Veterans and Students Share Stories Through Art

By MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

In the main hallway of Our Lady of Hope Catholic Academy, a row of watercolor portraits now hangs in tribute to 11 local veterans — each brushstroke telling a story of service, sacrifice, and connection. The artwork, created by seventh graders, culminates weeks of collaboration between students and veterans who shared their personal experiences in a project designed to bring history to life.

The project began in September when students met with veterans from the community to conduct interviews and sketch portraits based on their conversations. Under the guidance of art teacher Carmel Ann Caputo and English teacher Pat Honan, students later transformed their drawings into watercolor paintings and wrote biographical essays reflecting the veterans’ lives and service.

Principal Kara McCarthy said the idea was inspired by George W. Bush’s Portraits of Courage, a book of paintings honoring America’s veterans. “We had this idea last year,” McCarthy said. “Unfortunately, it was my first year in the building, so we decided to put it into motion this year. We got in touch with our local VFW and asked them for some vets to volunteer their time, where we could pair up the students and the veterans, and where they can interview them, ask them some questions about their life experiences, and then take some time to sketch them.”

For McCarthy, the project was more than an art lesson. “This is a piece of living history,” she said. “You can’t get this from a history book. You can’t get this from watching videos online. This is firsthand account of what happened—these people’s experiences when they left to go to war and what they faced when they came back.”

Caputo said she wanted the students to appreciate both the artistic and human elements of the experience. “There is a book by George W. Bush called Portraits of Courage,” she said. “So I explained that book to my students about how he used to sketch veterans. Then, in early September, we had veterans come in, we interviewed them, we sketched them, we took photos. And up until now, they were able to sketch the self-portrait and use watercolor paint.”

She guided students through techniques such as shading, proportion, and layering. “So today we are doing the portrait reveal,” Caputo said at the showcase. “Veterans were invited back with their family members and students with their family members to come back and see the finished piece of artwork, which is displayed in a hallway.”

Veteran Sean Baltrusitis, commanding officer of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 551 and a two-time Iraq War veteran, called the experience “a great partnership.” “Our Lady of Hope Catholic Academy always answers the call when we have youth programs,” Baltrusitis said. “These young patriots are so filled with patriotism, and they just grasp me for information. They just want to know what it was like during my time. I always tell people freedom isn’t free, and a lot of people forget about that sometimes.”

For students like seventh grader Julia Mace, the project was both intimidating and rewarding. “When we first found out about it, I was a little nervous, worried about talking to a veteran who served our country,” she said. “But after the project, when I realized that even I drew it and if it was bad, it was still going to be for a good cause, I realized that it was okay.”

Mace’s portrait depicted veteran Tammy Garcia, who served in the Iraq War. “We learned that she was one of the youngest people to join the military,” Mace said. “She was 16 when she first fully joined, and she served in the Iraq War. She said it was hard, and she was nervous, and she wasn’t sure why, but she realized that it was for a good reason.”

The final showcase, sponsored by Maspeth Federal Savings, brought together the veterans, students, and their families for a gallery viewing, pizza, and ice cream. McCarthy said the school hopes to make the event an annual tradition.

“It’s definitely been making a memorable impact on their lives,” she said. “Something that they will take with them as they move forward.”

Emily Smith

Passengers board the Q14 bus in Elmhurst, Queens.

On Hoffman Drive in Elmhurst, Queens, where bus riders had been waiting for upwards of 45 minutes for the Q14 bus, the line of passengers extended for a block and a half, earlier this October.

“People get tired of waiting and they walk for one hour,” rider Yang Lama, 35, said.

The Q14 is a creation of the Queens Bus Network Redesign, which was completed by the M.T.A. after a six-year planning process. It was implemented over the summer, in two phases, one on June 29, which included the creation of the Q14, and the other on Aug. 31. According to the Queens Bus Network Redesign page on the M.T.A. website, the plan intended to decrease travel times and increase bus frequency.

But bus riders who used to ride the Q38 bus line to travel through Middle Village, Elmhurst, Corona and Rego Park are not happy since the route was split into two to create the Q14.

“In the beginning it was fine, but it’s getting worse and worse,” said Tashi Tsering, 46, as translated by Lama.

Charlton D’Souza, president of the public transportation advocacy group, Passengers United, said the redesign has increased reports of bus bunching, which happens when multiple buses on the same line get delayed in traffic and end up one behind another.

D’Souza said that elderly and disabled people are especially affected by the bus route redesign. They are being asked, in many cases, to walk longer distances to their bus stops, due to stop removals and changes, “only for three buses to come together, and then there’s no bus for 45, 50 minutes.”

“They don’t live in our communities,” he said of M.T.A. planners. “They don’t understand our communities.”

Tsering said that he had been waiting for 45 minutes for the bus, and then, moments later, three Q14 buses appeared within five minutes.

The M.T.A. said, “The original loop configuration saw limited end-to-end travel,” which led to their decision to split the route.

Metropolitan Avenue and Mount Olivet Crescent bus stop, serving the Q38 bus, a block from Hess-Miller Funeral home, owned by Anthony Martino.

Funeral home owner, Anthony Martino, said that the M.T.A. has also removed stops along the remaining Q38 line, one which is in front of his business.

“We have two or three blocks in every direction where people utilize this bus stop,” said Martino.

The M.T.A. decided to keep a stop a block away instead. This stop sits in front of a cemetery, on the side of a busy, four-lane avenue. “At night, you wouldn’t want to be standing on that corner by yourself,” said Martino.

Donna Giordano, 68, used to ride the Q38 bus regularly to visit her daughter. She said she’s had to change her bus route completely. She said, “What used to be a 15-minute trip, is now an hour.”

Giordano used to board the Q38 bus on Metropolitan Avenue, where it would take her up Fresh Pond Road to Eliot Avenue and drop her off only a block and a half from her daughter’s home. Now, the Q38 only runs up and down Metropolitan Avenue, and riders have to walk the two blocks up Fresh Pond Road, to catch the Q14, which will bring them to the stops on Eliot Avenue.

“The M.T.A. may not think that two blocks is a lot, but it is a lot when you’re a senior citizen,” Giordano said.

The M.T.A. said that they weren’t able to connect the routes due to limited layover space and congestion on Fresh Pond Road. They said, “Bringing the routes even closer together would require coordination with the city.”

The last borough to get a redesign from the M.T.A. was the Bronx, in 2022. According to the Bronx Bus Network Redesign Six Month Evaluation, residents only received weekday speed increases of 4% on changed routes, and 2% borough-wide.

The M.T.A. is set to evaluate the changes in Queens over the next six months. They said the evaluation will “inform potential adjustments.” Still, residents are worried about the coming winter months. Lama said, “Now it’s winter time we hope there will be change.”

The Brooklyn Bus Route redesign is in its planning stages. Looking ahead to that project, D’Souza said, “Get ready, and fight like hell.”

Courtesy FDNY EMS Local 2507 

NYC EMS Union Launches Campaign Highlighting Low Pay, High Risk

By MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

The union representing more than 4,000 emergency medical technicians, paramedics and fire inspectors in New York City has launched a public awareness campaign to highlight what it calls “neglect” from City Hall, low pay, and worsening emergency response times that threaten public safety.

FDNY EMS Local 2507 kicked off the #StandWithEMS campaign on October 6, urging New Yorkers to pressure city officials to address long-standing pay disparities and staffing shortages among the city’s medical first responders.

Despite handling 1,630,466 medical emergencies in 2024, a 15.4% increase since the start of the pandemic, EMTs in the city earn just $18.94 an hour — a rate that union leaders say leaves many unable to afford to live where they work.

“We are world-class emergency response medical professionals and the FDNY is the busiest emergency medical response agency in the world,” said Local 2507 Union President Oren Barzilay. “Yet our front-line medical first responders are paid less per hour than most New Yorkers pay to babysitters or dog walkers.”

Barzilay said the situation has pushed EMTs to the brink. “We are literally working for minimum wage,” he said. “They keep passing legislation to improve the minimum wage for the private sector, food service delivery drivers, people in the food industry — they’re all making above what my men and women are making, which is $18 an hour. And if you take away all the deductions after taxes, we’re left with $12 and change.”

Courtesy NYC.Gov

The result, he said, is an attrition rate of about 70% within the first five years on the job. Many EMTs leave for higher-paying work elsewhere — including within the FDNY itself. “Just last Friday, 175 of my men and women resigned in one day to become firefighters, because they will make the same amount of money starting off,” Barzilay said.

The union says the consequences are already visible. According to the Mayor’s Management Report, emergency medical response times are up 1 minute and 47 seconds over the last four years. “People are literally dying because we don’t get there in time,” Barzilay said. He recounted stories shared at City Council hearings of New Yorkers who died waiting for ambulances that took 30 minutes or more to arrive. “This happens every day,” he said.

Barzilay described the situation as both a humanitarian and public safety crisis. “Our EMTs go through four months of training at the EMS Academy. Our paramedics go through nine months of rigorous medical training,” he said. “The training that we receive is how to bring somebody who has passed away back to life. We deal with people who are severely sick or injured, and we sustain their life until we get to the operating room.”

He said many EMS workers now struggle to meet basic needs. “I got men and women who can’t afford to commute to work every day. So they sleep at their station. They sleep at the car. Some are even living in shelters,” he said. “They love the job, but they just can’t afford to live here anymore.”

Barzilay said the pay inequity has persisted across administrations. “The mayor made a promise that he will fix this pay issue. The mayor before that made the same promise. Any mayor makes us the same promise that they will fix the EMS pay gap issues. But once they’re in office, they forget about you,” he said.

He also noted that over 50% of the FDNY EMS workforce are people of color and about 30% are women, arguing that the pay gap has a discriminatory dimension. “It’s discriminatory pay practices,” Barzilay said. “We brought this issue to the federal EEOC, and they ruled in our favor that we have a case and a claim to make against the city of New York.” The union has since filed a class action lawsuit that is now in the discovery phase.

Barzilay warned that as private partners such as Northwell Health withdraw their ambulance units from the city’s 911 system, Queens could soon see longer response times. “Queens is about to lose two ambulances from the private sector that operate under the 911 system,” he said. “Queens will start seeing a rise in response times if this is not corrected either.”

Through #StandWithEMS, Local 2507 is calling on the public to act. “Every citizen who understands our struggles [should] call the mayor’s office and tell them to fix this injustice,” Barzilay said. “We’re not looking for more than anybody else. We’re just looking for equal pay that other first responders have.”

For Queens EMT Esho, the path to emergency medical work began almost by accident. “A close friend told me that if you really don’t know what you’re doing, it’s kind of a safe play — a good introduction,” he said. Unsure of his next step, he applied, took the entry test, and was soon accepted into the 18-week EMS academy. What followed was months of training in anatomy, patient care, and field protocols — combined with the physical demands of daily cardio and endurance tests. “We started off with close to 300 people,” he said. “We graduated with 167.”

When he first stepped into the field, nerves set in. “I didn’t think I was ready. I thought I was gonna mess something up.” But his station quickly made him feel welcome. The station, like most across the city, doubles as both a workplace and a second home — a mix of ambulance bays, small offices, kitchens, and bunk areas for exhausted EMTs trying to grab minutes of rest between long calls.

Each shift begins with a check of the ambulance — “the bus,” as they call it — making sure every piece of gear is ready for the next emergency. Then the calls come. “It’s everything you can think of — cardiac arrests, respiratory distress, even toothaches,” Esho said. “If somebody calls 911, we go.” Some days it’s minor. Other days, it’s life and death. He still remembers one of his first cardiac arrests — a 65-year-old woman who overdosed. “It’s nothing like what you see in training,” he said. “You can’t prepare for the smell, the sight, or the family right there watching.”

In the academy, recruits are exposed to the realities of death early. “They even brought in corpses,” he said, to help prepare students who had never seen a body before. “They said it’s better to see it there than for the first time in the street.”

Now working overnight shifts in Queens, Esho describes EMS as “the ones who come when something happens outside the hospital.” Their job, he said, is to stabilize and transport — to keep patients alive long enough to hand them off to doctors and nurses. Without EMS, he said, “you’d just have a lot more deaths. People panic, they don’t know what to do. We’re the ones that take the problem by the horns and figure it out.”

Like many of his colleagues, he’s aware of the frustration over pay and staffing. Starting EMTs in New York City earn less than $19 an hour. “I kind of still don’t understand why we’re underpaid,” he said. “I see the impact we have every day. We’re helping people who can’t help themselves. But if we can’t afford to live, what’s gonna happen then?”

Esho said the low pay forces many EMTs into difficult personal situations, even as they continue to serve the city. “If we can’t help people anymore, not because we don’t want to, but because we can’t afford to, what happens then? We still have to eat, we still have to live,” he said. He noted that while some employees live with family and avoid rent, many others have no choice but to keep working under physical strain, including mothers, pregnant workers, and people recovering from surgery or injuries. “They’re still going because this is all they have. They’ve been building toward this for so long that they can’t do anything else,” he said. Despite the challenges, Esho acknowledged the dedication of his coworkers: “Even though the pay is low, there are EMS employees who are very passionate about the job and what they do.”

FDNY EMT Sophia Riccio of Battalion 44 in Brooklyn said she joined EMS because “the city needs EMTs that really care about patients. There are not enough EMTs or first responders and there are so many emergency calls all over the city. I love patient care and I love the medical field.”

She described the demands of the job as relentless, explaining, “The daily work conditions are not easy. We are all bombarded with calls and extremely busy, so EMTs are all getting run down. Just to get by, I have had to work close to 60 hours a week and it’s incredibly physically demanding. Mentally, you see a lot of things no one should see on a daily basis and it takes a big toll on all of us. Many EMTs have long commutes to their stations and we are not getting enough sleep. Anyone I talk to that is not EMS finds it disgusting how we get treated and paid. More people are dropping out of the service and calls are getting delayed as a result because there are not enough ambulances anymore. People ask themselves, ‘Why would I want to be in this job seeing these things and do so much for the city just to be paid like this?’”

Barzilay said the union’s ultimate goal is simple: “To get a decent, livable wage so nobody would leave here and go look for other jobs,” he said. “This is not only hurting my men and women, but it’s hurting the public. This is a public crisis.”

Barzilay ended with a plea for solidarity: “We save lives. Somebody needs to save us.”

Evening passersby in front of a fleet of Lime e-scooters parked on College Point Boulevard near Citi Field in Flushing, Queens.

Nicholas Gordon

Electronic scooters are having a moment in the Bronx and Queens. It is a moment both celebratory and fraught, with soaring ridership and sobering pushback.

The New York City Department of Transportation Shared E-Scooter Program has seen record ridership since its launch in the East Bronx in August of 2021. As the program expanded into Eastern Queens in 2024, the three companies in the pilot program—Lime, Bird, Veo—logged more than two million total rides for the year. Lime alone reported over 1.1 million trips through June 2025, double the number from the same period the previous year.

Yet even as ridership climbs, New Yorkers are divided on the idea of having e-scooters in their city. Those in favor of e-scooters say they provide accessibility to mass transit hubs, reduce congestion and pollution, and come in handy while running errands around the neighborhood. Skeptics and naysayers report safety concerns, parking problems, and congestion, too.

A Transportation Necessity for Some

For Lime rider Anthony Rodriguez, e-scooters fill a transportation gap in his Bronx neighborhood. “Growing up in Soundview, the public transportation was horrible,” Rodriguez said. “We needed more options.”

Rodriguez, who now lives in Jersey City and works in Soundview, uses Lime everyday for the last leg of his commute after hopping off the ferry. “The e-scooter changed my experience, and it actually helped me determine if I’d take my job,” said Rodriquez, director of performing arts at Kips Bay Boys and Girls club in Soundview.

After raising concerns about haphazard parking, Rodriguez said Lime set up a designated parking area in the neighborhood. He has plans to collaborate on a community art project to paint the parking area “with some Bronx style.”

Anthony Rodriguez rides a Lime e-scooter for his daily commute to work in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx. Photo: Anthony Rodriguez

Lime Aims for Sustainability and Accessibility

Lime’s mission to provide transportation that is “shared, affordable, and carbon-free,” gels with DOT’s goals of encouraging micromobility and reduced car dependency.

Nicole Yearwood, Lime’s Senior Manager of Government Relations, noted that Lime is seeing some of its highest numbers of rides during commuting hours. “We’re connecting people to their local bus routes and train stations, in the first and last mile of their commute,” Yearwood said. “We also help connect New Yorkers in those hours when transit slows down, after late-night work shifts.”

The company estimates that the 2 million e-scooter trips by New York riders have saved over 500 thousand vehicle trips and over 24,000 gallons of gasoline. Lime aims for sustainability through using renewable energy for its facilities and fleets, and reducing emissions through durability and recycling.

City Officials Push Back in Queens

Several city officials in Queens remain vocal in their opposition to e-scooters. They complain that DOT lacks transparency in dealing with complaints about e-scooters, and has been a no-show for Town Halls to discuss concerns with community members.

“This program has been a total disaster,” said Councilmember James Gennaro in a statement. “The community does not want these scooters here. We call on this Administration and DOT to terminate this program in Northeast Queens immediately.”

Assemblymember David Weprin echoed those concerns, stating, “This e-scooter program is not the right fit for our neighborhoods. As elected officials and local community leaders, we were not consulted for input on the program and our residents’ voices are not being taken into account. There must be more stringent rules on who can operate these scooters and better education about where they can be used and stored.”

Assemblymember Sam Berger of Queens has urged DOT to terminate the e-scooter program in District 27, arguing, “This program has a need and a place but it is not here.”

Councilmember Sandra Ung introduced a bill last fall to ban e-scooters from areas in Eastern Queens, including Flushing, citing safety concerns, existing traffic and pedestrian congestion, and “chaotic deployment.”

The DOT did not respond to multiple requests for comments.

An e-scooter parking corral in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens. The corrals have pleased some locals by curtailing wayward parking, while others find the corrals an inconvenient restriction. Photo: Nicholas Gordon

Addressing the Concerns

Lime, for its part, has addressed these concerns with additional community outreach. Over the summer, the company piloted a “Parking Wardens” program, rewarding riders with free rides and prizes for proper parking.

Lime also continues to partner with community members for new events and initiatives. The company renewed its program connecting baseball fans to Citi Field on game days for the “subway series” between the Mets and Yankees, and sponsored Prime Month festivals in the Bronx and Queens. For New York Fashion Week, Lime collaborated with a Bronx-based jewelry label on a collection including a choker, bracelet, ring, and earrings made from retired scooter parts.

“We want to participate in any community event where we have the opportunity to demonstrate the vehicle to people and show the safety measures and answer questions,” Yearwood said, welcoming invitations to join new community events.

“I’m a lifelong New Yorker but every community is different, so it’s really important for us to create these kinds of local partnerships and get feedback from residents,” she said. “No one knows their community better than the people who are living there day to day.”

Mixed Feelings Persist

On a recent Friday night, Bryan Glenn and Mike Quinteros ventured from New Jersey to Queens for a Mets game. They picked up Lime e-scooters on College Point Boulevard to ride to Citi Field. Upon arriving, they discovered they weren’t allowed to park the e-scooters near the stadium, and had to backtrack. On their return, the e-scooters’ batteries died, forcing the two men to walk their machines through the crowded sidewalks to get to the parking corral.

“For me this is a deal-breaker,” said Glenn, a first-time Lime rider who was overheated from the ordeal on the warm night. “I thought we’d save time getting to the stadium with the scooter but the parking restrictions made us late.”

Quinteros, who has used e-scooters while visiting other cities, said he wasn’t going to give up on them. “Sometimes the no-go zones are massive with these things,” Quinteros said. “It’s just part of the program. We didn’t know the zones around here, but we do now.”

Cheryl Taylor, a passerby on College Point Boulevard observing the scene, said she’s not a fan of e-scooters. “I have small people I take care of and I don’t want them getting hurt,” Taylor said, with her two young sons by her side. “I’m a driver too and it feels dangerous with the scooters on the roads.” Taylor works on College Point Boulevard and lives in the Bronx, where she sees the scooters everyday, she said.

“Some people might like the scooters, they might be fun to ride on a nice day,” Taylor said. “But in my view, some neighborhoods are just too crowded already.”