FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 15, 2022 • THE QUEENS COURIER 56
QC student is fi rst CUNY athlete to try out for U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team
Long Island City Partnership hosts annual real estate breakfast
BY JULIA MORO
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Th e Long Island City Partnership (LICP)
held its 17th annual real estate breakfast on
Wednesday, April 6, at the Raven Hotel, welcoming
a diverse panel of business leaders
who discussed their experience operating in
the neighborhood.
LICP is an economic development agency
that helps to attract new businesses to Long
Island City, retain the ones already in the neighborhood
and promote a vibrant community.
Th e annual LICP breakfast is an anticipated
real estate event for western Queens, bringing
more than 300 business leaders together.
Multiple city elected offi cials including
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards
and Comptroller Brad Lander attended the
event. Lander said that what LICP and its sponsors
have made possible is very exciting.
“Th ere was a time when mixed-use was an
idea in New York City, not a reality,” Lander
said. “Th ere was a debate, of ‘Do we want an
offi ce community or a residential community?’
What Long Island City is showing is a vibrant,
dynamic and mixed-use community that has
all of those things.”
Elizabeth Lusskin, the president of LICP,
presented a neighborhood snapshot, which
revealed immense growth in residents and
workers. Over the past decade, Long Island
City’s residential population increased fi ve
times, while jobs grew more than two times
faster than the city as a whole.
According to LICP, over 318,000 square feet
of retail mixed-use building and commercial
space will be added to the neighborhood by
2025, along with over 2.8 million added square
feet of industrial space.
Th e panel of local business owners and large
corporation leaders fi rst spoke about their decision
to locate in Long Island City. Kevin Costello,
director of infrastructure properties and development
of JetBlue Airways, recently shared that
they re-upped a 15-year lease at 27-01 Queens
Plaza N in Long Island City. Costello said that
the original deal to put offi ces in the neighborhood
12 years ago just made the most sense.
“New York is our center of gravity,” Costello
said. “We are delighted to be referred to as New
York’s hometown airline. We continue to really
value our relationship with Queens and in
particular Long Island City.”
Doyun Kim, owner of No Stress Coff ee,
opened during the pandemic and mentioned
that Long Island City was the smartest choice
for her when considering what type of customer
base No Stress Coff ee would cater to.
“Somewhere where you can just walk in and
know the barista, know the owner and have a
true relationship with places and brands you
visit on a day-to-day basis,” Kim said. “I don’t
think we would have been able to be in the LIC
area if not for the pandemic.”
Kim said that it has been diffi cult to keep up
since the rush of customers has not been consistent.
Usually, Kim keeps track of businesses in
the area like JetBlue that require employees to
come in on a certain schedule and has noticed
a slew of coff ee buyers on those days. However,
other days are very quiet when employees work
from home.
“For a small business, because we rely so
much on pattern human behavior. Just the
lack of patterns right now has been diffi cult
in inventory and staffi ng and just predicting
outcomes,” Kim said.
Queens Borough President closed out the
event saying “Queens is open for business.”
“Th e small businesses truly are the lifeblood
of our borough and there really were immense
challenges coming through the pandemic,”
Richards said. “But it really was the private
and public partnerships that got us through
this hard time.”
Richards also mentioned JetBlue’s impact on
the borough, adding 5,000 jobs to the area. On
top of that, the borough president mentioned
the partnership with Steve Cohen, the owner of
the Mets, to produce the Queens Small Business
Grant of $17.5 million to fund close to 700 small
businesses across Queens County.
“Moving into the future, there’s a lot of opportunity,”
Richards said. “Long Island City
has a lot to off er. It’s amazing to see how far
we’ve come and the growth here, and now how
we sustain it.”
Photo by Paul Frangipane
Doyun Kim, owner of No Stress Coff ee, speaks at the
Long Island City Partnership’s annual real estate
breakfast on Wednesday, April 6, 2022.
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
CMOHAMED@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
With a historic invitation to the 2022 Selection
Camp for the U.S. women’s wheelchair
basketball national team, Queens College student
Seira Garcia has become the fi rst CUNY
student-athlete to be invited to a Team USA
tryout in any sport.
Th e selection will take place April 12-16 at
the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training
Center in Colorado Springs, CO.
“I had to read the email three times to make
sure it was real,” Garcia said of receiving the
news of her invitation to try out for Team USA.
Garcia credits her family, especially her
mother, for instilling in her a sense of purpose.
Her mother’s oft -repeated mantra, “Th e mind is
more powerful than anything else,” continues
to sustain Garcia.
Even aft er seven surgeries and overcoming
a host of other challenges, she remains determined
and positive, she said.
“Life can be great, if you allow it to be,” Garcia said.
Garcia was born in Florida and raised in
Puerto Rico. At the age of 7, she was diagnosed
with Legg-Calve-Perthes, a degenerative disease
that aff ects the hip joint.
Th e condition forced her to stop playing
standing basketball in 2014, when she was 17
years old. Not one to be sidelined, she soon
discovered wheelchair basketball and began
playing with the Federación de Baloncesto en
Silla de Ruedas de Puerto Rico (FEBASIRU),
Puerto Rico’s wheelchair basketball team.
By 2016, Garcia was also playing for the
Brooklyn Nets and the New York Liberty
amateur clubs sponsored by the local NBA and
WNBA franchises.
Garcia, a junior majoring in urban studies
at Queens College, has been a key contributor
to Team CUNY, currently in its fi rst year competing
in the National Wheelchair Basketball
Association (NWBA). Garcia is Team CUNY’s
leading scorer, with an average of 16.5 points
per game.
Th e men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball
teams, the fi rst of their kind in the Northeast,
were launched as a result of a 2017 City
University of New York Athletic Conference
Inclusive and Adaptive Sports Initiative for
Recreational Intercollegiate Sports and Competitive
Athletics. Th e wheelchair basketball
program is based at Queens College and Hostos
Community College.
Garcia started playing for CUNY’s wheelchair
basketball team after Ryan Martin,
CUNY director of inclusive and adaptive sports,
reached out and persuaded her to join in 2020.
“We are excited that Seira was invited to
compete for a spot with Team USA. She’s had
a great fi rst season and been a key part of the
launch of the women’s team at CUNY,” Martin
said. “Th e whole university is behind her, and
we wish her the best of luck as she starts her
international career.”
Queens College President Frank Wu congratulated
Garcia.
“Seira demonstrates what’s possible when
we make inclusion a priority. It presents opportunities
that change lives and build futures,”
said Queens College President Frank Wu. “We
are deeply proud of Seira’s accomplishments
as a student and an athlete and anticipate that
more students will be inspired to travel the
path that she’s paved toward Team USA — and
every other opportunity that it makes possible.
Everyone at Queens College wishes her the best
of luck; we’ll be cheering her on from here!”
Th e invitation to a team selection camp puts
Garcia in elite company, as she will compete
alongside the nation’s most exceptional players.
Only 29 athletes from across the country were
invited to try out for seated basketball, and only
12 players plus three alternates will ultimately
be selected to participate in the Paralympic
Games.
USA wheelchair basketball’s historical
success makes the United States the world’s
most decorated national program. Th e men’s
and women’s wheelchair basketball squads
have combined to win 13 gold, two silver and
eight bronze medals since the Paralympic
Games began in 1960, making the U.S. the
top-scoring nation overall. Th e U.S. men won
the gold medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games
in Tokyo, and the women brought home the
bronze.
Aft er she graduates from Queens College,
Garcia plans to earn a master’s degree in
psychology and pursue a doctorate in sports
psychology. She hopes to provide outreach to
improve the lives of homeless people and those
recovering from addiction.
Photo courtesy of CUNYAC
Queens College student Seira Garcia is the fi rst CUNY student-athlete to be invited to a Team USA tryout in
any sport.
buzz
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
