The Flushing Blog

To support an innovative urban greening and tree planting project, TD Bank Group and the Arbor Day Foundation awarded the Queens Botanical Garden a $20,000 grant last week.

QBG will partner with students from John Bowne High School’s agriculture program to help fight urban heat island effect by planting trees ad installing green infrastructure in the Cherry Circle of the Garden.

QBG staff and interns, as well as students from John Bowne HS and Cardozo HS, led a mulching demonstration on the newly-planted trees.

According to the garden, here are the new trees planted:

Golden Raindrops Crabapple

Malus transitoria

AKA ‘Golden Raindrops’

 

Japanese Snowbell                     

Styrax japonicus

AKA ‘Emerald Pagoda’

 

Japanese Tree Lilac

Syringa reticulata                                                 

 

Green Hawthorn

Crataegus viridis

AKA ‘Winter King’                        

 

Pink Mountain Silverbell

Halesia tetraptera var. monticola

AKA ‘Arnold Pink’             

 

Pagoda Dogwood

Cornus alternifolia                                                           

Mountain Silverbell

Halesia monticola

 

Elizabeth Magnolia

Magnolia x

AKA ‘Elizabeth’

The Central and Flushing branches of Queens Public Library will begin offering to-go services beginning Monday, November 16 at 10 a.m.

That means customers can request books in advance either online, using the QPL app, or calling 718-990-0728. Customers can also return materials to locations offering to-go services.

Flushing Library will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, with a one-hour closure from 1 to 2 p.m. to cleaning.

It will be open Tuesdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from noon to 7 p.m., with closures from 3 to 4 p.m. for cleaning.

More than 20 other QPL branches are also open for to-go services.

Councilman Paul Vallone has put in legislation to co-name the intersection of Clintonville Street and Locke Avenue in Whitestone as “Msgr. John C. Tosi Way.”

Community Board 7 approved the co-naming at their monthly meeting on Monday.

Tosi was a priest for over 45 years, and a monsignor for 23 years in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

He passed away on May 23 after suffering from a coronary condition. He was 73.

Born in Flushing, Tosi attended St. Ann’s School, Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School, Cathedral College, Douglaston and Immaculate Conception Seminary.

Tosi was ordained a monsignor in 1997. In January 2005, he was named pastor of St. Luke’s, where he stayed until he died this year.

“Monsignor Tosi was a man of deep faith and firm commitment to bettering each and every community he served throughout his lifetime,” Vallone said. “His loss is felt profoundly throughout the Whitestone community and I’m proud to propose this street co-naming in his honor.”

Don’t miss this year’s Halloween Essay & Poetry Contest, sponsored annually by Assemblyman Edward Braunstein.

Students from grades two through five are invited to participate.

The essay or poem submission should have a Halloween theme, such as favorite trick-or-treat experience or a short story related to Halloween.

If interested in participating, print your full name, grade and school on the entry.

Essays and poems can be submitted to Braunstein’s office by mail (213-33 39th Avenue, Suite 238 Bayside, NY 11361) or email (braunsteine@nyassembly.gov).

District-wide prizes will be awarded to a winner in each grade. Certificates of Merit will be given to all students who participate.

The contest deadline is Thursday, November 5.

For any questions, contact Braunstein’s office at 718-357-3588.

Local elected officials are cheering after the sign outside a “troublesome” club came down in Oakland Gardens.

Lavoo, located at 224-13 Union Turnpike, has been the site of a series of issues, including drunken behavior, incidents of violence and other disruptions to quality of life, according to local pols.

Earlier this year, pre-pandemic, a brawl and gunshots broke out in front of the club.

Those incidents spurred Councilman Barry Grodenchik, State Senator John Liu, Assemblyman David Weprin and Congresswoman Grace Meng to act. They attended a series of community meetings with the community board, police precinct and residents, as well as a press conference in early March.

The club’s liquor license renewal application expired in April.

“The business was disruptive and harmful to the neighborhood and to the seniors and families who live here,” Grodenchik said. “Safety and security are always of utmost importance.”