The Flushing Blog

Queensborough Community College (QCC) announced the construction of a permanent exhibit in honor of the Korean Comfort Women of WWII today at the Kupferberg Holocaust Center and Archives (KHRCA), located at 222-05 56th Street in Bayside.

The opening art display of the new exhibition by artist Steve Cavallo entitled, “Eulogies,” shows numerous watercolor portraits of the Korean teenage girls, forced into sexual servitude by Japanese armies in 1937.

With an estimated cost ranging from $50,000 to $80,000, the new exhibit is expected to add to the awareness of these young women and survivors by engaging the students and surrounding community.

Three years ago, KHRCA executive director Arthur Flug began working with The Korean American Association of Greater New York (KAAGNY) to further the education surrounding the issue. Since then, they have worked together to create a partnership between the two communities out of the tragedies experienced in WWII.

“When we were approached by the people of the Korean community – who said can you please help us with this – the more we looked at it, we couldn’t find a reason to say no,” Flug explained. “What was happening to these young women in Asia during WWII, was happening to the people who are Holocaust survivors today.”

Since teaming up with KAAGNY, Flug said both Holocaust and Comfort Women survivors have met and formed what they call the Sisterhood of Survivors.

“Now there are very few people on campus who have not heard of the Comfort Women,” he said. “People come in here, not because they’ve been assigned to do a project by their professors, but they heard of the Comfort Women and they want to see the exhibit.”

With the new exhibit, Flug said the school plans on finding new ways of engaging the students as well as potentially releasing a new speaker program to further the discussion.

KAAGNY president Sung K. Min joined Flug at the KHRCA to announce the pending opening of the new exhibit.

“This is not a political issue, this is a human rights issue,” Min said through the help of a translator. “This is to raise awareness and to protect our countrymen and women.”

Read more: Queens Examiner – Permanent Comfort Women exhibit on the way at QCC

Local director Benjamin Kramer of Whiskey Fire Productions is seeking a non-union voice actress for screaming and other hysterics for an upcoming short film.

The actress is needed for about an hour on Sunday, November 9 at a flexible time. No screen time required.

Application is available here.

 

Following years of advocacy from the communities surrounding area airports, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has signed an agreement with Environmental Science Associates to conduct a Part 150 airport noise study of the city’s two airports.

The estimated $8 million study, expected to run from October 2014 to August 2017, will analyze land-use compatibility issues, asses the viability of potential noise mitigation solutions and produce noise exposure maps of JFK and LaGuardia airports. Studies are also planned for Newark and Terboro airports.

“Working in concert with residents, elected officials, industry partners and FAA representatives, the agency’s consultant will perform the intensive, complex studies necessary at these four airports to evaluate noise levels and propose and analyze potential efforts to alleviate the problem,” said Thomas Bosco, the Port Authority’s aviation director.

Janet McEneaney, president of Queens Quiet Skies (QQS), said while she is happy to see the hard work of advocacy groups calling for more noise mitigation for residents affected by the airports is beginning to net results, the group is still pressuring the Port Authority to hire a community representative for the process.

“Hiring a noise expert to work with the first consultant would produce a more comprehensive study,” McEneaney said.

The group has also been calling for the day-night average sound level (DNL) reduction from 65 to 55 dB, as well as for a more comprehensive roundtable, which the governor called for last year.

Currently, the Port Authority is pushing for separate roundtables for JFK and LaGuardia, while McEneaney and other members of QQS would like to see on comprehensive group.

“All of these parts work together,” she explained. “It’s all part of a package, and you can’t have one without the other.”

QQS member Susan Carroll said she is “cautiously optimistic” about the news that the Part 150 study is moving forward, but hopes to see some results before the three-year timeline is up.

“I hope there are intermediate steps and we don’t have to wait three years,” Carroll said. “When you have low landings and planes flying by for hours on end, that’s just way too much for anyone to have to endure.”

Carroll said planes often fly by her Flushing home every 30 seconds to a minute for the last two years.

She said that a personal noise monitor, while not a professional tool, has often measured noise levels anywhere from the 70 to 90 decibels.

“I applaud the Port Authority, but I’m afraid it’s going to just find what we already know,” she added.

[QE]

Dear Editor:

Despite your endorsements for city and state office seekers, many readers couldn’t vote for anyone on November 4 because they have no accessible polling place.

This is painfully true in Kew Gardens Hills, where the Board of Elections closed P.S. 164, a polling site for nearly 60 years, and replaced it with an alternate site that most voters can only reach by car or two bus lines.

The BOE deemed P.S. 164 and other polling sites inaccessible to disabled voters. There’s a simple solution: provide absentee ballots to disabled voters who can cast

their ballots at home.

But the BOE’s brain-dead decision-makers don’t have enough sense to do that. The BOE is a bottomless pit of political patronage.

Fire the hacks and install competent leaders.

Sincerely,

Richard Reif

Flushing

Read more opinions at on the Queens Examiner website, or submit yours here.

The Teen Space and Children’s Library Discovery Center at the Queens Library’s central branch will be closed for two days on November 6 and 7 to permit installation of new flooring, according to Joanne King, the library’s director of communications.

The work, says King, is part of the full, phased renovation of the library branch at 89-11 Merrick Blvd.

BKSK architects, the firm responsible for the renovation of the historic Olmsted Center at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, completed the first phase of the project last week.

The center was used as the administrative building for the World’s Fair in 1964 and 1965, and continues to serve as the headquarters for the Parks department. It was named in honor of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., who designed the landscape architecture for some of America’s most notable park systems, including Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

In a release from BKSK architects, they outlined the specifics of work completed so far:

“Phase I of the 60,000 square foot project includes a 10,000 square foot addition, which features distinctive exposedsteel honoring the original structure’s design along with abundant daylight and park views. The Capital Projects Division of the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation now also benefits from several new offices, a new public procurement/bidding room, and other new meeting rooms. Notably, staff members remained at Olmsted Center throughout Phase I construction, ensuring business continuity.”

The second and final phase of the project is scheduled for wrap up next year, and includes installation of raised water channels to ensure the space will be protected from floodwaters in the future.

A select group of Queens College’s most accomplished players from the Wind Ensemble will be performing this afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m. at Flushing Town Hall, located at 137-35 Northern Blvd.

Founded by Symphonic Wind Ensemble Director Kristin Mozeiko, the group will perform a combination of classical and contemporary works.

The Queens Historical Society at Kingsland Manor is hosting a tour of the Flushing Cemetery from 2 to 4 p.m. this afternoon.

The tour will highlight the history and horticulture of the cemetery as well as the notable people who are buried there.

To participate, purchase your tickets by following the link to EventBrite.

Youngsters can enjoy a celebration of Halloween, Dia de los Muertos and All Saints Day all in one at 7 p.m. this evening at Flushing Town Hall, located at 137-35 Northern Blvd.

Attendees are encouraged to wear their costumes for the evening of mask making, All Saints Day Medallions, Dia de los Muertos candy skulls and ghost stories.

There will be sweet treats for all.

Dear Editor:

For over a half-century, Democrats and Republicans have taken turns at presiding over the economy, guiding and managing our national debt, deficit and social programs to the brink of bankruptcy.

We have spent many decades switching seats, but changing nothing. Both parties continue to debate how to spend money we don’t have and ignore the fiscal crisis we face. We have been repeating the process of voting for one or the other expecting different results, a process Albert Einstein called “insanity”.

There is no doubt that a majority of citizens disapprove of the path our country is on. Let me suggest a course of action that would make this election remarkable. Vote for candidates from a party other than Democrat or Republican.

Non-incumbent candidates will have fewer ties to the established corrupt network of lobbyists, may have a different perspective of their role as representatives, may be innovative and offer new ideas.

Whatever kind of government the new candidates create, it can’t be any worse than what we have now. If the new candidates are ineffective, we can replace them at the end of their terms. Elections and voting are the best tried and true means of term limits.

By reducing the number of incumbents that are elected, we are sending a message that no one in Congress is indispensable. What is indispensable is our constitutional right to vote and elect those who will best serve their constituents.

Sincerely,

Ed Konecnik

Flushing

Read more opinions at on the Queens Examiner website, or submit yours here.