By Celia Bernhardt | cbernhardt@queensledger.com

Proponents of QueensLink secured a victory this week, with a request for $10 million to fund an environmental review for the project in the State Senate’s new budget proposal. 

They’ve also been dealt a blow: just today, the city announced it obtained $117 million in federal funding for a competing plan, QueensWay. 

The QueensLink plan would reactivate the Rockaway Beach Branch, a right-of-way that has been left unused for the past 60 years, using it to extend the M line past Rego Park into the Rockaways. Supporters of the plan argue increased train access is essential for Southeast Queens, an area severely underserved by transit with some of the longest commutes in the nation. The campaign has long faced stiff competition from the New York City Economic Development-backed QueensWay plan, which would develop the right-of-way entirely into parkland.

After QueensWay received a $35 million pledge from Mayor Eric Adams in September 2022, MTA officials, City Hall spokespeople, and elected officials repeatedly denied that the project would preclude a train line reactivation. In the MTA’s October 2023 20-year-needs assessment, however, where the QueensLink proposal was given particularly low marks, QueensWay was cited as one of the reasons.

The State Senate budget proposal follows a two and a half month letter-writing campaign QueensLink organized, urging their supporters to pressure their state and city representatives to support the rail reactivation. QueensLink Chief Design Officer Andrew Lynch said 2,696 letters have been sent in total since the campaign’s launch in January, with another 65 sent out just in the past few hours since news broke increased funding for QueensWay. 

Lynch said that six state senate representatives and seven state assemblymembers signed on to support QueensLink in February.

“Notably, we were not included in the Assembly budget, despite having more support in the Assembly, which is weird,” Lynch said. 

The State Senate’s proposed $10 million for QueensLink is tucked into their modifications to Governor Hochul’s budget for MTA capital projects. It sits alongside a $20 million request for Hudson River Line Metro-North resiliency. The two proposed changes would bring that section of Hochul’s budget from $68 million to $98 million. 

Also included in the document was a note calling into question the MTA’s budgeting process. 

“The Senate has concerns with the increasing high-cost of conducting studies for MTA projects,” the proposal reads. “The Senate calls on the MTA to do more to reduce expenses on projects, as well as increase transparency to the public as to how public resources are being utilized.”

Hochul, the Senate and the Assembly must work out a consensus by the April 1 budget deadline. 

When asked if he was optimistic about what the State Senate budget proposal meant for QueensLink in the final State, budget, Lynch said he didn’t know. 

“You never know about these things. I know Albany. It’s going to come down to one person saying one thing and one person saying another, and they just have to agree on it. And sometimes it’s a handshake,” Lynch said. “It’s not a science up there.”

By Celia Bernhardt | cbernhardt@queensledger.com

A new 15-cot shelter for male asylum seekers opened on March 7 at 66-64 Grand Avenue in Maspeth, a historic building that formerly operated as a synagogue. The building sits just off the Long Island Expressway service road, a few doors down from a local Key Foods. 

The 1920s building, previously called the Maspeth Jewish Center, has not hosted an active congregation for decades. The Rabbinical Seminary of America (also called Yeshiva Choftez Chaim of Queens) obtained the building in 2017 after the Maspeth Jewish Center’s board agreed to sell it to them. RSA ran a preschool in the building from September 2023 until one week before they signed the contract to establish the shelter, according to a representative. 

The RSA and other religious groups willing to operate similar shelters will be reimbursed at a rate of $65 per person per night, up to $35,500 per month, according to a letter from the city and New York Disaster Interfaith Services. The shelter will host asylum seekers from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., with a curfew in place from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Security will be present throughout its operating hours. 

Some Maspeth residents have expressed their outrage at the news through Facebook groups and a small gathering in protest last Friday. 

Councilman Rob Holden took to X on March 6 to criticize the move. “Our office is aware of a notice that @NYCMayorsOffice sent for a proposal to house 15 migrants at the Synagogue located at 66-64 Grand Avenue in Maspeth, starting tomorrow,” Holden wrote. “We’ve spoken directly with the Rabbi, who denies this and says no contract was signed.”

The Queens Ledger spoke to a representative from RSA who claimed that Rabbi Glazer — the Rabbi that Holden referenced — did not outright deny the plans to Holden. The representative said that at the time of Holden and Rabbi Glazer’s conversation, a decision was still pending and the contract had not yet been signed. Later that day, however, the contract was signed. 

The representative also explained that the preschool’s recent closure was due to an inability to gather approvals from city agencies in time to meet certain deadlines from the Department of Education, which proceeded to cut funding to the program. The preschool has since merged with another already-funded program. 

Holden blasted the move as “completely unacceptable” in a later post on X.

The shelter is the only one operating in Maspeth, but Community District 5 houses a few others. A homeless shelter at 78-16 Cooper Avenue in Glendale accommodates up to 200 single men, and a smaller family shelter sits on Summerfield Street at Wyckoff Avenue in Ridgewood. Both of these shelters only accommodate homeless New Yorkers, not asylum seekers. A faith-based shelter for asylum seekers, similar to the new location in Maspeth, opened in Ridgewood Presbyterian Church in the past month according to CB5 District Manager Gary Giordano. 

“I don’t think there have been any problems there,” Giordano said of the Church shelter. 

Giordano said he knows of very few complaints with regard to the Summerfield Street location, whereas some issues have been brought up with the Cooper Avenue shelter. 

Giordano also recalled that Sacred Heart Church in Glendale used to operate an overnight homeless shelter years ago. “They would get a meal, be able to take a shower, be able to sleep in a warm place, get breakfast in the morning,” he said. 

One of the questions Giordano has posed to the mayor’s office, he said, is what the men taking refuge in the Maspeth shelter overnight will do with their day. 

“In their case it’s hard, because a lot of them probably want to work, but they don’t have proper work authorization, from what I know,” Giordano said. “People usually aren’t lazy.”

Susan Kohl is the sole board member of the Maspeth Jewish Center who still resides in Maspeth, and attended the synagogue growing up while it was still active. She visited the inside of the shelter on Friday. 

“I went in there angry, and I came out with a little bit of understanding,” she said. 

Kohl said the inside of the building looked completely different than how she remembered it, with amenities that were clearly built to operate a preschool, along with some — namely, showers — that seemed to be an investment in the building’s capacity to act as a shelter. She noted the presence of classrooms, child-safe seats to use on buses, and bathrooms designed for children’s use. She also said that the building also seemed perfectly well-suited to act as a shelter, equipped with showers, a sprinkler system, supplies, and security at the front desk. 

Although she no longer doubts the building’s capacity to house asylum seekers, Kohl still doesn’t fully agree with the decision. 

“I think it still doesn’t belong there, and I think it’s sort of not fair because they [RSA] don’t live here, they don’t work here,” Kohl said. She added that she thinks many in the community might be scared by the presence of the shelter — and that she herself was initially scared as well. 

“I was up and down the avenue all day today, I didn’t see one,” Kohl said, referring to the asylum seekers. “They would stick out. I would notice.” 

A crowd of about a dozen protestors gathered outside the shelter on Friday afternoon. 27-year-old Deanna Andrea, a Jamaica, Queens resident, organized the gathering. 

“Where I live, I see the effects of how different people who aren’t from here legally per se are causing certain issues,” Andrea said. 

A few drivers passing by the scene rolled down their windows to shout out their opposition to the shelter. 

By Celia Bernhardt | cbernhardt@queensledger.com

Senior advocacy organization LiveOn gathered with over 100 older adults at Queens Borough Hall on Wednesday, March 6 to rally in support of increased funding for aging services across the city and state and denounce the Adams administration’s proposal of $18 million in cuts to over 300 Older Adult Centers throughout the city. 

The gathering took place ahead of the City Council’s Committee on Aging’s preliminary budget hearing on March 8, where advocates and seniors shared testimonies against the proposed cuts. 

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Assemblymember Steven Raga and a representative of Councilmember Shekar Krishnan were present at the gathering, along with

Queens Community House, Sunnyside Community Services, Alpha Phi Alpha, Allen AME, India Home Inc., and other older adult centers. Seniors in the crowd represented their centers with pride on their t-shirts, some carrying signs with their demands. 

Associate Executive Director of Older Adult Services at Queens Community House Anne Foerg was among the speakers in the atrium. Foerg elaborated on the challenges facing service providers, reminding the crowd that the total senior population has seen a significant expansion across the country. At Queens Community House, she explained, recent contracts from the city have resulted in an increase in caseloads and a stagnant salary for support staff that hasn’t kept pace with inflation, leading to difficulty retaining qualified employees. 

“The intensity of older adults’ needs are also increasing,” Foerg said. “Retirement incomes aren’t keeping pace with cost of living. The adult children of many older adults are leaving the city to find a better quality of life, and that means our older adult neighbors are losing a very important part of their support network.”

Foerg called for an investment of $20 million from the city, which was met with resounding cheers from the room. 

“We know every human being deserves dignity from birth to death,” Foerg continued. “And that’s why we raise our voices today for older adults, just as we have to remember they have raised their voices for us throughout the entire course of their lifetime. They deserve more, not less.”

The crowd broke into chants of “we want more!” before the borough president took the stage. 

“I want to thank each and every one of you because as the borough president, I stand on your shoulders,” Richards said. “Many of you who have sacrificed to pave the way for me to be here, whether you know it or not. If you didn’t know, now you know.”

Members of senior centers also delivered speeches; Usha Mehta of India Home Inc. spoke about how the center impacted her life. 

“During COVID, it was so rough, but it was India Home who took care of us and provided us with each and every need. India Home staff called us every day to ask ‘how are you doing?’ That was what we got and that kept us alive,” Mehta said. “But to give these services, what do you need? Funding.”

84-year-old Rosemary Whaley, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, said it was important for her to come out to the rally. “It’s good to find out who’s going to support the senior centers and how we can get more money” she said. 

“Right now, we’re kind of hurting for certain things, especially transportation, because they took it away from us right before Christmas,” Whaley said, referencing transportation provider Cathay’s sudden reduction in services to the Alpha Phi Alpha center.

Whaley explained how crucial it is for her and her friends to access the center. 

“A lot of us, even if we have people at home, they don’t give us the attention that we really need,” Whaley said. “And just being there with people our own age, we know what we need, we know how to support each other. We can laugh, we can joke, we can get sick of each other, and that’s okay because that’s part of life.”