Volume 65, No. 200 THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 50¢ QUEENS After the jails TODAY City ponders what’s January 30, 2020 next for Rikers Island By Victoria Merlino Queens Daily Eagle A 16-YEAR-OLD STUDENT WAS SHOT The notorious Rikers Island jails are set in the leg near his Queens Village high school to close in 2026. But, in a city where prop- on Tuesday, the Daily News reports. The erty is so valuable, what will become of incident took place only three blocks from the land beneath them? Martin Van Buren High School, shortly after Queens Councilmember Costa Con- school let out, and the student was taken to stantinides, who chairs the City Council’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center in stable Environmental Protection Committee and condition. represents Rikers Island, argued at a com- mittee hearing Wednesday that the city should turn the island into a renewable en- AN LIC DRIVER SAID HIS CAR’S ergy powerhouse. sunroof was seriously damaged on Jan. 23 Constantinides sponsors the Renewable by falling debris from an MTA structure, the Rikers Act and said the proposal would Queens Gazette reports. The man had parked remove wastewater and power plant pol- his car under the structure and was entering lution from low-income communities of a laundromat when he allegedly heard a loud color in Queens and elsewhere in the city. sound and looked back to find his sunroof Speaker Corey Johnson joined the Environmental Protection Committee for a hearing “Every time rich communities need cracked and a large bolt on the ground next on the future of Rikers Island. Photo by John McCarten via City Council/Flickr Continued on page 19 to his car. POLICE ARE SEARCHING FOR A MAN who shot and robbed a man in Corona on NYC’s homeless hotel population surges Jan. 13. The attacker shot the 27-year-old pedestrian in the torso and took his chain before fleeing. The victim was taken to as city grapples with housing crisis NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst in stable condition. Police on Monday released photos By David Brand and a video of the suspect. Queens Daily Eagle This story is published in partnership with City Limits, an independent, non-profit news SUPERMARKET C-TOWN FRESH organization. will open a location next month in Astoria, Bedsheets decorated with cartoon charac- according to the Astoria Post. Its owners are ters hang from a curtain rod at a hotel in Mor- Noor Hamdan and his family, who currently risania, trinkets and household items line a own a C-Town location in Bay Ridge. The windowsill at another hotel near JFK Airport store will be located at 31-18 24th Ave., and — signs the sites are more than just temporary will include a deli. accommodations for out-of-town visitors. Inside a motel in Howard Beach, families experiencing homelessness line up at dinner QUEENS TECH NIGHT WILL RETURN time to heat their packaged meals in the lone to the Museum of the Moving Image in community microwave. Some parents stock Astoria on Feb. 5. Organized by Digital coolers with ice because the rooms lack refrig- erators. Natives Group, Kaufman Astoria Studios, “It was clean, but really small,” sanitation LIC Partnership and Plaxall, the event will worker Sean Burt says of a Long Island City feature a talk by the city’s Chief Technology motel where he and his 4-year-old son stayed Officer John Paul Farmer, who will talk for about a month. Burt and his son have been about his 2020 plans, including the recently homeless for nearly three years and have been announced NYC Internet Master Plan. assigned to various temporary shelters, includ- ing hotels. A hotel in Jamaica felt “isolated,” he says of the narrow corridors, the closed unit “WE ARE EXCITED TO ONCE AGAIN doors and the lack of common space. “They bring the vibrant Queens tech community don’t want you to move around in there,” he together for a night of learning, networking says. and sharing ideas,” said Plaxall Managing More than 50 years after New York City Director Paula Kirby. “We have some of the first began using commercial hotels to house best talent in the city here in Queens and this The Hillside Hotel in Jamaica is one of 83 commercial hotels used to shelter homeless homeless New Yorkers, the facilities continue Continued on page 2 New Yorkers. Eagle photo by Emma Whitford Continued on page 12 Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Visit us Online @queenseagle facebook.com/queenseagle queenseagle.com NYC Schools Chancellor, Congresswoman trade heated QUEENS tweets over school safety By Jonathan Sperling “Councilman [Lander], respectfully you have Queens Daily Eagle the wrong issue. This was about a situation where The embers of a heated town hall meeting be- local parents were telling him about their children TODAY tween the DOE and the Northeast Queens com- being assaulted. He abruptly left the meeting. munity reignited Tuesday, with the New York City These parents were hurt and not pretending. They January 30, 2020 Schools chancellor exchanging heated tweets with deserve compassion and the truth.” Meng said in a Queens congresswoman. the tweet. U.S. Rep. Grace Meng criticized Chancellor Minutes later, Carranza fired back at Meng in DOE Chancellor Richard Carranza ended Richard Carranza for his decision to walk out of a tweet where he stressed that he and Meng had a town hall meeting in Bayside earlier this meet up series is designed to help strengthen a Jan. 16 town hall meeting with parents of stu- spoken multiple times about the incidents at the month after attendees began yelling at those connections and advance the innovation Bayside school. dents at a Bayside middle school. The attendees him. AP Photo/Richard Drew and creativity our borough is known for.” jeered Carranza and faulted him for an uptick in “No. Enough. I’ve spoken to you personally 4 violence at M.S. 158, the Marie Curie School. At times about these issues,” Carranza’s tweet said. a press conference Tuesday, Carranza called the “You know our superintendent, executive super- A CATHOLIC CHARITIES MEALS ON event a “setup” and blamed outside “agitators” for intendent, and a myriad of support staff are in- Wheels delivery truck was stolen and crashed the chaotic meeting. volved.” in St. Albans on Wednesday, according to “I will meet with parents, but I will not be set Meng replied, clarifying that Carranza and NBC. A photo from the incident shows the up, especially when that meeting couldn’t be con- DOE staff had been responsive to the issue, but truck lying upside down in front of a house. also urging the chancellor to not accuse Northeast trolled,” Carranza said Tuesday. He didn’t “even A witness said that three teenagers exited the Queens community members “of pretending or know if they [were] parents,” he added, referring vehicle after the crash, and that two escaped grandstanding.” to two people who yelled questions at the meeting. before police arrived at the scene. Amid the drama, Brooklyn Councilmember “They are hurt and deserve to be treated with Brad Lander tweeted his support for Carranza’s compassion.” Meng continued. push to bring “equity & integration” to the city’s The exchange continued, with Carranza ask- ing Meng to work with DOE staff and accusing A MAN STUMBLED INTO A FUNERAL schools. at a Far Rockaway Church after being shot “Richard Carranza has had the courage to insist the congressmember of injecting politics into the on Tuesday, Spectrum reports. Witnesses on hard conversations & push for change. We’re issue. said the pastor at Macedonia Baptist Church lucky he has,” Lander tweeted Tuesday night. “Then as I have pledged - work directly with U.S. Rep. Grace Meng sparred with DOE But in a tweet reply to both Lander and Carran- the staff I have directed to silence the issue. No Chancellor Richard Carranza on Twitter immediately sprung into action, and the victim more politics.” Carranza tweeted. was taken to a local hospital in stable condition. za, Meng said that Northeast Queens lawmakers’ Tuesday. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan beef with Carranza has nothing to do with school Meng rebutted, capping off her exchange with Police are searching for the gunman. integration — a separate, and perhaps equally Carranza. In a statement to the Eagle on Tuesday, Liu said volatile issue in another part of Queens — but “I’m not playing politics. But please don’t name that Carranza should issue an apology for past rather reports of student fights and sexual harass- call or accuse my constituents,” the congressmem- comments on the Jan. 16 meeting. UNO PIZZERIA & GRILL HAS CLOSED ment running rampant at the Marie Curie Middle ber tweeted. “Chancellor Carranza’s comments today dis- its bayside location as of Monday, according School. Carranza has repeatedly fended off criticism played at best lack of judgment and at worst woe- to QNS.com. The Bell Boulevard location was Carranza and the DOE abruptly ended the Jan. from Northeastern Queens lawmakers and their ful disregard for parent concerns. It’s disturbing open for 30 years, and leaves only one Uno’s 16 town hall after the parent of the student who constituents in the wake of the Jan. 16 town hall that he would marginalize the voices of hundreds location in all of Queens, which is in Astoria. was sexually harassed confronted Carranza, and meeting. Several lawmakers have sent a letter to of parents at an education town hall meeting by the crowd began to yell at him. A DOE spokes- Carranza calling for a public meeting on school characterizing the meeting as a ‘set up’ and fixat- person told QNS.com that the town hall meeting safety, including Meng, State Sen.