20 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 3, 2022 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Queens pols slam NYCHA for heat, gas outages at Woodside Houses
BY JULIA MORO
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Queens lawmakers gathered
at the New York City Housing
Authority’s (NYCHA) Woodside
Houses on Th ursday, Jan. 27, to
call on the agency to restore the
heating plant that had been damaged
Western Queens lawmaker defends proposed congressional redistricting lines
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
The state Legislature
is expected to approve
a proposal that redraws
congressional districts to compensate
for declining populations,
according to the 2020
Census results.
State Senate Deputy Leader
Michael Gianaris of western
Queens chaired the legislative
redistricting task force that was
charged with developing the
new district lines aft er a bipartisan
Independent Redistricting
Commission failed to agree on
congressional and state legislative
maps in early January.
Th e proposed changes were
announced Sunday, prompting
state GOP leader Nick
Langworthy to call them “textbook
fi lthy, partisan gerrymandering
that is clearly in violation”
of the state’s constitution.
Gianaris — who helped lead
the fi ght against the Independent
Democratic Conference, which
formed a coalition to give the
Republicans the majority in the
chamber during the past decade
— said his team was undoing
decades of Republican gerrymandering.
“As we are unraveling the gerrymandering
of the past we’re just
bringing things back to where
they should have been from the
outset,” Gianaris said Tuesday,
Feb. 1 on WNYC. “Th ese are
districts that are drawn fairly. If
they had been drawn fairly at the
outset this is perhaps what they
would have looked like.”
Republican Congresswoman
Nicole Malliotakis claims the
process has been rigged by
Democrats by adding progressive
Brooklyn neighborhoods
to her mostly conservative 11th
District on Staten Island and
parts of southern Brooklyn.
Queens has been spared from
drastic redistricting in the proposal.
But change would come to the
south and northeast sections of the
borough.
According to the new maps,
Congressman Hakeem Jeff ries
would no longer represent
Howard Beach, which would
move into Congresswoman
Nydia Velázquez’s Congressional
District 7. While Congressman
Gregory Meeks would retain his
district as is, Congresswoman
Grace Meng would see her district
add Bayside and Bay
Terrace, while Whitestone and
College Point would become
part of Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 14th
Congressional District.
“As far as AOC’s district, it
remains largely the same Bronx-
Queens district,” Gianaris said. “I
think she gains some more of
Queens in the proposal and other
Screenshot of map via Redistricting & You for New York State/CUNY
than that it’s a very similar district
to what she currently has.”
Th e state GOP has vowed to
challenge the Congressional redistricting
proposal in the courts.
“Litigation is inevitable and
guaranteed every time there is
redistricting,” Gianaris said.
“We’ve had our lawyers look at
these maps backwards and forwards
and when the time comes
we’re confi dent we will make our
case to the courts and be successful.”
as a result of Hurricane Ida
in September.
Representative Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, Councilwoman
Julie Won, state Senator Jessica
Ramos, Deputy Queens Borough
President Ebony Young and others
toured the building aft er numerous
complaints of no heat or hot
water during the cold months.
New York City Housing
Authority (NYCHA) residents
are awaiting funding from the
Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) and the U.S.
Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) to
repair the damage. In the meantime,
residents have been relying
on mobile boiler units that have
reportedly not provided adequate
heat.
“NYCHA had months to prepare
in advance to repair the heating
plant at Woodside Houses.
Heat outages during the coldest
months are unacceptable —
residents are left with no choice
but to use dangerous space heaters
or stovetops to keep themselves
warm,” Won said. “NYCHA
should release a long-term solution
instead of unreliable mobile
boilers. FEMA and HUD must
make funding the repair of the
heating plant a top priority for the
health and safety of everyone at
Woodside Houses immediately.”
Th e Woodside Houses consist of
20 buildings in the NYCHA complex
with nearly 2,900 residents.
Twenty hot water outages have
been reported since September,
including 11 separate heating
outages this winter. According
to Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams, who also attended the
walk-through, NYCHA is “the
worst landlord in the city.”
“Th e heating and hot water
outages at Woodside Houses are
at once entirely unacceptable
and entirely predictable given
NYCHA’s history of mismanagement,”
Williams said. “Th e city
has an obligation to tenants in
Woodside Houses and at NYCHA
complexes across the city to provide
safe, quality housing by
immediately making these repairs
and providing tenants with protections
against freezing temperatures
until the heat is back on.”
In a statement, Richards mentioned
that during the colder
months, it is unacceptable that
residents cannot rely on hot water
and heat.
“NYCHA has had almost fi ve
months to fi x this problem, so far
without success. It needs to step up
to the plate and complete its heating
plant repairs so that Woodside
Houses residents have the reliable
heat and hot water they deserve
and are entitled to,” Richards said.
Currently, six apartments in the
Woodside Houses have been without
cooking gas since Nov. 5. Last
week, a group of tenants gathered
to protest the extensive outages.
One tenant and the treasurer
of the Woodside Houses Tenants
Association, Tomasine Reyes, is
living in one of the apartments
without gas.
“It’s not fair,” Reyes said. “We
pay our rent. We do what we gotta
do, but we’re not getting the treatment
we deserve … in our apartments,
in our living grounds, in
our whole development. It needs
to be cleaned up. It needs to be
repaired. It needs to be done now.”
NYCHA responded to the criticism
saying the agency spent
over $1.4 million in repairs on the
Woodside Houses boiler since Ida.
“Tropical Storm Ida damaged
the main boiler at Woodside
Houses aft er it was submerged
in over fi ve feet of water, causing
a hot water outage for tenants,”
said a statement provided
by NYCHA. “NYCHA has since
installed two mobile boilers and
a third was delivered to the development
aft er the past two weekends,
where there were extreme
cold temperatures. Th e boilers are
expected to be brought online in
February and once they are online,
the mobile boilers will be taken
offl ine in stages.”
Photo provided by Won’s offi ce
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Council member Julie Won and others toured the
Woodside Houses after hearing numerous complaints of no hot water or reliable
heat since Hurricane Ida.
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