• 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 Dec. 4–10, 2015 Your Neighborhood — Your News® FREE ALSO COVERING ELMHURST, JACKSON HEIGHTS, LONG ISLAND CITY, MASPETH, MIDDLE VILLAGE, REGO PARK, SUNNYSIDE Baby found Homeless vets head to Hollis inside church Rita Stark’s buildings to be permanent housing for service members: City brings joy TEN-HUT BY SADEF ALI KULLY BY GABRIEL ROM Less than a month after southeast Queens residents When the staff of a Rich- testified at a City Council mond Hill church discovered hearing against bringing ad- a newborn baby inside their ditional shelters or supportive Nativity scene, they were first housing into their neighbor- shocked, then grateful. hoods, the Hollis residential The story has struck a buildings on Hollis Avenue, chord with the public, and The the site of protests almost ev- Holy Child Jesus Church, at ery Saturday since May, have 111-11 86th Ave. has received become a permanent residence dozens of offers from around for homeless veterans, the city the country to adopt the child. said On Nov. 25, church janitor Elected officials and com- Jose Morán found the infant, munity members have gath- still covered in blood and with ered outside the six buildings his umbilical cord attached, in at 202-02 to 202-24 Hollis Av- the newly assembled crèche. enue for more than six months He quickly alerted the parish on weekends to rally against office. more shelters coming to their Paul Cerni, the parish of- part of the borough. fice secretary, immediately In February President Ba- called the police and his pas- rack Obama laid down a na- tor, Father Christopher Ryan tional mayoral challenge to Heanue. end veteran homelessness in “My first reaction was American cities, Mayor Bill di shock,” Cerni recalled this Blasio signed up for the ambi- week. “But that quickly gave tious challenge and created a way to the realization that this Veteran Affairs unit to solve child had been put in a good the problem of homeless veter- location.” ans in the city by Dec. 31. Cerni and another parish- According to city data from ioner cleaned the baby and 2014, there are almost 2,000 swaddled him with towels. homeless veterans either in “He was small, maybe the shelter system or living in about five pounds and whim- That's no bearskin hat. It's Rian Smith's big-time bun. The St. John's University freshman lines up the streets across the city. pering softly, but he had color with the Singing Toy Soldiers, who appeared on campus this week to open the school’s weeklong Asked about plans for the and seemed to be doing well,” Winter Festival. Photo by Michael Shain Hollis buildings owned by Continued on Page 54 Continued on Page 54 Police: Forest Hills arsonist left note BY GABRIEL ROM under construction continues “Decode this message to and the search for the suspect find out the person who caused For residents of Forest ramps up, police may have this fire,”the letter said, ac- Hills and Rego Park, the sight made a break in the case. cording to police. of detectives and fire mar- Police said the suspect left Police said the suspect shals milling around their a note at the scene of the most also left a riddle that had to residential blocks is becom- recent fire on 67th Drive near be solved in order to decode a In front of the latest, suspected arson scene in Forest Hills, a fire mar- ing increasingly common. But 108th Street taunting law en- separate note left at the scene. as a spate of arsons at homes forcement officials. Continued on Page 3 shal looks for evidence. Photo by Michael Shain A CNG Publication Vol. 3 No. 49 60 total pages Hindu fl ags burn on Thanksgiving Woodhaven residence targeted in what police have labeled a suspected hate crime BY GABRIEL ROM ing act and we’d like the police are a common sight around to find and question this man,” Hindu homes. The Queens Hindu com- the civic group said. “Crimes which target re- munity is on edge as police “The burning of these Hin- ligious expression are hate look for a possible hate-crime du flags near someone’s home crimes and should be treated suspect who allegedly torched is an unacceptable act of ha- as such,” said Councilman dozens of Hindu flags set up in tred that our community will Eric Ulrich (D-Ozone Park). the front yard of a Woodhaven not tolerate,” said state Sen. “We simply cannot tolerate early Thanksgiving morning. Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. (D-How- any form of religious persecu- Lawmakers, civic leaders and ard Beach). “Queens is one of tion.” a national Hindu group strong- the most diverse places in the National Hindu communi- ly condemned the crime. world, and we as a borough ty leader Rajan Zed released a According to a security should be extremely proud of statement urging Gov. Andrew video released by the police, that. My support is with the M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de the suspect entered the front family whose culture and be- Blasio to contact the Queens- yard of a house on 80th Street liefs were targeted by this in- area Hindu community to re- and 89th Avenue around 1:20 The charred remnants of the burnt Jhandi flags which are often hung explicable crime and I thank assure them. According to Zed, a.m. and set fire to around 40 the NYPD for not only naming who is president of Universal upon bamboo poles. Photo by Michael Shain Jhandi flags before fleeing this a hate crime, but for work- Society of Hinduism, Hindus south on 80th Street. There and baseball cap and pulling a first reported the crime, said ing diligently to ensure those across the country have faced were no injuries. medium-size travel bag, police on its Facebook page that the responsible for this act are an uptick in hate crimes in re- The suspect is described said. FDNY quickly extinguished brought to justice.” cent months. as an adult male, wearing a The Woodhaven Residents the blaze. Jhandi flags bear the pic- three-quarter-length jacket Block Association, which “Clearly this is a disturb- tures of different deities and Planned Parenthood says its new LIC facility is secure BY BILL PARRY measures. enthood Advocates of New York state. “Friday’s shooting at a Planned The gunman in the Colorado shoot- In the aftermath of last week’s Parenthood clinic was a senseless act ing mentioned “no more baby parts” in Planned Parenthood shooting in Colo- of violence that has left us shocked and a statement taken by law enforcement rado, administrators at the Diane L. heartbroken,” Cuomo said. “While we after he was taken into custody, a pos- Max Health Center in Long Island City are still learning more about what led sible reference to the Center for Medi- are reviewing their safety protocols to this horrendous attack in Colorado, cal Progress’ series of videos released and security measures. we are taking appropriate precau- earlier this year that show Planned The state-of-the-art Planned Parent- tions and doing everything possible to Parenthood staff supposedly discuss- hood facility, the only one in the bor- prevent similar tragedies from taking ing the sale of fetal-tissue parts. While ough, opened in September with plenty place in our state.” the videos were widely debunked, sev- of security built into the location at Robert Lewis Dear is alleged to eral GOP presidential candidates cited 21-41 45th Road in the Court Square have shot and killed a police officer them in an effort to defund Planned neighborhood, according to Christina and two civilians during the attack. Parenthood. Chang, vice president of public affairs Nine others were wounded, according “The toxic rhetoric is very bad for for Planned Parenthood NYC. Planned Parenthood NYC trusts the security to the Colorado Springs Police Depart- this country,” Mayor Bill de Blasio “We haven’t done anything extra features at its Long Island City health cen- ment. said. “I think (it) is unfair and doesn’t since the tragedy because we’re con- ter following a deadly shooting in Colorado. “Unfortunately, there is a history represent the reality of Planned Par- fident that our security system is as Photo courtesy of PPNYC of people bringing violence to health enthood, which is an extraordinary strong as possible to ensure the safety Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced centers in the past and so an incident organization that this administration of our patients and our staff,” Chang Monday that the state is launching new such as this underscores the need for supports fully. I think we need to ad- said. “We have spoken with local law security measures. The State Police vigilance to ensure that patients and dress the toxic environment because of enforcement and they’ve been very began increased patrols at more than the staff that provide services are safe what it means for policy, not because of supportive. They posted a squad car in 60 Planned Parenthood clinics and lo- at all health centers,” said Lauren an individual who did something hor- front of the health center on Monday cations throughout New York to assist Tobias, president and CEO of Family rendous.” and they’ve increased their patrols.” with security and emergency planning Planning Advocates and Planned Par- IN THIS ISSUE HOW TO REACH US Police Blotter................................................10 Boro Beat......................................................32 MAIL: 41-02 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY 11361 Editorials and Letters............................12-13 Elder Care...............................................37-39