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QUEENS WEEKLY, MAY 26, 2019
Queens DA race heats up over Kew Gardens jail plan
BY BILL PARRY
As the June 25
Democratic primary
draws closer, tensions are
beginning to rise in the
field of seven candidates
in the race for Queens
District Attorney.
This week, retired
Judge Greg Lasak issued
a challenge to one of
his opponents, Queens
Borough President Melinda
Katz over the controversial
proposal for a communitybased
jail in Kew Gardens.
Lasak blasted Katz for
belatedly announcing her
opposition to the $30 billion
Rikers Island clearance
plan that would move
detention centers into
neighborhoods in Queens,
the Bronx, Brooklyn
and Manhattan.
“Voters should not
be fooled,” Lasak said.
“Melinda Katz still wants
a new jail in Queens. Only
now, she won’t tell us
where she wants to put it.”
Katz backed the city’s
plan at the start of 2019 but
began to feel a backlash
brewing among civic
groups in Kew Gardens
and in its surrounding
neighborhoods. In
January, Katz fired
off a letter to City
Hall suggesting the
entire process should
start over again with
more community and
stakeholder involvement.
After Community Board
9 voted unanimously, 28-0,
to oppose the construction
of the new jail in Kew
Gardens, Katz made
her opposition to the
proposal clear.
Lasak issued his
challenge to Katz saying,
“Join me today and pledge
to fight any prison plan,
anywhere in the borough
of Queens.”
Before he retired from
the bench after 15 years
in order to run for Queens
DA, Lasak served as a top
prosecutor in the Queens
DA’s office for 25 years.
“After an entire career
of sending people to suffer
on Rikers Island, it’s no
surprise that Greg Lasak
wants that same culture
of abuse and violence to
continue,” Katz campaign
spokesman Grant Fox said.
“Before he decided to run
for District Attorney, Mr.
Lasak never for a moment
considered reforming the
criminal justice system,
and his ludicrous plan to
build another Rikers all
over again reflects that
inexperience. Meanwhile,
Melinda has been
engaged with the city, the
community, and other
boroughs throughout the
entire process and came to
the conclusion to oppose
the current plan that
ignores any input from
Queens residents.”
Lasak believes the
money that would be
used to build the four
community-based jails
would be better spent
demolishing the current
prison complex on Rikers
Island in order to build
a new state-of-the-art
correctional facility.
“To have real reform we
must have a new facility
of Rikers Island that is
safe for prisoners, their
families, and especially
Correction Officers who
have one of the toughest
jobs in the criminal justice
system,” Lasak said.
Fox believes Katz
decided to oppose the
plan over time, after
a series of community
meetings hearing opinions
and complaints about
the process.
“She’s proposing real
solutions to create a fairer
criminal justice system,
whereas the only thing Mr.
Lasak has to offer in naive
empty rhetoric and a path
back to the same broken
system,” Fox said.
When Lasak released
his plan to rebuild Rikers
in late March he said
shovels could hit the
ground right away to
ensure that conditions
were improved to provide
inmates basic human
dignity in a more timely
fashion.
“The entire plan to
close Rikers was prefaced
on decreasing violence,
increasing services and
changing the culture at the
jail on Rikers Island,” he
said. “Those are the goals
I share, but solving them
10 years from now is not
the answer.”
Reach reporter Bill
Parry by email at bparry@
schnepsmedia.com or by
phone at (718) 260–4538.
Rego Park middle school plants tree for Poway Synagogue victim
BY MAX PARROTT
Jennifer Gruet, a
dance teacher at Stephen
A. Halsey J.H.S. 157 in
Rego Park, said she was
surprised and touched
when she came back from a
family funeral to learn that
her school’s gardening club
made plans to plant a tree
honoring her relative.
In this case, Gruet’s
family tragedy took on
national significance.
She had just arrived from
San Diego, where she had
mourned the loss of her
cousin Lori Kaye, who
was killed in the Poway
Synagogue shooting in
California last month,
shielding her rabbi from
the gunman’s bullets.
“It was unexpected —
I had no idea they were
going to do this in her
honor,” said Gruet of the
tree planting. “Everything
they said at the funeral
was all about growth,
acceptance, tolerance and
preaching love instead of
hate, so I think the tree
is a nice representation
of some of the ideas they
talked about.”
When they heard about
Gruet’s relationship to
Kaye, the Green Team, a
group of student gardeners,
and the Parent Teacher
Association snapped
into action, finding a
spot for an Eastern Red
Bud right in front of the
school’s main entrance.
Students, parents and
community members held
a tree planting ceremony
Thursday afternoon.
“That’s why we’re here
today. In remembrance
and in celebration of those
three rights that we enjoy:
hope, love and peace,”
Principal Vincent Suraci
said during the ceremony.
Gruet told QNS that
she had inherited her love
of dance from her cousin,
who she grew up with.
Coming from a family of
teachers, Gruet and Kaye
were the two performers of
the bunch.
“Kaye did this program
called ‘Up with People’
when she was 18. She toured
with this program across
the country singing and
dancing and just trying to
spread love,” Gruet said.
During the May 16
ceremony, Gruet joined
members of the Green Team
to shovel soil and mulch
over the tree’s roots. The
tree planting is one of the
many service projects that
the student landscaping
crew has taken on to
improve their school.
In its fruitful year and
a half of existence, the
team has redesigned the
facade of the building, built
a greenhouse, created a
makeshift hydroponics
system and started a farmto
table program, and
it’s about to put in a drip
irrigation system to start
conserving water.
“We got a plant sale if
you got some cash on you,”
said the club’s facilitator
Chris Weiss with a
chuckle.
The Green Team
dutifully took part in the
gardening work during
the ceremony. Gruet said
that for the most part her
students hadn’t made the
connection between the
national news coverage of
the Poway shooting and
their dance teacher. But
she did have one class
that heard about so she
talked to them in very
factual terms about what
happened.
“I feel like if anything
at all comes out of this, it’s
people learning about other
people’s cultures. Once you
know about something it’s
not that scary anymore.
I think the nice thing
about having the funeral
livestreamed, as weird as
it was, was it hopefully
normalized some of the
cultures and traditions
of that synagogue,”
said Gruet.
Reach reporter Max
Parrott by email at
mparrott@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at
(718) 224-5863, ext. 226.
Retired Judge Greg Lasak (left) and Queens Borough President Melinda Katz
Illustration via QNS from file and Twitter photos, @GregLasak
Jennifer Gruet hugs a community member during the tree planting ceremony dedicated to
her cousin Lori Kaye. Photo : Max Parrott/QNS
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