNT FUEL OIL AND DIESEL OIL

Stay in your home longer with an American Standard Walk-In Bathtub. Receive up to $1,500 off, including a free toilet, and a lifetime warranty on the tub and installation! Call us at 1-844-286-6771

917-504-5628

PLUMBING/HEATING

REPAIRS All Leaks on Pipes, Faucets, Toilets, Shower Bodies, Radiator Valves, Clear Stoppages in Sinks, Tubs, Also Install Hot Water Heaters Free Estimates Cheap Rates Licensed & Insured Ask for Bob

WIRE SERVICES

WIREMAN/ CABLEMAN • CAMERA SYSTEMS • FLAT SCREEN TV'S INSTALLED

718-968-5987

TELEPHONE JACKS/CABLE TV EXTENSIONS HDTV ANTENNAS SURROUND SOUND/STEREOS COMPUTER NETWORKING CAT 5/6 CABLING COMMERCIAL/RESIDENTIAL TROUBLESHOOTING

PAVEMENT

PAVING THE WAY, INC.

Sidewalk Violations Removed LIC & INS · In Business 32 Yrs Free Estimate · Senior Citizen Disc. BLACKTOP & CONCRETE Masonry • Rooﬁng Sidewalks • Waterprooﬁng Driveways • Stoops

Finished Basements

Luke - Boss

718-809-0368

OFFICE: 917-582-8068 POWAR: 347-312-3421

shivallc@gmail.com VISHAL: 645-595-7710

HANDYMAN

Building Maintenance Residential & Commercial Painting/Plumbing/ Electrical Cleanouts - Moving

929-454-1243

SENIOR DISCOUNTS 5% OFF HOME IMPROVEMENT

L&B

Home Improvements Interior & Exterior Painting Sheetrock • Framing Taping • Tiling Roofing Vinyl Siding Demolition & MORE...

CALL FOR FREE ESTIMATE

718.801.6657 Licensed & Insured

HEATING/BOILER REPAIR

HEATING & HOME SERVICE

COMPETITIVE PRICING

BOILER & WATER HEATER SPECIALIST

FREE ESTIMATES ALL WORK GUARANTEED

516-433-9473(WIRE) 631-667-9473(WIRE) 718-489-3926

• 24/7 SERVICE AVAILABLE • SAME DAY DELIVERY

SERVING QUEENS BROOKLYN AND LONG ISLAND FOR OVER 35 YEARS

QUEENSTRIBUNE.COM

LICENSED & INSURED LIC#54264 DAVEWIREMAN.COM

#2 Fuel Oil For Home Heating & Oil for Industry too! LOWEST PRICES!!

PROMT & COURTEOUS SERVICE

HOME SERVICES

• • • • • •

All Interior & Exterior Work • Brick Pointing • Steam Cleaning • Kitchens & Baths • Vinyl & Wood Floors • Cement & Brick Work • Sheetrock • Carpentry • Waterproofing • Roofing • Painting & Paint Stripping • Finish Basment • Ceramic

HEATING OIL

WHITESTONE Large 3 BR, 2 full bath, near Whitestone Bridge, 1st ﬂr, LR/DR/ EIK, hardwood ﬂoors, hookup for W/D. $2700. Owner,

917-459-2421 718-464-4535

Brickwork, Sidewalks, Painting, Waterprooﬁng, Rooﬁng, Pointing Silicone Coating, Steam Cleaning, Sheetrock T: 718.740.2532 C: 917.862.1632

EXPERT ON STOOPS

Commercial & Residential Specialist offers Competitive Rate, Extraordinary customer service, LIC, Eastern Queens, boros, Nassau Co. Ofﬁce/Retail with long leases, sales Residential, $550,000 up, qwik sales

Reasonable Prices • Free Estimates

CONSTRUCTION CO.

CONSTRUCTION & PAINTING

Laundromat: Turnkey business with a steady clientele with a massive potential for growth in a heavy traffic area in Glendale Queens. This laundromat has an excellent business opportunity with all brand new machines, hot water system and many extras.

• Scraping • Polyurethane • Staining • Bleaching White Floors • Waxing & Stripping • Repairs & Installation We also do Painting, Wallpaper Removal, Tiling & Dry Wall

AHMED

construction

Your one stop shop for real estate

J&S FLOOR SERVICE

24/7

Licensed & Insured, Bonded, NYC Lic 0673685 Nassau Lic 3308190000 Suffolk Lic 31415-H Westchester Lic WC-18838-HOC Rockland Lic H-10639-07-38-00 Connecticut Lic HIC.0620437

*Terms and conditions apply, call for details. Offer Expires 11/30/18

CONSTRUCTION

BATHROOM RENOVATIONS. EASY, ONE DAY updates! We specialize in safe bathing. Grab bars, noslip ﬂooring & seated showers. Call for a free in-home consultation: 888-657-9488.

SAFE BATHROOM Renovations in just one day! Update to safety now. Grab bars, no slip ﬂooring & seated showers. Call for a free in-home consultation: 844-782-7096

Kitchen, Bathroom, Apartment/Co-op/Renovations • Flooring - Reﬁnish & Install • Appliance Install • Painting/Sheetrock • Tile • Rooﬁng - Flat/Shingle HIC #2010474

718-502-4437

Classifieds

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

HOME SERVICES CHIMNEY SERVICES

A ONE CHIMNEY Inc.

CLEANING SERVICES

ROOFING/WATERPROOFING

CLEANING LADIES

OF POLAND

Fully Licensed & Ins. LIC. 1423887 All Work Guaranteed 24 HOUR SERVICE 7 DAYS A WEEK

SPECIAL

We Pay Attention To Detail & Leave Your Home/Ofﬁce "SPICK & SPAN" Excellent Work At A Low Price! � Experienced � Reliable � Trust Worthy

1 0% SENIOR

FREE ESTIMATES

CITIZEN DISCOUNT

CHIMNEY CLEANED FIREPLACE Only $29.95 + Tax (1 Family Home)

CLEANED Only $49.95 + Tax

For More Info Call VOYTEK!!

SPECIALIZING IN: Reline Chimney • Install Stainless Steel Cap • Rebuild Chimney Install & Rebuild Fireplace • Decarbonize Gas & Oil Boiler Remove Animals & Obstructions from Chimney

T: 917-415-7465 F: 718-894-1233

Tels: 888-222-3348 • 646-321-7785 • 917-208-3480 115-03 109th Ave. • S. Ozone Park, NY 11420

MOVING SERVICES

SUPERIOR MOVING

SURE CLEAN

CHIMNEY CLEANING SPECIAL 516-741-0784 Be Sure Your Chimney is Clean & Safe to Prevent Carbon Monoxide

Any Chimney Cleaning

$49.95

Ask us, we do it!

plus tax

• Repairing • Rebuilding • Pointing • Storm Damage Repairs • Gutter Cleaning • Brick Repaired & Replaced & More

Stay in your home longer with an American Standard Walk-In Bathtub. Receive up to $1,500 off, including a free toilet, and a lifetime warranty on the tub and installation! Call us at 1-844-286-6771

Our 20th Anniversary

PROFESSIONAL, RELIABLE & COURTEOUS • Big & Small Jobs • Ofﬁce Relocations • Commercial & Long Distance

718-339-8888

SURECLEAN CHIMNEY, INC

ICC LIC#470654/US DOT 117151

Licensed & Insured NYC #2029837-DCH

7 Days/wk

ALEX STEWART ROOFING & WATERPROOFING Over 30 years experience

Roof Repairs Gutters (installed & repaired) Interior & Exterior Paint Reasonably priced • Licensed & Insured Call for FREE ESTIMATE Save Big, Call Today

718.908.1037 • 347.964.3402 www. AlexStewartRooﬁng.com • Lic# 1406876

ROOFING • ROOFING • ROOFING SHINGLE ROOFS

Now Only $199 Per 100 Sq. Ft.

FLAT RUBBERIZED ROOFS Only $199 Per 100 Sq. Ft.

Rip, Re Roofs, Plywood Change

FREE ESTIMATES

Senior Discount All Major Credit Cards

& BOX DELIVERY

516-983-7293

FREE INSPECTION WITH CLEANING

Lic. H-18G6630000

TREE SERVICES

PAINTING

ROOFING SERVICES

TREE SERVICE • Tree Removal • Stumps • Fertilization

Johnny Be Good Home Improvement

• Planting • Land Clearing • Topping

FREE ESTIMATES

Painting • Rooﬁng • Siding Renovate Kitchens & Bathrooms

Lic./Ins.

FRANCISCO’S TREE SERVICE Office: 516-546-4971 Cell: 516-852-5415

ROOFING Re-Rooﬁng • Rips Gutters • Slate • etc.

JIM'S TREE SERVICE

ROOFING/CONSTRUCTION

PAINTING Plastering • Taping • Sheetrock No Job Too Big or Small

TREE REMOVAL PRUNING TOPPING & STUMP GRINDING OWNER OPERATED OVER 40 Yrs Exp.

• Fast Reliable Service • Free Estimates • Free Firewood Cut & Delivered • Expert Tree Care • Yard Cleanup • 10% Discount For Veterans & Senior Citizens

PAINTING / PAPER HANGING Interior & Exterior Painting Plastering Oil Wood ReFinish Taping • Staining Sheetrock • Skim Coating Hanging Wallpaper/ Removal Paint Removal Power Washing Wood Replacement

OLD H.P.

WATERPROOFING & ROOFING

Your Friendly

HANDYMAN Painting, Wallpapering, Tiling, Clogged Tubs, Carpentry, Rooﬁng No Job is too small for us!

William 718-793-3531

RUBBISH REMOVAL

AMAZON RUBBISH REMOVAL • Complete House Cleanouts • Residential & Commercial • Attics • Basements • Garages • Furniture & Appliances Removed • Estates • Apartments • Yards • Warehouses • Stores • Fire Debris

-SENIOR DISCOUNTS-

One Call Will Get Rid Of It ALL!

516.601.1371

ANGELO

Residential/Commercial

ROOFING/WATERPROOFING

Lic & Insured #80422100000

718-352-2181

718-717-9672

718-352-5142 • 646-934-2749

John: 516-901-9398 Ofﬁce: 516-483-3669

No job too big or too small. Free Estimate. Senior Citizen Discount. Work area cleaned daily. Polite, professional service.

Free Estimates

MISCELLANEOUS

DONATE YOUR CAR

Wheels For Wishes Benefiting

Make-A-Wish® Metro New York

*Free Vehicle/Boat Pickup ANYWHERE *We Accept All Vehicles Running or Not *Fully Tax Deductible

WheelsForWishes.org Call: (917) 336-1254 * Car Donation Foundation d/b/a Wheels For Wishes. To learn more about our programs or financial information, visit www.wheelsforwishes.org.

• Steam Cleaning & Brick Pointing • Cement & Brickwork • Stucco • Windows & Shingling • Flat Roofs • Gutters & Leaders • Painting • Scaffold Work

Free Estimates All Work Guaranteed Fully Insured/Lic. #883368

(718) 969-6752 RUG CLEANING

RUG CLEANING AND WASHING

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Commentary

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

Democratic Party Mission Drift By EDDIE BORGES

T 2020 Dem Primary Starts With Amazon Grab the popcorn. The race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination is getting underway early with a proxy fight that will play out right here in Queens. Amazon’s decision to pick Long Island City as the home for its new headquarters, thanks to a promised $3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives, has exposed the biggest current rift within the Democratic Party—its position on corporate America. The energy and growing wing of the party is inherently skeptical of big business and corporations, permanently scarred by the 2009 recession and consequent lack of government action to punish the billion-dollar industries that bankrupted our economy with schemes that are at best immoral, and at worst criminal. This group views corporations as guilty unless they can prove themselves innocent. Another wing of the party believes corporations are innocent until proven guilty, but that it is the job of government to be watching the barons of business closely and punishing them heavily if they step out of line. Often this group gets woven in with offshoot wings with more narrow focuses, like those who support big business as long as it takes care of workers and supports unions; or those who generally support businesses that back progressive causes, and turn their anti-establishment ire toward the companies that are viewed as political rivals. The latter camp of Democrats is increasingly viewed with skepticism by the public, in part because it is more difficult for that camp to articulate its position on this issue. Its view of economics and workers’ rights is often more nuanced and complex, and therefore more complicated

to explain—especially on the campaign trail. The former group has a simpler argument to make, one that has played well through the course of history: the argument that the rich and powerful are corrupt and are exploiting the people, and it will stand up against them. Amazon’s arrival in Long Island City is an inflection point for this schism within the Democratic Party. We are already seeing the varying shades of responses, from the full-throttled ideological opposition put forth by Assemblyman Ron Kim in an op-ed on this page, to the giddy enthusiasm of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who sees this as a key benchmark in setting the state on a path for success for the next 50 years. In between these two takes is a lot of scrambling to find a safe spot—statements along the lines of “I welcome Amazon, but I am concerned about how the people were left out of the process”; or “Amazon needs to be a good neighbor and pledge X, Y or Z.” Ultimately, the path to derailing Amazon’s move to LIC is a complete longshot. This is in part because it is not clear if there is the political will to do so. Also, the deal will go through an expedited process that will likely not result in its hitting regular snags layered into state and city bureaucracy. The more interesting fight about to unfold is one over the future identity of the party. Will Democrats be a party that welcomes Amazon as a friend and scolds it if it is not socially responsible? Or will they disown the Amazons of the world and try to forge a new path going forward, one in which small business and entrepreneurship form the backbone that supports communities? All eyes will be on Long Island City to see how this plays out.

Open The Borders This week, the American public had to witness the disgusting and demoralizing act by U.S. law enforcement officials and military of tear-gassing children who are seeking asylum in this country from violence and despair. The actions of the public servants stationed at the border may well have been justified at the moment of conflict: They were likely following orders and operating under protocol put forth by our government. And therein lies the problem. Our policies on these matters are all messed up. They lack humanity. They make our country look mean-spirited and morally corrupt. Ultimately, these actions and these images do far more damage to the country, and leave our people in far more danger, than if we simply opened up the borders and let people wander back and forth as they pleased. If our border control policy is going to continue to be tear-gassing children who can’t even walk yet, then we should just open the borders. Each year, we spend billions of dollars protecting our southern and northern borders. Economists also suggest that we lose billions more in trade opportunities because of the lost time it takes to travel back and forth between Mexico and the United States, or Canada and the United States. The reason we don’t open the borders is that we are concerned about the safety and national security of our country. But more than 99 percent of the people trying to cross the border have no criminal intent. They are not rapists or terrorists. They are simply people looking for work, or possibly looking to buy something. As for the others, I am sure our law enforcement officials will be able to deal with them. Another argument against open borders is that drugs will flow freely into this country. News flash: They already do. Mexican cartels fly drones over our border daily and seem to have no problem moving their product. Besides, many of the drugs that are killing our people are over-the-counter or prescription pills. So opening the borders would

likely have little impact on the drug trade. The truth is that the focus on border protection is really just about xenophobia. And the hysteria that has been drummed up around it costs this country tens of billions of dollars each year. We could take a fraction of that lost revenue and spend it strategically to solve any of the problems that would arise from having an open border. Furthermore, by transitioning back into the welcoming society that the United States has been for much of its history, we will end up being the destination of the best and brightest people in the world when they are fleeing persecution. The positives of embracing ambitious foreigners in our country will always far outweigh the negative impacts. Queens is a great example of this. We have ethnic enclaves in all corners of the borough. We’ve seen an incredible influx of immigrants over the past decades. And while we’ve encountered many problems as populations shift and move, we have overcome all of them and come out on the other side the better for it. Our economy is booming. Our people are educated and kind, and we find richness (both monetarily and culturally) in exploring and accepting each of our differences. The president of the United States has often criticized Democrats as being out of touch because they “want open borders,” which is simply a lie: You’d be hard pressed to find a Democrat with the courage of conviction to suggest we should have open borders. Many of them probably think it’s a horrible idea, even if they are speaking in private. But what is truly horrible is the prospect of seeing more images of our government—which is supposed to be a shining light on the hill—tear-gassing 10-month-old girls in the arms of their weary mothers, who have walked thousands of miles in hopes of a better life. It’s time to start talking about open borders. And it is well past time to be talking about recapturing the moral values that have made the United States of America great.

HEY’RE AT IT AGAIN. Less than a week after Democrats won control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the New York State Senate, two Queens representatives were already drifting off mission, threatening the agenda they were elected to fulfill. Let’s start with Alexandria OcasioCortez. At the beginning of this year she was a waitress. Now she’s the congresswoman-elect for western Queens. Learning the specials of the day was one thing; learning to navigate Congress is quite another. Ocasio-Cortez has a month to figure out her priorities; pick a committee where she can advance those priorities; and cultivate mentors and allies to guide and support those priorities to pass at least one bill through the House in her first year. During this same month, she has to set up two offices, one in Queens and the other in the Bronx; hire staff; and find an apartment in D.C. Instead, Ocasio-Cortez is trying to take the lead on the campaign opposing Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill De Blasio’s deal with Amazon to develop a rundown warehouse and manufacturing district in Long Island City into modern office space, where it can put 25,000 to 40,000 highly educated, highly paid people to work. She hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and Ocasio-Cortez is offending the governor and the mayor—and breaking with protocol by protesting a project in a neighboring congresswoman’s district—on an issue that, according to her own words, she knows nothing about: economic development. Ocasio-Cortez has demonstrated that social media is a terrific campaign tool, but she will require a lot more to be a successful member of Congress than being an Instagram inf luencer. Right now she’s a political pop star—but pop

stars fade. Now is the time for Ocasio-Cortez to do homework. Maybe when she gets around to hiring a staff, one of its members will take on the role of limiting her screen time so that she will do some actual work. This week, Ocasio-Cortez posted a video on Instagram that showed her on the Amtrak from NYC to D.C. That’s a great four- to five-hour trip to turn off and read: bill memos, legislative memos or, even better, anything and everything by Robert Caro. Then, maybe, a year from now, OcasioCortez will have some accomplishments to crow about, other than a bunch of social media posts. The congresswomanelect also might learn by then how critical jobs are to the economy. More locally, state Sen. Michael Gianaris doesn’t have youth and inexperience as an excuse for mission drift. He has been a member of the state legislature for nearly 20 years and is the incoming deputy majority leader, making him the second–most-powerful person in the state Senate. Gianaris led the campaign for Democrats to win the majority in the Chamber. More than anyone else in New York State, he knows that holding on to the majority has been a serious challenge for Democrats. Gianaris also is the man whose job it is to track the promises made to get that majority. Now his job will be to whip his members into voting to fulfill those promises. And there are a lot of promises to fulfill. All the city’s top advocates for everything from children and tenants to reproductive rights and improved mass transportation are mobilizing to get legislation included in the budget the governor will present two months from now. And by the end of the legislative session in June, they all anticipate that some of the legislation that has long been blocked by the Senate Republican majority will be

passed into law. That’s going to take a lot of work. And a lot of people will be watching. David Jones is the president and chief executive office of the Community Service Society. At a recent fundraiser for nonprofit advocacy-journalism outfit City Limits, he looked tired. He said that the coming year may be the most challenging of his career. “Now we’ve got to get them to follow through on their promises,” said Jones, who is widely respected and admired as the city’s top advocate for the poor. So it was surprising that Gianaris, who has voted on the state budget 17 times since he was elected to the legislature— sometimes during economic crises when critical programs had to be cut—has been squandering his political capital by opposing the Amazon deal, which will not only bring billions in tax revenue to the state and the city, but a recordbreaking number of jobs to his district. These are not only high-tech jobs with a minimum salary of $150,00 a year, but also all the jobs that will support those jobs. Gianaris needs to take a cue from 32BJ, the union that represents janitors, doormen and security guards. The union is thrilled about how many jobs this new complex will create. Also, this deal demonstrates that New York’s history as a pro-union state still makes it competitive with other regions. Gianaris needs to get his head in the game right now and figure out which bills the Democrats are going to push through the Senate and when. Otherwise he will learn too late that being in the majority leadership is a lot like kindergarten: His wards have very short attention spans and will always be whining to go out for recess. The governor and the mayor have given his district and his constituents an extremely generous holiday gift. Gianaris shouldn’t whine simply because they forgot to include his name on the giftcard.

Protecting Targets Of Hate

LETTERS

By RORY I. LANCMAN

To The Editor:

HE CIT Y COUNCIL LAST week held a hearing to examine how the city is combating white supremacist hate crimes, and what strategies the police are implementing in order to keep New Yorkers safe. This is an especially important and timely topic. In recent years, New York City has experienced a sharp increase in the number of hate crimes, particularly targeting the Jewish community. Sadly, we have all heard the horrifying stories: buildings and monuments defaced; threatening graffiti; our fellow New Yorkers attacked. More than 300 hate crimes in New York City have already been reported this year, and anti-Semitic hate crimes in particular have increased by 18 percent. These hate crimes are intended to create fear, division and mistrust among New Yorkers. For that reason alone, it is crucial that all of us, from every community, speak out forcefully and denounce hate in every form. Our city was collectively outraged in October as members of a white supremacist hate group, known as the Proud Boys, viciously attacked individuals on the streets of New York. It was particularly outrageous to me that not one member of the Proud Boys was arrested immediately after the hate crime occurred, even though officers were present at one of the assaults. New York City seemed wholly unprepared for the violence that occurred, despite the fact that it was similar to what other cities have experienced. It concerns me greatly that we do not have the same focus and intensity on thwarting domestic terrorists that we do on uncovering plots by international

terrorists who wish to do us harm. Following the “Proud Boys” assaults, I wanted to hear directly from the city and the police department about whether they are treating these white supremacist hate groups as the domestic terrorist organizations that they are. It was heartening to hear representatives from the police department stress how seriously the city is treating the inf lux of white supremacist hate crimes. But more must be done, and we need to see tangible action to assuage our concerns. I believe that it is time for the city to support a Citywide Nonprofit Security Grant Program to provide religious and cultural institutions that are credible targets of violence with funds to protect themselves. While the state and federal governments already have funding available to at-risk institutions, the city has refused to make the same commitment. This is an idea that I first proposed in the City Council last year, and should be made a priority moving forward. The city should be providing support to organizations that are right now scrambling to come up with the resources needed to ensure their safety. Government has no greater responsibility than to keep people safe. The best way to do that is through greater preparation, increased security investment and a renewed focus on combating hate. Rory Lancman is a City Council member representing Kew Gardens Hills, Pomonok, Electchester, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Jamaica Estates, Briarwood, Parkway Village, Jamaica Hills and Jamaica.

Our community has lost a truly great warrior. Senator Jose Peralta did not just talk the talk, he walked the walk. He stood up for every marginalized person in our community, whether they were immigrants, people with disabilities, LGBT, or anyone who needed a strong voice on their behalf. He celebrated every strand in the mosaic. On any given day, one could enter his office on Junction Boulevard and see people from the community getting the help they needed. Two months after losing the primary, he was still out there, organizing free turkey giveaways and f lu shots. He wasn’t campaigning; he was serving his community. To the end. When people talked, he listened, asked questions, and understood. When they expressed a need, he did his best to meet it, even when it cut against the grain of political expediency. He cared. To the end. Senator Peralta set the bar for serving constituents at an all-time high, and those who follow will be hard-pressed to meet it. Let us best serve his memory by holding them to it. Ed and Cindy Leahy, Jackson Heights

ARTS & CULTURE

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

ON VIEW IN QUEENS

The Daily Spectacle

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GIL FAGIANI—THE POET LAUREATE OF THE STREETS

Gil Fagiani with his wife, Queens’ Poet Laureate Maria Lisella

Missing Madonnas (Bordighera Press, 2018) By THOMAS MOODY On April 12 of this year, the Queens-based poet, essayist and activist Gil Fagiani tragically passed away at the age of 72. He had led an extraordinary life. Born into an Italian immigrant family just after the end of World War II, he was a military college graduate, a political radical and a community organizer. He had worked in a psychiatric hospital in the Bronx and was, for a portion of his life, a junkie. A 2014 profile of Fagiani in The New York Times titled “A Poet Mines Memories of Drug Addiction” opens with an anecdote about the then–68-year-old pulling out a copy of White Lightning, “a tabloid from 1972, whose yellowed, brittle pages declared revolution. Inside, he pointed to a polemic he wrote headlined ‘Racism and Dope.’ It described how he—a heroin addict with white, middle-class roots—was let off by the police with a warning inside an East Harlem tenement while his would-be connection, a Puerto Rican excon, was stripped, arrested and clubbed.” Poetry came late to Fagiani—he was in his 40s when he discovered his vocation—but he became the archetype of the late-blooming talent. During his life, he published five collections of verse. His sixth collection, Missing Madonnas, is his first posthumously released work, published earlier this year by Bordighera Press. It is an astonishing compendium of the poet’s life and talent, stretching from mapping his Italian ancestry through his turbulent days on the street all the way to his reformation in later life, finally settling in Queens. In “Chianti in the Catskills,” one of the last poems in the collection, the speaker, haunted by

sleep, seeks relief by “walking the streets of Astoria. / At 28th Street, I run into the glittering profile of the Empire / State Building, where my father worked in an executive suite / in the 1960s.” Fittingly, the book opens at the beginning, that is, the day of Fagiani’s birth. Here is “Lunar Arrival” in full: Mom’s belly, swollen as the full moon above. An earthquake rumbles, her neighbor, the wife beater, rushes her to the hospital in the battered pickup truck. The sheet music to a melancholy tune that found a name —my birth certificate. The poem encapsulates much of what is to be revered in Fagiani’s work: the economy and preciseness of his lyricism; the uncomplicated but powerful use of simile; the uncompromising depiction of its subjects, irony included. (Note how the “wife beater” drives a “battered pickup truck.”) The opening half of the book relates to Fagiani’s early life, growing up in an immigrant family in New York. He expends great time and effort on detailing this world, the minutiae of routine and subtle but unmistakable differences between cultures. We can smell the alleyways of the West Village “reeking / of fruit and fish / and guinea stinker cigars,” as we can the horse barn across the street “that reeked of manure.” We see the tomatoes drying on the fire escape, and hear the wise grandmother argue in Italian with the butcher about the cut of veal: “Non

c’e nessuna fessa qui—There are no idiots here—she’d say.” We are in the classroom with Fagiani when “The teachers mangled / my name, called me Fag-ee-annie, no matter how / many times I corrected them,” and in the fronvt seat with him when he drives the biggest embarrassment of his adolescence, his parents’ “snub-nosed Nash Rambler.” Unlike his friends, who drive their parents’ Pontiacs and Chevys, the speaker of “Greaser: A Nightmare” is sentenced to “sputtering around with a blue-beaked, six cylinder shit-box.” If these poems at times seem sluggish in their approach, weighed down by their preciseness of detail, it is not by accident but by masterful design. Fagiani meticulously creates a world in order to break it apart. The more full and visceral that world is, the more devastating its collapse. Missing Madonnas, therefore, is a rarity among poetry collections: It deserves to be read from cover to cover, sequentially. It is a powerful undertaking. As you read further into the book, what comes before moves into sharper relief—the small personal cracks of the people who populate the poems are slowly, but most assuredly, jimmied open, until their shortcomings are chasmic. Pried open wider than Sixth Avenue, Fagiani’s subjects wear their failings with something akin to pride, their addictions, dishonesty and duplicity a defense against the threat of ever-worse failings. In “Face Lift,” a dealer takes his “perox-

she’s caught me at all the hottest copping spots. But, around Pat and Nilsa, we keep the doper’s code and dummy up.” The scene appears far removed from the comparatively innocent streets of Fagiani’s childhood. However, all of the poems in Missing Madonnas deal with people who are, in their own particular way, stunned by life, stalled in their skins, trying to cope in whatever way they can in order to make it through to the next day. There is no nostalgia in Fagiani’s remembrances about his childhood, as there is no glorification or moralizing about his years as a junkie. What all of his poetry has in common is a sublime honesty, which tries to wrestle reality onto the

It is a powerful undertaking. As you read further into the book, what comes before moves into sharper relief—the small personal cracks of the people who populate the poems are slowly, but most assuredly, jimmied open, until their shortcomings are chasmic. ide blonde girlfriend, Judy—who swears she’s stopped using” to a dinner at Patsy’s restaurant with the speaker, who has also sworn to his girl Nilsa that he’s quit using, “but before I pick her up I dust my nose holes with a light powdering of pure to keep down the sickness. I’ve seen Judy trick under the Park Avenue El and

page and transform it into something more beautiful, more sufferable than what we know it originally to be. Missing Madonnas is a fitting testament to Fagiani’s skill as a poet and compassion as a man. It is a book whose every smell, sight, sound, meal and gunshot is to be experienced and cherished.

which makes the cruelty Layman details, ever more devastating. This is a book that needs to be read.

The story has garnered much attention in the press, not least because of the anachronistic approach of Chau, who knew the dangers of the islands, but took the risk in order to convert the tribe to Christianity. His last diary entry before his death reads: “Lord, is this island Satan’s last stronghold where non have heard or even had the chance to hear your name?” The Quint, an Indian based news website, has delved deeper into the plight of the Sentinel Islands, and the threat posed by what is commonly known as “econ-tourism.” “Here’s what the headlines are not telling you,” writes Dutt. “This incident is in fact symptomatic of some of the broader changes being initiated on the siland to overthrow a decades old ‘hands off’ policy, and open up the chain of islands like a box of chocolates for real estate and tourism sharks to bit into.” With all the talk around Amazon’s gentrifying of Queens, Dutt’s essay on the corporate threat to one of the last remaining “untouched” areas of the world is a must read.

BRIEFLY NOTED Heavy: An American Memoir Kiese Layman (Scribner, 2018) Heavy, An American Memoir is one of the most important books you will read this year. The memoir is astonishing in its candor, its ecstasy and anguish. It is both tender and abusive. Kiese Layman beautifully recounts his story of growing up as an overweight black male in the South. The book deals so much with Heaviness, of the body, and what the body must endure. As a 12 year old, Layman asks his grandmother, who plays as much a role raising him as his mother does, if 218 pounds is too heavy for his age. “It’s just heavy enough.” She tells him. “Heavy enough for everything you

need to be heavy for.” At times the book can be almost unbearable in its unflinching honesty: the body, its weight and limitations, are ever-present throughout, and we realize just how differently we perceive our own bodies to be in comparison to how the world around us treats them. At home, where the cupboards are most often empty, Layman at once worships and is abused by his mother, who is in turn physically abused by the men in her life; while outside he must learn to navigate a large black body through a world that is rarely welcoming. “I knew as early as 12 that I would get beaten sometimes for other people’s failures. If my mother’s partner failed and hurt her, I was more likely to get beaten and disciplined,” Layman explained in a recent interview, “If my teachers failed, I was more likely to get beaten and disciplined. So we have to not just broaden our cultural imaginations but really sift through why we want to believe some of what we want to believe about what black children actually deserve.” But there is also much love and passion in this book, and tenderness—

ONLINE READ OF THE WEEK The Quint: Sentinelese Tribe: What Headlines Won’t Tell You About Eco-Tourism by Bahar Dutt Last week, an American missionary, John Allen Chau, 26, was killed by members of an isolated Indian tribe on North Sentinel Island. Chau was shot down with bow

and arrow, after he landed on the remote island, home to the The Sentinelese tribe for over 30,000 years, who are known to be fiercely unwelcoming to outsiders.

Read this essay and share it.

The Knockdown Center, in Maspeth, is currently showing the work of Tiffany Jaeyeon Shin, an artist who often explores the boundaries and designations of the body. The exhibition, Tiffany Jaeyeon Shin: Universal Skin Salvation, is her first large-scale solo exhibition, and features a custom line of Korean beauty products and a full immersive sauna, alongside new video, photo, and collage works. The beauty products focus on lactic acid, which is a bac ter ia l compound found in sour milk, in muscles, and in ferment food like Kimchi. Recent studies show that lactic acid can fortify the composition of the microbes in the gut, improving the metabolization of bodily injuries and building immunity to post-traumatic stress disorder. The bacterium can also lighten the flesh by exfoliating dead skin, and is frequently used in Korean beauty products as a whitening agent. Shin’s work engages the concept of “lactification,” a term coined by philosopher Frantz Fanon that refers to the whitening of a race, or to make one “milky.” Visitors are invited to apply Shin’s custom Korean beauty products such as lotions, mist sprays, and serums, and enter the sauna, absorbing small amounts of home-brewed lactic acid. For Shin, the active bacterial agent acts as stand-in for bodily rehabilitation from the Korean War and as an extension of the Korean “flesh” enlivened by biological matter. Through this immersive exhibition Shin asks: how does K-beauty’s emphasis on achieving a “glassy” and “transparent” complexion render Korean skin exoticized and impermeable, or plasticized, following the trauma and migration of the Korean War? How does Korean subjectivity emerge through flesh that has undergone extreme processes of cultural possession? Tiffany Jaeyeon Shin: Universal Skin Salvation runs through December 16, 2018 at the Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, NY 11378 This Friday, Navidad: A Mexican American Christmas opens at the Thalia Spanish Theater in Sunnyside. Produced by the Capulli Mexican Dance Company, the performance, which runs for three weeks through December 16, was developed by the company’s Artistic Director Alberto Lopez Herrera and Co-Founder Juan Castaño. The story cele-

brates the holiday traditions experienced by a young person of Mexican immigrant parents growing up in New York City. From Aztec-inspired dance to Christmas carols, the youngster tries to bring their two worlds together. In a dream, they imagine the fusion of Mariachi music with Tchaikovsky, folk dance with ballet, and the wonderment of their two cultures. The company of 16 dancers and core of musicians led by Calpulli’s Music Director George Saenz. “Audiences will see how someone born in the USA may experience their parent’s seemingly foreign culture and can be torn about their own cultural identity,” said Lopez. “That is, until they discover that these qualities make them stronger. We are so excited to show the traditions of Mexico like posadas and villancicos as well as popular holiday music from the USA and dances inspired by the famous Nutcracker. We also can’t wait to hear from audiences about how we blend these influences together in our world of fantasy.” Navidad will feature commissioned choreographic works by Grisel Pren Monje, Rehearsals Director with Calpulli; Francisco Graciano formerly of the Paul Taylor Dance Company; Javier Dzul, Artistic Director of Dzul Dance Company and Juan Castaño. Costumes are designed by Lopez with additional costume design by Amanda Gladu, Animation and Scenery by Ariel Rodriguez, and Lighting Design by Carolina Ortiz. “Calpulli’s stories are told through dance and music and have always dealt with love,” said Castaño. “Navidad is no different, but it tells of love for family, for the multifaceted influences around us, and for oneself. We hope children of immigrant families see themselves reflected in our story, and we hope immigrants feel celebrated and also empathize more with identity formation when two or more cultures influence a young person.” Navidad: A Mexican American Christmas runs from November 30th to December 16, 2018 at Thalia Spanish Theatre, 41-17 Greenpoint Ave. Sunnsyide, Queens.

Classifieds

The Queens Tribune, Thursday, November 29, 2018

Cost-saving benefits, personalized care for 2019 Fidelis Dual Advantage members

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Depending on the plan, features may include:

Monthly Plan Premium Copay for Doctor and Specialist Visits

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Copay for Preferred Generics Annual Dental Checkups

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Prepaid, over-the-counter card, with up to $100 for non-prescription, health-related items Discounts for hearing devices* Access to money-saving discounts and services through My Advocate program Transportation...and much more!

*We partner with TruHearing for discounted purchases of hearing devices.

For a complete listing of plans in your service area, contact the plan. The benefit information provided is a brief summary, not a complete description of benefits. For more information, contact the plan. Limitations, copayments, and restrictions may apply. Benefits, formulary, pharmacy network, premium and/or copayments/coinsurance may change on January 1 of each year. You must continue to pay your Medicare Part B premium. Outof-network services may require more out-of-pocket expense than in-network services. Benefi t restrictions apply. Fidelis Legacy Plan is an HMO plan with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in Fidelis Legacy Plan depends on contract renewal.

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