Results tagged “queens”

Who doesn't love it when a little bit of history is unearthed underground? The Scout recently got a tip from some folks who purchased a building in Queens, who told him, "while clearing out the basement we discovered a two lane manual bowling alley in very good condition." After doing some research they discovered the basement in the old garment factory was likely a speakeasy during the Prohibition Era, with two bowling lanes for customers.

After being hit hard with a cancellation of their series, the producers of "The Unusuals" are now on the receiving end of a lawsuit from actor Charles Buckley. The New Yorker filed a notice at the Queens Supreme Court after being injured during filming, where he was body slammed repeatedly on the concrete.

The Corona dad suspected of slitting the throats of his wife and 14-year-old son claims he has suffered from multiple personality disorder since childhood, and that his alter ego Roberto was "responsible for everything I did that was bad," suspect Otto Herrarte told investigators.

The WNYC "Radio Rookies" recently went on a search for the "Flushing Pimp," whom many have consistently seen on the streets in Queens throughout the years (he's even got a Facebook page dedicated to him). Their search took some dark turns, however, when they ultimately found out through his sister that he died, after battling spinal cancer, lung cancer and two brain tumors. He was also allegedly schizophrenic, which was triggered after his mom died when he was 19. So, while this isn't as whimsical as we'd hoped, it's sweet he's been given a posthumous tribute.

As one man battles a ginkgo biloba tree in Brooklyn, another fights his own stinky tree situation in Queens. Barry Plonski's home on 210th Street and 43rd Avenue in Bayside is within smelling distance of multiple gingkos — and he places the smell they emit "at the olfactory intersection of animal feces and vomit." Female gingkos, the smelly fruit bearers, are the ones to blame — and there are about 15 in Plonski's neighborhood.

The last dolphin spotting reported was off Staten Island this August, but today, just before 3 p.m., we got word that a dolphin was entangled in Queens — somewhere around Beach 87th and Beach Channel Drive. And some good news followed the original report: he or she is now free! We wonder if this is a straggler left behind from the massive dolphin invasion over the summer, or if all those dolphins are still lurking the New York waters... waiting.

Reportedly some residents of a Queens housing complex, Rochdale Village, "may have a wily coyote — or a close cousin — in their midst." After confirmed sightings of it prowling the territory, Animal Control officers have set up traps to capture the creature, which they say is either a "coyote or a coyote hybrid." A hybrid! There are suspiciously no details as to what kind of hybrid, but this is all starting to sound very familiar.

Since the Department of Transportation can't fix all the cracked sidewalks in the city at once, they came up with a new system in which locals can pay their way to the front of the fix line. First off, even though sidewalks are city property, they are the responsibility of homeowners, who can be held liable for injuries. When a homeowner is issued a violation, they have to repair the sidewalk via a private contractor, or through the DOT, which may take a while.

After the New York State Pavilion at the former World's Fair site gained landmark status, the structure finally started moving towards getting preserved. Now's your chance to help out! The HDC reports that this Saturday and next they're looking for 12-40 volunteers "to help out onsite on... performing a range of activities from removal of invasive vegetation, to the careful and systematic collection and bagging of map fragments that have been dislodged from the floor of the Pavilion." RSVP here, and meet in Flushing Meadows Park at 9 a.m. (further instructions will be sent out prior to meeting).

Not a good couple of weeks for Access-A-Ride, the bike-lane blocking fleet of giant vans that shuttle infirm New Yorkers around town. A local news crew caught one driver sleeping on the job last week, but now maybe the fatigue makes sense: the Access-A-Ride headquarters in Long Island City has been infested with bed bugs since the summer of 2008! The situation's become so intolerable that workers picketed outside yesterday, and one employee, who brought the bugs home and had to throw out all her furniture, tells the Daily News, "They really need to clean this place. This is not a joke."

An MTA-hired subcontractor severed a jet fuel line that was targeted by would-be terrorists in 2007, spilling 500 gallons of gasoline at the corner of Skillman Avenue and 37th Street. The workman was doing maintenance work for the MTA when he drilled into the Buckeye Pipeline, a 12-inch tube that rests four feet below street level and carries eight million gallons of fuel and refined petroleum into New York City every day, according to the Daily News.

A 75-year-old man perished in a Queens house fire yesterday when he ran back into the blaze to get his cellphone. Air Force veteran Nathan Lagree had already helped his wife and his eight-months-pregnant daughter escape from their single-family home in Springfield Gardens at around 6:20 am when he realized he forgot his phone.

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 12-year-old was recently the victim of some kite fighting leftovers. The "sport," made famous in The Kite Runner, is popular in Flushing Meadows Corona Park — and now the city is on the receiving end of a lawsuit over it.

Earlier this year, a Queens home in the Floral Park section exploded, killing wife and mother of three Ghanwatti Boodram. Now the Daily News reports, "Con Edison workers stumbled and bumbled for more than an hour instead of evacuating a Queens house before it blew up in April, a new state report says."

Yesterday morning an amateur surfer died in the storm-fueled waves off the Rockaways. The NY Post reports that the 36-year-old male's leash became tangled to a jetty, where a wave had knocked him and his board — he then allegedly suffered a heart attack. Police say he was only a few feet off short when they found him at 9:25 a.m., and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. WCBS reports that surfers have been attracted to the waves Hurricane Ida is sending, but one said of the novice: "It wasn't the right day to practice for him."

This is why we can't have nice things, or dogs in bars: An elderly Queens man says his sex life was ruined (and so was his knee) after he tripped over an "unleashed and unrestrained" dog in a Kew Gardens pub in April. Irving Grossman, 81, is suing Austin's Steak and Ale House, which is popular with gamblers because it has its own Off-Track Betting window. That's exactly where Grossman was headed on that fateful spring day when his luck took a turn for the worse.

Today is the 8th anniversary of Flight 587, the American Airlines flight that crashed into Belle Harbor, Queens in 2001. The flight had taken off from JFK Airport, on its way to the Dominican Republic; turbulent air led the co-pilot to use the rudder to keep the plane up, but the rudder broke off. All 260 people on board—251 passengers and 9 crew members—were killed, as were five people on the ground. There is a memorial service, with Mayor Bloomberg speaking, this morning.

Following a local's video footage of unsafe work going down at the spot that used to house St. Saviour's Church (it was relocated to another space), the Daily News takes a look at the mess in Maspeth. A chain link fence and partial stop work order have appeased the situation for now, but what's in store for the future?

Councilman-elect Dan Halloran (R-Bayside), a devout heathen, has apologized for comparing the role of animal sacrifice in his faith with Greek Orthodox Easter traditions. After coming under fire yesterday for linking the role of "blood sacrifice" in his religion, Theodism, with Easter lamb roasts, the incoming Councilman said he was sorry if he "inadvertently offended" any Greek Orthodox constituents in his Queens district.

After the Queens fire that killed three and injured four others in an illegally subdivided home, people are speaking out against illegal subdivisions. Queens Civic Congress president Corey Bearak told the NY Times, "It’s not just about taxing sewer lines and overcrowding in schools and parking. Ultimately, what happens with these fires, it manifests itself in people dying, and it’s absolutely outrageous." And some tenants have no idea they are living in dangerous apartments or rooms, with one saying "We didn’t know. Where are we going to go? It makes me angry." Landlords have said they bought the buildings with the subdivisions already in place.

Three Queens students were brought to the hospital yesterday after complaining of sickness right after they received the H1N1 vaccine. Within twenty minutes of getting vaccinated, one student of PS 124 in South Ozone Park "complained of a headache" says NY1, and overall 16 students said they felt ill. However, of the three girls brought to the hospital, one wasn't even given the vaccine in the first place! Maybe the dog ate her homework?

Last week, Councilman-elect Dan Halloran (R-Bayside) narrowly defeated a Democratic candidate in one of the nation's most liberal cities. Now comes the hard part: explaining his religious beliefs to the press. For the past two decades, the cop-turned-lawyer has been a devout believer in Theodism, a pre-Christian faith rooted in Celtic and Germanic tribal religions. "Understanding my theology is a little difficult for mainstreamers," admits Halloran, who serves as the "First Atheling," or king, of a local tribe of 120 followers called New Normandy.

As debate continues over whether a fire dispatcher's typo led to three deaths and four injuries in a Woodside, Queens home on Saturday, it turns out the basement apartments where the victims lived had been eyed by the Department of Buildings before. According to the Daily News, the two-family home "had been illegally converted into a five-family residence with another seven single rooms"—but when the DOB inspected it in 1990 and 2004, they found nothing wrong!

Firefighters responding to a deadly Woodside fire that killed three and injured four in an illegal basement apartment yesterday could have arrived sooner — had they not been routed to the wrong address first. A 911 operator mistakenly entered a two instead of a five and sent Engine Company 292 and Rescue Company 4 on a "wild goose chase" to 62nd Street instead of 65th Street, a delay that cost firefighters about 2 minutes and 30 seconds, according to the fire union.

Yesterday afternoon, NY1 reports, "Authorities received a 911 call about a stabbing and found the bodies of Paul Johnson, 47, and Regina Alston, 46," in a Jamaica, Queens home. "Alston had multiple stab wounds, while sources say Johnson hung himself and had cuts on his body." The Daily News says the couple's teen daughters were present at the time and one jumped out of a second story window to escape. The landlord said they were good tenants but recently Johnson moved out after a fight.

A fire claimed the lives of three men and critically injured four others when it ripped through an illegal basement apartment this morning in Woodside, Queens. The blaze broke out in the two-story home's improperly partitioned basement at around 2:45 am, according to the Daily News. When firefighters arrived at the "chaotic scene," they discovered "badly-burned victims" on the "front sidewalk, just inside the front door and beneath a basement window." The surviving victims were taken to the New York Hospital-Cornell Burn Center. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

The Queens woman found guilty of suffocating her abusive stepfather and cutting off his penis in 2007 was sentenced yesterday to five to 15 years in prison — the maximum sentence for the charge of second-degree manslaughter. Brigitte Harris, 29, was acquitted of murder charges last month, but found guilty of the lesser manslaughter charge after her lawyers argued she wasn't attempting to kill the victim, Eric Goodridge, but protect her nieces from a "pattern of repeated systemic sexual abuse" perpetrated against her since she was 3 years old.

Whenever there's a story about the site of the World's Fair you can be certain the words neglected and/or deteriorated will be used. Last year the city was criticized for not better preserving the 130' x 166' terrazzo replica of a Texaco New York State road map at the New York State Pavilion. The winter weather dislodged and even cracked panels after a decision not to protect it was made.

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.