Mar. 24, 2023 By Zachary Gewelb

Police from the 107th Precinct are searching for the brute who injured an 84-year-old woman while stealing her purse in Jamaica Hills earlier this month.

Borough history geeks will want to mark Tuesday, April 4, on their calendars for the Queens Public Library’s Queens Memory Project online talk with Astoria author Rebecca Bratspies. The processor at CUNY Law in Long Island City will discuss her new book, “Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues and Heroes Behind New York’s Place Names,” and take a deep dive into the lives of the people for whom many Queens places are named, some of which have become synonymous with congestion, recreation or culture.

“Queens is the most diverse place on the planet. That diversity is our greatest strength. Our patchwork of unique neighborhoods has welcomed successive waves of immigrants, each adding incredible foods and traditions to our vibrant civic life,” Bratspies said. “Yet it is striking how few of the names that grace Queens’ major infrastructure actually reflect that diversity. By tracing the lives of the people whose names have become New York’s urban shorthand for congestion, recreation, and infrastructure, Naming Gotham offers readers an accessible way to understand the complexity of multiracial, multicultural New York City.”

March 24, 2023 By Bill Parry

The 31st Avenue Open Street in Astoria will reopen for its fourth season on Earth Day, April 22, including themed activities, performances and more.

Long before the cement trucks begin lining up on Tom Seaver Way and shovels hit the ground on the ambitious Willets Point project across from Citi Field, touted as a transformational endeavor that will bring a 25,000-seat soccer stadium and 2,500 affordable homes to the Iron Triangle, it must first go through the city’s arduous public review process known as Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).

The largest 100% affordable, new construction housing project in four decades will be scrutinized by the Department of City Planning, local community boards, the borough president and Borough Board and the City Council before it ever lands on the desk of Mayor Eric Adams.

With temperatures rising and days growing longer, the NYC Parks Department has launched a new maintenance initiative that will deploy 240 newly hired full-time staff to address cleanliness in city parks during peak days and hours.

The so-called “Second Shift” will collect trash and litter and mitigate graffiti at 100 hot spots in 62 parks across the five boroughs. The additional shift will operate from Thursday to Sunday in the evening hours to create cleaner parks while also fighting the scourge of rats — a frequent target of Mayor Eric Adams, who announced the new program in November as part of his “Get Stuff Done” initiative.

March 24, 2023 By Tammy Scileppi

You can catch Believe In Ghost! on Saturday, April 1, at The Let Love Inn, located at 27-20 23rd Ave., in Astoria, where the band will perform an hour of original work alongside Loser Cruiser and Persons. The show is free to attend. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m.

P.S./I.S. 49 in Middle Village school is encouraging its students to walk to school on April 5 in celebration of National Walking Day.

According to the school’s Parent/Teacher Coordinator Christina Chiaramonte, the initiative started when she learned about National Walking Day from a local parent and thought it would be a fun idea for students. Additionally, she said the effort could potentially help to alleviate vehicular traffic around the perimeter of the school, creating a safer environment for students.

A pair of police officers from the 105th Precinct in Queens Village performed life-saving CPR on a 15-month-old baby in Brookville earlier this month, according to the NYPD.

Police responded to a 911 call regarding an unconscious baby at a residence near 226th Street and 146th Avenue in Brookville just after 2 a.m. on March 8. The baby’s family was present at the time of the incident and made the 911 call, according to a police spokesperson.

The new Goldfish Swim School in Flushing’s Tangram Mall, located at 133-27 39th Ave., celebrated its grand opening on March 18 with free family swim, snacks, games and more fun activities.

The swimming facility opened an 8,000-square-foot location at Tangram with a 75-foot, three-lane pool and viewing area for parents.

Police are searching for the crook behind a recent spate of antisemitic vandalism in Forest Hills and Rego Park — which included the etching of a swastika into the front of an NYPD precinct — over a five-day span earlier this month.

The suspect, who is wanted in six incidents from March 18 through March 22, is believed to have struck first at the 112th Precinct.