8 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 17, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Third Astoria public school gets a new hydroponic lab
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
City Mailroom opens LIC branch, expanding small biz services
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Long Island City entrepreneurs now
have a place to go for all of the start-up
needs.
City Mailroom, located at 44-70 21 St.,
opened in the fall of last year. Th e fi ft h
business of owner Kishore Hemrajani,
City Mailroom off ers more than just mailboxes
and shipping services. Th e story also
functions as a notary public and digital
printing center that off ers large scale printing
perfect or architects and engineers.
“It’s fi lling a niche and that niche is to
help small businesses, entrepreneurs and
start ups get off the ground,” said owner
Kishore Hemrajani.
City Mailroom’s Long Island City
branch is the store’s fi ft h location in the
city, but Hemrajani still remembers how
life was when he only had his fi rst store
in Great Neck, working 16-hour days and
struggling to keep the store alive.
Th is is what sets City Mailroom apart
from other chain mailroom and shipping
store; it’s run by someone who understands
fi rsthand the early struggles of
starting a business.
“I feel like I am lucky to give this to any
of the small businesses in the area,” said
Hemarajani. “Th ere is a wide array of services
we off er to help businesses grow.”
Long Island City is the fastest growing
neighborhood in the United States, and
with the impending arrival of Amazon’s
HQ2, the small businesses fi gure to keep
coming into the community. Over a year
ago, Hemarajani recognized that there
were would be a massive need for his services.
“I noticed about a year ago, all the recent
construction in LIC and realized that the
community is lacking a store like mine,”
said Hemarajani. He added that the store
would help save precious time for busy
professionals coming into the neighborhood.
For more information on City
Mailroom’s services, check out citymailroom.
com.
Photo courtesy of City Mailroom
The exterior of City Mailroom’s newest shop in Long Island City.
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Th e seeds of a sustainable future have
been planted at P.S. 84 – Steinway in
Astoria, where Councilman Costa
Constantinides helped opened a new
hydroponic science lab on Jan. 14.
“Environmental changes are increasingly
making science a component of
every industry, so we must make sure
our leaders of tomorrow get the handson
experience now to solve problems of
the future,” said Constantinides.
Hydroponic labs are spaces where student
can grow plant life without the use
of soil and off er hands-on lessons on
biology, ecology and agriculture. Studies
have shown that students who physically
experience scientifi c concepts are more
likely understand them better.
This was apparent during
Constantinides visit to P.S. 84 – Steinway,
as grade-school children guided him
through their new lab explaining the
biology behind plant growth.
“Th ese are the best lessons in life,”
said P.S. 84 – Steinway Principal John
Buff a. “Th is develops a love of learning
because when children take ownership
of their learning, they are going to take it
from beginning to end.”
Besides teaching students to take
responsibility for their own learning,
hydroponic science labs teach children
how to think sustainably. According to
Manuela Zamora, the executive director
of New York Sun Works, the nonprofit
that built the hydroponic lab at P.S.
84, each school equipped with a lab also
receives a curriculum with appropriate
ways of teaching complex scientifi c concepts
to depending on their age.
Zamora used ladybugs to exemplify
this. If the plants P.S. 84 – Steinway
become infested with a pest such as
aphids, “we will bring in ladybugs who
will eat the aphids so that we don’t have
to use pesticides.” Th is creates a teachable
moment about the harms of pesticides
and alternative methods of pest removal.
New York Sun Works, off ers curriculum
for kindergarten through 12th grade.
Th e new lab represents a broader push by
Constantinides to enhance science curriculum,
educational technology and renewable
energy in its schools. As chairman of the
City Council’s Environmental Protection
Committee, Constantinides has also allocated
funding to cover STEM lab updates,
solar panels. He also recently announced a
push to have the city study how it can shut
down gas-fi re power plants across the fi ve
boroughs by the end of 2020.
But opening the plant at P.S. 84 –
Steinway is more than just politics for the
councilman; it’s also personal.
“Th is is repaying a debt,” said the councilman,
an alum of the elementary school.
According to Constantinides, the New
York Power Authority (NYPA) has
agreed to fund the hydroponic lab at P.S.
84 – Steinway.
“NYPA has had preliminary conversations
to discuss the possibility of giving
programmatic support to schools in
the councilman’s district that are near
its power facility and meet further criteria,”
said NYPA in an email to QNS.
” However, discussions are still ongoing
with both NY Sun Works and the councilman’s
offi ce to identify which schools,
in Queens as well as other areas of the
city, can be supported in 2019.”
Photo: Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech/THE COURIER
City Councilman Costa Constantinides and students at P.S. 84 in Astoria survey the school’s new
hydroponic lab on Jan. 14.
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