Overall crime has been relatively calm in 2011, according to the NYPD, but not in the increasingly hip Rockaways where the Post warns of a recent "Tidal Crime Wave." And it sure has seen a surge. Still, crime on the peninsula is just a drop in the ocean of citywide crime. more ›

Just because it is unseasonably warm outside does not mean the Atlantic Ocean is—as one kayaking fisherman learned yesterday. Good things cell phones work on the water! Yesterday at 1:19 p.m. a self-described fisherman out by Jacob Riis Park called 911 when his small craft started taking on water. By the time an NYPD Air-Sea rescue helicopter found him clinging to his submerged boat, the 46-year-old man was about a mile from the Rockaway Peninsula park. more ›

According to NY1, the offshore Rockaway wind farm that Bloomberg endorsed back in 2009 is all but dead. New York Power Authority, the company behind the plans, just had its CEO resign and now says that it has other things to worry about. "At this point, with our leadership somewhat in flux and having also announced two other major projects, the Hudson Transmission Project and also Recharge New York, we've got a full plate," said Power Authority's Vice Chairman, Jonathan Foster. more ›

Over the weekend, numerous attendees of Rockaway's St. Patrick's Day parade weren't shy about telling Bloomberg he wasn't welcome. But according to Bloomberg, he was a hit! He told the Daily News, "There were a handful of people who expressed themselves. When somebody yells at you, you look to the side and you'll see 10 or 15 people giving you a thumbs-up and saying don't worry about it, just keep going." more ›

A Queens dad was arrested this week under Leandra's Law after cruising down the pedestrian-only Rockaway Beach Boulevard completely drunk with six kids in tow. Doesn't he know one should always hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach? more ›

A New York City man named Matt has been walking across the country and documenting his journey here. He started in Rockaway Beach, Queens, and just ended—152 days later— in Rockaway Beach, Oregon—where he celebrated by running in to the ocean: more ›

Beach 3rd Street at the beach in Rockaway, Queens just became the scene of a sharkicide. Reports are coming in that three dead sharks have just washed up on shore there. We'll update when we have more information. Earlier this season the Coast Guard issued a shark advisory, specifically warning of great whites in the area. No word yet on what kind of sharks washed up today—let's hope it's just prop marketing for this new insanely bad (yet oh so good) looking movie Sharktopus. UPDATE: We're now told that there were no sharks! Smells like a cover up to us. more ›

A Queens woman who was suing the city for $3 million, because she was attacked by wild, stray dogs in 2001, accepted a $750,000 settlement. Marlene Fils-Aime was injured when trying to rescue Lev Lieverman who was being attacked by two Rottweilers, a pit bull and two mutts on December 26th, 2001. The dogs, which tore off Liberman's ears and part of his scalp and left him legally blind, were attracted to city-owned vacant lots at Beach 68th Street in Far Rockaway, which were over-grown and full of garbage. After community complaints, city initially removed the dogs, but then returned them to a homeless man right before the attack. Fils-Aime's lawyer said, "She's a tough, focused woman. "She's a little hyper about dogs and she doesn't want to go anywhere near the boardwalk." more ›

A woman attacked by stray dogs on the Rockaway boardwalk in 2001 is suing the city, claiming they created a breeding ground for the vicious dogs by letting them feed on garbage in a city-owned vacant lot. more ›

A Rockaway resident claims that no-parking signs that bar visitors from leaving their cars in the beach-front neighborhoods of Belle Harbor and Neponsit during summer weekends and holidays are "racist and illegal." The signs force beach-goers to drive west to pay parking lots in Jacob Riis Park, or east to look for street parking in areas that "have a higher percentage of lower-income and minority residents," according to the Times. But the signs themselves don't exist in city or state records. more ›

Could wind power be coming to Queens? According to the Daily News, Mayor Bloomberg took a look at high-tech windmills in Cophenhagen, anchored miles offshore — and now wants to build replicas in Rockaway. more ›

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. more ›

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." more ›

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? more ›

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. more ›

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] more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›