26 THE QUEENS COURIER • YEAR IN REVIEW • DECEMBER 26, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
year in review
The top stories from September 2019
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
STATE TAKES AWAY LIQUOR
LICENSE FROM MAZI NIGHTCLUB
IN RICHMOND HILL
A Richmond Hill nightspot had its liquor license suspended
by the State Liquor Authority (SLA) following
a fatal shooting on Sept. 5. Gunfi re erupted outside the
Mazi Nightclub, at 130-35 91st St., during the early
morning hours of Sept. 2 killing a 35-year-old man
and wounding two others. EMT rushed the man with
a wounded chest to Jamaica Hospital, but he died,
according to police.
A second victim was left in critical condition at
Jamaica Hospital and a third, shot in both legs, was in
stable condition at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
Th e NYPD reported that video surveillance from
that same night showed another unrelated incident,
where a patron was was beaten inside the Mazi
Nightclub and struck in the head with a bottle. Th e
victim, who received medical treatment at Jamaica
Hospital, reported bouncers from the club simply
ushered him out the door following the assault. Th e
September shooting is just the latest in a series of disorders
emanating from the Mazi Nightclub, according
to the SLA.
Th e nightclub was fi ned $15,000 on Oct. 15, 2018,
for charges involving an assault and operating a disorderly
premises. But the SLA’s decision to suspend
a license isn’t a fi nal determination on the merits of
the case, and the licensee is entitled to an expedited
administrative hearing before an Administrative
Law Judge.
FLUSHING, ASTORIA AND LIC
HAVE THE HIGHEST AMOUNT
OF HEALTH DEPARTMENT
VIOLATIONS IN QUEENS
A report by RentHop sought to fi nd out which areas
in Queens had more restaurants that weren’t up to
Health Department code. Th eir interactive map measured
which neighborhoods had the highest and lowest
restaurant grades based on recent inspections. It
also looked at the number of health violations that
restaurants throughout the city received from 2016
through 2019, including mice and rodent violations.
According to RentHop’s data, three Queens neighborhoods
had the highest amount of violations at
neighborhood restaurants between 2017 and 2019:
Flushing, 1,529 in 2017, 2,695 in 2018 and 2,611 in
2019; Astoria, 1,263 in 2017, 2,098 in 2018 and 1,830
in 2019; and Hunters Point-Sunnyside-West Maspeth,
1,324 in 2017, 1,880 in 2018 and 1,421 in 2019.
A representative from the Health Department told
QNS that RentHop had inappropriately compared
violations in this report. Restaurants that go out of
business have their data removed from the Health
Department’s OpenData dataset, making it so fewer
violations will appear for previous years when compared
to the current year. Not all violations from 2016
are likely to be included in the counts, even for currently
active restaurants, according to the department.
EMPLOYEE AT BAYSIDE EATERY
UNDER FIRE FOR ALLEGEDLY
CALLING ASIANS ‘COCKROACHES’
ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The Asian community in Bayside voiced outrage
after a local restaurant employee allegedly posted
racist comments on a community Facebook group.
Screenshots from a now deleted Facebook page show
an employee at Brian Dempsey’s on Bell Boulevard
referring to Chinese and Korean people as “cockroaches.”
Residents identified the woman as restaurant
server Mariesa Stewart, who allegedly posted the
comment on the Bayside Facebook group on Sept. 15.
Stewart, however, denied she made the comment
and said her account had been hacked. But locals
began flooding the comment sections on Brian
Dempsey’s Yelp, Instagram and Facebook pages.
Resident Koy Penguina, who wished to use an alias
for protection, said that the admin of the restaurant’s
Instagram was deleting comments calling out the racist
behavior.
Stewart, who initially appeared as “Mariesa Mc
Cluskey Stewart” on Facebook, changed her name
to “Mariesa Stewart” amidst the backlash. She then
issued a statement on her page claiming that someone
had “hacked” or “cloned” her Facebook. Brian
Dempsey’s, which celebrated 25 years of business on
Sept. 21, issued a statement on its official Facebook
page as well, stating that they do not “condone nor
accept these hateful comments.”
Penguina said the community wanted the restaurant
to apologize, but when they reached out, the
restaurant repeated that Stewart’s Facebook had been
hacked.
CONSTRUCTION TO EXPAND
BUILDING BEGINS AT THE VACANT
OASIS THEATER IN RIDGEWOOD
The former Oasis Theatre, the hulking building at
63-57 Fresh Pond Road, which was remodeled into a
CVS pharmacy in the early 2010s, went under construction
at the beginning of September to expand it
into a large new commercial building.
Seve Sasson, president of ABC Super Stores,
filed plans with the Department of Buildings that
propose lowering the height of the building and
expanding its horizontal dimensions to fill most of
the lot. They also involve enlarging the cellar and
plumbing work.
In spite of Sasson’s direct association with a chain
of discount stores, he said that he has not announced
that’s what’s in the cards for the building. He raised
the possibility to QNS that there could be more than
one store in the building, insisting he’s not ready to
disclose his plans for the building yet.
“Everything is on the table,” said Sasson.
Photo via Google Maps
Screenshot via RentHop.com
Photo courtesy of Brian Dempsey’s
Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
A photo of the Oasis’ exterior in September 2019.
/RentHop.com
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
