4 The QUENS Courier • may 28, 2015 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com Forest Hills-based group brings together beer and Jewish New Yorkers BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO aaltamirano@queenscourier.com @aaltamirano28 A Forest Hills couple has founded a group that looks to bring together Jewish New Yorkers and their love for a cold glass of beer. Rebecca Dauer and Michael Israel are the founders behind the group Jews and Brews NYC, which was started through Meetup.com over a year ago. Jews and Brews NYC aims to bring Jewish New Yorkers closer together through creating friendships, romances and professional networking by having members engage in fun events and activities. “There isn’t an agenda so people don’t feel like this is a religious event or dating event,” Dauer said. “It’s a group of Jewish people getting together that want to have a good time.” The idea of the group came up when Dauer made the move to New York from Boston more than four years ago and found it was hard to find outlets in her new city that would connect her with other Jewish people without having to go on dating sites or dating meetups. Dauer and her fiancé then started the group about a year ago and what first started as a small gathering has blown up to having close to 600 members from throughout the city. “We’re really looking to build a community and have like-minded individuals come together,” she said. “When I started it, I’m not a big drinker and I’m not even big on beer but it sounded really good and brought in a lot of people.” For the meetups, which take place once or twice per month and usually on Thursday nights, Dauer finds bars, beer halls and breweries throughout New York City where group members can sample draft and bottled beers. The group plans to organize future events including festivals, Shabbat dinners, A Forest Hills couple has founded a group that looks to bring together Jewish New Yorkers and their love for a cold glass of beer. wine tastings and baseball games. Although most events have taken place outside of Queens, Dauer plans to hosts more meetups in the borough she calls home. The group recently met up in Forest Hills and Dauer hopes to have an event scheduled for June in Astoria. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Dauer “Queens has so much to offer and because the group now is so close knit, if we do it in Queens people will absolutely make the trek over here,” Dauer said. For more information or to sign up for Jews and Brews NYC visit www. meetup.com/Jews-and-Brews-NYC. Flushing public forum reveals planning study BY ALINA SURIEL asuriel@queenscourier.com/@alinangelia The NYC Department of City Planning publicly revealed on May 21 details of a Flushing West planning study which will result in large-scale rezoning in line with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 10-year plan to increase affordable housing. The study area is a 10-block zone bounded by Northern Boulevard to the north, Roosevelt Avenue to the south, Prince Street to the east and the Van Wyck Expressway and Flushing Creek to the west. Underutilized commercial and industrial land uses will be re-examined for changes which aim to allow for new residential, commercial and community facility uses alongside the eventual redevelopment of the area. This will be accomplished by increasing allowable residential density, providing a public space amenity plan, and rethinking the height and massing of new buildings, as well as several other aspects of study. “I hope that you can see how comprehensively we’re trying to think about Flushing, and yet how innovative this process is for this community,” said John Young, director of the City Planning Department in Queens. Officials, community organizations, and residents were outspoken about their concerns for plans intended to bring major change into their area. Councilman Peter Koo remarked that the rapid growth of Flushing puts a strain on its existing community and infrastructure, and said more has to be done to preserve affordable housing, support small businesses and improve stormwater systems before increased development results in a possible population influx. Among residents, the creation and preservation of affordable housing was cited as the biggest priority. According to a report circulated by the office of the mayor, between 2005 and 2012, rents Members of the MinKwon Center for Community Action stood together to demonstrate their support for affordable housing in potential rezoning of Flushing. rose by 11 percent while renters’ incomes stagnated, and to combat this trend the inclusion of affordable housing units is a condition of any new development. While opportunity for affordable housing creation in Flushing is limited under the current zoning, any new rezoning under the Flushing West study will fall in line with the new affordable housing requirement. Planners undertaking the Flushing West study are also being guided by other city agencies on how to adapt the affordable housing requirements to the area in a way that is financially feasible. Grace Shim, executive director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, was fearful of the possibility of residents being displaced in programs which do not address the needs of the population with the lowest income. “We don’t want them to be priced out of here,” THE COURIER/Photo by Alina Suriel said Shim, who added that the most vulnerable sector consists of senior citizens and recent immigrant with limited English proficiency. “We don’t want them to be pushed out.” In addition to preserving affordable housing, expanding waterfront access to Flushing Creek is also targeted as a specific objective of the study. Planners will work to find ways to provide pedestrian access to the waterfront by creating a street network leading to the area, which is now difficult to access due to narrow sidewalks and closed-off street networks. Open walkways and green areas are eyed for the waterfront’s future, as well as affordable housing developments to utilize some of the open space. The community input process of the Flushing West planning study is ongoing, and previous public presentations as well as additional information can be found online at nyc.gov/flushing-west.
QC05282015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above