Results tagged “rockaway”

The Rockaways are riled up about a... miniature golf course? Allegedly locals fear the fun would lead to parking problems, trash, overcrowding, light pollution and noise, especially during the summer season. (Perhaps the Parks Department should consider Far Rockaway.) The site would operate from March to November, and hours could be from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

A couple of days ago, NY Post columnist Cindy Adams made her opinion of the Times Square chairs be known, saying loud and clear in her headline: "It's Broadway—Not Rockaway!" She went on, saying "the hallway to the Street of Dreams is now Beach 34th Street? What's next? Sand? A boardwalk?" She's worried that the tourists will now only see "Sprawling, bused-in out-of-towners with Coke cans and brown paper bags flat out on camp chairs noshing and burping and snoozing and playing checkers in the center of the capital of the world."

Back in April Bobby Vaughn's new surf shop, FTW (Fuck the World) in Rockaway Park, was getting some press. Vaughn told the NY Times that the "main problem with the Rockaway surf scene is that it has not embraced its inner gangster." Vaughn doesn't have a pristine record, but he said he's now "strictly positive" and has turned his life around. NY Mag (who notes that "surfing in Rockaway can be incredibly unpleasant") checked in on the scene he's creating just after Memorial Day. They say that just two months after it opened, the shop is already a default hangout for local teens. "Vaughn plans to turn his surf shop into a clubhouse. He wants to build a tiki lounge in the backyard and a gym in the basement for members of his FTW crew to train on days when the surf is flat. By the end of this year, he hopes to have a team of about 25 kids. The top members will receive a salary, FTW clothing, and money to travel to some of the best surf breaks in the world." So for any of those who thought he'd be leading these kids down a dangerous path, it seems he's redeemed himself. Now let's start working on saving those cute beach houses in the area, okay?

Is Rockaway the new Santa Cruz? While it already has a surf community, the NY Times thinks it's got the right stuff to become the East Coast surf hub now that an SC native, Bobby Vaughn, has opened his shop FTW in Rockaway Park. The paper notes that the area has "good waves, public housing projects and a growing surf culture," and Vaughn (who was a founder of the Von Dutch clothing line) thinks the "main problem with the Rockaway surf scene is that it has not embraced its inner gangster." He thinks that the model surfer "is fearless, tattooed and rides an expensive top-of-the-line surfboard decorated with gang tags." He discovered the area in 2005, after moving here following an incident where he fatally shot his friend (he claimed self defense and was found not guilty). While some locals take issue with his image, he says it's "strictly positive," and that he turned his life around and was reborn after surfing for the first time in NYC. He now wants to "show the street kids here — whether they’re surfers or kids from the projects — that they can do it too.” He'll be conducting anti-gang initiatives through surfing and skateboarding in the area.

A former 78-year-old firehouse in Rockaway is getting an environmentally-friendly makeover (greenincarnation?). The Real Deal reports that "the New York City Economic Development Corporation has selected the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance to redevelop the former Rockaway Beach Boulevard Firehouse at 58-03 Rockaway Beach Boulevard in Queens," which will permanently house the Rockaway Institute for Sustainable Environment. The environmental advocacy organization also serves as an educational outlet, and has been working out of local schools and community spaces. They're aiming for LEED certification, and around $2 million is expected to go into the project, which will ultimately be a 7,200-square-foot hall housing green-collar job training courses, classrooms, events, catering facilities, an organic cafe and more. [via Queens Crap]

Yesterday morning, at the Rockaway Deli & Grocery in Queens, a customer apparently lost it and stabbed two employees. According to WABC 7, Ortho Arnold is seen on a surveillance tape getting his change and then spitting in the cashier's face: "As other nervous customers start leaving the store, Arnold pulls the knife." The victims, the owner's son and cousin, were able to fight him off with broomsticks. The owner said Arnold is a regular customer, "He's a little crazy. I mean, he does sometimes some things that are not normal." Arnold, who faces assault charges, claimed the blood from the victims was his own and that he acted in self-defense.

If one ever needed an additional reason to buckle up, there's the news of two men who were killed while traveling in a car piloted by a drunken driver. 28-year-old Stephen Bush was speeding down Rockaway Blvd. early Saturday morning when he lost control of his Cadillac sedan and drove through the front of a carpet store in Rosedale. Bush was uninjured, but two of his passengers--Garfield Nelson and Wayne Burnette--were both killed. A third person was mildly injured.