Results tagged “Flushing”

Since 2008, the city has received 23 complaints about illegal apartments and an unsanctioned daycare center in a Flushing, Queens building, but inspectors haven't been able to bring the building up to code, the Daily News reports.

One day in September 2008, Queens High School student Stephen Cruz suffered a lacerated forehead when school safety agent Daniel O’Connell, without provocation, allegedly kicked open a restroom stall that Stephen was using. Cruz claims that after he tumbled to the floor bleeding from his head, O'Connell (whom the students called RoboCop) walked away saying, "That's life; it will stop bleeding." Typical robot.

An explosion rumbled through a Flushing, Queens neighborhood after a man was trying to empty out his propane tank. A neighbor said, "I felt the ground move. I thought it was a plane coming down. There was a big rumble...I was in my basement and still felt it. I ran outside and saw debris everywhere."

The daughter of a 44-year-old construction-safety inspector who was killed in a suspicious Flushing apartment fire earlier this week is vowing to continue her mother’s fight in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed months before her death.

The NY State Pavilion on the grounds of the old World's Fair site in Flushing may have just been landmarked, but the Tent of Tomorrow is on the verge of becoming extinct (after all, it was endangered years ago). The Daily News has an update on the area after Queens News obtained a 99-page report through the Freedom of Information Act... and the future isn't looking very bright.

The 17-century Bowne house in Flushing, Queens is finally getting restored after ownership was transferred to the city; news that comes with much relief to Landmark nerds and historians (and anyone who hates to see beautiful old structures disintegrate in front of their very eyes). With $5 million from the city, state and private groups, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe announced the plan to restore it is moving "full speed ahead," according to the Daily News.

If the terror charges filed yesterday against Najibullah Zazi are true, a fairly large number of his co-conspirators must still be at large. The impressive evidence presented yesterday against the 24-year-old Afghan immigrant indicates the cooperation of a number of other men: the man he consulted in cooking up the bombs in a Colorado hotel, the men who trained him and gave him notes on bomb design in Pakistan, and the men who housed him in NYC and planned to wear the backpacks that were seized in a Queens apartment.

Clubland may have shed a Visine-assisted tear upon news that the church that once housed the Limelight will soon be turned into a boring store, but at least partygoers are apparently able to turn to some familiar coping mechanisms making their first appearance in years—drugs like quaaludes that the DA's office says are back on the scene. Prosecutors tell the Post that recent busts have turned up "designer drugs rarely seen since the hippie era" that also include ecstasy-like BZP and the short-term trip-inducing DMT. A rep from the DA's office tells the paper, "We're seeing the emergence, particularly, of hallucinatory drugs. It's definitely related to the club scene, and targeted at selling to college students." The drugs have been particularly prominent at Asian night clubs and Flushing karaoke bars. Cops who busted a ring that sold at clubs such as Pacha, Rebel and Suzie Wong's say that the drugs from eras past have found their way into new packages, such as being disguised as Transformer figures and Obama campaign pins.

A fatal hit-and-run accident in Flushing left the victim's body in such bad shape, authorities had to obtain dental records to identify that it was 30-year-old Matthew Kim. Kim had returned to his Flushing home earlier Thursday night after going out for drinks with friends—the Post says that he was helping console a friend who had just recently lost his mother. Kim, a former architecture student who now worked in construction and taught Sunday school, was nearly decapitated after being hit by a driver making a U-turn while walking on 149th place. A person walking their dog at 3:30 a.m. spotted his body and told the News, "I couldn't imagine any human being leaving someone like that."

An elderly man who was the owner of a Queens pub died yesterday when he suffocated in sludge after slipping and falling while cleaning his sewer drain. 83-year-old Luigi Cerrone was discovered at 4:45 yesterday afternoon after he had fell into the sewage drain he had been cleaning. The News lists his business as Cafe People; the Post as Prince II. Both establishments appear to be listed at the same address on Northern Boulevard in Flushing. Cerrone had been married for sixty years and was a great-grandfather. Relatives at his Bayside home who talked to the local papers told them that "Everybody loved him," and simply that "people are crying over here."

Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder after they went searching for an Asian man to rob and ended up choking the life out of their eventual victim, whom they left on the side of the road. After committing a similar robbery a month ago, 16-year-old Corey Azor and 17-year-old Chris Levy were hunting for a new target in Flushing, where the two attend high school (in separate schools). They came upon 49-year-old David Kao, who was dozing off in the driver's seat of an SUV while parked on the street. According to the News, Levy admitted to cops that "he and Azor climbed into the car, put Kao into a choke hold and dragged him into the backseat, where they beat him until he was unconscious." They then took his credit cards and dumped him out a few blocks away.

Yesterday morning, a man wielding a knife with a 13-inch blade slashed a man just outside the 109th Precinct in Flushing, Queens. Construction worker Armando Ferreira was slashed in the back and in the arm and then ran into the station, only to be followed by attacker Armando Torres who also tried to slash Ferreira's friend.

Around 12:40 a.m. this morning, a 21-year-old driver in a Toyota Camry was "killed when his out of control car flipped through the air and careened into two homes" in Flushing, Queens, according to WABC 7. It's suspected that the driver was traveling at a high rate of speed as he drove along the eastbound Horace Harding Expressway. WABC 7 adds, "The Camry flipped into the air, hurtled over two parked cars, and took down a street sign as it crashed into the front of a house on 61st Road." No one else was injured; one of the homes' residents told PIX News, "I heard a bang and the whole house shook," adding the car was completely in flames. Residents also say that this part of the Horace Harding Expressway, which is a service road for the LIE, has had many accidents; in fact, PIX News reports that one of the homes damaged today was also hit by a car 10 years ago.

Advocates have been pushing for years to make swimming in the Hudson River a reality for New Yorkers, but one career thief has been doing his part to get the NYPD to explore the possibilities of entering into other local waters that would normally be avoided. Yesterday a police diver went into the 50-degree water of Meadow Lake in Fresh Meadows Park for four hours to fish out four ATMs that were allegedly dumped there by Valentin Garcia, who had been arrested for grand larceny after getting caught lifting the ATMs right into a van, seen in the clip below.

Police are still looking for tips any witnesses might have to help apprehend a hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a Queens mother Thursday night. Li Qun Fang was hit around 9:30 p.m. on the way back to her Flushing home from work. She had the light when she began crossing Kissena Boulevard, but when it changed with her still in the street, the driver of a white Honda Civic with tinted windows accelerated through without stopping.

Yesterday morning, three people were stabbed by a man wielding a large knife in Flushing, Queens. Two of the victims were a couple in their 70s who were attacked outside their apartment building. Police arrested David E. Williams—aka "Big Dave"—and charged him with attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

A mother of four jumped out of a moving SUV in Queens Friday night to escape riding alongside a drunk driver only to die upon the impact of her fall. Judy Bucherri of Valley Stream was heading out for a night with friends when she began arguing with the driver of the vehicle, Sandy Levine of Forest Hills. Levine was arrested at the site of the accident on 164th Street and Underhill Avenue and charged with a DUI as well as a felony drug charge when cops discovered a pound of marijuana in the back of his car. The Post says that the argument stemmed from Bucherri thinking that Levine was drunk, while Newsday reports the driver's story is that they were simply arguing over where to go for the evening. They also report that Levin's breathalyzer reading was 0.058.

Early this morning, WABC 7 reports that a "suspicious" two-alarm fire "tore through six businesses" in Queens this morning--in the Flushing section, on Roosevelt Avenue near Main Street. Heavy winds may have also helped spread the fire, which firefighters reportedly tried to battle from the inside of the stores (three suffered minor injuries). Additionally, "water used battling the blaze collected on the track of the nearby No. 7 subway line," which has caused some delays on the 7--and the fire has caused some rerouting of MTA buses--check the NYC Transit site's Service Alert site.

The police say a man fatally stabbed his roommate in Flushing, Queens. WABC 7 reports, "The 47-year-old suspect and his roommate had a dispute inside their Sanford Avenue apartment building just before midnight. " Apparently the suspected killer stabbed the victim once in their building's lobby. He later called 911 and waited for the police to arrive, and cops found the roommate's body in a pool of blood.

Fire marshals are trying to understand what caused the Friday afternoon gas explosion at an apartment building in Flushing.

Yesterday afternoon, an apparently gas explosion caused a fireball and shook a Flushing apartment building. The fire injured 17 people, including a 2-year-old and her father were were critically injured. A resident told the NY Times, “I saw the man, who was burnt from head to toe. His clothes were burnt and he was screaming, and he said, ‘Save my baby!’”

The Queens DA's office says a man posed as a police officer and raped a woman in Flushing on Thursday morning.

Around 10 p.m. last night, a Flushing resident heard crying outside her house and opening her front door to find a baby girl on the steps. The baby, wrapped in a blanket, appeared to be one month old. And next to the infant was a black handbag.

At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes.

The Times’s Frank Bruni chimes in at last on the abundantly reviewed Merkato 55 (pictured), an ambitious pan-African brasserie in the Meatpacking District that “pivots into a sexy evening for the Marc Jacobs set. It’s Spice Market on the Serengeti.” Dishes like the cast-iron pot of lamb meatball in smoked tomato sauce are "a delight," but overall it’s hit or miss. And some unlucky waiter made the mistake of pouring water into his wine glass and took 15 minutes to correct it. One star.

Initial reports of Sik-gaek, a Korean restaurant in Flushing's Murray Hill, implied that it’s a buffet-style barbecue spot. After walking from the 7 train to the corner of 149 Pl. and Roosevelt Ave., an entirely different kind of restaurant was encountered.

Some gamblers don't need their legs broken by loan sharks if they're paranoid enough. The FDNY discovered four men lying in an alley at 35-12 Farrington St. in Flushing, Queens while responding to a call about a smoke condition at the building. According to WNBC, the building houses a not-that-secret illegal gambling operation.

For a place that bills itself as specializing in “Modern Asian Cuisine,” new Flushing restaurant Mulan seems better suited to the Epcot crowd than hardcore fans of Asian cuisine, modern or otherwise. To be fair this assessment is based upon an initial lunch and the place has been open less than a month. But as it stands now, the fare in the brand new skyscraper, Queens Crossing, is pretty ho-hum. It’s hard to believe that this stuff is coming from Malaysian-born Chef Peter How, who has cooked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

The police raided a Flushing warehouse and found $4.5 million worth of counterfeit goods. NY1 reported there were 50,000 pairs of sneakers, about 40,000 fake purses, and thousands of articles of clothing.

On the outskirts of Queens’ Murray Hill, which is best known for Korean barbecue and fried chicken, is a store that caters to a much less carnivorous crowd. Meat eaters who first see the green sign for Vege Eats, might think that all that's inside is Gardenburgers. But as the sign says, it’s a “vegetarian specialty food store,” which is putting it lightly.