Ryan rails on rhetoric Bayside Hills alive with
Acting DA spars with critics running to replace Brown a fi ne spring cleaning
BY JENNA BAGCAL
Bayside residents got
together this past weekend
for a healthy dose of
spring cleaning around
the neighborhood.
On Saturday, April 13,
the Bayside Hills Civic
Association (BHCA)
and Partnership for Parks
hosted the annual It’s My
Park at Bell Malls cleanup
event. Event volunteers
raked leaves, planted flowers
and replaced mulch along the
Bayside Hills malls.
“It is an honor to have such
a large contingency from
the Department of Parks,
from Partnership for Parks,
BaysideLiveTV, Bayside Hills
Civic Association Board of
Directors, our Beautification
Committee and the Boy
Scouts of America,” said
BHCA President Michael
Feiner in an interview with
BaysideLiveTV.
Councilman Barry
Grodenchik and
NYC Community Emergency
Response Teams (CERT)
volunteers also lent their
helping hands during
Saturday’s cleanup efforts.
“They’re all working up
and down Bell Boulevard
from 48th Avenue all
the way to our 9/11
Memorial, sprucing up the
community for a very well
worth it neighborhood,”
Feiner added.
The beautification and
clean up effort is part of a
series of It’s My Park events
throughout the five boroughs.
According to the City Parks
Foundation, the It’s My Park
program offers year-round
volunteer opportunities that
allow people to give back by
“cleaning, painting, weeding,
planting and more.”
The City Parks Foundation
partnered with NYC Parks to
create Partnership for Parks,
a public-private partnership
“that supports and champions
neighborhood volunteers by
giving them the tools they
need to advocate and care
for their neighborhood parks
and green spaces.”
In addition to the cleanup
efforts, Partnership for
Parks offers free workshop
and training sessions and
grants programs to fund park
projects across New York
City’s over 2,000 parks.
“These places are our
backyards, where we connect,
play and celebrate life’s
moments. When people come
together to care for these
spaces, they thrive. And when
parks thrive, neighborhoods
thrive. Parks are spaces
where community members
and decision makers can work
together to create their city,”
according to the City Parks
Foundation website.
There are three upcoming
It’s My Park clean-up events
in Queens:
• Saturday, April 20 –
It’s My Park at Margaret I.
Carman Green – Weeping
Beech
• Saturday, April 27 –
It’s My Park at Glenwood
Landing
• Saturday, April 27 – It’s
My Park at Hoover – Manton
Playgrounds
Reach reporter Jenna
Bagcal by email at jbagcal@
qns.com or by phone at (718)
224-5863 ext. 214.
BY BILL PARRY
As Queens prepares to elect
its first new district attorney
in 28 years, the prosecutor
currently leading the office
took time to defend his old
boss from the candidates that
are hoping to replace him.
Chief Assistant District
Attorney John M. Ryan was
handpicked by Queens District
Attorney Richard Brown when
he announced his retirement
in March to hold the fort until
the end of his term after a new
DA is elected in November.
In his first “report to the
people of Queens” this week,
Ryan made it clear he wasn’t
pleased with the “reformers”
currently running in the
June 25 Democratic primary
and defended Brown’s
legacy when it comes to
alternative sentencing.
“To hear some of the
candidates running for
Queens District Attorney,
you would have to be forgiven
for thinking that the Queens
DA’s Office was stuck in the
1970s, with no programs for
defendants, no treatment
programs, no alternative
sentencing options and
no specialized courts,”
Ryan wrote.
“YOU can be forgiven, but
the candidates should not be.
Anyone campaigning to run
an office of 700 people (330 of
them attorneys) that processes
more than 50,000 arrests a
year, should at least know
something about the place
before they start ‘redesigning
it on day one,” he added.
Ryan added that, under
Brown, the office became
an innovator in treatment
programs, alternative
sentencing and specialized
courts for more than a
quarter-century.
“One could say that he
has been a ‘progressive’ in
this area long before the term
was popular,” Ryan wrote.
“Running a district attorney’s
office is not about snappy
slogans and the latest fad. It is
hard work. It is risky work. It
is not about releasing career
criminals from jail solely
for the purpose of further
reducing the population in a
city that has already slashed
those in custody by more than
42 percent over just the last
10 years.”
City Councilman Rory
Lancman, who is one of the
Chief ADA John Ryan defends his old boss Queens District Attorney
Richard Brown from campaign rhetoric from candidates vying to
replace him. Courtesy of Queens DA’s offi ce
seven candidates currently
running for Queens DA, took
umbrage with Ryan’s claim
that “the record of our office
is misstated or distorted
during this campaign either
out of ignorance or malice or
both.” As chair of the Council
Committee on the Justice
System, which oversees the
city’s five District Attorney
offices, fired back at Ryan.
“It’s surprising to hear the
Queens District Attorney’s
office cry foul for being
called out over its complicity
in over-policing and mass
incarcerating communities of
color since so often it frankly
revels in its obstinate refusal
to enact common sense
criminal justice reforms that
other DA’s are embracing,”
Lancman said. “Rather than
defending the indefensible,
the Queens District Attorney’s
office should join the rest of
New York City, indeed, the
rest of America, in doing its
part to end the over-policing
and mass incarceration of
communities of color, and
focus instead on protecting
working people, women,
immigrants, homeowners,
and tenants.”
But one of Lancman’s fellow
Queens City Council members
had a much different view.
Robert Holden recently
asked off the Immigration
Committee saying its far-left
agenda is “all one-sided” and
“the agenda is already set,”
according to the New York
Post. He sided with Ryan
saying much of the campaign
rhetoric has ignored the
immense accomplishments of
Brown and the “revolutionary”
programs he introduced
to help more people stay
out of jail.
“As Chief ADA Ryan points
out in his report, Queens
has been at the forefront of
criminal justice reform for
more than 20 years, and in
many cases the DA’s office
has been the first in the city
and/or state to introduce
certain alternative sentencing
programs,” Holden said. “The
notion that Queens is not
doing enough to help people
avoid jail time for less serious
offenses is simply not true.”
Reach reporter Bill
Parry by email at bparry@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 260-4538.
Michael and Eileen Feiner (center) at this year’s Bayside Hills
mall cleanup Photo by Carole Jacobson Papadatos
TIMESLEDGER,4 APR. 19-25, 2019 QNS.COM
/qns.com
/schnepsmedia.com
/QNS.COM
