Voices of New York
Unemployed and COVID-Impacted Immigrants Become Street Vendors in Queens
Gissell Calvo for QueensLatino |
Some Queens residents who lost work during the pandemic have taken to selling items.
Health and Environment
Hotel-Turned-Shelter for Released Rikers Detainees Faces Backlash in Fresh Meadows
Huiyu Lai for World Journal and City Limits |
Chinese residents and businesses in the neighborhood collected more than 10,000 signatures on a petition against the arrangement, arguing the city should have notified the community of the plan.
COVID-19
After Costly ‘Reinvention,’ Nail Salons Brace For Uncertain Reopening
Fernando Martínez for El Diario |
Salon workers and owners, many of them immigrants, head back to work this week as part of New York’s Phase 3 reopening. But many are worried about how new social distancing restrictions will impact their livelihood.
Elections
New Protest Movement Poses Challenges for Queens Progressives
Danny Katch |
Across the country, the sudden growth of demands to defund and even abolish the police has taken by surprise not only conservatives and centrists but many progressives as well. Perhaps nowhere have these intra-left debates broken out more publicly than in Western Queens.
Government
Queens Borough Presidency Candidates’ Positions on Development
Sadef Ali Kully |
While the borough presidency is not as powerful as it once was when the BPs had votes on the seven-member board of estimate that effectively ran the city, it still does have an important advisory role on land-use policy.
Health and Environment
Court Cases in Inwood and Flushing Test Mayor’s Power Over Development
Sadef Ali Kully |
An appeals court heard arguments over the annulled Inwood rezoning just days after activists sued over the approval process for the Flushing Waterfront plan.
Coronavirus
Coronavirus Brings Hunger Crisis for Latinos in Queens
Javier Castaño for QueensLatino |
Queues of Latino residents waited recently outside a community center in Corona to collect food and fruit. The line extended for two blocks.
Coronavirus
New York’s Ecuadorans Face ‘Double Crisis’ From COVID-19 Both Here and Back Home
Fernando Martínez for El Diario |
Ecuador has emerged as an epicenter for coronavirus, creating ‘double anguish’ for Ecuadorian immigrants in New York as they watch the virus ravage both their homes, El Diario reports.
Coronavirus
Recovered Queens Nurse Shares Her Coronavirus Story: ‘I Had to Be Strong’
Kishor Panthi for Khasokhas Weekly |
‘When I was told that they would not test for coronavirus, I felt really helpless,’ Nima Sherpa said. ‘But I gathered all my strength and told myself that it’s me who has to fight this battle.’
Al-Naimat Restaurant & Sweets
City’s Small Businesses Need Rent Stabilization to Survive COVID-19, Advocates Say
Bridget Bartolini |
In 1945, near the end of the WWII, the city instituted commercial rent control as an emergency wartime measure, authorized by the state. Advocates are calling for a similar response to the COVID-19 crisis.
