De Blasio Dilemma on No Fatalities on ‘Boulevard of Death’ Last Year for fi Rst Time Since 1990 Homeless Vets by BILL PARRY
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• JAMAICA TIMES • ASTORIA TIMES • FOREST HILLS LEDGER • LAURELTON TIMES LARGEST AUDITED • QUEENS VILLAGE TIMES COMMUNITY • RIDGEWOOD LEDGER NEWSPAPER • HOWARD BEACH TIMES IN QUEENS • RICHMOND HILL TIMES Jan. 22–28, 2016 Your Neighborhood — Your News® FREE ALSO COVERING ELMHURST, JACKSON HEIGHTS, LONG ISLAND CITY, MASPETH, MIDDLE VILLAGE, REGO PARK, SUNNYSIDE Hollis faces Vision Zero works: de Blasio dilemma on No fatalities on ‘Boulevard of Death’ last year for fi rst time since 1990 homeless vets BY BILL PARRY BY SADEF ALI KULLY FINISHING TOUCHES For the first time in a quar- ter of a century there were no A few homeless veterans fatalities on the Boulevard of were scheduled to move this Death in 2015. Thursday into the much dis- No wonder Mayor Bill de puted affordable housing units Blasio came to Queens Bou- owned by Queens landlord levard Tuesday to announce Rita Stark in Hollis despite his Vision Zero initiative is pushback from community working so well that 2015 was members, according to the the safest year on city streets city’s Human Resources Ad- since record-keeping began ministration in 1910, with traffic fatalities While the city and state down 22 percent and 66 fewer administrations gather forces lives lost since 2013. to end homelessness, dozens The mayor pledged to go of Hollis community mem- even further in 2016 by unveil- bers are putting on the gloves ing $115 million in new capital to stop government agencies investment for plans to calm from bringing homeless vet- traffic as well as expand ef- erans into affordable housing forts to crack down on danger- units in their neighborhood. ous driving, make hazardous The community organiza- left-turns safer and expand tion People for the Neighbor- enforcement. hood has launched a legal and “We are serious about grassroots battle against the saving lives,” de Blasio said. city after months of protesting “Vision Zero is working. To- resulted in no action by city of- day there are children and ficials. grandparents who we might In December the city’s Hu- have lost, but who are instead man Resources Administra- coming home, safe and sound, tion said the six buildings at because of these efforts. This 202-02 to 202-24 Hollis Ave. progress is just the beginning, would be used as affordable and Vision Zero is going to housing units for 90 homeless move ahead with even more veterans. The properties are In Springfield Gardens, volunteers for Habitat for Humanity put down the floor of the attic in a intensity in the coming year.” owned by Stark and managed house that has been under renovation since last summer. A family, which has already put in 300 The mayor wants the state by the Bluestone Group, which hours of sweat equity on the project, is set to move in by early spring. Photo by Michael Shain to allow speed cameras to be has a history of reaching deals used 24 hours a day as opposed Continued on Page 58 Continued on Page 58 Petition against SBS goes online BY GABRIEL ROM would install a dedicated bus want alternatives explored lane along Woodhaven and before they push for this. We The Woodhaven Residents’ Cross Bay Boulevards. need numbers on our side.” Block Association is taking “This is your opportunity The petition can be found their fight against Select Bus to put your money where your online at saveourstreets.nyc. Service online. The civic asso- mouth is,” WRBA spokesman “These changes are un- ciation has created a petition Alex Blenkinsopp said at the wanted, and they’re being for those opposed to the multi- group’s monthly meeting Sat- forced on us by City Hall and Alex Blenkinsopp, communications director for the Woodhaven Residents million dollar project that urday. “Sign the petition if you Continued on Page 58 Block Association, helped design the petition. Photo by Gabriel Rom A CNG Publication Vol. 4 No. 4 64 total pages Queens DA launches animal cruelty unit BY GABRIEL ROM Cruelty Prosecutions Unit will work closely with the On the same day Queens Police Department’s newly District Attorney Richard formed Animal Cruelty In- Brown announced his of- vestigations Squad, which fice had created an Animal assumed the ASPCA’s law Cruelty Prosecution Unit, enforcement function in July a Jackson Heights man was 2014). charged with aggravated The DA identified the de- animal cruelty after alleg- fendant in the Chihuahua edly killing his girlfriend’s case as Carlos Hernandez, 3-year-old Chihuahua. 32, of 73rd Street in Jackson “A Queens resident is Heights. Hernandez is pres- The funeral of Jihad Jackson, a victim of gun violence, at the Praise Tabernacle Church at Sutphin Boulevard accused of pulling his girl- ently awaiting arraignment drew hundreds of mourners. Jackson left behind his parents, four brothers, four sisters and his grandpar- friend’s small dog out of her in Queens Criminal Court on ents. Photo by Nat Valentine hands during a verbal argu- a criminal complaint charg- ment and killing the helpless ing him with aggravated animal by violently throwing cruelty to animals, fourth-de- the dog to the floor,” Brown gree criminal mischief and said. “Such acts of aggression endangering the welfare of a A community mourns toward animals cannot—and child,Brown said. will not—be tolerated.” If convicted, he faces up Jamaica turns out to bury teen killed New Year’s Eve The mandate of the Ani- to four years in prison. mal Cruelty Prosecutions Brown said Hernandez Unit — the first of its kind was inside his girlfriend’s BY SADEF ALI KULLY to his Rosedale home from if it wasn’t for you loving me in a district attorney’s office Forest Hills residence around Washington, D.C., where he too,”he had written. in New York City —will be 4:15 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10, and Hundreds of family, friends had been on a family trip. He Songs were sung and poems to investigate and prosecute engaged in a verbal dispute and community members stopped over at a friend’s house were read while his little niece animal cruelty crimes and to with her. It is alleged that gathered at Praise Tabernacle and hung out with some pals to in a floral print gray dress educate the public about how Hernandez grabbed the Chi- Church on Sutphin Boulevard celebrate the new year when a walked up and down the aisle, to prevent and detect abuse of huahua out of her hands and Saturday to attend funeral gun went off and shot him. letting out giggles to cheer up animals. slammed the dog against the services for 16-year old Ji- “I am 50-something and the mourners. The funeral end- In creating the unit, floor, causing the dog to bleed had Jackson, whose shooting I have lost a lot people in my ed with a prayer for the Jack- Brown also announced he has from its ears and collapse on on New Year’s Eve in South life,” Erica Ford, founder of son family. Jihad left behind appointed veteran Queens the floor where it died min- Jamaica left the community anti-violence community or- his parents, four brothers, four prosecutor Nicoletta Caferri utes later. An 11-year-old girl, shocked and angry. ganization LifeCamp, told the sisters and his grandparents. as its first chief. Caferri has who was the Chihuahua’s Somber, young faces of men congregation at the funeral. According to the criminal been with the Queens DA’s of- caregiver, was allegedly pres- and women stood shoulder “He is in a special place that complaint filed by the Queens fice since 1992. ent in the room and witnessed to shoulder in the back of the he will never have to leave— district attorney, three sus- Brown said the Animal the incident, Brown said. church with tear-filled eyes, this brother was loved.” pects were arrested and shocked by the tragic death of Ford along with hundreds charged with tampering with their friend who they knew as of community members or- evidence—Eduardo Placencia, J-Rock. ganized a rally Jan.7 to ad- 18; Natalie Placencia, 49, Edu- A half hour before mid- dress the gun violence, which ardo’s mother; and her boy- night on the last day of the has plagued minority neigh- friend, Dorian Carr, 48. year, 103rd Precinct police of- borhoods within southeast Police sources said there ficers found Jihad, who was Queens, where Jihad’s death was evidence from the Placen- from Rosedale, at the corner has become a stark example of cia home on Merrick Boulevard of 109th Avenue and Merrick senseless killings. indicating that after Jihad was Boulevard with a gunshot During the funeral, Jihad’s shot, he was moved outside, wound to the neck. He was un- grandmother Delores Jackson, where investigators found a responsive, according to police alongside his mother, Margue- bloody cloth in the bushes. officials, who said emergency rite Tolson-Jackson, read the Investigators have not yet responders pronounced Jihad last Mother’s Day card she re- found the gun involved in the dead at the scene. ceived from her grandson. “I shooting, according to Cappel- The first case prosecuted by Queens DA Richard Brown’s new animal Inspector John Cappelman love you so much, I would not man, and police said the inves- cruelty unit is against a Jackson Heights man accused of killing a said Jihad had traveled back be the young man that I am tigation was ongoing. Chihuahua like this one. 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