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Club of Sharing Hearts joins Queens West Kiwanis

Jessica Meditz on April 7, 2022

Queens West Kiwanis have officially chartered Kiwanis Club of Sharing Hearts/Queens West to the division.

The club, whose members have been diagnosed with intellectual/developmental disabilities, will be the first of its kind in the history of Kiwanis International.

“The club is excited to be joining such a community minded organization and is ready to give back in a big way,” Carol Verdi, lieutenant governor of the Kiwanis, said. “They will surely follow the Kiwanis motto of helping one child, one community at a time.”

Kevin Facey, president of the new club, and Carol Verdi, lieutenant governor

The ceremony was held at the Hyatt Regency at Resorts World Casino who provided the venue and food for the luncheon for free, and Kiwanis members from throughout Queens came to show their support.

All of the new members received their pins, and President Kevin Facey, Treasurer Larry Ottley, and Secretary Michael Cyrus were recognized.

The other members of Kiwanis Club of Sharing Hearts/Queens West include: Sofia Ghale, Marilyn Barros, Michael Jones, Brianne Sheridan, Manuel Hazoury, Mariam Abdallah, Mathew Koshi, James Cutright, Joanna Norris-Boyd, Dowlat Sukhram, Paula Samaroo, Aletha Capers, Nicholas Palmeri, Feliz Cruz, Camille Tyson, David Rumeo, James August, Marc Posey, Raymond Deleon and Adviel Osario.

“I am very excited to be part of this club,” Michael Cyrus said. “I can’t wait to work on the different activities coming up and help the community.”
At the event, the new club brought their first initiative to life by selling handmade blue and yellow bracelets in honor of Ukraine. All proceeds from the sales will go to relief for Ukrainian refugees.

Donations raised from last week’s event totaled over $700.

“Kiwanis membership equals service to our communities, and especially the children. Membership is our fuel to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves,” New York Kiwanis Governor James Mancuso said in a statement.

“Thank you to all the chartered members of Sharing Hearts,” he continued. “You have done something great by joining Kiwanis; there is no more of a noble cause than putting others before yourself.”

Joanna Norris- Boyd, Camille Tyson and Paula Samaroo performed a song and dance number at the event.

Longtime FSSA dance teachers to retire

Jessica Meditz on April 6, 2022

Ani Udovicki and Olivier Heuts reflect on their teaching journeys

By Jessica Meditz

jmeditz@queensledger.com

Olivier Heuts and Ani Udovicki will retire from Frank Sinatra School of the Arts this year after two decades teaching together.

Ani Udovicki and Olivier Heuts first got acquainted in the early 2000s as they sat in the waiting room to be interviewed for the same teaching position at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts.

Little did they know they would retire at the same time and spend over two decades together, teaching high school students the art form so close to their hearts: dance.

Udovicki, known lovingly by her students as “Ms. U,” is the daughter of Yugoslavian and Bolivian parents.

She trained as a ballet dancer while she lived in Europe, and eventually moved to New York City in her early 20s to pursue her dance career.
“My husband is an artist, so he was interested in coming here for the arts. I discovered modern dance when I came to the U.S., but you needed modern dance training to do it,” Udovicki said.

“I questioned where I should go to study modern dance and many said Julliard. I went to Julliard because there you get the sequential training, and out of there I could then join companies in modern dance, which I did until I was pregnant.”

Udovicki has danced professionally for numerous companies, including Belgrade National Theater, The Royal Flemish Ballet, Ballet Hispanico and The New York Baroque Dance Company. She has also worked with modern dance choreographers Ohad Naharin and Neta Pulvermacher.

Heuts said his story is quite similar to Udovicki’s, as he also hails from Europe—the Netherlands, to be exact—but it wasn’t until later in life that he began to pursue dance.

“I actually have a degree in art history from before I switched over to dance. I went to a dance conservatory in Amsterdam, where I studied modern dance,” Heuts said.
“I came to New York and right away got different jobs with modern dance companies, most notably Battery Dance in Lower Manhattan,” he continued. “But those jobs don’t pay full fare, so I did different side gigs to make ends meet.”

Heuts has studied with modern dance pioneer Merce Cunningham, whom he described as his idol.

He also has years of experience as a Pilates instructor and fitness trainer, and is well known for his healthy lifestyle. Every single day he walks to his work in Long Island City from his home in Manhattan over the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.

Tommy Tibball, a 2009 graduate of Frank Sinatra and co-director of TKO Dance Academy in Ozone Park, said that Heuts hasn’t changed a bit since he attended school.

“I’m teaching the freshmen a dance right now for the Spring Dance Concert, and I was running late. I told Mr. Heuts that I was sorry and parking was impossible. And he said in the same dry sense of humor, ‘Well, you should walk. I do it every day, and perfect attendance to add to that,’” Tibball said. “I remember always saying that I wish I could be like him when I’m older, because he literally must be in perfect health. The man hasn’t been sick in like six years.”

Heuts said that even if students don’t remember his barre exercises or across the floor combinations, he’s grateful that they remember him for who he is as a teacher and person.

“As I got older and taught for more years, I realized that it’s more important what I say and do in terms of my personality, rather than the actual things that I taught,” Heuts said. “They probably remember my walking over the bridge, being a vegetarian or making stupid jokes and things like that.”

Udovicki said that the most rewarding part of being a high school dance teacher is not so much what happens day in and day out, but what comes later.
“It’s so endearing to hear from the graduates who write back and come to visit. The things they say reaffirm me and the values I teach,” she said.

“Their pliés and contractions don’t really matter anymore, but the fact that they say they’ve learned so much about life, does,” she said. “I give these speeches sometimes, and they thank me for all that they’ve learned and my role as a teacher.”

Olivia Kenny, a 2019 graduate, had Udovicki as a dance teacher for three of the four years she attended Frank Sinatra, and said her class’ experience was unique because of her motivational words.

“Ms. U was our actual mom at that point because we saw her so much, and it was so good to end it with her as a senior. She would always give her little speeches, talk about history and really educate us in a different way,” Kenny said. “I feel like people at the college level are learning exactly what we learned at 14 and 15-years-old, and it was so amazing to learn from someone so experienced.”

Both teachers said they will forever cherish the feeling of being in the wings during special performances, such as the Spring Dance Concert or the Senior Show.
Udovicki and Heuts have arranged for numerous guest choreographers to come and stage their work on Frank Sinatra students, as well as facilitated performances at the Metropolitan Opera House through American Ballet Theatre.

Although they’re unsure of who will replace them when the school year comes to an end, they believe the school’s administration will seek feedback from them, given their longtime roles.

As for after retirement plans, they will both be quite busy.

“I want to continue teaching, but in other venues,” Udovicki said. “I’d like to teach dance for people with Parkinson’s, and maybe for people in jails. I’d also like to go back and volunteer at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts like I used to do.”

She also plans to spend more time with her family in Serbia, which used to be Yugoslavia.

Heuts and his wife plan to move out of New York City to a nearby suburb.

“If it were just me, I could probably go a few more years teaching, but my wife and I are a team,” he said.

“I feel somewhat happy that at least this was a pretty normal year; it’s a much better ending than what last year would have been.”

Udovicki said she feels privileged to have been able to indulge in the journey of self-discovery that comes with teaching adolescents.

“What I always loved was the art, that it’s a different language and a way of expressing yourself. It is really another way of communicating and making this world better,” she said.

“Politics is all an illusion, and so is dance, but it’s a beautiful thing that can enrich lives… what comes out of it is real.”

LIC Business Wins Big at ‘Make It Awards’

Jessica Meditz on March 30, 2022

For the fifth consecutive year, the New York Knicks and Squarespace hosted the Make It Awards, which support and celebrate the small, local businesses and entrepreneurs that help New York City thrive.

Hosted at Madison Square Garden, the Make It Awards honors four winners, presenting them with a $30,000 grant to further expand their mission.

This year’s winners include Adapt Ability, a Brooklyn nonprofit that provides custom adaptive bicycles for children with special needs; Harlem Pilates, which helps make health and wellness accessible to diverse communities; Legally BLK Fund, dedicated to supporting aspiring Black women attorneys by providing them with various resources; and COVERR, a Queens-based business that provides financial services that are customized for the gig economy, empowering workers to reach their highest earning potential.

Based in Long Island City, COVERR offers workers a better alternative to a credit card or loan by eliminating traditional barriers.

Kobina Ansah, the company’s founder, said that COVERR started out by him passing out flyers and interviewing Uber/Lyft drivers in Queens, which has grown significantly since.

Kobina Ansah.

“It really started out with finding out initially that Uber drivers in New York often pay somewhere between $350 to $500 plus dollars per week to rent the car that they’ll never actually own,” Ansah said.

“It became very clear to me that more than auto finance, liquidity or just cash management was a bigger challenge for Uber drivers, and shortly after, that started providing our business financing and people started getting inquiries from other parts of the gig economy.”

Ansah said that coming from a family of Ghanaian immigrants, he knows what it’s like to be part of an underrepresented community, which is why COVERR’s mission is so important to him.

He said that when he previously worked at Wells Fargo, he did not get to support a lot of people who look like him, and is grateful to now be able to provide services to underserved market segments.

“That’s what compelled me to start to focus on people who worked in emerging markets like the gig economy, which happens to be one of the fastest growing labor segments,” he said. “It happens to be represented by over 50 percent of those who work in the U.S. economy currently are members of the BIPOC community.”

Ansah said he was stunned to have been recognized in the Make It Awards, especially upon discovering that 750 other businesses applied.

He added that with the $30,000 grant, COVERR will use the funds to help further automate the underwriting practice, which will speed up the application process for clients, creating a job board to create greater resources for all clients and research and development.

“Being in a city as vibrant as New York, I knew the competitive landscape was huge And so I feel very fortunate to be selected,” Ansah said. “Honestly, it’s an affirmation of the hard work that we do, and the importance of the work that we’re doing.”

Amazon partners with The Fund to assist CUNY students

Jessica Meditz on March 30, 2022

As countless New Yorkers continue to face financial hardships by way of inflation and the ongoing COVID pandemic, a newly developed initiative by Amazon and the Fund for Public Housing (The Fund) seeks to make the lives of CUNY students who are NYCHA residents a bit simpler.

Created as a nonprofit in 2016, The Fund exists solely to support programs for residents of NYCHA.

The CUNY Scholars program, which is part of The Fund and invests in leadership development, workforce skills and healthy lifestyles for CUNY students who are NYCHA residents.

Over the course of six years, there have been about 257 total CUNY Scholars who have taken part in the program, receiving $1,000 scholarships each.

As part of the new partnership, a grant from Amazon will support the expansion of the NYCHA CUNY Scholars program by doubling the number of new scholars and fellows to 80 over two years and providing individualized mentoring, career awareness and coaching from a new NYCHA mentoring and internship consultant.

The program will be administered by NYCHA’s Office of Resident Economic Empowerment and Sustainability (REES) Department of Adult Education and Training.

The NYCHA-CUNY Resident Scholars are recruited via digital outreach by NYCHA and CUNY, making students aware of their eligibility for the program.

Each CUNY Scholar must have at least a 3.0 GPA and 30 credits, demonstrating their commitment to a college education.

“This particular program, for which we are very grateful for, Amazon would support and expand the CUNY Scholars program. What’s different about it is it will create a program for mentorship and career support, as well as a fellows program which provides funding to pay a stipend for 10 of those students over two years to intern either at The Fund or REES,” Claire McLeveighn, deputy director of the Fund for Public Housing, said.

“Amazon has also very generously agreed to make available some of its employees to be part of the mentoring portion, and we’re excited about that because Amazon does everything,” she said. “Whether you’re a student interested in marketing, technology or logistics, the universe is open to learning about all kinds of career possibilities with an organization like Amazon.”

McLeveighn said that Amazon has previously donated several hundred HD Fire tablets to The Fund during the pandemic when residents in workforce development training were forced to work remotely, lacking access to electronic devices.

Additionally, Amazon provided resources to offer meals to residents when many were suffering from the effects of food insecurity.

“We love the idea of the program because our support helps to double the number of scholarships given annually, and actually provides a career counselor to help students through their career journey,” Carley Graham Garcia, head of community affairs for Amazon New York, said.

“Amazon recognizes that CUNY is an economic driver, not only for New Yorkers, but for the city. This made a lot of sense for us because it supported not only lower income New Yorkers living in public housing but also pathways to and through CUNY to great jobs,” she said. “Every student needs help with college tuition. Even CUNY, as affordable as it is, can be a barrier for New Yorkers. We wanted to figure out how to help add to the scholarship funds so that students living in public housing would have a chance to apply for scholarships that would help their education through the CUNY system.”

The 2022 NYCHA-CUNY Resident Scholarship will launch on May 16 and closes on July 13.

NYCHA REES will host information sessions to provide guidance to potential applicants and answer questions related to the scholarship. Scholarship inquiries can be made at scholarships@nycha.nyc.gov.

Briarwood native touches hearts with ‘H Is For Haiku’

Jessica Meditz on March 30, 2022

New York City children—particularly those who grew up in Queens—haven’t always had the easiest time relating to the flowery descriptions of nature detailed in the books and stories they read.

But for Sydell Rosenberg, who raised her family in Briarwood, living in the big city is precisely what drove her to bring her passion for haiku poetry to life.
Unfortunately, Rosenberg passed away in October 1996, and her children’s poetry book, “H Is For Haiku: A Treasury of Haiku from A to Z” was posthumously published by her daughter Amy Losak in 2018.

Losak said that her mother discovered haiku poetry sometime in the ‘60s, and quickly fell in love with the art form.

“I like to say that haiku found her,” Losak said.
“She did seem to bond with this compact, lustrous form of poetry. It’s the shortest form of poetry in the world, and yet because of its small size, it’s perhaps the most expansive,” she continued. “It can capture so much, in such few words and such few lines.”

Rosenberg, whose daily routine consisted of traveling through Queens neighborhoods including Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, used her bustling surroundings as her primary source of inspiration for her work, including the poems in “H Is For Haiku.”
With images of street cats chasing after peach pits and keeping distant from pigeons and sparrows, Rosenberg makes use of the scenery and nature that is familiar to New Yorkers—specifically in Queens.

Briarwood Author Sydell Rosenberg

In her book, there is a poem that reads: “Queueing for ice cream, sweat-sprinkled office workers on Queens Boulevard,” in which children can interpret as their favorite neighborhood ice cream shop, the first signs of spring, or the Mister Softee trucks.

“She wasn’t galavanting around the world searching for exotic adventures, she found her own small adventures right in her neighborhood,” Losak said.

“She actually did write a longer poem about the Q60 bus going down Queens Boulevard, which I’m trying to sort out the versions and submit to a magazine perhaps,” she continued. “But that’s where she found the fodder for her writing — in her daily life as a resident of Queens.”

Losak said that the loss of her mother was very sudden, shocking and traumatic for the family.

Even though she knew her mother dreamed of publishing a children’s haiku picture book, Losak did not begin resurrecting her poems until 2011, or assembling them into a children’s book until 2015.

“That took me a long, long time, because the grief was so overwhelming. It was paralyzing and it lasted a really long time,” Losak said.

“Finally, I started taking baby steps to gather some of her work that she and I felt were best suited for a young audience. I researched publishers that didn’t require an agent to submit because I figured no one would want to represent a dead author, even though I was her living surrogate,” she said. “The book was the ultimate goal, and through a combination of determination, luck and utter generosity and kindness of the poetry community is what got it done.”

It was another haiku poet who recommended Losak submit “H Is For Haiku” to the book’s publisher, Penny Candy Books, who loved the book and signed the illustrator, Sawsan Chalabi.

The book was well received by both the poetry and teaching communities, and was honored in 2019 by the National Council of Teachers of English as a notable poetry book.

Losak has also participated in various visits and readings around Queens and elsewhere, including Kew & Willow Books in Kew Gardens.

Although Losak did not always find haiku so fascinating and illusive, she said it was later on in her life when she realized the true influence her mother had on her.

“Even with all the fits and starts and the setbacks, it became so important for me to get this to some kind of conclusion, because over time, her dream became my dream,” Losak said.

“And over time, I realized I couldn’t have the luxury of infinite time. I am close in age now to the age she was when she died suddenly,” she said. “I had to make that decision, and I had to get it published.”

Rosenberg was a charter member of the Haiku Society of America in 1968, and Losak keeps the family tradition alive as a member of the society today.

In addition to “H Is For Haiku,” Rosenberg’s chapbook, “Poised Across the Sky” was published in 2020 with Kattywompus Press.

Losak currently works on a collaborative, mother-daughter adult haiku book, “Wing Strokes,” which is slated to be published later this year with Kelsay Books.
However, she emphasized that “H Is For Haiku” is what started it all.

“It definitely captures in very lucid, simple but evocative language her life and by extension, anyone’s life being a resident of Queens. The great thing about haiku is that you find the universal in the particular,” Losak said.

“Even though it’s the shortest form of poetry, it’s not easy to write. But that’s what makes it so rewarding,” she continued. “These poems are her life, but at the same time, these are poems that anybody can relate to.”

She encourages all people, old and young, to indulge in poetry over the month of April, which is National Poetry Month.

“H Is For Haiku” is available for purchase from various sources, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kew & Willow Books.

Queens Kiwanis charter first-ever club for disabled

Jessica Meditz on March 30, 2022

This week, Queens West Kiwanis will welcome a brand new club to the division.

For the first time in Kiwanis International history, the club is made up of 16 members who are diagnosed with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

The club, Kiwanis Club of Sharing Hearts/Queens West, will be a true Kiwanis club as opposed to an Aktion club, which is a service leadership program that supports people with disabilities.

Carol Verdi, lieutenant governor of Queens Kiwanis West and executive vice president of education services at HeartShare, said that the idea came to fruition at a training session with New York Kiwanis Governor James Mancuso.

“He told us to try and find some new clubs and think outside the box. I’ve been working with the developmentally disabled for my entire professional career, and I thought we should start a Kiwanis club with our guys who are adults,” Verdi said.

“Everyone at HeartShare was on board with it, and I’m very proud of them,” she continued. “They will be as active as a regular club, and there are many clubs in the West Division that said they will support them with anything they need to be successful.”

The club welcomes 17 members: Kevin Facey, president; Larry Ottley, treasurer; Michael Cyrus, secretary; Sofia Ghale, Marilyn Barros, Michael Jones, Brianne Sheridan, Manuel Hazoury, Mariam Abdallah, Mathew Koshi, James Cutright, Joanna Norris-Boyd, Dowlat Sukhram, Paula Samaroo, Aletha Capers, Nicholas Palmeri and Feliz Cruz.

The charter date is April 1, where there will be a luncheon at 11 a.m. inside the Hyatt Regency JFK Airport at Resorts World to celebrate the newest addition to the Queens West Kiwanis family.

Verdi, who’s been involved with the Kiwanis since 1986, is no stranger to being isolated from the organization because of her identity.

She could not become a formal member of the Kiwanis club until about 24 years ago because they did not allow women to join, so she takes pride in seeing another “first” for the organization today.

“Oftentimes in our society, people with developmental disabilities are looked down upon because of their ability. People think they can’t do what others do, and I think showing the community and the greater Kiwanis family that they can be successful and they can do just what we do,” Verdi said. “For example, the treasurer may need some help doing math, and the secretary may need help with spelling, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t capable. And I think that taking this step, especially for our division, is showing everyone that our guys can function in the real world just like the rest of us.”

Pols host vigil to remember AAPI hate crime victims

Jessica Meditz on March 24, 2022

Last year, eight victims, including six Asian women, were killed when suspected gunman Robert Aaron Long opened fire in a shooting spree targeting three spas in the Atlanta area.

One year later, elected officials in Queens held a candlelight vigil in their memory. The event was co-sponsored by New York City Councilwoman Sandra Ung, Councilwoman Linda Lee, Councilwoman Julie Won and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.

Participants held up candles, white flowers and photos of the victims—Xiaojie Tan, 49, Daoyou Feng, 44, Hyun Jung Grant, 51, Suncha Kim, 69, Soon Chung Park, 74, Yong Ae Yue, 63, Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33 and Paul Andre Michels, 54—as speakers addressed the ever-present violence against Asian individuals in New York City.

“He deliberately sought out these businesses because they were owned by Asian women. Make no mistake, this was a hate crime,” Ung said.

“Just this week, an elderly woman was punched 125 times simply because she was Asian,” Ung continued. “Every week, we hear of new accounts of Asian women being attacked, including the recent deaths of Christina Yuna Lee, Michelle Go, and GuiYing Ma.”

Ung expressed how she fears for her safety as an Asian woman walking in the streets of New York City and taking public transportation. She also said AAPI children must be given a sense of dignity and seniors a sense of security.

“No one should fear for their life simply because of the color of their skin, their religion or who they love,” she said.“So many New Yorkers face intolerance and bigotry, and because of that, we won’t stop fighting to make New York a welcoming place for everyone.”

Lee, who became the first Korean-American elected to the New York City Council, said that a multi-prong approach with more culturally competent services is necessary to combat Asian hate.

“We need to make sure that there is teaching of acceptance in schools, and that Asian Americans are not seen as outsiders or others. We also need to continue to work with our public safety police officers and community liaisons so we can advocate and work together,” Lee said. “We need to make sure that we are actually increasing services and resources into the city as well, so people who are homeless have places to go, that the mentally ill are getting services that they need, and that our community groups have enough funding to be able to hire staff that speak in-language.”

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards addressd the crowd, saying: “an attack on us is an attack on all of us.”

During the vigil, Lee also shared that she was disappointed that a self defense instructor she recently met has a lengthly waiting list for classes geared specifically towards Asian seniors.

“They’re targeting women and seniors because we are more vulnerable,” she said. “We need to do as much upstander and bystander training as possible, and look out for each other and be there as a community because it takes all of us.”

Councilman Shekar Krishnan also spoke at the event, emphasizing that violence and discrimination against the AAPI community is not a new phenomenon.

“Hate against Asian American communities goes back generations where we have been invisibilized as communities—where we aren’t seen, we aren’t heard and many of the stereotypes and prejudices about our communities must be shattered,” Krishnan said.

“This invisibilization has meant that the fears and genuine safety concerns of so many seniors and Asian American women have not been recognized for so long,” he added. “To come out and to solve and eradicate this hate, the one thing that’s required first is to listen to the voices of our Asian American communities.”

NYC Councilwoman Linda Lee holds up an image of one of the victims of the Atlanta spa shootings.

Other elected officials who showed their support at the vigil, include NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, State Senator John Liu and Assemblywoman Nily Rozic.

“There have been nearly 11,000 anti-Asian hate crimes across the country in the year since those beautiful souls in Atlanta were lost,” Lander said. “We cannot tolerate that in our city and we must find ways to work together to make it safe. Asian New Yorkers, all New Yorkers, deserve to be able to walk around their city without feeling like they might be targeted for violence just because of who they are.”

Many of the evening’s speakers cited the statement made by BP Richards in regard to Queens. He said, “an attack on us is an attack on all of us,” symbolizing the diversity and sense of unity that is present in the borough.

“How many times must we stand here? We’ve been here too many times,” Richards said. “Almost every single day, we hear news of another Asian American being accosted or attacked, targeted for who they are and what they look like. Asian Americans right here in New York, of all places, have felt the sting of racism and violence.”

“I wish these were isolated events, but they are not. Crimes against Asian Americans have skyrocketed nationwide by nearly 350 percent. We must continue to stand in solidarity with them against this pandemic of prejudice,” Richards said. “Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson don’t have a vaccine for this virus… All of us standing here today are the cure.”

614 Woodward Avenue repossessed by the city

Jessica Meditz on March 17, 2022

By Jessica Meditz

jmeditz@queensledger.com

Correction*

New information regarding the story “614 Woodward Avenue repossessed by the city” learned by the Queens Ledger after press time, indicates that a tax lien sale certificate has been placed on the property which remains in the possession of Silvershore Properties. Tower Capital Management is handling the sale.

Ridgewood’s biggest eyesore is no longer owned by Silvershore Properties.

The property, left abandoned and unproductive for several years, has now been repossessed by the Bank of New York because of unpaid taxes, NYC Department of Finance records show.

After years of 311 reports, complaints to the Community Board, and efforts to clean up the site, the property was taken back by the city on Feb. 24.

The action was filed to the Automated City Register Information System (ACRIS) on March 4.

Tyson Washburn, a resident of Ridgewood, suspects this was the plan all along.

He said that he knew the site would be an issue since the building, where there is now an empty lot, was illegally demolished about five years ago.

“They got a stop work order and a fine for that, and I sort of knew they were going to abandon it. The moment they stopped, they didn’t pay for their dumpster to be picked up, and so the guys who own the dumpster had to pick it up and pay the cost,” Washburn said.

“And it’s just kind of getting worse and worse. I’ve reported multiple times about the sidewalk being in terrible disarray and the scaffolding that has been up for more than two years. At one point, there was water constantly leaking from it.”

At least a dozen 311 service requests have been made regarding dirty conditions, graffiti, rodents, and illegal dumping at 614 Woodward Avenue in the span of the past month.

From February until now, eight summonses have been issued to Silvershore Properties by the Department of Sanitation, as a result of people illegally dumping their garbage there.

Washburn suspects that since the building was torn down illegally, the city may have to demolish the remaining property.

“It’s definitely unsafe,” he said. “If you look at that building, you can see it is crumbling. I’m not sure what they can do with it.”

Gary Giordano, district manager of Queens Community Board 5, said that the board has requested that the Department of Buildings reinspect the site.

“I don’t know what the Buildings Department is going to be able to do as far as gaining safe entry goes,” Giordano said. “So if they could see the property from the roof of someone nearby, they would get a much better idea about the condition of the property. Often, if the roof is a problem, the inside is going to be a real problem.”

He added that it’s hard to say if the site will be demolished, and that the “best situation” would be to have extensive work done on the property as opposed to demolition.

Giordano suggested that if there’s no demand to operate a business at the site, and the building can be salvaged and renovated, that people could eventually live there.

“There is a shortage of housing, and I haven’t seen anybody doing anything there that has been of any use for at least seven years. I think it would be a good site to have some apartments on the first floor,” he said.

“But you would have to go to the Department of Buildings to get that done. It would be hard to have something there for public use, in any period of time, where the property doesn’t sit there for a while.”

A representative from Silvershore Properties could not be reached for comment.

Elmhurst native makes impact on sneaker industry

Jessica Meditz on March 17, 2022

By Jessica Meditz

jmeditz@queensledger.com

Sarah Sukumaran, founder of Lilith NYC.

The sneaker and fashion industries were always an interest of East Elmhurst native Sarah Sukumaran, but they were never something she thought she would pursue as a career.

A business graduate of Babson College, she found herself in the world of marketing and tech in New York, working as the head director product at Nike.

It was during March 2020 when she decided to quit her job and launch Lilith NYC, a Queens-based footwear brand for women and femmes in the sneaker world.

“Spending time at Nike, I realized that I wanted to definitely create shoes for women because for so long, I felt they were underserved in terms of selection, sizing and colorways,” Sukumaran said. “I gravitated towards men’s styles still as a 20-something-year-old, couldn’t get my size, didn’t care for the colorways dropped for women and the silhouettes had still been centered around male sport.”

Sukumaran emphasized that women spend more money on sneakers than men do, owning 80 percent of the wallet share.

Despite this, her time at Nike revealed that the industry is not moving at the pace that she would like, and feels that brands should make an effort to cater to their audience.

Lilith is Sukumaran’s outlet to reach out to other women who love sneakers and explore feminine identity and style through its designs.

“Everything from the brand top down is really through the lens of the divine feminine, because historically, everything has been either hyper masculinized or hyper feminized. In sneaker culture, the expectation for women is super sexually presented through campaigns or ads, or it was the opposite where you have to be a tomboy,” Sukumaran said.

“Especially in 2022, I question how we can express our gender, sexuality or style on a spectrum, and I wanted to do that through the lens of the divine feminine,” she continued. “It’s an energy that we all have, but it transcends the gender binary and doesn’t pigeonhole us the way the industry has wanted us to.”

Lilith’s debut silhouette, the Caudal Lure, is designed by Sara Jaramillo and named after a type of mimicry snakes take on to lure their prey. The shoe’s outsole resembles a snake’s tail.

The serpent, throughout region, culture and time, has been a symbol of the divine feminine, and this imagery is ever present in the brand.

As the daughter of Tamil refugees, Sukumaran expresses her culture through this imagery, since the Hindu goddess of protection is represented with a five headed cobra.

She simultaneously ties in her connection to Queens to the brand through Caudal Lure’s colors, concrete jungle green and amberlou brick.

The green pays homage to the grit of Queens and lush of urban life, redefining the urban jungle, and the amber-toned brick represents the bricks used by architect Louis Allmendinger for homes throughout Elmhurst, Sunnyside and Ridgewood.

Lilith NYC is currently online only, but Sukumaran said a physical storefront in Queens is a goal of hers.

She has participated with in-person popups, such as Queens Collaborative, to share the designs with locals, and hopes to release more colorways and a new design next year.

During Women’s History Month, Sukumaran embraces the fact that Lilith NYC is a women-run brand and commits to sharing women’s achievements through storytelling.

“Whether you’re a woman in tech, footwear or architecture, women’s contributions are constantly erased. They’re constantly overlooked, and sometimes attributed to men,” Sukumaran said.

“That’s why we named it Lilith; she was considered the first feminist because she didn’t want to be submissive to Adam. Historically, she’s been written out of history in a negative light, and so the name is to tell our own stories and men don’t get to dictate it.”

Queens pols send supplies to Ukrainian refugees

Jessica Meditz on March 16, 2022

By Jessica Meditz

jmeditz@queensledger.com

Citizens of the Ukraine continue to cross into Poland, fearing for their safety as Russian troops invade the Eastern European nation. In a show of support for the Ukrainian people, community leaders in Queens came together to help provide relief for refugees fleeing their homeland.

Tony Di Piazza, president of Federazione Italo-Americana Di Brooklyn and Queens in Glendale, partnered with New York City Councilman Robert Holden and Councilman James Gennaro this past weekend, to hold a supply drive for Ukrainian refugees.

The number of donations filled up two large trucks, which were loaded with essentials including tents, food, toiletries, clothing and medical supplies  — to be shipped via air to Finland, then Warsaw, and eventually Rzeszow, a Polish city near the Ukrainian border.

Di Piazza said that the Associazione Culturale Italiana Di New York will cover the cost of the shipment and that the care package should arrive by the end of the week.

“In today’s age of real time news, it was disconcerting watching the images on television of the destruction of a beautiful country and the children. We could not stand idly by and do nothing,” Di Piazza said.

“We’re happy that we could, in a very small way, be helpful to the people of Ukraine,” he continued. “The fight goes on. We stand with the people of Ukraine, we stand with Poland, and we stand for humankind.”

New York City Councilman Francisco Moya, Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers, Councilwoman Linda Lee, Councilwoman Nantasha Williams and Councilwoman Sandra Ung will also host drop-off sites throughout Queens in support of the effort.

Comm. Joseph Ficalora, ECS Globe Air, WAW Humanitarian Goods, Fucsia Fitzgerald Nissoli, Ficalora Family Foundation, the CHAZAQ Organization, Chaverim of Queens, New York Community Bank, Maspeth Federal Savings Bank, Cross Country Savings Bank, Webster Bank, Richmond County Savings Foundation, and Seka Moving Company were among twenty-five local sponsors who also participated in the drive.

“As citizens of the United States, we identify with the struggle for freedom and this attack by Putin,” Holden said.

“Every day, we see videos of women and children being targeted. So it’s important for us as legislators, and just people who love democracy, that we help out.”

Holden added that participants of the drive will continue to collect and ship more supplies to those in need.

Gennaro said the effort is “the least they can do” as citizens of New York.

“The least we can do is help out those that are in dire straits, or running across the border to Poland, welcoming them with open arms,” Gennaro said. “I’m very happy to be part of this initiative to make sure that we do the right thing by the people who are suffering so terribly… We wish much ill will upon Vladimir Putin. May his murderous rampage come to an end; may he come to an end.”

Tony Di Piazza speaks about efforts made to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

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