FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com january 8, 2015 • The Queens Courier 3 FOREST HILLS HOUSING STANDS AS A LOCAL TESTAMENT TO MARIO CUOMO BY ERI C JANKIE WICZ ejankiewicz@queenscourier.com/@ericjankiewicz Mario Cuomo’s recent death triggered remembrances of a man who maintained a liberal agenda amidst a conservative America in the 1980s. But in Queens, where the former three-term New York governor was born, people remember him as an advocate for affordable Mario Cuomo with his son Gov. Andrew Cuomo and wife Matilda Cuomo at a 2013 event. CORONA CHURCH CLOSES ‘UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE’ AFTER ELECTRICAL FIRE BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO aaltamirano@queenscourier.com/@aaltamirano28 Devoted parishioners of Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church will have to find another place to worship for the next week after a Sunday morning blaze ripped through their beloved sanctuary. Church officials are not sure how long it will take to make the extensive repairs. But crews were already at work on Jan. 5. The fire broke out on Jan. 4 at 5:45 a.m. on the first floor of Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church, located at 104-11 37th Ave., not long before parishioners were expected to begin attending the first Sunday morning Mass, the FDNY said. According to published reports, Monsignor Thomas Healy of Our Lady of Sorrows led prayers outside the church Sunday after having to cancel all masses. Two firefighters were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with minor injuries. Fire marshals determined that the cause of the fire was electrical due to wiring in the organ pipe tower. According to the Diocese of Brooklyn, the church has close to 12,000 to 13,000 parishioners and has been serving the community since 1872. “All of our shrines, churches and cathedrals are sacred and special in their own individual ways. What makes Our Lady of Sorrows stand out is that it is a parish of immigrants in the Diocese of Immigrants,” the Diocese of Brooklyn said in a statement. On Jan. 5 the block in front of the church remained closed off by police tape, as construction crews worked on repairing the site. There were flyers posted around the block letting residents and parishioners know that there are no Mass services at the church until further notice. According to a receptionist at Our Lady of Sorrows, it could take one to two weeks for the doors of the church to open again because they want to make sure the area is safe and clean. Weekday and Sunday Mass services have been now moved to the auditorium of Our Lady Of Sorrows Catholic Academy, located at 35-34 105th St. For the service schedule, visit www.olschurch-corona.org. The school itself was closed on Jan. 5 because electricity had to be shut off due to the fire. “The Diocese of Brooklyn is fully committed to helping this church rebuild so that it may continue serving its faithful community as it has been doing since 1872,” the Diocese of Brooklyn said in the statement. “As we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, let us pray for our fellow parishioners in Corona during Photo via Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Flickr THE COURIER/Photo by Angy Altamirano A fire ripped through Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in Corona last weekend,hours before parishioners were expected to attend the first Sunday morning Mass. housing. The Forest Hills Cooperative sits on a quiet street on 62nd Drive, but when it was first built in the 1970s, angry Forest Hills residents held daily protests against its creation in a thinly veiled fear of the lower class. In the center of this controversy was Cuomo, whose role in facilitating the creation of controversial “projects” in a well-to-do neighborhood would propel him to national recognition. “It was a tremendous opportunity for people to get good housing in a prime location and it was all thanks to Cuomo,” said Joseph Hennessy, who was one of the first people to move into the cooperative more than 40 years ago. Hennessy noted that the original proposal in 1972 called for 24-story public housing towers. But the upper-middle class community rejected these plans, fearful of the effect on their property values and lifestyle at a time when the city was battling the issues of urban decline and racial tension. The battle became a national story, fueled by charges of racism, when Mayor John Lindsay appointed Cuomo, then a lawyer in private practice, to mediate the dispute. Cuomo was ultimately successful in bringing people with conflicting interests to the table to reach a compromise. His solution ultimately reduced the size of the buildings and turned them into cooperative apartments rather than subsidized rentals for seniors and veterans in addition to local, low-income residents. Hennessy continued, “You could sense that we were going through an important point in the city’s history and at the center of it all was Cuomo’s constant pressure. I wouldn’t be living in this great neighborhood if it wasn’t for him.” At the time, there was a huge community pushback against Hennessy and the other new residents. Going to the grocery store, Hennessy said, became an ordeal, pushing through groups of protesters opposed to the housing projects. Noting Mayor de Blasio’s drive to create new affordable housing, Hennessy said lessons can be learned from Cuomo’s handling of the housing controversy in the ‘70s, which could lead to an increase in housing, while reducing the amount of resistance to these initiatives. “We have a good lifestyle here and others should get similar opportunities,” Hennessy said. “It really demonstrates his long foresight that we’re struggling with problems that Cuomo was able to solve so long ago.” The most prominent political figure to come from Queens, Cuomo died on New Year’s Day at age 82 only hours after his son, Andrew Cuomo, delivered an inaugural address for his second term as New York’s governor.
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