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Rain Didn’t Stop Sunnyside Pride

Iryna Shkurhan on June 7, 2023

By Iryna Shkurhan | [email protected]

Rain and thunder didn’t stop Sunnyside from kicking off LGBT Pride Month with the second annual SunnyPride on June 2.

Beginning at Lowery Plaza, on Queens Blvd. and 40th St, at 6 p.m, elected officials and community advocates held a rally denouncing the attacks on the LGTBTQ+ community nationwide and locally. Council Member Julie Won, State Senator Michael Gianaris and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez expressed solidarity with the community and said that they will continue to fight to secure equal rights.

Over a hundred attendees proceeded to march underneath the 7 train to Bliss Plaza on 46th St. where a queer art market and performances awaited the crowd. A marching band led the parade to the next plaza, covered from the rain by the train above.

“I’m the community board chair, and I’m queer. And you’re the director of the Sunnyside BID and you’re queer. Why don’t we have a queer event?” recalled Morry Galonoy, the second Vice Chair of CB2, when he asked Dirk McCall, the executive director of Sunnyside Shines, to plan a pride event just three weeks out last year.

“We are not only celebrating, we are marching in protest of the folks that are trying to trample our rights. We cannot let that happen, we have to stand, be counted, be seen, be visible and take up space,” continued Galonoy during the rally.

Rain began to come down with some thunder and lightning as the rally began to transition into a march. But that did not stop the community from carrying on with the celebration with full energy.

“I see a crowd where your faces are welcoming, where trans faces are welcome. Because you’re in this crowd,” said Émilia Decaudin, Democratic District Leader and youngest ever elected State Committee Member at the rally. “This is what Queens means.”

Decaudin is the first openly transgender party official in the state and staunch advocate of transgender rights.

At a Queer Makers Mart, various artists set up tables to display and sell their prints, custom mugs and tote bags. Initially, vendors set up their stands at the Sunnyside arch block, but they relocated to underneath the train at Bliss St. due to the rain.

One artist, Lili Rochelle, displayed watercolor prints in various sizes from her “Bodies” collection which seeks to embrace the female form. She says that her art is made through a queer lens for people of color.

One of the main sponsors of the event was Romantic Depot, an adult sex toy and lingerie store with twelve locations across the tri-state area. Their Woodside location on 47th Street and Queens Blvd, is just a block from where the event was held. Store employees carried a banner during the march and gave out coupons and free gifts to the crowd.

Other sponsors included Elmhurst Hospital, Sunnyside Shines Business Improvement District, Public Health Solutions, Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of Transportation and Queens Community Board 2.

“They introduced more than 600 pieces of legislation across this country, against the LGBTQ community,” said Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez about her fellow members of congress. “And we cannot let that stand. So together, we will fight hate, we will come together to make our country a better country.”

The event culminated with several dance performances from drag queens and a story time reading from one of the performers to children in attendance. But the adults also tuned in attentively to the reading of the pride themed book.

A no cover after-party was held at Alewife Brewery, located at 41-11 39th Street, after 9 p.m. There, attendees were able to purchase “One Love Beer,” a hazy double IPA, with proceeds going to the Queens Center for Gay Seniors in Jackson Heights. Live music was played by singer-songwriter Janex followed by a performance from drag queen Angela Mansberry.

AOC Rallies for Progressive Priorities in State Budget

Iryna Shkurhan on April 18, 2023

State Senator Julia Salazar, who represents swaths of North Brooklyn, sponsored the Good Cause bill. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan.

By Iryna Shkurhan | [email protected]

“Welcome to the People’s Republic of Astoria,” declared Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the April 12 rally for progressive legislation to be included in the delayed state budget.

The congresswoman was joined by other Queens progressive officials to advocate for tenant protection in the form of Good Cause legislation, and investment in public renewable energy sources. A stronger commitment to bail reform and closing down Rikers Island jail were also embraced in the shared progressive vision for the city and state.

Dozens of local residents and other borough supporters gathered to chant, “Fight fight fight, housing is a human right” as representatives from Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families party led the event at Athens Square on Wednesday evening.

“It’s become abundantly clear that there are two competing visions for what the future of New York would look like. One vision that’s led by the governor and profit and corporations, and another vision that’s led by every day New Yorkers like us by our movement,” said State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, who covers swaths of North Brooklyn and Astoria.

The Good Cause Eviction bill, first introduced in 2019, would make it illegal for landlords to end tenancy, unless they had good reason, such as failing to pay rent or breaking the lease. It would also create a rent-hike cap of no more than three percent year to year, or more than 150 percent of the Consumer Price Index.

Currently, if you do not live in a rent-controlled building there is no limit of how much your landlord can raise your rent as long as they provide advanced notice. They also do not need to explain why tenancy is being terminated.

Left in an idling state in Albany since its introduction, the recent budget expected to be delivered late by Governor Hochul has reinvigorated advocacy for its inclusion.

Since the state’s pandemic-induced eviction moratorium expired on January 15, 2022, 4,400 households have been removed from their homes in NYC, according to city data. In Northwest Queens, this past February marked the second highest median rent of all time. All while homeless rates have reached Great Depression levels in recent years.

“It doesn’t seem like the landlords understand what the people have been through,” said Jay Titus, 54, in an interview with the Queens Ledger. He traveled from his home in Coney Island to attend the rally in Astoria’s Athens Square.

He says that people are still feeling the impact of the pandemic, and the concurrent destabilization in people’s lives should be considered by politicians enacting new housing legislation.

Congresswoman Alexandria- Ocasio Cortez was the first progressive elected official to speak at the rally in Astoria. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan.

“So when we talk about fighting for the people, fighting to pass Good Cause Eviction is essential,” said Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, who urged Governor Hochul to include the legislation in her budget.

Julia Cabrera, a tenant organizer from Make the Road New York, and Queens resident for the past thirty years, spoke about her experience dealing with a drastic rent hike at the rally.

“My insurgency began when the small house changed owners a few years ago,” said Cabrera in Spanish. Darius Khalil Gordon, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, stood alongside to translate her speech to English.

In the five years since new owners took her building, she said her rent increased by $1,100 which brought the price up to $3,200. The new cost is no longer affordable for her and the other three families she shares the space with. It is also a drastic increase from the cost she grew accustomed to paying for over two decades.

Tenant organizer Julia Cabrera alongside Darius Khalil Gordon, who translated her speech from Spanish. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan.

Cabrera says she was the victim of a physical and verbal attack at the hands of her landlord that hospitalized her. It followed her complaints of a lack of hot water in her unit as well as 16 other violations that she reported to 311. She says that she is still dealing with injuries from the push.

“The greatest concern is that the owner will continue to retaliate against her and the other tenants in her apartment,” said Gordon.

City Council Member Julie Won, who represents western Queens, said that housing eviction caseloads in the thousands have hit her desk since she took office a year ago. All are similar to Julia’s story. She says that the rising cost of utilities additionally burdens renters who are  already overwhelmed with rent hikes.

City Council Member who represents western Queens, Julie Won, advocated for Good Cause to be included in the state budget. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan. 

“We have so many people in Astoria, who cannot afford yet another speculator buying up an apartment building on the loan agreements that necessitate the eviction of long term tenants, they can’t afford that,” said Assemblymember Zohran Mamdami, who represents Astoria and Ditmars. “That is the recipe for eviction. And that is the recipe for homelessness.”

Pols want to ban tax lien sale

Matthew Fischetti on February 8, 2023

Argue program disproportionately affects Black New Yorkers

By Matthew Fischetti

[email protected]

Councilmembers Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn), Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) and Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens) joined supporters to rally against tax lien sale.

Electeds, advocates and supporters braved the brisk weather outside City Hall last Thursday to demand an end to the tax lien sale.

The tax lien sale was first instituted in 1996, which allows buyers to purchase the debt collected by properties that are behind on municipal costs like property taxes.

“The tax lien sale is a relic of the past. It’s a relic of the Giuliani era, and it has got to be put to an end,” Fort Greene Councilwoman Crystal Hudson said at the rally. “We have the tools we need to move forward and create solutions that build our communities up rather than tearing them down, allowing low income and moderate income homeowners to live with the dignity they deserve. And in my district, specifically, we lost 20% of our black population last year.”

In 2019, the tax lien sale generated around $80 million in revenue and recouped $300 million in unpaid property taxes prior to sale, according to Bloomberg. But critics of the program charge that the sale has led to unfair targeting of low-income homeowners and communities of color.

The tax lien sale was last used in December 2021 – which generated around $145 million, according to THE CITY.  Attempts to revive the sale failed in February 2022. Later on in May a majority of the council pledged not to reauthorize the sale.

On the heels of Thursday’s rally, advocates from East New York Community Land Trust, a community controlled non-profit founded around creating affordable housing in the Brooklyn nabe, released a 48 page report entitled “Leaving the Speculators in the Rear-View Mirror: Preserving Affordable Housing In NYC, a Municipal Debt Collection Framework”.

East New York Community Land Trust is just one of several organizations, including the Western Queens Community Land Trust, Brooklyn Level Up and New Economy Project, among others, that comprise the “Abolish the Tax Lien Sale” coalition.

The report outlines a framework in which a resident who has fell behind more than a year in payment would be able to either of the following: Enroll in a payment plan or tax exemption; transfer land to a community land trust in exchange for debt forgiveness, foreclosure and preservation as affordable housing with tenant protections; as well as foreclosure and sale with any funds from the sale going to the previous owner.

In order to prevent property owners from falling behind, the framework calls on the Department of Finance to increase staffing capacity, working with community based-organizations to expand their outreach as well as being communicative about potential benefits and explicit communication about what is owed.

The report also offers five different off ramps depending on property type. For Owners of occupied commercial or multi-family buildings without an indicator of physical distress, they can enter City Review – which screen them for different abatements and would be paired with a counselor to evaluate different plans. The review is specifically triggered when a property collects more than $5,000 in debt over two years.

If the review doesn’t resolve in a resolution, these same properties would move into a Municipal lien. Liens are also applied to properties with debt that exceed $5,000 over three years.

The third off ramp would be an offer to transfer lands to Community Land Trusts by transferring deeds to the land in exchange for debt forgiveness. Community Land Trusts are non-profit models of ownership in which the land is owned by a local non-profit in order to stabilize housing prices and aims to provide permanent affordability.

This offramp would be available to all property types except vacant lot owners.

The fourth option would force owners of occupied commercial or multi-family buildings without an indicator of physical distress to initiate foreclosure proceedings if other off-ramps aren’t taken. The property would be sold with funds going to the previous owner and the land transferred to a Community Land Trust.

The fifth option, offered for owners of multi-family properties in physical distress, unoccupied buildings and vacant lots would be “foreclosure and preservation.” Owners would still have to pay for “grossly-negligent” repairs and sacrifice their equity while the city pays for outstanding liens. Land from the properties would thereby be transferred to a Community Land Trust after being rezoned.

“This is one of the most pressing issues when it comes to housing justice, racial justice and economic justice and the intersection of all of these different crises,” Jackson Heights Councilman Shekar Krishnan said at the rally. “Here’s the two realities of the tax lien sale. One is a predatory practice for black and brown homeowners displacing them, while at the same time rewarding bad landlords and greedy developers exactly why the tax lien sale must be abolished.”

Youth organization relieved after restoration of funds

Jessica Meditz on June 15, 2022

SAYA was slated to lose half its budget

By Jessica Meditz

[email protected]

South Asian Youth Action, or SAYA, is a 501(c)3 youth development organization headquartered in Elmhurst, whose primary mission is to provide immigrants and students of color with exposure to new opportunities.

It is among several other organizations funded by the New York City Community Schools Fund, which is essentially a partnership between school staff, families, youth, and the community to ensure that students have the tools they need to learn and succeed.

According to the Community Schools website, these services include “health care, mentoring, expanded learning programs, adult education, and other services that support the whole child, engage families, and strengthen the entire community.”

For a brief period of time these organizations and their respective school communities were worried, as they were slated to lose about $9.16 million of their allocated funds from the city.

But on Friday, the city reached an agreement on a $101 billion budget for the 2023 Fiscal Year, which will restore the funds and add an additional $14 million to support the initiative.

Youth organizations like SAYA, whose most expansive program serves the South Asian student population at Richmond Hill High School, were overjoyed by the news that they’d be able to continue their services.

“I think it made us a lot more hopeful about the advocacy that we do on behalf of our youth, and that as a coalition of organizations, when we work together, we’re able to affect change on a larger scale,” Saphia Najafee, chief development officer at SAYA, said.

“We’ll certainly be doing advocacy work to make sure that we’re all set for next year,” she continued. “We’re obviously really thrilled by everything, but we also know that there’s a lot more work we need to do.”

Richmond Hill High School houses SAYA’s largest program

SAYA is part of the Coalition for Community Schools Excellence, which rallied in front of City Hall in early June to call for the restoration of funds.

They were joined by City Councilwoman Shahana Hanif, Councilwoman Alexa Avilés, Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, and Councilman Lincoln Restler.

“Community schools in my district have become the cornerstone of our community, providing much-needed health, mental health, and family services,” Nurse said at the rally.

“The fact is, our schools alone cannot provide the full support that students and families need for our youth to get the most out of their education. These schools need partnerships to help address the life challenges that our students and families are going through: homelessness, housing insecurity, poverty, and lack of access to health care,” she continued. “The community school model has proven to increase attendance, graduation, and college acceptance rates. We need the mayor to invest the $9.16 million in funding to the 52 community schools that are facing major cuts that will completely undermine their success.”

Through this funding, SAYA receives about $900,000 to carry out their work. With the proposed cuts, they were at risk of a $400,000 total decrease.

In addition to its programming at Richmond Hill High School, SAYA also serves local schools including Thomas Edison High School, P.S. 124, and J.H.S. 202 Robert H. Goddard, where they provide mental health services, outreach for student attendance, college access programming, and after school clubs.

Sonia B. Sisodia, executive director of SAYA, said that the reason for the proposed cuts was given last year when the funding formula was changed for Community Schools by the Department of Education.

“It was framed that the DOE had created a more equitable formula, but the formula is not very equitable when it results in cuts in a high need neighborhood made up of many immigrants and mostly folks of color. Richmond Hill High School is a large high school that really relies on partnership with SAYA and the services that we’re able to provide.” she said. “Fast forward to this year, we were under the assumption—given the focus of the city on things like mental health, getting students back into the school building, and enrichment offerings as students continue to get accustomed to school and life post-pandemic—that the cuts were not likely, since these are all the various services that the Community Schools model actually supports.”

Until more details about the city’s budget become available to the public, Sisodia did not comment on the restoration of funds.

She does, however, want people to remain aware of the situation and the overall goal of SAYA, which continues to offer essential services to students since its founding in 1996.

“Our mission is to really affirm our students and our young people who don’t typically have spaces that center them, that are for them. As a South Asian myself, who went to public schools, I never had that affirmation from my school community,” Sisodia said.

“It’s so important that folks have mentors and role models that they connect with … and I think that New York City really needs to invest more in nonprofits that are led by people of color,” she continued.

“There’s not enough investment in true community based organizations.”

Large rally in Queens protests attack on Asians

webadmin on May 4, 2021

Amid rising attacks on Asians, more than 1,000 people took to the streets in Flushing calling for an end to Asian hate crimes.
The event was organized by the Borough President’s Office.
Mayor Bill de Blasio reminded everyone of the important role Asian Americans have played in shaping the city.
“If you love New York City, you can’t take the contribution of the Asian-American community out of it,” he said. “The only way we are New York City today is because of what Asian Americans have done for us.”
Senator Chuck Schumer spoke of a city of diversity, immigrants and unity and discussed the recently passed “COVID–19 Hate Crimes Act,” which among other things will make the reporting of hate crimes easier.
“We want to tell those evil few who propagate the Asian hate that you are not new Yorkers, you are not Americans and under the new law we passed we will prosecute you and give you the punishment you deserve,” he told the crowd.
Calling for a unified front against the attacks, Reverend Al Sharpton urged all community leaders to speak out and stop the violence.
“When Blacks attack Asians, Black leaders need to stand up,” he said. “When whites attack others, whites need to stand up.”
State Senator John Liu became emotional discussing reports of passersby refusing to intervene in some of the attack. He said it made him wonder if Asians are seen as less than human.
“We are not dogs,” he said. “We are not the coronavirus. We are people, we are human, we are Americans.”
According to the NYPD, in 2020 there was a 1,900 percent increase in attacks on Asians. But a presentative from the Asian American Federation said the statistics represent a huge undercount because many attack go unreported by the victims out of fear of retaliation or that they won’t be taken seriously.
The office of Attorney General Letitia James created a Hate Crimes Task Force to combat the crisis.
“Please do not be silent because you are not alone,” she said. “All of us stand with you against Asian hate.”

Large rally in Flushing protests attack on Asians

webadmin on May 4, 2021

Amid rising attacks on Asians, more than 1,000 people took to the streets in Flushing calling for an end to Asian hate crimes.
The event was organized by the Borough President’s Office.
Mayor Bill de Blasio reminded everyone of the important role Asian Americans have played in shaping the city.
“If you love New York City, you can’t take the contribution of the Asian-American community out of it,” he said. “The only way we are New York City today is because of what Asian Americans have done for us.”
Senator Chuck Schumer spoke of a city of diversity, immigrants and unity and discussed the recently passed “COVID–19 Hate Crimes Act,” which among other things will make the reporting of hate crimes easier.
“We want to tell those evil few who propagate the Asian hate that you are not new Yorkers, you are not Americans and under the new law we passed we will prosecute you and give you the punishment you deserve,” he told the crowd.
Calling for a unified front against the attacks, Reverend Al Sharpton urged all community leaders to speak out and stop the violence.
“When Blacks attack Asians, Black leaders need to stand up,” he said. “When whites attack others, whites need to stand up.”
State Senator John Liu became emotional discussing reports of passersby refusing to intervene in some of the attack. He said it made him wonder if Asians are seen as less than human.
“We are not dogs,” he said. “We are not the coronavirus. We are people, we are human, we are Americans.”
According to the NYPD, in 2020 there was a 1,900 percent increase in attacks on Asians. But a presentative from the Asian American Federation said the statistics represent a huge undercount because many attack go unreported by the victims out of fear of retaliation or that they won’t be taken seriously.
The office of Attorney General Letitia James created a Hate Crimes Task Force to combat the crisis.
“Please do not be silent because you are not alone,” she said. “All of us stand with you against Asian hate.”

Rally celebrates guilty verdict in Floyd murder

webadmin on April 27, 2021

Floyd in Minneapolis, Borough President Donovan Richards held an event praising the guilty verdict, but added there was “little cause for celebration.”
“While we breathe a sigh of relief, this fight is not over,” Richards told a small gathering at Borough Hall, pledging to “see this fight for accountability through.”
Richards, the first Black man to hold the post of Queens borough president, read the names of victims of police violence in New York City, including Amadou Diallo, Eric Garner and Sean Bell.
He reflected on how the decision to convict Chauvin of murder could easily have gone the other way.
“We’ve always felt that our lives did not matter,” he said. “Every time one of us lost our lives and there was no justice served, we felt devalued.”
Richards urged Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and said that the Black Lives Matter movement should not be seen as a threat to the police or other communities.
“This is not an indictment of an entire department,” he said. “We want the bad apples held accountable.”
He was joined by District Attorney Melinda Katz, Councilwoman Adrienne Adams, State Senator John Liu, Assembly members Jenifer Rajkumar, Khaleel Anderson and David Weprin, and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer.
Katz said she hoped that last week’s verdict was a step toward positive and systemic change, adding that with police accountability comes community trust and “a safer environment for everyone.”
Liu said that when he heard the verdict for the first time he felt elated, but that joy quickly turned to sadness because he realized the work was “not over, with a lot to do.”
Although Van Bramer, who is challenging Richards in the June Democratic Primary, has called for defunding the police, the controversial measure was not mentioned at last week’s event.
Richards told this paper afterwards that defunding the police “means a lot of different things” to people.
“Everybody gets caught on that word,” he said. “I believe we should make sure equitable resources are going into many communities to make sure they are safer.”
Anderson said to truly tackle the issue of systemic racism in the police force there needs to be “clear lines of engagement and accountability” within the police department.
“Not fluff,” he said, “but people losing their jobs.”

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