An NYPD sergeant and 19-year veteran of the force says that cops systematically downgraded and misclassified serious crimes in Queens' 100th Precinct to pad crime stats, then transferred him to a graveyard shift in retaliation. "I just couldn't take it anymore," Sergeant Robert Borrelli told ABC of the pressure to manipulate crime statistics. "There came a point I finally broke and I'm like, you know, this has to stop." more ›

An off-duty NYPD detective shot two would-be robbers after they brandished a toy gun at him while he was walking his dog in Rockaway yesterday. While the officer was strolling near Beach 27th Street at around 6:30 p.m., four men approached him and threatened him with the fake gun. The detective identified himself, but the crew insisted on trying to rob him. "There was a struggle and he let go some rounds," a police source tells the Post. Three were later caught, and the fourth walked into the hospital with gunshot wounds. more ›

The Rockaways began their post-Irene cleanup efforts this week, and while some locals were psyched for the storm to hit, not everything was peachy keen at the beach. "The beach erosion is significant. So is the boardwalk damage," said City Councilman Eric Ulrich, whose district covers parts of Rockaway. more ›

While the rest of the city was busy hoarding canned food, a handful of intrepid surfers were instead chasing after Irene, hunting down the elusive big waves that only a big storm can bring. "It's our only chance as East Coast surfers to get large, powerful waves like in other places in the world," said "hurricane surfer" Shea Lopez. "It's exciting being around the hurricane. You can't help but get caught up in the drama." more ›

While most people took Hurricane Irene seriously, there were plenty who didn't. Now they're sounding off, excitedly boasting about how their gamble to stay in places that were ordered to evacuate paid off. more ›

Hurricane Donna hit the states in 1960 (specifically, every state on the East Coast), and she still holds the record for retaining major hurricane status (Category 3 or greater) in the Atlantic Basin for the longest period of time. She kept going strong for nine days, starting on September 9th, but was around for seventeen days total (even briefly becoming a Category 5). According to the Queens Chronicle, "Donna created an 11 foot storm surge in New York Harbor that caused extensive pier damage." She also "devastated the Rockaway Peninsula that eventually led to the construction of the bay wall on Beach Channel Drive." Here's some amazing footage of locals in Rockaway making the best of the situation: more ›

While the rest of the city is busy fighting tooth and nail for Duane Reade's last flashlight, a handful of radical surfing dudes are totally psyched for Irene, and the killer waves she's bringing with her. 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 ›

Have you heard of this place Rockaway Beach? It's a magical oceanside fairyland that hipsters just uncovered and colonized with tacos and weird artist stuff. And while it spent some time as the next Williamsburg, it's already evolving into the next Lower East Side, if hotelier Sean MacPherson has anything to do with it. more ›

First came the mosquitoes, then came the hipsters—what will ruin the Rockaways next? Oh, right, the addicts and destitute residents that have been there for years. more ›

Attention! Attention! The Rockaway Beach boardwalk really is the new Bedford Ave! Hipsters new and old, get in on this sweet deal, because it's not going to last. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get in on the ground level of rapid gentrification! Act now before everyone catches on to the secret, like they're doing with under-the-radar Red Hook. more ›

The Far Rockaways are most certainly not lovin' it after McDonald's ran an ad on the A train touting the energizing powers of their iced coffee, implying that those who drink it will not suffer the indignity of falling asleep on the train and waking up at the end of the line. more ›

A group of angry Queens residents booed a DOT representative and Mayor Bloomberg at a community meeting in the Rockaways last night, according to accounts in the Daily News and the Post. The jeers erupted after one local resident asked the DOT to get rid of the bike lanes that were installed last summer on the main thoroughfare of Beach Channel Drive. The response from Maura McCarthy, the DOT’s Queens Borough Commissioner, didn't go over too well. more ›

After more than a month in a coma caused by a surfing accident in the Rockaways, male model Charles DeVoe died Friday. The 28-year-old, who worked with hotshot photographers like Bruce Weber, Steven Klein and Mario Testino, had been in a coma since November 12 when he spent several minutes underwater after the ankle tether connecting him with his surfboard snagged on a pole. DeVoe had been living and working in the city since 2004 (you can see some of his work here). Though it had appeared for awhile that he might recover, his health took a turn for the worst in the past week. The Philadelphia-native's parents were with him until the end. more ›

Firefighters managed to rescue a 20-year-old surfer who trapped in a jetty in the water of the Rockaways, but the Daily News says the victim is "clinging to life." According to witnesses, the victim's "ankle tether - a line that ties the board to the surfer - appeared to be snagged on a wooden post," near Beach 92nd St. yesterday afternoon. more ›

Last night, an hour after lifeguards went off duty, 14-year-old boy was swept out by a rip tide off Jacob Riis Park in Queens. WCBS 2 reports that while "the NYPD and the Coast Guard had choppers in the air Wednesday morning...the effort was downgraded from a rescue mission to a recovery search, as authorities fear that this will be the second drowning this month in unguarded waters." The first drowning is that of Nicole Suriel, the public school student who drowned off Long Beach. more ›

We've all gone through a childhood pyro phase—kicking around flaming tennis balls, lighting farts, hot footing—and most of us managed to miraculously walk away unscathed. But occasionally you hear about an incident that makes you feel lucky you didn't win that Juvie Darwin Award you so richly deserved. Yesterday afternoon a water balloon, a puddle of gasoline and a lit match almost burned a 10-year-old boy to death in the Rockaways. more ›

Family and friends of Andrew Koppel are mourning the 40-year-old's death after an apparent drinking binge over the weekend. A family friend told the Post that he had "many substance-abuse issues," while another said, "What's really puzzling the family is why he ended up where he did. It was a Sunday and holiday weekend. Why was he drinking in Hell's Kitchen and why would he end up in Washington Heights?" more ›

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." more ›

Police arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with two rapes in the Rockaways last month. The Daily News reports that DNA evidence linked Malcolm Johnson to the crimes. He was charged with "rape, sexual assault, robbery, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon." more ›

While Hog Island used to be the family vacation spot for Tammany Hall politicians, after surfacing off the coast of the Rockaways in the mid-1800s, it was no match for Mother Nature. Ephemeral NY revisits the old destination spot, which "featured the usual late-19th century bathing facilities, pavilions, restaurants, and regular ferries," noting how by the late 1800s the sea swallowed it back up, whole! 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 ›

Despite increasing warnings from Parks officials and a drowning death toll that continues to rise, swimmers are still finding their way into the Rockaways after lifeguards are off-duty, often into the night. The Times goes out to the Queens beaches to discover that "police officers patrol the area until 9 p.m. or so...but daring swimmers know to wait until the police leave to dive in, stepping past signs in English and Spanish warning against nighttime swimming." And one local resident tells the News, "Kids think it's just a big bathtub." City Councilman James Sanders held a community "brainstorming" session this week to discuss how to put an end to a deadly summer that has already claimed six victims, three times as many as all of last year. A Parks deputy described just how dangerous the waters can be by saying, "In certain weather conditions, particularly with a lot of south wind, the waves can create an opening in the bar. When that happens, it's like turning over a 5-gallon water cooler bottle and ripping the lid open - all the water comes rushing out." Here's a tutorial on what to do if you're caught in a rip current. more ›

A deadly wave of drownings in the Rockaways has prompted the Parks Department to encourage heightened caution while swimming in what have been strong rip tides throughout the Queens shoreline this summer. Jose-Luis Olivares became the sixth swimmer to drown this summer while rescuing his wife and daughter; only two people died from drowning out there all of last year. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe points out that all six swimmers died at an unguarded beach or when there were no lifeguards on duty. With the first real heat wave of summer arriving this week, Parks officials called on swimmers to only go in while lifeguards are around. Benepe told the Post, "We have over 300 lifeguards and supervisors in the Rockaways. We also have 50 security personnel who patrol the beaches both before and after hours to prevent people from going into the water. There aren't many other municipalities that do that. We've sometimes been called beach Nazis." more ›

A Queens man trying to rescue his wife and daughter became the latest victim to drown in the Rockaways this summer. 36-year-old father of two Jose-Luis Olivares of Ozone Park became the sixth person to fall prey to the rough tides along the Queens beaches, the second to die at Jacob Riis Park. Olivares went into the water after his wife and ten-year-old daughter around 7 p.m.—an hour after life guards go off-duty. An off-duty park ranger pulled Olivares out and he was airlifted to Peninsula Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Both his wife and daughter survived; it was unclear how they managed to get out of the water. The victim's brother told the Post, "We're all feeling very bad right now because he was a hero today. He saved his daughter and his wife. He is a very good father — he loves his daughter. She is devastated." Parks officials continue to search for the body of Heyward "Winky" Patterson, who was pulled in while swimming late at night on a nearby beach earlier in the week. more ›

Authorities think a 22-year-old man may have drowned last night, in an attempt to rescue a friend. According to the NY Post, Anthony Bolden, 21, went with his sister and his friend Jacob Reid, 20, to an area of [Jacob Riis Park] near Beach 149th Street just before 8 p.m."—a time with no lifeguards on duty. Bolden's sister said, "Jacob couldn't stay up in the water. The water kept pulling him in, so Anthony went in to get him." However, Reid managed to emerge, Bolden never did; the water reportedly had "four-foot waves" and "wind speed was nine miles per hour at the time of the 911 call." The search was suspended last night around 10 p.m. but has resumed this morning. Over the weekend, a teen died after getting caught in a Rockaways riptide and the Post raised the question of lifeguards wearing iPods while on duty. more ›