New Bayside Elementary School Opens, Several School Additions Completed

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards held a candlelight vigil for Tyre Nichols outside Queens Borough Hall Monday, Jan. 30 after Nichols’ death at the hands of police officers in Memphis, Tenn., made national headlines for the brutality in which the officers beat him.

Almost immediately after news broke about Nichols’ death, the Memphis police officers who beat him to death were fired and charged with murder. The police department released the body cam footage of the fatal beating on Jan. 27, but many people, including some at the vigil, have refused to watch it due to its extremely graphic nature.

In an effort to get more young people involved in civics, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards has created a new advisory panel known as the Youth and Young Adult Council to introduce the “youngest and fiercest” community advocates to both community service and organization.

Members of the advisory body will advocate concerns through means of community engagement by participating in one of two cohorts. The first will be made up of high school representatives between the ages of 13 and 17, while the second cohort will be comprised of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday, Jan. 17, declared that porn performer Ron Jeremy is mentally incompetent to stand trial on dozens of rape and sexual assault counts.

Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Harris said in a hearing that after reviewing reports from both prosecutors and Jeremy’s defense that he is in “incurable neurocognitive decline” from which he is unlikely to recover.

Jan. 16, 2023 By Bill Parry

When Mayor Eric Adams came to Flushing Meadows Corona Park in August to announce that Queens had been selected for the launch of the nation’s largest curbside composting program starting in October, the first time that an entire borough would receive the service, few could have imagined how wildly successful the program would be.

Jan. 12, 2023 By Christian Murray

The Parks Dept. has started work on a $6 million overhaul of Bland Playground, a gritty park located in downtown Flushing that residents say is in desperate need of an upgrade.

This article was originally published by The CITY on Jan. 11, 2023 By Jose Martinez

The MTA and City Hall are shifting into gear on ways to better connect bicycles and other green forms of transportation to the subways, buses and bridges.

Jan. 11, 2023 By Carlotta Mohamed

Queens Botanical Garden Executive Director Evie Hantzopoulos on Tuesday, Jan. 10, announced an $8 million donation from the Joan N. and Norman Bluestone Foundation, a charitable organization headquartered in Jamaica, that will help support the garden’s educational programs and activities.

Jan. 9, 2023 Staff Report

Schneps Media, publisher of over a dozen news websites and more than 80 print publications across New York City, Philadelphia and Florida, announced its acquisition of Queens Post — one of the leading local news operations serving Queens and Brooklyn.

Jan. 6, 2023 By Bill Parry

Civic leaders from northeast and central Queens have organized to oppose Mets owner Steve Cohen’s plan to build a casino or other commercial structures on 50 acres of public parkland surrounding Citi Field that has been used as a parking lot since the 1939 World’s Fair.

Jan. 4, 2023, By Carlotta Mohamed

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is currently accepting online applications from qualified and civic-minded individuals who are interested in serving on their local community board.