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10,000 bagels donated to La Jornada Food Pantry

glendaleregstg on September 28, 2021

A donation of 10,000 bagels arrived at La Jornada Food Pantry on Monday morning, courtesy of Bagels by Bell, REIL Capital and the Queens Chamber of Commerce.
At its peak during the pandemic, La Jornada Food Pantry, located in the Bland Houses Community Center in Flushing, served upwards of 10,000 families a week, about ten times the need than before the pandemic started.
The donation of bagels and bialys was welcomed by Pedro Rodriguez, executive director of La Jornada. The food pantry has been serving the Flushing community and fighting food insecurity for 13 years, and more recently serving the thousands of families who have been impacted by both the pandemic and extreme weather.
“It’s scary,” said Rodriguez. “In the richest city in the world, the richest country in the world, people may have died of hunger.”
Public officials celebrated the donation of bagels that will be distributed out by La Jornada, while speaking to the hardships seen by the business community and the food pantry over the last year and a half.
In addition to being located in the epicenter of the pandemic, La Jornada suffered damage from Hurricane Ida earlier this month when its ground-level pantry was flooded with two feet of water.
“We have seen the inequities that families in Queens face and how our constituents have been detrimentally affected,” said Congresswoman Grace Meng. “Our families here in Queens have gone through so much. It really means a lot that we have other small businesses in the private sector looking in and stepping up to help our community.”
Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz praised partnership between the chamber, Bagels by Bell of Oceanside, and Manhattan-based REIL Capitol.
“We would not be able to do this if it wasn’t for everyone working together,” said Cruz. “Governing should be something that is done cooperatively.”
After touring the community room, Cruz lent some hope to a community that has seen small businesses and residents suffer due to the pandemic.
“Our beloved neighborhood saw thousands of people get sick and die, thousands of businesses closed and many didn’t reopen,” she said. “Unfortunately, many will probably close before the end of the year
“It’s disheartening, because sometimes you feel like no matter how much you do, it’s never going to help,” she added. “But I’m here to tell you that you can help.”

Campaign flyers and fisticuffs

glendaleregstg on September 28, 2021

It was just another day on the campaign trail for Curtis Sliwa.
The Republican candidate for mayor and some members of the Guardian Angel were meeting with voters at the San Gennaro festival on Friday night when things got a little out of hand.
As the group passed a bar in Little Italy, they came across a fight that had broken out and immediately rushed in to stop the fracas. We’ll just let Sliwa describe the scene for you:

“I and Guardian Angels were walking through the San Gennaro festival when all hell broke loose in this gin mill, this bar behind us. Women were swinging, winging, someone grabbed a bar stool and ‘boom’ over the head.
“The Guardian Angels came in, they had to push, they had to restrain. It was an all-out battle pouring into the streets. Ironically, even though there were hundreds of people watching, nobody intervened. So the Guardian Angels had to get control of the situation, even though windows were busted out, even though we were really threatened to the point where people were going to get stabbed or seriously injured.
“Then about 20 minutes later, the cops came. Reactive, not proactive. We don’t just campaign in the streets, we patrol the streets. When I’m mayor, we’re gonna make sure thing like this don’t happen at all anywhere in the city.”
Say what you want about Sliwa, there’s never a dull moment when he’s around. At the very least, Sliwa in charge at City Hall would be gold for penny-a-liners like ourselves. The copy would write itself!

Stop Stop & Shop

glendaleregstg on September 28, 2021

Dear Editor
It has come to my attention that Stop & Shop in Little Neck will close on October 14.
My wife and I shopped at Stop & Shop for ten years when we lived in Little Neck. We moved to Bellerose a number of years ago, but still shop at Stop & Shop when in Little Neck.
I feel for the shoppers in Little Neck, especially senior citizens who depend on Stop & Shop. There are a number of residents who don’t have a car and depend on local supermarkets.
Many seniors will have to take buses or taxis to other supermarkets, which they might not be able to afford.
What an insult to be left without a local supermarket. My heart also goes out to all the workers of Stop & Shop in Little Neck who are losing their jobs.
This is a great loss for the people of Little Neck. People need access to healthy food, especially during this pandemic.
Stop & Shop is making a great mistake by shutting this store, I hope they change their mind.
Sincerely,
Frederick R. Bedell, Jr.
Bellerose

End overcrowding

glendaleregstg on September 28, 2021

Dear Editor,
As a graduate of Forest Hills High School (Class of 1957), I was shocked to learn that 4,000 students now attend my alma mater. That’s nearly four times the number when I went there, and many of them live far from Forest Hills.
Parents complain that students don’t have enough room for the social distancing required by COVID-19 protocols.
The reason for overcrowding at FHHS and other high schools is a change in admission policy that occurred under former mayor Mike Bloomberg. Students were enrolled in the high school closest to their home for more than a century.
That changed in 2004, when the Department of Education introduced a school choice program requiring all 8th graders to submit a list of 12 high schools they
wish to attend, no matter where they lived.
The DOE would match student preferences with each school’s attendance capacity. The intent was noble, but the results are a nightmare.
Schools with a high rate of college admissions, like FHHS, are flooded with students, while under-performing schools lose students and funding, which is based on enrollment. Thus they have fewer resources to improve.
The DOE must restore the zone-based system of high school enrollment except for the eight specialized high schools that require a rigorous admissions test.
This will create a fairer balance of enrollment at all high schools and a better education for all of our city’s students.
Sincerely,
Richard Reif
Kew Gardens Hills

Plant a tree

glendaleregstg on September 28, 2021

Dear Editor,
Trees are a very vital part of our ecosystem. Their root systems retain soil, they take in CO2, and give off oxygen. They also reduce outside temperatures by several degrees in the summer, helping to cool our city streets.
More trees need to be planted across our country to help stem the tide of climate change. Plant a tree on your property, you will contribute to improving the ecosystem. We must do all we can to preserve life on our planet, and planting trees is one way to do that
Sincerely,
John Amato
Fresh Meadows

Welcome Walmart

glendaleregstg on September 28, 2021

Dear Editor,
The pending closing of the Sears in Flatbush represents a great opportunity for Walmart to open its first store in New York City.
Polls of ordinary New Yorkers year after year show support the right of Walmart to open stores in the five borough.
Residents in the other 57 counties in New York State have had the option of shopping or not shopping at Walmart for decades. The same is true for virtually every other city and state. Only New York City is behind the times.
Residents continue to be denied the opportunity to shop at Walmart by politicians such as Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, most members of the City Council, and other Democratic elected officials and their union allies.
They feel that we should oppose Walmart because of substandard salaries and unfair competition it would create for smaller stores.
Construction of a new Walmart can provide work for construction contractors and their employees. Once opened, there are employment opportunities for many workers.
Many students, heads of single-family households, senior citizens and others currently out of work could find employment. The city would benefit by millions in sales, payroll and real-estate tax revenue that could help fund essential municipal services everyone desires.
Walmart is the nation’s largest private sector employer with over 1.2 million employees and growing each year. Starting pay averages several dollars above the minimum wage for new employees around the nation. They also offer health care and other benefits.
Several hundred thousand New Yorkers work off the books, full and part time, with no benefits. Many existing retailers pay minimum wage with no benefits. These same public officials opposing Walmart never talk about these abuses.
The free enterprise system made our nation great. Economic growth and the creation of wealth comes from businesses — small and large. Consumers shopping at Walmart get a bigger bang for the buck by being able to compare prices, quality and service to other stores.
It is time to allow Walmart the opportunity to compete in the New York City marketplace. For the “politically correct” don’t shop at Walmart, but give everyone else a choice.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Great Neck

Nina Fiore, Astoria Film Festival

glendaleregstg on September 28, 2021

No is more excited than Nina Fiore, executive director of Astoria Film Festival, that the event will return next month with in-person screenings.
There will be events at Kaufman Astoria Studios and Heart of Gold Bar, including screenings and panels with local and international filmmakers and film students, workshops for children and adults, a special film created with AFF Film Fellows and Mt. Sinai Queens Nurses, and prizes for winning filmmakers.
The festival will feature many films by women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and indigenous people.
“We also have a number of films by disabled filmmakers, including the documentary short Listen, which was created by non-speaking autistics, a comedy short What If? created by a deaf cast and crew, and a comedy short Swimming Through Peanut Butter’ featuring the filmmaker’s real-life experiences in coming to terms with narcolepsy,” said Fiore.
For the rest of the year, the Astoria Film Festival serves as a nonprofit organization that provides filmmaking workshops for youth and adults from ages eight to 80. Through the Film Fellows program, young people between the ages of 15 and 25 are provided with work, mentors and guidance to develop careers in media.
“As a kid born and raised in Astoria to immigrant parents who then went into the TV/film business, I know how hard it was to get a foot in the door without training or connections,” said Fiore. “So a big part of why I began this was to help local youth get training, experience, and connections in the film, television and media industry.”
The festival not only highlights the work of many filmmakers but also connects them to each other and to local youth to encourage their development in the industry.
“We are excited to share all the wonderful films in the festival and introduce people to their filmmakers,” said Fiore. “I love independent film, because you get to hear under-represented filmmakers telling their own stories, which is so important for purposes of representation and inclusion.”

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