Volume 65, No. 65 Tuesday, July 16, 2019 50¢ City jails plan approaches an QUEENS uncertain vote By David Brand and Noah Goldberg Queens Daily Eagle The community boards have voted and TODAY the borough presidents have weighed in. — JULY 16, 2019 — The city’s plan to close Rikers Island jails by 2026 — by building four new bor- ough-based facilities via an unprecedented BOROUGH PRESIDENT MELINDA land use measure — has moved out of the Katz leads public defender Tiffany Cabán advisory stage and into the legally binding by just 16 votes in the Democratic Primary phase as it approaches a fall vote by the City for Queens DA. That number will likely Council. shift one way or another, with a countywide The plan calls for building a new 1,150- recount underway at a Board of Elections bed jail in every borough except Staten Is- facility in Middle Village . See page 16 for land and likely depends on the support of the story. the four councilmembers who represent the neighborhoods in question: Karen Koslow- itz, who represents Kew Gardens in Queens; MORE THAN 200 RIDERS, INCLUDING Stephen Levin, who represents Boerum two local lawmakers, pedaled through the Hill in Brooklyn; Margaret Chin, who rep- resents Manhattan’s Chinatown; and Diana parks and pathways of Eastern Queens Councilmember Karen Koslowitz maintains support for the jails plan, though she is Saturday for the third annual Tour de Continued on page 7 Flushing. Read more on page 10. advocating for a smaller facility in Kew Gardens. Photo via the MTA/Flickr STATE SEN. TOBY STAVISKY AND Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal have denounced a $3.3 million dollar infrastructure Queens immigrants and activists expense that Con Edison is attempting to charge Phipps Houses, the oldest nonprofit developer of affordable housing in New York City. prepare for potential ICE raids By Phineas Rueckert PHIPPS HOUSES PLANS TO BUILD Queens Daily Eagle more than 400 new units of affordable Rafael, a trained aviation technician, housing in three buildings, and Con Edison moved to Queens from Mexico City five is attempting to claim the three new buildings years ago. He left Mexico because he was do not constitute a new point of power unable to find work there. “I was let down access. This would force Phipps Houses to by my country,” he told the Eagle Monday. reach across an entire unrelated property to After paying a “coyote,” or smuggler, to tap into a power source — rather than Con bring him across the border, he made his Edison upgrading their own deficient service way to New York City along with a friend infrastructure. who had family in Queens. He now works in construction, but was in between jobs, he told the Eagle on Monday. He is an undoc- THE FORTNITE WORLD CUP BEGINS umented immigrant and declined to share his last name because of his unauthorized at Arthur Ashe Stadium on July 25. Every status. contestant in the video game tournament will Rafael is one of more than 180,000 receive $50,000, while the winner will earn undocumented immigrants who live in $3 million. Queens — the highest number in New York City, according to a 2018 report from the Mayor’s Office. As Immigrations and Cus- COUNCILMEMBER ADRIENNE ADA- toms Enforcement reportedly accelerates ms discussed the nearly 50-year history of raids in immigrant communities across the Title IX and the persistent obstacles to gender country, he and others like him have to take equity in an op-ed for the Eagle. “precautions” to avoid arrest, Rafael said. “People aren’t scared [about ICE],” Ra- fael told the Eagle in Spanish. “People are “TITLE IX’S TREMENDOUS INFLUE- more scared that they can’t do the things nce on women’s athletics cannot be that they want to do [in their everyday overemphasized, but it is astonishing that in lives].” Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, who represents Corona and Elmhurst, said Continued on page 2 Continued on page 10 immigrants in her district are fearful of ICE raids. Eagle photo by Phineas Rueckert Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Visit us Online @queenseagle facebook.com/queenseagle queenseagle.com Ex-governor to lead Sands' push for casino in New York City QUEENS By David Klepper Associated Press Former New York Gov. David Paterson is joining Las Vegas Sands to lead the casino and resort developer's push for a casino in TODAY New York City — possibly in Queens. Voters have already authorized up to three — JULY 16, 2019 — casinos for the nation's largest city, but state law currently says they can't be approved un- til 2023 at the earliest. the year 2019 we are still pushing for proper Paterson, who is joining Sands as a senior enforcement,” Adams wrote. “We cannot vice president, said that there's no reason to forget that in New York City there was only wait, and lawmakers should lift the morato- one Title IX coordinator representing 1.1 rium next year. million students. Due to the advocacy of the "Is it going to happen in 2023 or 2020? City Council, increased funding was included Why not start three years earlier?" he said. in the fiscal 2020 budget to hire more. This "This is really a tremendous opportunity to role is critical to the well-being and equity for create jobs in New York." young women.” See page 16 for the full piece. Competition for the lucrative New York City market will be fierce. MGM and Genting Group, which operate existing slot casinos GOV. ANDREW CUOMO WROTE A in Yonkers and Queens, respectively, have letter to the MTA board urging them to already proposed turning their facilities into full casinos. include a plan for addressing homelesness in Voters approved up to seven casino li- the subway system last week. censes in 2013 — four for upstate, the part of New York outside the New York City area, and three for downstate, consisting of the city “WHILE CRIME MAY REPORTEDLY and its suburbs, including Long Island. Law- be down on the subways, the number of makers agreed to delay the three downstate homeless people is up, and it is directly licenses to give a head start to the upstate fa- Visitors to the Resorts World Casino at the Aqueduct racetrack play electronic baccarat impacting service to riders,” Cuomo wrote. “In 2018, there were 1,771 homeless people cilities, all now open. games. Former New York Gov. David Paterson is joining Las Vegas Sands to lead the In addition to taxes, downstate casino living in the subway — that number surged to operators will pay a license fee estimated at casino and resort developer's push to build a casino in New York City — possibly 2,178 in 2019, an increase of 23 percent.” $500 million per casino. If allowed to enter Queens. AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File the market before 2023, casinos in the city would also have to pay an early entry fee to in the city, he said, Queens is an attractive the city. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who succeed- THE NYPD IS SEARCHING FOR A MAN the upstate casinos. possibility due to the presence of Kennedy ed Paterson as governor, has so far shrugged who they say assaulted staff at two salons after Paterson, a Democrat who served as gover- and LaGuardia airports. off talk of allowing early bidding on the li- attempting to purchase massage services with nor from 2008-2010, began consulting for Las Genting and MGM did not immediately re- censes. counterfeit bills. Vegas-based Sands earlier this year. spond to messages seeking comment Monday. "I am very skeptical about some casino "I really like the fact that they want to do it Lawmakers adjourned their 2019 session deal put together by casino operators prom- right," Paterson said of Sands. While it's too last month without voting on proposals to ising billions of dollars and everybody's hap- THE FIRST INCIDENT OCCURRED AT early to talk about possible sites for facilities speed up the process for licensing casinos in py," Cuomo said last spring. 10 a.m. Saturday inside of the Fairview Avenue Beauty and Nail Salon. The unidentified man became violent after attempting to pay with a counterfeit $100, the NYPD said. When the Queens County Criminal Court Calendar — July 16 — employee refused to accept the bill, the man assaulted her and another employee. SURVEILLANCE VIDEO suffered severe nerve and tissue damage,” Health Act removed the offense from the state EXPOSED ALLEGED JAMAICA said late-District Attorney Richard Brown in penal code. DRIVE-BY SHOOTER a statement after Ocasio’s arrest. JUSTICE ALOISE PRESIDES Victor Ocasio is charged with first-degree JUSTICE ALOISE PRESIDES murder for allegedly killing two people in a ••• drive-by shooting in Jamaica. He appears in ••• SOCIAL MEDIA USER TAP D for a conference. STABBING SUSPECT CHARGED WITH SOLITICING Prosecutors say Ocasio pulled up to a house HAS COURT CONFERENCE SEX FROM CHILD Get 'The Best of the Nest' on 170th Street in a red Kia Sportage and fired Anthony Hobson is charged with sec- Juan Cabrera is charged with attempted shots into the home, killing two family mem- ond-degree murder, tampering with physical use of a child in a sexual performance for al- delivered to your bers and injuring a third in April 2017. Home evidence and fourth-degree criminal posses- legedly contacting a preteen on Instagram on surveillance video appears to show Ocasio sion of a weapon for allegedly stabbing his Sept. 28 to offer her $200 to watch him plea- inbox every week: pulling the trigger, prosecutors say. pregnant girlfriend to death in a Ridgewood sure himself and $1,000 to have sex with him.