During a two-day public hearing on the mayor’s 2024 preliminary budget, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. listened to testimonies from 14 community board representatives, community stakeholders and members of the public on where the money should be spent in Queens. 

The public hearings were held both in-person and via Zoom on Monday, Jan. 30, and Tuesday, Jan. 31, at Queens Borough Hall. The testimonials will be used to develop the Queens Borough Board’s FY24 preliminary budget priorities in the coming weeks. 

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards held a candlelight vigil for Tyre Nichols outside Queens Borough Hall Monday, Jan. 30 after Nichols’ death at the hands of police officers in Memphis, Tenn., made national headlines for the brutality in which the officers beat him.

Almost immediately after news broke about Nichols’ death, the Memphis police officers who beat him to death were fired and charged with murder. The police department released the body cam footage of the fatal beating on Jan. 27, but many people, including some at the vigil, have refused to watch it due to its extremely graphic nature.

Op-Ed, Jan. 30, By Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas

In a time of rampant economic inequality and environmental injustice, it is easy to feel defeated.  Here in Queens and across New York State, however, communities are organizing for a better future. New Yorkers from different backgrounds and with different lived experiences are proving that we can build community, organize, and create a future that reflects our shared values.

Jan. 27, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

Police have arrested an alleged hit-and-run driver who mowed down a pedestrian in Jackson Heights last summer, leaving the victim in critical condition, according to authorities.

In an effort to get more young people involved in civics, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards has created a new advisory panel known as the Youth and Young Adult Council to introduce the “youngest and fiercest” community advocates to both community service and organization.

Members of the advisory body will advocate concerns through means of community engagement by participating in one of two cohorts. The first will be made up of high school representatives between the ages of 13 and 17, while the second cohort will be comprised of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25.

More than 300 community members attended the historic inauguration of Assemblyman Steven Raga as the first Filipino American elected to office in New York state.

Many who attended the swearing-in event at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park wore traditional and cultural attire to the event at the building that once housed the General Assembly of the newly formed United Nations from 1946 to 1950 until its current home in Manhattan became available for the world body.

Jan. 24, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

Council Member Robert Holden, who represents the Queens neighborhoods of Ridgewood and Glendale, says that electric scooters and electric bikes are putting New Yorkers in danger and has introduced legislation that would ban them until they can be properly policed.

Jan. 24, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

The Queens/Astoria Post has obtained wild video footage of a crazed SUV driver mounting a sidewalk in Astoria Monday afternoon and then plowing into the side of a fruit and veg store—before knocking a 56-year-old woman to the pavement.

Jan. 24, 2023 By Christian Murray

The city council rejected a rezoning application last week where the owners of a Northern Boulevard site in Woodside planned to build an auto-dealership.

Jan. 23, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

A Dept. of Sanitation worker was struck in the head with a pole after he chased a would-be burglar out of a DSNY facility in Woodside Saturday night.

NYC Restaurant Week is underway, so nix that skillet and bring family and friends to your favorite neighborhood spot, or get inspired and break bread somewhere new and different. During this special citywide culinary event, food-lovers will enjoy curated menus and prix-fixe prices that are easy on the wallet.

Bookings began on Jan. 17 and are available until Feb. 12, and you can reserve a table at 30 participating Queens restaurants, along with hundreds more across the five boroughs.

A man was killed in a fire that broke out inside an East Elmhurst home that also left 10 others injured late Friday night, according to the FDNY.

The FDNY received a call regarding the two-alarm fire that broke out just after 11 p.m. in a three-story residential home at 24-37 89th St. on Friday, Jan. 20. FDNY sent 25 units consisting of 106 firefighters and EMS workers to the scene. Additionally, officers from the 115th Precinct responded to the scene.

Police are investigating a shooting at an Elmhurst nightclub that left one man dead and a woman injured early Saturday morning, according to authorities.

Police received a call regarding a shooting at Amadeus Nightclub, located at 79-51 Albion Ave. in Elmhurst, at approximately 4 a.m. on Jan. 21.

Jan. 19, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

A cop from the 108th Precinct is being commended for nabbing two teens while they were attempting to steal items from a construction site in Woodside Tuesday, police said.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz joined Councilwomen Sandra Ung and Linda Lee on Wednesday, Jan. 18, for a special celebration in honor of the Lunar New Year at the Student Union Building at Queensborough Community College in Bayside.

Ung escaped the Cambodian genocide as a child, and her family emigrated to the United States when she was 7 years old. Now she represents Flushing with its enormous Asian American population. She said she is proud to see how many Lunar New Year celebrations she sees around the city compared to when she first arrived in Queens.

Jan. 18, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

A city council candidate, library workers and students held a rally in Sunnyside Tuesday protesting the mayor’s proposal to cut millions of dollars from the city’s library system.

Jan. 18, 2023 By Michael Dorgan

Queens Council Member Shekar Krishnan has slammed a group of protesters who demonstrated against Drag Queen Story Hour outside his home in Jackson Heights Monday.

A member of Queens Community Board 5 (CB 5) was removed from the board after making racist and anti-vaccine comments during last week’s board

During the Jan. 11 CB 5 meeting, former board member Richard Huber would make a statement in which he questioned the COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness. 

Queens elected officials are expressing outrage after swastikas were discovered in Forest Park on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 15.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force was notified after a 65-year-old man came across the two swastikas that were spray-painted on tree stumps inside the park in the vicinity of Park Lane South between Myrtle Avenue and Freedom Drive in Richmond Hill, within the confines of the 102nd Precinct.

Jan. 16, 2023 By Bill Parry

A 16-year-old girl was groped in broad daylight on board a 7 train in Corona during the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 13, according to the NYPD.

Jan. 16, 2023 By Bill Parry

When Mayor Eric Adams came to Flushing Meadows Corona Park in August to announce that Queens had been selected for the launch of the nation’s largest curbside composting program starting in October, the first time that an entire borough would receive the service, few could have imagined how wildly successful the program would be.

Jan. 13, 2023 By Bill Parry

An alleged serial rapist from Jackson Heights was arrested during the morning of Friday, Jan. 6, near Gorman Playground, one block from his home on 85th Street.

Jan. 12, 2023 By Bill Parry

Police from the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst are searching for two men who broke into a house of worship and made off with a donation box during the early morning of Saturday, Jan. 7.

Jan. 12, 2023 By Christian Murray

Cheese of the World, which has been located in Forest Hills for more than 65 years, is closing.

This article was originally published by The CITY on Jan. 11, 2023 By Jose Martinez

The MTA and City Hall are shifting into gear on ways to better connect bicycles and other green forms of transportation to the subways, buses and bridges.