26 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 13, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
THE QUEENS
editorial
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
CO-PUBLISHER
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
VP, EVENTS, WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA
ART DIRECTOR
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
STAFF REPORTERS
CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS
ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER
CLASSIFIED MANAGER
CONTROLLER
PRESIDENT & CEO
VICE PRESIDENT
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
BOB BRENNAN
ROBERT POZARYCKI
AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ
NIRMAL SINGH
EMILY DAVENPORT
KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA
SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI
DEBORAH CUSICK
CELESTE ALAMIN
MARIA VALENCIA
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361
718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441
www.qns.com
editorial e-mail: editorial@qns.com
for advertising e-mail: ads@qns.com
Entire Contents Copyright 2017 by The Queens Courier
All letters sent to THE QUEENS COURIER should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should
include a full address and home and offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, indicating
special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S POSITION.
No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE QUEENS COURIER. The
publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the
error. Errors must be reported to THE QUEENS COURIER within fi ve days of publication. Ad position cannot be
guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. Schneps Communications assumes no liability for the content or
reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold
THE QUEENS COURIER and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting
from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement.
TRAVERS PARK STREET ART // PHOTO VIA INSTAGRAM @jbranda
Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper!
To submit them to us, tag @queenscourier on Instagram, visit our Facebook page, tweet
@QNS or email editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps).
Don’t leave Queens in the dark on shelters
Just a few months ago, a rather alarming rumor spread around East
Elmhurst that the Courtyard Marriott Hotel near LaGuardia Airport would
shut down and become the latest homeless shelter in Queens.
Th e rumor alarmed many in the community, and the hotel’s management
denied that there was any truth to it. Fast forward to last week, however, and
the story is quite diff erent. Th e hotel will indeed close in the weeks to come,
and now questions remain about what will become of the 288-room site in a
city starved not just for shelter space, but also for any residential real estate
space.
Th e mayor has publicly stated that he doesn’t want the city to continue
reusing underused hotels as shelters for homeless people, but his word hasn’t
stopped the city’s Department of Homeless Services from doing so. Hotels in
Maspeth, Ozone Park, Elmhurst, South Jamaica and Woodside, just to name
a few neighborhoods, have become homeless havens in recent years.
For many Queens residents, it’s bad enough that the city would open a shelter
in their backyard. What really grinds their gears is that, too oft en, the city
Department of Homeless Services (DHS) announces a shelter’s opening only
aft er it has moved homeless residents in. Th is happened at the former Pan
American Hotel in Elmhurst back in 2014 and, more recently, at a Comfort
Inn in Ozone Park this past year.
Several Queens state senators, including Joseph Addabbo, Tony Avella and
Jose Peralta, supported legislation that passed the state Senate last month
which would require the city’s government to be more transparent when it
comes to siting and opening homeless shelters.
Th e legislation would give community boards the power to call a public
hearing on a shelter proposal. Th e DHS would also be required to provide
a community with a minimum week’s notice before opening an emergency
shelter somewhere. Both of these caveats are a defi nite improvement on the
current process, in which communities are largely kept in the dark.
However, this legislation is stuck in Albany; with the session having ended
for the year, any new action will likely come in 2018. Homelessness remains
an immediate crisis in New York City; the DHS is constantly in search of
temporary and permanent shelters to place homeless men, women and/or
children. Th e city isn’t going to wait for the state legislature on this topic.
If the city is considering the Courtyard Marriott at LaGuardia Airport as a
possible shelter, we urge the city to make their intentions known immediately.
No one should be left in the dark on an issue this important.
STORY: Five straight weekends without E & F trains between Forest
Hills & Jamaica
SUMMARY: The E train and the F line will be suspended in parts of
Queens for fi ve consecutive weekends in July and August.
REACH: 30,650 people (as of 7/10/17 )