12 times • MARCH 17, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.QNS.com 26 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 17, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS www.qns.com SNAPS QUEENS SPRING IS COMING/ PHOTO BY MICHELLE LONG Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us tag @queenscourier on Instagram, Facebook page, tweeting @queenscourier or by emailing editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps). Hate graffi ti must be stopped Some may call it art, but graffi ti illegally painted or etched onto properties in Queens is often viewed as a blight on the borough. For the most part, the tags painted are personal symbols made by individuals looking to make a statement, the rule of law be damned. Too often, however, graffi ti turns out to be more than a few colorful letters strung together; they often serve as signs of gang activity or even racism in one of the most diverse places on Earth. The state Senate recently passed legislation increasing penalties against convicted graffi ti vandals, with the highest penalties going toward those who paint gang symbols on public property or defaced property within places of worship. Those individuals would face a class E felony charge punishable by up to four years in prison — a far cry from a year in jail and/or lengthy community service that most graffi ti vandals currently face. We applaud the state Senate for its proactive efforts to further punish graffi ti vandals, and we encourage the Assembly to also pass this bill and send it to Governor Andrew Cuomo for his signature. Over the years, this paper has covered numerous incidents of graffi ti vandalism across Queens, several of which involved hateful statements or symbols being painted or etched onto public property. Last year, we wrote about anti-gay statements and pornographic images drawn all over a Howard Beach school and anti-Asian messages written into wet cement slabs on a Flushing sidewalk. Both times, the community acted fast to erase the vandalism from public view, but more than just a swift cleanup must be done to stop such abhorrent acts of vandalism from happening in the future. Passing this bill is more critical than ever, as this nation is going through a tumultuous presidential campaign in which intolerance is rearing its ugly head nationwide. New York must send a message that it will not allow hateful people to tarnish the Empire State with symbols of hate. Independent panel needed to examine homeless crisis New York City is taking the extraordinary step of having the Police Department oversee security in homeless shelters across the fi ve boroughs. This action, which Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on March 15, comes on the heels of damning reports by the New York Daily News and NY-1 regarding the lack of security and safety in the shelter system citywide. The News report found that there were 1,687 “critical incidents” of violence in city shelters last year, averaging about four per day. Half of the episodes were domestic violence, with 21 percent resulting in removal and/or arrest of shelter residents. Another 19 percent were assaults between shelter residents that led to an arrest; 11 percent were sexual assaults or rape attempts. Property theft cases were also rampant systemwide, according to the News report. The reports confi rm what many advocates and even homeless individuals themselves have long feared; that the shelters in which more than 59,000 people reside every night are far from safe havens, and that the city hasn’t done nearly enough to keep all residents safe. New Yorkers of all walks of life should be outraged that this has come to pass. No homeless person should feel they are better off on the street than in an emergency shelter. Beyond merely investigating operations at the Department of Homeless Services, the city needs a more thorough inquiry of the homeless crisis and its response to it. We urge the mayor to form an independent commission to examine the situation from top to bottom and adopt reforms ensuring that the shelter system is made safe for all residents. THE QUEENS Font: Engravers Old English Normal PUBLISHER & EDITOR CO-PUBLISHER ESTABLISHED 1908 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VICTORIA VP, EVENTS,SCHNEPS- WEB & SOCIAL YUNIS MEDIA JOSHUA SCHNEPS......................ART DIRECTOR ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER Co-Publishers ROBERT POZARYCKI..................ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR ARTISTS Editor-in-Chief NIRMAL SINGH.............................Font:STAFF Engravers REPORTERS Old Production English Normal Manager CHERYL GALLAGHER WEB EDITOR ...............Art Director CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS DEBORAH CUSICK......................EVENTS MANAGER Classified Manager CLASSIFIED MANAGER MARLENE RUIZ.............................CONTROLLER Assistant Classified Manager ANTHONY GIUDICE.....................Reporter PRESIDENT & CEO VICE PRESIDENT VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH ALAN SELTZER STEPHEN REINA RON TORINA, JENNIFER DECIO, CHERYL GALLAGHER KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA RAISA CAMARGO KATARINA HYBENOVA CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI DEMETRA PLAGAKIS 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@queenscourier.com for advertising e-mail: ads@queenscourier.com Entire Contents Copyright 2016 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. 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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. politics and more TIGHT RACE FOR CONGRESS INCLUDES QUEENS The race for Congressman Steve Israel’s soon-to-be-vacant Congressional seat just became a little dicier for Democrats, as Republican state Senator Jack Martins of Mineola recently picked up the endorsement of the highly soughtafter Independence Party. The Independence Party, whose ballot line translates into thousands of additional votes in New York’s overly complex system of multiple political parties cross endorsing candidates, may prove more than valuable in what some analysts believe is going to be one of the most hotly contested, knockdown, drag-out local races in the country. The race on the Democratic side is shaping up to be much more competitive than what Senator Martins faces with the Republicans. The Democrats, for their part, have a strong bench of candidates. Tom Suozzi, the former Nassau County executive and one-time candidate for governor, brings a certain level of star power and attention that local races rarely see. Suozzi is a strong and formidable opponent. Queens Politics & More BY MIKE FRICCHIONE Then there’s Jon Kaiman, the former North Hempstead town supervisor from a large and reliably Democratic voting bloc in Nassau. Kaiman, for his part, has the recipe and key ingredients to cook a tasty surprise on election night. Both front-runners have already been seen courting voters in the Queens portions of their districts, which include Bay Terrace, Whitestone and, most notably, Floral Park’s North Shore Towers, where voters have a long tradition of turning out in waves on Election Day. The political prognosticators, who try to look into their crystal balls for a living, see the 3rd Congressional District as one of only a handful of true swing districts across the country. Though Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by a few thousand, it has one of the largest swaths of independent and unaffi liated voters in the country. In fact, almost one-third of the entire voting population chooses to not belong to either major political party, making the job for candidates, and campaigns, that much tougher to identify and persuade every single voter they can. The Queens Courier will be doing its part by hosting a candidates’ debate on Thursday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m. inside the North Shore Towers Cinema for all who wish to meet the candidates. Either way, voters in Queens should get ready. Campaign season is coming. COPYRIGHT 2015 SCHNEPS NY MEDIA, LLC. 62-70 Fresh Pond Rd., Ridgewood, N.Y. 11385 General Publication Office: 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 TELEPHONE: 1-718-821-7500/7501/7502/7503 FAX: 1-718-224-5441 E-MAIL: info@timesnewsweekly.com WEB SITE: www.timesnewsweekly.com ON TWITTER @timesnewsweekly PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY FOR 107 YEARS COMPOSITION RESPONSIBILITY: Accuracy in receiving ads over the telephone cannot be guaranteed. This newspaper is responsible for only one incorrect insertion and only for that portion of the ad in which the error appears. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to make sure copy does not contravene the Consumer Protection Law or any other requirement. TIMES NEWSWEEKLY Is Listed With The Standard Rate & Data And Is A Member Of The New York Press Association Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us via our Instagram@ridgewoodtimes, Facebook page, tweeting @ridgewoodtimes or by emailing editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com (subject Queens Snaps). editorial Get it done — finally! Shortsightedness a decade ago has led to a crisis at one school today. Nine years ago, Middle Village residents largely cheered the news that the city School Construction Authority would build a larger P.S./I.S. 128, replacing its overcrowded one-story schoolhouse with a four-story building. This was presented as the cure for the common overcrowding problem that most every Queens public school faces. The bigger, better P.S./I.S. 128 would provide all the proper amenities a child needs to be properly educated. There was also the promise of greater continuity, as the larger school would allow middle school students to stay rather than send them elsewhere upon finishing the fifth grade. Here we are now, seven years after the new P.S./I.S. 128 opened, and the city School Construction Authority has now agreed to build an extension to the school. Why? You guessed it — overcrowding. The public school is so overcrowded that it continues to use the annex that was originally opened to alleviate crowding at the one-story schoolhouse — an annex lacking proper educational amenities and, in some cases, classroom windows. The announcement of the planned P.S./I.S. 128 extension was hailed as a victory for the community. Without a doubt, the extension is needed — but it shouldn’t have come to this. The SCA should have seen this coming when planning the school a decade ago. At a February 2007 meeting of Community Board 5 that the Ridgewood Times covered, then-Community Education Council District 24 Secretary Marge Kolb told the board that the 650 seats allocated for the new P.S./I.S. 128 didn’t meet the target enrollment in the Department of Education’s own Five-Year Capital Plan. In other words, the projected number of seats were insufficient to reduce the school’s overcrowding problem. The SCA spent nearly $50 million to build the new P.S./I.S. 128, which opened in September 2009, then more money to build the new playground adjacent to it. That playground might very well be torn apart in order to build the new extension. We’re glad the SCA is going to finally enlarge P.S./I.S. 128, but they should have gotten it right the first time. Independent panel needed to homeless crisis
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