| 1973
The
Tribune began 1973 by entering its third year as a weekly, rather
than a bi-weekly, paper....
Plans
for a Forest Hills parking garage were given a boost when Borough
President Donald Manes approved a plan for a facility at 76th Avenue in
order to relieve the lack of parking along Austin Street....
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Five
days before an investigation was set to begin into charges of
conspiracy against DA Thomas Mackell, he resigned from office.
The event made the Trib front page on April 30.
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The
Tribune discovered horrible living conditions on 137th Street in
Flushing, showing photos of crumbling homes and deteriorating
infrastructure that Assemblyman Leonard Stavisky pledged to fix....
The
construction of a 26-story high-rise in Bay Terrace, called Village
Mall, became a target of local protesters, who called the structure
out of character with the residential community....
In
March about 400 concerned New Yorkers were invited to a Queens meeting
where Queens attorney Mario Cuomo announced his possible
candidacy for mayor of New York….
A
raging controversy emerged in Forest Hills’ School Board 28
when the board refused to comply with Schools Chancellor Harvey
Scribner’s attempt to conduct an “ethnic census” among the
district’s school personnel....
In
April the City Planning Commission held its first-ever meeting in
Queens. The Village Mall in Bayside was the main point of
contention at the meeting....
The
200-year-old Kings-land Homestead in Flushing, which had been
spared the wrecker’s ball in 1968 and moved to a new site next to
Flushing’s Weeping Beech tree, was restored and opened as a
permanent historical museum....
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The
Tribune's Feb. 19 edition followed upon the
"unbelievable" conditions on a Flushing Street.
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In
April Queens District Attorney Thomas J. Mackell was indicted on
charges of conspiracy (in a “get-rich-quick scheme”), hindering
prosecution and misconduct in office. Charges against Mackell – who
declared himself “completely innocent” – were brought by Special
Prosecutor Maurice Nadjari. Mackell was charged, together with
three aides of the popular DA and former state senator....
The
progenitor of cable television carried a tenant town meeting over an
experimental community televised station that was installed by Orth-O-Vision
for over 4,800 residents of the Parker Towers apartment complex
in Forest Hills. Al Simon, president of the company, called the system
the nation’s first community-run television station....
Five
days after the governor began proceedings to remove him from office,
Queens District Attorney Tom Mackell resigned...The State Court
of Appeals ruled that the Lefrak Organization could construct two
apartment towers over the railroad yards in Kew Gardens...
The
chancellor of the Board of Higher Education recommended establishment of
a Queens medical school.…
In
June hundreds of people stood in the pouring rain on Main Street
to welcome home Richard Tangeman of Kew Gardens Hills, a
returning Prisoner of War from Vietnam, where he had been held
for five years after being shot down in his Navy plane over North
Vietnam. “I sure am proud to be home and to be an American,” he
said...
City
Councilman Arthur Katzman announced that he would oppose plans
for a direct rail link from Manhattan to Kennedy Airport. He was opposed
to using an abandoned Long Island Rail Road right-of-way that would cut
through Forest Hills and parts of his district...
Community
Board 8 announced that it would move the site of the 107th Precinct into a new
and permanent station house, but rumors in the community were rampant
that the precinct would be abolished and absorbed into other
precincts...
In
June the Board of Higher Education approved plans for a Queens law
school to be built on the site of Queens College....
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Tragedy
was featured on the Trib's Sept. 3 front page, when the
paper reported that a portion of the Steinway tunnel had
collapsed on top of a
No. 7 train, killing one man.
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In
July Governor Nelson Rockefeller again killed plans for the
proposed Queens medical school, saying that it was not “in the Master
Plan.” One legislator said, “Rocky just didn’t want to give
anything to Queens.”….
On
the 4th of July, the city officially re-dedicated the old Singer Bowl
arena from the 1964 World’s Fair as the Louis Armstrong Stadium.
On what would have been the famed jazz trumpeter’s 73rd birthday,
thousands of people turned out for a concert at the Louis Armstrong
Stadium, featuring Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Eubie Blake, Gene
Krupa and other jazz greats….
The
city, acting at the urging of local residents and politicians, moved to
condemn the property occupied by the Adventurer’s Inn amusement
park on College Point Boulevard in Flushing. The city said the land was
needed immediately to make way for the proposed College Point
Industrial Park. However, another group of local residents, led by
Reverend Timothy Mitchell of the Ebenezer Baptist Church and City
Councilman Matthew Troy, filed petitions in support of the
amusement park, saying it provided many needed summer jobs and was a
safe and healthy place for kids...In August Arthur Ashe, Rod Laver, Ille
Nastase, Virginia Wade and Billie Jean King competed in the U.S. Open
at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills....
In
September one man was killed and over 200 were seriously injured when
the ceiling of the old Steinway tunnel collapsed on top of a
Queens-bound No. 7 Flushing line train....
A
vertical regional shopping center – the first in an urban area –
opened in Elmhurst. The Queens Center offered two large
department stores (A&S and Ohrbachs), approximately 70
specialty stores and a large top-floor restaurant, as well as a central
enclosed plaza and a parking garage. Located at Queens and Woodhaven
Boulevards by the Long Island Expressway, Queens Center would occupy the
former site of a gas station, a supermarket and the Fairy Land amusement
park….
Flushing
Hospital, local merchants and drug prevention groups protested the
operation of a methadone clinic on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing,
charging the facility with overdosing patients, dealing drugs and
attracting undesirable elements. The Tribune exposed many of the
conditions at the methadone center in a series of investigative articles
that eventually closed the facility....
Pandemonium
broke out at Shea Stadium as thousands of fans stormed the field at the
conclusion of the Mets’ win in the final game of the National
League Championship Series against the Cincinnati Reds. The jubilant
fans were celebrating the Mets’ second pennant....
In
October Congressman Benjamin Rosenthal introduced a resolution
calling for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon and the
re-establishment of the office of Special Watergate Prosecutor...
Murry
Bergtraum,
a long-time Queens force in education matters and president of the Board
of Education, died suddenly at 56 in November....
Jeffrey
Cohen,
top assistant to Borough President Donald Manes, was killed when a
speeding tow truck slammed into his car at Booth Memorial Avenue....
Community
Board 6 heard a proposal for an enclosed mall, apartment houses and parking
garage to be built on the Rego Park site of Alexander’s
department store. It would include the existing store and have room for
several satellite stores, as well as a second “anchor” store….
Mayor
John V. Lindsay took a farewell tour of Queens, visiting Forest
Hills, Elmhurst and Jamaica, as he prepared to leave office at the end
of the year after serving eight years as mayor...
Shortly before Christmas, an unusual
winter ice storm hit New York City over night. As startled
residents woke up the next morning, the storm was gone, but had left
behind an incredible sight – a virtual crystal city. Some called it
“the day the world turned to glass.”
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