More than 60 of the hundreds of tenants displaced after a massive fire at a Jackson Heights apartment building in April are now suing the property’s owners and management, as well as city agencies.
They’re demanding that the building’s owners repair their homes so they may return — and let them back in soon to retrieve possessions from the still heavily damaged and inaccessible block-long complex.
The building remains surrounded by scaffolding and caution tape, with many windows boarded up. The eight-alarm blaze crumbled ceilings and destroyed interior walls, exposing wooden beams in their place.
Tenants allege that in the five months since the fire, Kedex Properties and city officials have provided little sense of when repairs will be completed, if any belongings can be salvaged and when residents might be able to return to their apartments.
Access to the building has been “unreasonable and severely limited,” according to the complaint filed Sept. 10 in Queens Housing Court targeting the owner, along with the city Department of Buildings and Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Several dozen tenants in one wing of the two-address, 133-unit building have been allowed scheduled visits to retrieve personal items. but former residents of more than 60 apartments in the other wing have not been granted that same privilege, said Andrew Sokolof-Diaz, the building’s tenant association president and a plaintiff in the suit.
Literacy Partners, an organization dedicated to enhancing English proficiency among immigrant caregivers to foster greater involvement in their children’s lives, was honored with the Community Impact Award on April 25. This accolade was part of the New York City Service’s Mayoral Service Recognition Program, celebrating significant contributions to the community.
On Wednesday, May 1st, 49 extraordinary healthcare leaders were honored at Schneps’ annual ‘Health Care Heroes’ event, held in the ballroom of Terrace in The Park at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
An off-duty cop from East Elmhurst was arrested Tuesday evening and booked at the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights in connection to a domestic violence investigation.
NYPD Officer Estarlin Rodriguez, 30, of 97th Street, was arraigned Wednesday in Queens Criminal Court on a complaint charging him with two counts of strangulation, menacing and harassment in two incidents at his home.
Queens Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas and State Senator John Liu joined community advocates Tuesday to celebrate the passage of Sammy’s Law, a legislation that allows for New York City to determine its own speed limits, in the latest New York State budget.
Last November, when New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and Queens community leaders unveiled the proposal for Metropolitan Park, local restaurant owner Manji Singh was all in.