4 The Queens Courier • OCTOBER 31, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Queens Museum Director Tom Finkelpearl (far left), Mayor Michael Bloomberg (center) and other officials cut the ribbon on the expanded Queens Museum. HONOR A TRAILBLAZER PUSH TO RENAME FLUSHING STREET FOR PFLAG FOUNDER BY MELISA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com A trailblazing gay rights activist who left her stamp on the world as a historic and heroic leader may soon be memorialized on a Flushing street sign. Community Board 7 passed a motion Monday to honor Jeanne Manford with a streetname change for standing up for gays and lesbians at a time when homosexuality was still considered a mental disorder. Manford started a local support group in 1972 for parents of gays and lesbians. It turned into a worldwide movement called Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) that now has more than 350 chapters and 200,000 members in the country. She also supported her gay son by famously rallying with him at the New York Pride March. Manford died this January at age 92. She was posthumously awarded the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal. “It’s emotional for me as an openly gay legislator in the City Council,” said Councilmember Danny Dromm. “What Jeanne did took extreme courage to do in 1972. Times have changed tremendously, but in those days, she could have lost everything.” The lawmaker and community board want to co-name 171st Street, between 33rd and 35th Avenues, to “Manford Family PFLAG Way.” The Manfords lived on the street and took in youngsters who were thrown out of their homes for being gay, Dromm said. “Jeanne Manford was to us what Rosa Parks is to the black civil rights movement,” Dromm said. “It took an act of courage by a mother for the love of her son.” However, Flushing resident James Trikas and board member Nick Corrado, who is also an FDNY chief officer, disagreed. They said street names should be reserved for military, police and fire department officers killed in the line of duty. “If you want to memorialize things, well, put a plaque somewhere, landmark their house if you want,” Trikas said. “It does not belong on the street sign.” Corrado, the only board member who voted against the motion, touted Manford’s legacy but said it was not on the same level as those who die serving the city, state and country. “As wonderful as those acts of kindness are, I cannot, in my own opinion, say it’s the same as laying down your life — your life — for someone you don’t know at all in the line of duty,” he said. Community Board 7 approved the proposal 30-1. Photo Courtesy of Councilmember Danny Dromm’s office Jeanne Manford and Johnny Mora at Queens Pride. The motion now needs approval from the borough president and City Council. “If you open a history book on the LGBT movement, she’s in these books,” said Democratic State Committeeman Matt Silverstein, who is openly gay. “This is someone who made an extreme impact on our community. I think it’s an incredibly deserving honor.” MORE MUSEUM TO LOVE BY MELISA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ranks of officials cut the ribbon Wednesday on the $68 million Queens Museum expansion project. “There always seems to be something new and magical happening in this incredible space,” the head of the city said. “It really is an experience like no other. This is one of the great cultural institutions that provides art-inspiring experiences that you can find nowhere else.” The Queens Museum, formerly known as the Queens Museum of Art, shortened its name but doubled its size to 105,000 square feet, officials said. It will feature new galleries, classrooms, a new wing with nine artist studios and a sky-lit atrium when it reopens to the public on November 9. “We have expressed openness in this space. We’re open to new ideas. We’re open to the future of arts. We’re open to contemporary. We’re also open to the community, open to the sky,” said Tom Finkelpearl, the museum’s executive director. Queens Museum will also have its own 5,000-square-foot public library in 2015, library officials said. It will house about 14,000 books. “The expanded Queens Museum will become an exciting destination for not only our out-of-town visitors but for our residents alike,” said Borough President Helen Marshall. “We are going to have something here that will be unique in the city of New York. I can’t see it do anything but be a wonderful place to come for everyone.” The transformed city-owned building is located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the former space of the World’s Fair ice skating rink. Its massive facelift, designed by Grimshaw, was largely funded by Marshall, Bloomberg, the state and City Council. The museum will host a monthlong celebratory event lineup starting November 9. “With today’s ribbon cutting, the Queens Museum, with such an important part and place in our city’s history, is ready to embark on an exciting, new future,” Bloomberg said. SEE OUR PHOTO GALLERY AT www.queenscourier.com WILLETS REPS BRIEF BOARD BY MELISA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com Ramps and affordable housing were at the heart of the first quarterly meeting between a local community board and developers of a major Willets Point redevelopment project. Related Companies and Sterling Equities briefed Community Board 7 on October 17. The meeting was the first of four this year required under a last-minute pledge they made to sway the board towards approval. The joint venture must put $100,000 into a traffic fund for each one missed. CB 7 Vice Chair Chuck Apelian said the city officially allocated $66 million in its capital budget for the design and construction of traffic ramps that will lead into the transformed Willets Point mixed-use development. The ramps off the Van Wyck Expressway were necessary to fulfill the affordable housing portion of the major $3 billion redevelopment project. “The key is that we didn’t have in our hearings any confirmation that there would be money to build these ramps,” Apelian said. There was also some insight into housing site plans, including affordable units for seniors, Apelian said. The joint venture is eyeing one location in Flushing near Main Street by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) station and plans to build about 235 units in Corona, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, according to CB 7. Developers promised the City Council in October they would move up construction of the total 2,500 housing units — 35 percent of which will be affordable — from its original set 2025 date. They are also discussing plans to expand LIRR service to Willets Point, according to Apelian. The city currently owns 95 percent of 23 acres in the project’s first phase, according to New York City Economic Development Corp. There is no timetable as to when the remaining properties will be acquired, Apelian said. “They still don’t own it all and until that time, they can’t transfer the property to the developers, so nothing will move forward,” he said. “It’s going to be an all or nothing proposition.”
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