22 OCTOBER 12, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
TJ’s Sports Bar to host fundraiser event for Puerto Rico
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AGIUDICE@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@A_GIUDICEREPORT
A sports bar in Maspeth will be
the site for another fundraiser
as the people of Queens
continue to send donations to Puerto
Rico aft er the island was ravaged by
Hurricane Maria last month.
On Saturday, Oct. 14, TJ’s Sports
Bar, located at 60-54 Fresh Pond
Rd., will be hosting a fundraiser for
hurricane relief for Puerto Rico from
5 to 9 p.m.
According to Jessica Gaspar, the
event’s organizer, the fundraiser will
be collecting monetary donations as
well as items needed by the people
of Puerto Rico. In order to help raise
money, TJ’s Sports Bar will be selling
Spanish foods during the fundraiser,
as well as tickets for raffl es, with 100
percent of the proceeds being given
to United for Puerto Rico.
“We have the privilege to live in a
country where you have everything.
Right now we have everything we
could possibly need here,” Gaspar
said. “And then you have a country
that has nothing. As human beings,
we need to get together and do something
for others. We need to just love
each other.”
This is not Gaspar’s first time
organizing a fundraiser for hurricane
relief, however. She helped put
together a fundraiser for families
who were aff ected by Superstorm
Sandy in 2012.
TJ’s Sports Bar will be accepting
donations leading up to the event as
well, Gaspar said. Anyone can visit
the bar to drop off their donations
— whether it is food, cleaning supplies,
money or anything else that
can help the cleanup and recovery
efforts — while the bar is open.
This is only one of many fundraising
events and drop off locations
around Queens collecting
donations and support for Puerto
Rico. Local elected officials have
opened their doors for donations,
as well as NYPD Precincts and
FDNY fire houses from across the
borough.
Photo courtesy of Jessica Gaspar
TJ's Sports Bar will host a fundraising
event for Puerto Rico on Oct. 14.
Maspeth residents win case to see documents on Holiday Inn shelter
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AGIUDICE@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@A_GIUDICEREPORT
The community of Maspeth
continues to rack up victories
against the city and the Department
of Homeless Services (DHS) in
their yearlong fi ght against the Holiday
Inn Express homeless shelter in
Maspeth, as a judge recently ruled in
favor of their push to get the Request
For Proposal (RFP) plans on the shelter.
In 2016, under the Freedom of
Information Law (FOIL), the Citizens
for a Better Maspeth group requested
that DHS provide them with the RFP
and related documents pertaining to
the Holiday Inn Express, located at
59-40 55th Rd., being converted into
a homeless shelter and that the space
would conform to the current zoning
restrictions of the area.
On Sept. 27, the judge ruled in favor
of the group’s Article 78 motion.
“It is ordered and adjudged that
the petition is granted solely to the
extent that respondents are directed
to provide petitioner with copies of
the Request For Proposals that were
received in connection with the proposal
to convert the subject Holiday
Inn Express to a homeless shelter, and
any and all plans submitted along with
the RFPs which demonstrate that the
space would be a conforming use
under the Zoning Resolution; and it
is further ordered and adjudged that
the remainder of the petition is denied
in its entirety,” Judge Allan B. White
said in the ruling, which Citizens for a
Better Maspeth, a party to the motion,
sent to QNS.
The hotel/shelter sits in a manufacturing
zone, which only permits
short-stay hotels to operate. According
to Christina Wilkinson, president of
A judge ruled in favor of the Citizens for a Better Maspeth's Article 78 for the city's plans to convert the
Holiday Inn Express to a homeless shelter.
Citizens for a Better Maspeth, the
shelter’s operator, Acacia, has been
renting rooms to homeless individuals
for more than 30 days at a time
which would go against the zoning
regulations.
Citizens for a Better Maspeth hopes
the fi ndings in the RFPs will bolster
the property owner’s lawsuit against
the hotel, which looks to bring a case
against the hotel for allegedly violating
the zoning regulations.
“The property owner has argued a
violation of the zoning code in their
lawsuit against the hotel and once we
receive the info from the city we will
share it with the property owner to
strengthen their case,” Wilkinson told
the Ridgewood Times. “We also may
proceed with our own lawsuit based
File photo/Ridgewood Times
on the zoning, but that will only be
determined aft er review of the information
provided and consulting with
our attorneys.”
In their 2016 FOIL request Citizens
for a Better Maspeth also asked for the
statistics regarding homeless individuals
in the system and a request for the
original building plans. Both of these
requests were denied by the judge.
