HOLDING ON TO STABILITY IN QUEENS

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/holding-on-to-stability-in-queens/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Change comes slowly to Woodside and Sunnyside, Queens, even during a recession.

These decidedly middle-class neighborhoods — Woodside orginally held a large Irish-American population, yet lately has seen an influx of South Asians and Latin Americans — have retained a relative degree of stability during the recession, according to economic indicators tracked by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.

The area has very low rates of subprime lending (11 percent at the height of the subprime boom in 2006, compared with 23 percent citywide) and very few foreclosures (53 in the first two quarters this year). And one of the early signs of homeowner distress, tax delinquency, is virtually nonexistent.
 

With tidy rows of one-, two- and three-family homes of sturdy brick common in the 1920s and ’30s, the area feels mature and cared for, aside from the occasional dilapidation. The towering London plane trees that bow their heads on each side of the sidewalks are a testament to the staying power of all things that put down roots there.

The residential streets feel far from the rumbling 7 train that ambles nearby, though they are surprisingly close. Nearly 50 percent of residential units are within a retail corridor, the highest percent of any community district in Queens. Sheltered under the elevated subway tracks along Roosevelt Avenue is a string of diverse businesses, many representing the recent influx of Latino immigrants.

On one stretch, an Ecuadorean disco stands next to a Colombian travel agency and a Mexican taqueria. Neighborhood stalwarts include Donovan’s Pub and ubiquitous Laundromats, most with fading signs evincing little turnover. There are very few vacant storefronts, with new businesses opening. Claret Wine Bar, for example, was opened by a husband-and-wife team at the beginning of the year.

One resident, Dorothy Raymond Morehead, has been in her home since 1975, and has been a real estate agent in the neighborhood for 20 years. She now owns her own company and is the chairwoman of the environmental committee of the community board.

It hasn’t. I know of only one person that was laid off from Yeshiva University, but that had to do with Madoff. Some of the small businesses are feeling it, though. I bought a building next to my office and turned it into a restaurant, and I know it’s been tough for the owners who bought it. People are being more cautious. And when they do go out, they don’t splurge.

How do you account for the low rates of subprime lending and foreclosures?

We have a number of long-term residents with manageable mortgages that don’t have to sell. And we have a lot of young people coming in. They’ll come here and rent as young parents, then buy. The other thing is that if somebody has to move, they can rent because there’s a strong rental market.

What keeps people here?

The taxes are reasonable. Seniors, in places like Long Island and New Jersey, can’t afford the taxes. But there are a lot of support services for the elderly, like a home care program and Meals on Wheels. And their neighbors really support them.

What has the community done right, in terms of real estate development, to stave off a downturn?

When the designers built this community, particularly Sunnyside Gardens, they built everything, from one-, two- and three-family houses, and the two-family homes have four rooms and five rooms. And people can move in here and rent to try out the neighborhood, like I did. I fell in love with my street when I first walked down it in 1968, then bought my house in 1975, and will never leave.

TO SEE VIDEO CLICK ON:

http://www.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/106199/how-the-playbill-gets-to-the-show/Default.aspx

Playbill, the national theater magazine, celebrated its 125th birthday this week with a party at the Bon Appetit Supper Club in Manhattan, and NY1 joined the party with a behind-the-scenes tour of the magazine’s factory in Woodside, Queens. NY1′s Roma Torre filed the following report.

 Consider it one of the oldest members of the modern theater community. For more than a century, Playbill Magazine has been keeping audiences in the know when it comes to city productions and beyond.

Founded in 1884 by Frank Strauss, the theater-goers’ guide has seen a number of owners and looks.

“The magazine was started in 1884 by a man named Strauss who had the idea that he could make some money by printing up a bill, literally a bill, like a bill on one page,” says Philip Birsh, Playbill’s current president and publisher. “And have some advertising and tell the people who was in the show and it evolved from there.”

With six printing locations across the country, Playbill rolls out approximately four-million programs for a hundred theaters nationwide every month.

As for the creation of the magazine, it all begins with Playbill’s editor-in-chief Blake Ross.

“The editorial part of Playbill starts with me,” says Ross. “Pretty much keeping my pulse to the ground, trying to figure out what to write about, what’s coming up, what people are going to want to see and just basically try and get more people to consume theater.”

Once the content is complete, the printing of the magazine takes place at the main Playbill factory in Woodside, Queens. The editorial information is turned into plates, and the plates are brought down to the factory – where the printing begins.

After the printing, issues of Playbill are packed, bound and shipped, based on the show it’s going to be used for. While the purpose of Playbill is to provide information about a particular performance, some of Broadway’s best say it also acts as a theatrical memento.

“Having come from Britain where they charge huge amounts of money for playbills, I’m delighted that they’re free to us theatergoers,” says actor Lynn Redgrave.

“I have kept some Playbills [of] amazing, amazing performances,” says actor Bernadette Peters. “Like I just saw ‘Mary Stuart,’ like those actresses were incredible. I’ll keep those.”

“What we do in the theater is this ephemeral art that’s lost very quickly, and one of the mystiques about Playbill is that it’s actually one of the few things you can hold onto and look back through,” says actor Brian Stokes Mitchell.

It’s a souvenir for most theatergoers at just the right price.

The following story was reported in the

http://www.queenscourier.com/articles/2009/09/24/sports/top_stories/doc4abb93f8a7fcc383316340.txt

The Donna Dennis Foundation is named after a Woodside resident who was a victim of the insidious disease nearly 10 years ago. Since then, it has been a tradition in the neighborhood to raise funds for a cure in her name.

Local businesses and residents donate to the cause.

Outnumbered 20-1 and out of ammo: NY soldier on third tour in Afghanistan has seen war at its worst

FORWARD OPERATING BASE AIRBORNE, Afghanistan — Staff Sgt. Danny Acevedo keeps soldiers flying in the skies of Afghanistan — a crucial job in a war zone where roadside bombs are the biggest enemy.

Acevedo, 26, of Woodside, Queens, is on his third tour in Afghanistan with the upstate Fort Drum-based 10th Mountain Division, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment in Wardak Province.

“I’m pretty much a travel agent for 2-87,” he said, laughing.

Just a few months ago, Acevedo was an infantryman with Alpha Company. He spent the first part of his year-long deployment building a remote outpost in the treacherous Tangi Valley. “It’s an IED-infested area,” he said.

In June, just six months into his tour, his truck was hit with an improvised explosive device so big it blew a 6-foot-by-6-foot crater in the ground. “Thank God no one was hurt,” he said.

It wasn’t Acevedo’s only brush with death here.

In his second deployment with the 10th Mountain Division in 2006, Acevedo was manning a tiny outpost atop a mountain in Paktika Province with five other soldiers when insurgents ambushed them.

“We took on over 100 guys,” he said. “I really thought I was going to die. We went black on ammo. We used (hand grenades), that was our last defense. And we could still hear their voices. It was a four-hour intense firefight. A grenade landed 2 feet from our bunker. Luckily the jackass forgot to pull the pin.”

Now Acevedo spends his days here coordinating flights for soldiers — a much safer job that surely put his parents’ fears at ease.

“He’s a good boy and a hell of a soldier. I couldn’t be prouder,” boasted dad Richard Acevedo, 64, a parking attendant.

“Every day I think about him over there. Sometimes I visualize that he’s in action, up against a big unit, and he wants to take it on himself. It worries me. I pray every day nothing happens to him.”

For the rest of the story, click on the following: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/09/18/2009-09-18_queens_soldiers_flies_above_afghanistan_after_surviving_deadly_ground_combat.html#ixzz0RUNQSPN4

Here is the story:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) stopped by the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in Woodside on Monday, where she advocated comprehensive immigration reform and touted the healthcare bills that are being debated in Congress.

Gillibrand called for reshaping U.S. immigration law, with particular emphasis on reuniting immigrant families and granting enough visas to supply American industries with workers. She said lawmakers must “make sure that we have the right number of visas for all the immigrants that we need here in this country, because so many of our industries rely on immigrant workers, whether you’re talking about agriculture in upstate New York or service industries in downstate New York.”

For the rest of the story go to:

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20370589&BRD=2731&PAG=461&dept_id=575596&rfi=6

Queens man forced out of co-op apartment – by his own father

A Queens dad has every right to boot his freeloading son from the apartment he gave him 18 years ago, a Queens judge says.

Supreme Court Justice Charles Markey ordered Richard Carnivale evicted from the first-floor Woodside co-op apartment he moved into in April 1991.

Carnivale, 45, says his father – with whom he shares a name – kissed him on both cheeks back then and said: “Here are the keys to your new home.”

But his failing health, as well as a frayed relationship with his son, prompted the elder Carnivale to pull the welcome mat.

Markey said that while the son may have paid maintenance fees for the $250,000 apartment over the years, he never owned it.

“The son’s claim of ownership is essentially predicated on the handing over of keys to the co-op apartment,” Markey wrote. “No writing exists to evidence an intention by the father of making the son the owner of the property.”

For the rest of the story : http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2009/09/12/2009-09-12_queens_man_forced_to_kiss_coop_goodbye__by_dad.html#ixzz0RJrrQZP4

Crowley Robos For ‘Independent’ Gioia

A Queens-dwelling reader called the other night to say he had just returned home to find a message from Rep. Joe Crowley asking him to vote for Councilman Eric Gioia for public advocate next Tuesday.

In the call, which the Gioia campaign provided, Crowley touts the councilman as someone who is “independent” and “gets results.”

The reader mused that perhaps the chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, which is known for its discipline when it comes to candidate selection and members who vote in blocs (particularly on the Council), is perhaps not the best messenger when one wants to demonstrate one’s “independence”.

Crowley has high name-recognition in his district, and this call is clearly intended to shore up Gioia’s base in his home borough as the primary approaches.

Here’s the script in full:

“Hi, this is Congressman Joe Crowley, asking you to join me in voting for Democrat Eric Gioia for public advocate.
I know Eric will take on the tough fights for working people. Eric grew up in Woodside just like I did, and put himself through NYU by working nights as a janitor. As a councilman from Queens, Eric took on predatory lenders and deadbeat landlords, and exposed waste and mismanagement throughout our city. Eric’s independent and he gets results.”

“On Tuesday, September 15, join me, Congressman Joe Crowley, and let’s make Eric Gioia our next public advocate.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2009/09/crowley-robos-for-independent.html#ixzz0R7FwvcQa