36 The Queens Courier • ANNIVERSARY • juLY 2, 2015 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com 30th ANNIVERSARY 5Pointz gone Quick Clips 2010s Tornado tears through Queens A severe storm on the early evening of Sept. 16, 2010, whipped up what was declared by the National Weather Service to be an EF-1 tornado, with winds up to 100 mph, hitting parts of Flushing and Bayside. A macroburst with winds up to 125 mph also impacted sections of Middle Village and Forest Hills. The storm killed a 30-year-old Pennsylvania resident when a tree fell on her car while she was driving on the Grand Central Parkway. The quick-moving weather event also knocked down thousands of trees and power lines throughout the city, and caused an EF-0 tornado with winds of 80 mph in Park Slope, Brooklyn. After a long fight to save 5Pointz, Long Island City’s graffiti mecca, the building was whitewashed overnight in November 2013. The owners of the property on Jackson Avenue and Davis Street, the Wolkoff family, ordered the action, to the shock and dismay of hundreds of local artists and fans. Rallies were held throughout that month to save the site, including a gathering just three days before the whitewashing, requesting the building with its art be landmarked. In August 2014, demolition began to tear down the property, where there are plans to build two apartment towers with close to 1,000 rental apartments, 32,000 square feet of outdoor public space and 50,000 square feet of retail space between them. Nine of the artists who displayed their aerosol work at the former site reportedly filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court in June 2015, claiming that the property’s owner, Jerry Wolkoff, committed an illegal act by painting over their work without giving them enough warning to take it down and save it. 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. Search for Avonte Oquendo The search for 14-year-old Avonte Oquendo came to a devastating end four months after the autistic teen went missing from his Long Island City school when his remains were found washed up in College Point on Jan. 16, 2015. On Jan. 25, hundreds of mourners came out to say goodbye at the Rego Park resident’s funeral where he was remembered as a silent yet always smiling, courageous boy. The medical examiner later ruled the cause and manner of his death as undetermined. Halloran / Smith scandal City Councilman Dan Halloran and state Senator Malcolm Smith were among several officials arrested by the FBI in April 2013 for conspiring to rig the upcoming mayoral election. Then, Queens GOP vice chair Vince Tabone was also busted as part of the plot to rig the Republican mayoral primary by bribing the party’s leaders in three counties to allow Smith, a Democrat, a place on the GOP ballot. Halloran, who declined to run for re-election the year of his arrest, was found guilty on all five counts against him in July 2014 in a separate trial and later sentenced to 10 years behind bars. Smith, who lost his re-election bid in the 2014 primary, was also found guilty on all counts in a federal corruption trial, along with Tabone, in February 2015. As of press time, they were scheduled to be sentenced in July. Dan Halloran Malcolm Smith THE COURIER/File photos
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