Queens: A Taste of the World Event

Queens restaurants heat up food event

30 Queens restaurants are set to offer the best of their culinary delights at the sixth annual "Queens: A Taste of the World" event at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park on Monday.

"We're excited about how this event has grown each year," said Spencer Ferdinand, executive director of the Queens Economic Development Corp., which sponsors the event.

As a buildup to Monday, chefs from some of the borough's best-known eateries - including Astoria's Mezzo Mezzo and Bayside's Papazzio Restaurant - gave live cooking demonstrations at Macy's in Herald Square.

The restaurants participating in the event "will be our headliners for September's Restaurant Week," said Michelle Stoddart, a spokeswoman for the QEDC.

Tickets are $85 each, or two for $150.

South East Queens: Park Leaderless

No new parks leader coming to SE Queens

Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski told Community Board 13 Monday that the agency's budget is too tight to hire a parks administrator for southeast Queens.

She was responding to a concern from Peter Richards, the chair of CB 13's Parks Committee, who brought up the issue at the board's meeting Monday at St. Luke's Church in Rosedale.

"Currently, we don't have the funding for it," Lewandowski said. "In the absence of that, we've done a lot of programming and capital improvements" in southeast Queens, she said, referring to concert series, puppet shows and boating outings.

Lewandowski said the larger parks in Queens, such as Flushing Meadows, Alley Pond and Ft. Totten, have administrators.

Hellenbrecht said 10 of the 38 resumes received so far were disqualified because they came from people who lived outside the city. Living within the city is a condition for the job.

Is a park leader really necessary? I have no idea, but time will only tell. It is wonderful news to hear that a park leader must living in the city. If the money is allocated to something that benefits the community more, then more power to them.

Cars Got Larger, Drive Ways stayed the same, SUVs Got Tickets

Homeowners Ticketed For Parking In Own Drive

A Bay Terrace homeowner has been ticketed three times in the past month for parking in his own driveway.
“A guy came through two or three times in the same month. He ticketed two of the cars, but not the third, even though the third was over just as much,” said Anthony Scharge, long time Bay Terrace resident.

Well sadly Queens residents eat up nearly one third of all the parking tickets dealt in the New York City Area. Is this a new all time low? An all- time low maybe... but this act of ticketing has been practiced in Flushing for as long as I can remeber (as the family minivan renders our driveway unusable).

However, if blocking the sidewalks becomes an accepted practice and not enforced like the Bayside residents are suggesting, then it is plausable to suggest that we could see many more people doing the same, as well as people trying to pack in two cars into one driveway space and big cargo vans blocking sidewalks more so than they already do. There is no simple way out, and every solution creates another problem.

Bloomberg: Big Plans For Queens?

According to the Queens Tribune, Mayor Michael Bloomberg came to Queens for a second time in the past week. In his State of the City address, Bloomberg proposes a new public pool and Ice Skating Rink for Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The Mayor also announced a new system that would allow complainants to track their complaints to 311. Proposals for changes for Queens Boulevard are also in the works.

The New York population is growing older and the mayor said the city will begin to address the challenge with traffic engineering improvements at high-accident areas including some in Flushing and hopefully Queens Boulevard, locally tagged as the Boulevard of Death.

Something that caught my eye was a declaration that Willets Point will become more industrialized with the addition of funding for infrastructure.

“We’ll also rezone Willets Point, a stone’s throw from here, the first step in what will be one of the most significant environmental reclamation projects of our time,” Bloomberg said.

Missing from the Mayor’s speech was where the money and political backing was going to come from for his plans. Gov. Eliot Spitzer spent most of speech on these issues when he delivered his 2008-09 Executive Budget address Tuesday.

However he does not further explain what is going to happen to its current residents. Another issue I see with his proposal for Willets Point is not so much about the "Iron Triangle" but rather its surrounding area. The local street around Willets Point need to be taken into consideration, Roosevelt Avenue for example is only two lanes and during a baseball game would make life very difficult for the proposed population living in Willets Point's housing complex. However I am very much in favor of improving Willets Point, whether it is done with its current businesses or an Eminent Domain powered wipe out. Either way something has to happen. With Citi Field opening up in 2009, it would be nice if it did not opposite a junk yard. it would be beneficial to the area if instead it was a hotel, restaurants, bars and shopping areas. Community Board 7 will eventually decide, or have Bloomberg decide for them. However, what do I know? I'm just a resident of Flushing who comes into contact with the Iron Triangle more than one would speculate. But before I get hammered with critique let me ask you, what does Willets Point in its current state do for the community as a whole? It provides jobs, industrial services and provides the means for other local businesses to get by. Hypothetically peaking couldn't it do the same for a whole new larger range of businesses?

Let me know what you think,

Mike
Welightupqueens@gmail.com