Renters Endure Squalor in Sub-prime Fallout

Harry, a broker at Senator Realty, was horrified when he walked into the two-story house occupied by Queens resident, Anne Perez and two other families
“Nothing was up to code when we got the apartment,” Harry said. “The previous owner had divided a one-family house into three apartments. They’d taken the boiler out of the basement [...]

Irish Watering Hole Fades to Black

Highland Avenue reeked of red curries, sugar-crusted gulab jamun desserts and frosted Asian fruit drinks called lassis served in shallow white styrofoam cups but by three in the afternoon, the smell of 99 proof whiskey had sunk into the street in front of the Highland Irish Inn.
A pair of pockmarked doors marred by years of [...]

GOP Pols Build Asian Bloc in Queens

Traffic along Union Turnpike, which cut Kew Gardens and Kew Gardens Hills into two, virtually indistinguishable neighborhoods buzzed quietly while shop owners and passersby baked in the afternoon sunlight. With less than a week before the November 6th elections, the North and South sides of the turnpike, lined by Chinese restaurants, take-out sushi joints, storefront [...]

Toothless Tigers Fight University Expansion

Queens has not had much in common with Harlem since the 17th century, when both had been buried in the wilderness. Now that St. Johns University has leased a private building for student housing, the area has become a scene of protests, picketing and civil disobedience talk reminiscent of Morningside Heights.
“We protested outside of St. [...]

Good Grief. Another Noose?

Columbia Students Protest Noose Found at TC

A couple of weeks ago, an Iranian-American journalist asked me to articulate my thoughts about Jena and race in the US.
“Don’t you feel that the African-American community is legitimately disturbed by the nooses,” she asked.
I laughed long, hard and somewhat bitterly before giving her my [...]