WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES DECEMBER 27, 2018 15
2018 Year in Review
MAY – JUNE
May COMPILED BY MARK HALLUM
Huge drug bust in Ridgewood
Cops from Queens North Narcotics made a major drug bust in Ridgewood on May
11 when they executed a search warrant at a home on 71st Avenue. Fernando
Torres, 49, was allegedly exiting his vehicle when cops arrive and he told them
he had pills in his car and upstairs in home. NYPD recovered hundreds of pills and
$400,000 in a duff el bag.
Would-be thieves try to take mailbox
On May 11, three men were in the act of stealing an entire USPS mailbox on Yellowstone
Boulevard and 67th Road in Forest Hills when cops from the 112th
Precinct rolled up.
A 30-year-old man was captured on site while two others fl ed and the attempt marked
a new extreme for the borough-wide mail theft problem in Queens. Fishing envelopes
out of mailboxes are the norm as opposed to making off with the entire thing, however.
O’Neill’s rezoning
approved
When O’Neill’s Restaurant in Maspeth
sought a rezoning to add a
banquet hall, last-minute opposition
to the proposal at a Community Board 5
meeting on May 16 was not successful.
The 84-year-old restaurant got recommendation
for approval from the Board
of Standards and Approvals despite
arguments that the expansion to seat
140 people would only bring parking
congestion.
June COMPILED BY MARK HALLUM
Glendale patrol
president’s
daughter fi ghts
cancer
When 104th Precinct
Civilian
Observation
Patrol President Mark
Pearson’s 13-year-old
daughter fell ill with a
mysterious form of cancer
of the spine, NYPD and
the community showed
immense support. During
the Ridgewood-Glendale
Memorial Day Parade,
cops marched with bracelets bearing Brooke
Pearson’s name and a GoFundMe page raised
$8,000 for the medical expenses.
Goodfellas Diner
goes up in fl ames
On June 20, co-owner of the Goodfellas Diner
in Maspeth, Nick Diamantis, told the
Ridgewood Times he ‘can’t even calculate’
the cost of repairing the damage from a fi re that
destroyed his business. The fi re which started
in the kitchen scorched what became a staple in
Queens aft er Martin Scorsese fi lmed the iconic
fi lm “Goodfellas” showcasing the 1950’s decor.
Scorsese revisited the diner for another fi lm
“The Irishman” which will be released in 2019.
Ocasio-Cortez
upsets Crowley
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stunned not
just Queens, but the nation when she
eff ectively unseated 20-year incumbent
and Queens County Democratic Party boss U.S.
Rep. Joe Crowley on June 26. Ocasio-Cortez,
having shutdown the fourth most powerful
Democrat in congress, poised herself to become
the youngest woman ever elected to the House
of Representatives.
/WWW.QNS.COM
