10 Years Ago

More than two years ago, New York Comptroller Scott Stringer conducted several public meetings in Rockaway to listen to the problems people were having with the Build It Back process. “If I wasn’t here myself, I wouldn’t believe what I have been hearing,” he said on May 20, 2014, at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church. As that meeting drew to a close, Stringer thanked the crowd for coming out in such numbers. “A lot of you spoke for yourselves, but you also spoke for the Rockaways,” he said. “You came for those who couldn’t.” In 2015, Stringer told The Wave those meetings were extremely helpful in the process of auditing BIB, which he characterized as a “case study in dysfunction.” Things aren’t getting better, as even that audit hasn’t seemed to improve the BIB process. In a story entitled, ‘Up In The Air, A Build it Back Horror Story,” by Daniel Offner, published on Sept. 16, he reported that Jennifer and Alan Meisner, whose home repairs were originally estimated to be approximately $202,000 — would, in fact, cost about $792,000. That cost overrun has not been limited to the Meisners, as it was revealed in reports by several news agencies last week that BIB’s costs have risen $500 million, from $1.7 billion to a whopping $2.2 billion. Alan Zwirn, the Republican candidate running to replace Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder, recently testified at a City Council hearing on Sept. 22. “Build It Back has to get the job done,” said Zwirn. “And it has to get the job done right! And it has to get the job done now! For me, dealing with ‘Build It Back’ reaffirmed President Ronald Reagan’s definition of the nine scariest words in the English language: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help!”

On Thursday, Sept. 22, the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance (RWA) hosted a Health Action Plan Event to share ideas and support with growing issues and concerns residents face in Rockaway. RWA’s main goal was to present the communities in Far Rockaway, Arverne, and Edgemere with useful data and presentations to develop an action plan to improve the community’s well-being. “We focus on five communities, but Far Rockaway is one of the poorest when we look into the statistics and the priorities,” said RWA’s Executive Director Jeanne DuPont. “At the Workshop we look into this and see what needs to be improved the most and dig deeper into all the issues.” In order to understand what needs to improve among our community health priorities, RWA presented a list of the top eight problems that everybody should put attention to and learn to identify. These objectives include unmet mental health needs, violence — especially among the youth, baby-friendly hospitals, high school graduation, unmet medical needs, controlled high blood pressure, sugary drinks, and smoking. Working in small groups, participants took part in a yoga routine to relieve stress, enjoyed a complimentary meal, and were asked to write down their own personal thoughts about the issues and subjects presented. Volunteers and participants shared their discussions in order to help prepare a well-thought-out action plan, taking into consideration the importance of each issue, ranking them from least concerning to most important.

20 Years Ago

20 Years Ago – Brian O’Connell, Principal of The Region 5 Scholars Academy, joins volunteers from Jones New York and The Home Depot during the daylong restoration project.

A Rockaway public school teacher was treated to a makeover, and more than 400 volunteers spruced up her school Wednesday as part of a nationwide contest to honor and transform the lives of inspiring teachers who make a difference in students’ lives. Ann Marie Todes, a 6th grade teacher at the Region 5 Scholars’ Academy at JHS 180, was one of five teachers honored in the 2006 Jones New York In The Classroom “Back to School, Back to Style” contest, in which the winners receive a complete transformation for themselves and their schools: a personal wardrobe from Jones New York and a school makeover from the Hands On Network and The Home Depot. “There is no teacher more deserving of this honor than Ms. Todes; she goes above and beyond her call of duty on a daily basis,” Principal Brian O’Connell told The Wave. He recalled how Todes would take her students to the pizzeria after school or spend her weekends planning a class trip to a museum in Manhattan. “It’s not uncommon for pt students, even adults, to come back looking for her,” he added.

Talks about where Rockaway’s first dog run should be located got off to a bumpy start Wednesday night as about 60 people turned out to voice different opinions at the first public meeting held on the subject. Two locations are in the running: One is between Beach 103 and 104 Streets on Shore Front Parkway, the other at Freeway Park, which is located east of Beach 84 Street. The Shore Front Parkway location appears to be the frontrunner, and that has some dog owners wagging their tails and other people growling. City Councilman Joseph Addabbo Jr. told The Wave on Thursday, the day after the meeting, that the Shore Front Parkway location “seems to be the more appropriate site” and said Freeway Park “is just not that attractive.” He said an upcoming event near the Shore Front Parkway site “may be a precursor to the dog park,” which would begin on a 3-4 month trial basis. That may not sit well with several residents who voiced opposition to that location at the meeting. Proponents of the Shore Front Parkway site say a dog run is a natural fit there because it’s fenced in and has running water and benches. They say a minimal investment to add gates would breathe new life into the spot, a defunct shuffleboard court. Opponents say it’s too close to other parks where young children play and it will draw increased vehicle traffic to Shore Front Parkway, where parking and traffic is already an issue. They also raised concerns about odor and dog barking.

40 Years Ago

More than likely many of us will be dead and buried before we see any signs of cable television in the Rockaways. Unity Inner City Cable T.V., the firm owned in part by Percy Sutton, owes the City of New York about $400,000. The city has never collected and has allowed the company to keep the franchise for part of Queens. The way we see it, Sutton and associates will probably hold the franchise, do the minimum amount of work, and then possibly try to dump the entire operation for a huge profit. We can’t find any fault with that. It’s the American way, free enterprise. We are fearful that if this is the case, it may be many years before Rockaway sees cable t.v. And by that time, cable t.v. will be a thing of the past. It’s just part of the Rockaway syndrome. We’re the last to get anything good and the first to get anything bad.

“Reports that the New York State Department of Transportation is ‘pressuring’ the New York City Transit Authority to make transit service cuts (including, according to at least one report, elimination of the A subway line in Far Rockaway) are inaccurate!” With these words, New York State Transportation Commissioner Franklin E. White, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Capital Program Review Board, began a statement sent directly to this newspaper this week.

Repeated complaints about rats running rampant through Rockaway seem to be falling on deaf ears. Monday afternoon, the rats were running through the park at Beach 102nd Street. Boys playing basketball in the park were seen throwing the balls at the rats in order to kill them. While they met with some success, many of the rats scattered toward the boardwalk. Parks Department personnel are in the process of baiting the area to eliminate or at least reduce the rat population.

More than 2,500 people turned out on sunny Sunday, September 14, to enjoy a free open-house gala sponsored by the Gustave Hartman YM-YWHA on its 8.5-acre campus at 1800 Seagirt Boulevard, Far Rockaway.

Cracking down on crack is difficult because it often takes a long time to get cases on the court calendar and then witnesses are reluctant to travel great distances to appear in court. With these facts in mind, Queens District Attorney John J. Santucci this week suggested to the Chamber of Commerce of the Rockaways that neighborhood courthouses such as the one at Beach 90th and 91st Streets in Rockaway Beach should be reopened and/or reestablished.

50 Years Ago

Money to be spent on the Far Rockaway business center reportedly was included in more than $150 million in federal Department of Housing and Urban Development funds disbursed for low-income and moderate-income housing, recreation facilities and other community improvements.

All the talk about posters being removed seems to have been for naught. At this writing, the streets were still flooded with them. It seems the only candidates ever to remove posters were Conservatives, and they aren’t running this year.

Two youths were arrested on Friday, September 17, after they allegedly entered the fenced-in area of Loeb & Meyer, Inc. at Beach 84th Street and RBB and took a citizen’s band radio from a Cadillac, damaging the Cadillac.