NYCHA restores cooking gas service for Astoria
Houses residents nearly three months after outage
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
City Council Speaker Corey
Johnson has appointed Queens
Councilwoman Adrienne
Adams as chair of the Committee
on Public Safety for
the remainder of the current
legislative term.
Adams is replacing former
Councilman Donovan Richards,
who recently sworn in as
Queens borough president.
“I am honored to serve as
chair to the Committee on Public
Safety, and I am committed
to put forth my efforts to increase
public confidence and
improve the safety and well-being
of all New Yorkers,” Adams
said. “With this assignment, I
am recommitted to ensure that
all voices are heard. “I thank
Speaker Corey Johnson for
placing his confidence in me
and I look forward to working
within this capacity, with my
colleagues on the committee,
and the entire City Council
to move New York City into a
more unified progressive direction.
I look forward to putting
forth a very robust agenda
from my committee.”
The Committee on Public
Safety, which has oversight
over the New York Police Department,
is one of the council’s
most critical committees.
It also has jurisdiction over
the Civilian Complaint Review
Board, the Mayor’s Office of
Criminal Justice, the courts,
legal services, the district
attorney’s office, and the Office
of the Special Narcotics
Prosecutor.
Before being appointed to
chair the Committee on Public
Safety, Adams was the chair
of the Subcommittee on Landmarks,
Public Sightings, and
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.24 COM | DEC. 18-DEC. 24, 2020
Dispositions. As chair of the
subcommittee, she pushed for
greater representation for all
New Yorkers of varied backgrounds
and in all boroughs.
She believes that designations
should reflect the City’s
inclusive mosaic.
“The Council’s Committee
on Public Safety plays a critical
role in holding NYPD accountable
and making changes
to improve how the department
operates. Council Member Adams
will push the NYPD to be
more transparent and practice
smart and fair law enforcement,
and I look forward to
working with her and all committee
members to make our
city stronger,” Johnson said.
Reach reporter Carlotta Mohamed
by e-mail at cmohamed@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 260–4526.
BY JACOB KAYE
After surviving nearly three
months without cooking gas, residents
of a New York City Housing Authority
(NYCHA) building in Astoria
finally had their gas service restored
on Thursday, Dec. 10.
Tenants of 1-04 Astoria Blvd., a
building within NYCHA’s Astoria
Houses, initially lost cooking gas service
on Sept. 23, beginning a monthslong
fight to get the service restored.
And while residents — who were each
provided with a hot plate by NYCHA
— may now have their gas restored,
for some, the fight is not over.
“While I am pleased these residents
now have service restored,
this whole episode represents an
unacceptable failure from NYCHA,”
said state Senator Michael Gianaris.
“Rent-paying tenants deserve better.”
The outage, which did not affect
residents’ heat or hot water, caused
great disruption to the lives of the
building’s tenants, they said.
“You know how long it takes me
to cook a meal? We don’t have kids
at school anymore; they’re home.
The parents are working from home.
That’s three meals a day and one
single hot plate,” Kimberly Elliot, a
resident of the building, told QNS in
October. “You can’t even sit down as a
family and eat.”
Residents and elected officials also
called foul on NYCHA for what they
felt was a vague timeline for repairs.
Weeks after residents lost gas service,
the housing authority told tenants
service restoration could take
up to 78 days from the initial date of
the outage. Under that timeline, NYCHA
met its goal with Thursday’s
restoration.
“NYCHA staff have been working
over the past week to finalize gas
restoration at Astoria Houses,” said a
NYCHA spokesperson. “We appreciate
the hard work of all the vendors
and our city partners who helped
make this possible.”
In response to the outage, elected
officials have made calls to hold
NYCHA more accountable to its
residents.
Recently introduced in the state
Senate, Gianaris’ NYCHA Utility Accountability
Act would prorate a tenant’s
rent if the tenant is faced with
a gas, heat, water or electric outage.
The bill is currently in the Senate’s
Rules Committee.
Councilman Costa Constantinides,
who chairs the council’s Environmental
Protection Committee, used the
opportunity to urge the city to phase
out gas stoves in NYCHA buildings
altogether, and introduce more environmentally
friendly electric stoves
instead.
“The latest outage highlights how
dangerous and unreliable natural gas
is as a cooking source. A single leak
can disrupt dozens of lives for months
on end — without a clear date on when
it will be restored,” Constantinides
said in October. “As we seek to rebuild
and improve public housing to
make it more sustainable, I agree that
NYCHA must explore how it can replace
gas stoves with electric ones.”
The outage also generated an outpouring
of donations from community
based organizations, who turned
out to provide meals to affected residents,
especially around Thanksgiving.
Organizations like Frontline
Food Queens distributed prepared
meals to residents over the past few
months.
“We called upon the Astoria community
to cook for the residents to
show our love and solidarity,” Evie
Hantzopoulos, a candidate for City
Council and co-founder of Frontline
Foods Queens, told QNS in October.
“With less than two days’ notice to
prepare, we fed an entire building
and then some, through home cooked
food provided by the community.”
After losing cooking gas service on Sept. 23, residents of 1-04 Astoria Blvd. had
their service restored on Dec. 10, 2020. Photo via Google Maps
Councilwoman Adrienne Adams Courtesy of Adrienne Adams
Adams appointed as chair of City
Council Public Safety Committee
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