28 The Queens Courier • ANNIVERSARY • juLY 2, 2015 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com 30th ANNIVERSARY Quick Clips 2000s Outage outrage in west Queens (2006) For nine agonizing days, residents in much of western Queens went without power in the middle of a heat wave. Con Edison blamed the trouble on the failure of major feeder cables damaged by an underground fire. Nearly 100,000 people sweated through the outage, including restaurants and other businesses which lost perishable items. Weeks after the outage, The Courier ran “The Hole Truth,” reporting on the sweltering working conditions for Con Edison crews making permanent cable repairs underground. Three terms for everybody (2008) In the midst of a local financial crisis, the City Council voted in October to extend the term limit for all city elected officials from two to three terms. It overturned mandates that voters approved in two previous referendums. Though the bill proved controversial, it didn’t stop voters the following year from electing Mike Bloomberg to a third term as mayor. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall also secured a third term in office in the election, while Flushing Councilman John Liu became the first Asian-American The Sean Bell to be elected to citywide office as comptroller. shooting (2006-08) The Courier provided extensive The Bloomberg Era begins (2002) Tasked with picking up the post-9/11 recovery where Rudy Giuliani left off, Michael Bloomberg took office on New Year’s Day as the city’s 108th mayor. The billionaire businessman tackled a massive city budget deficit with cutbacks and a rather-unpopular property tax increase. Over time, however, his leadership proved a boon for Queens and the city, as crime continued to plummet and the economy improved as Lower Manhattan rebuilt. coverage following the November 2006 shooting of Sean Bell, who was shot by police in a hail of bullets outside a Jamaica strip club the night before he was to be married. The officers were put on trial before a judge and The Courier was inside the courtroom when the judge handed down his not-guilty verdict. The paper also provided extensive coverage of the ensuing protests in Queens streets. THE COURIER/File photos As part of our anniversary issue, we are taking a look back at some of the significant events that have impacted our borough in the last five years, from wild weather to political scandal and shocking losses.
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