A local politician wants to make sure supermarkets are making the grade — 24 hours a day. Senator Tony Avella has proposed that the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene be given jurisdiction over food markets in the five boroughs, an authority only the state’s Department of Agriculture & Markets currently has. Currently, the [...]
Local leaders and parents hope to expel the unpopular principal of a failing school. According to PTA President Helen Young, Martin Van Buren High School is brimming with “ineffective leaders,” starting with Principal Marilyn Shevell, who several members of the community called “uninvolved.” “The [city] still hasn’t gotten it right, and the parents want [these [...]
Local politicians and civic leaders banded together to demand proper police protection in northeast Queens — an area they say is too large geographically and in population density for the current precincts to support all its residents. According to Senator Tony Avella, the region’s precincts — the 105th and 109th — have been tasked with [...]
Newly-drawn district lines may pit Senate Democrats against one another in a political dogfight. Under the proposed plan, which was designed by the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) — made up largely of Republican senators due to their current control of the chamber — Democratic Senate Campaign Committee [...]
As rain drops sprinkled 32nd Avenue in Flushing, residents wondered if the water would soon make its way into their basements. Locals are enraged over what they feel is a poor repaving job along their street, which, according to them, has caused excess water to build up during rainstorms, running onto their lawns and eventually [...]
Annoyed at the eyesore, local officials are finally addressing an abandoned Whitestone property – located at 24-19 Francis Lewis Boulevard – in the hopes of rousing the city’s Department of Finances (DOF) into taking action. Senator Tony Avella and the North East Flushing Civic Association want to convert the dumping ground into a contributing entity [...]
Civic leaders, city officials, and residents came to the Eastern Queens United rally recently in support of new district lines to keep eastern queens communities united and maintain a strong voice in politics. Every 10 years after the census is complete, district lines must be re-drawn. Many residents and civic leaders said that because of [...]
Queens residents have had their hopes for safe sidewalks curbed by the Department of Transportation (DOT). Senator Tony Avella recently united with perturbed residents from northern and eastern Queens – who have suffered with broken curbs in front of their homes for years – to demand the DOT “accelerate” their sidewalk repair program. “DOT is [...]
After touring M.S. 172 in May, Senator Tony Avella learned of dangerous traffic conditions in front of the school on 257th Street. The senator then urged the Department of Transportation (DOT) to get involved. The DOT conducted a traffic analysis of the area over the summer and recently announced plans to install “All-Way Stop” controls [...]
Even though the Department of Education’s (DOE) decision to close Jamaica High School was finalized in February, current students are still hoping for a quality education. Currently in the process of being phased out, Jamaica High School no longer accepts new students and is expected to close its doors for good in 2014. But while [...]
