An ongoing Tribune series on the deteriorating conditions in the Carlton Gardens apartment complex in Flushing got promises of corrective action from the landlord....

Queens Borough President Donald Manes declared his candidacy for governor of the State of New York at a packed announcement press conference in Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel in April....

At Law Day ceremonies of the Queens County Bar Association in May, a model was unveiled for a new Civil Court Building and municipal parking garage, to be erected at a cost of $20 million on Sutphin Boulevard between 89th and 90th Avenues. It would house the Surrogate’s, Civil and Small Claims courts, and also the County Clerk’s office. Completion of the new court – to replace the site of the Motor Vehicle Bureau – was expected in the spring of 1978...Donald Manes called on the legislature to approve plans for a Queens County medical school....

The Tribune reported that one of the borough’s most fragile but beautiful landmarks – the 130-year-old Weeping Beech tree in Flushing – was in danger of dying because of a lack of fencing to protect the tree from abuse and from a lack of proper feeding and care. When by late May the tree had failed to spread forth its lush foliage, fear was being expressed for the tree’s life...The long-awaited announcement of the re-opening of the Queens Playhouse came when Mayor Abraham Beame was presented with the first tickets to the theater’s new season. The theater would open in June and continue with four productions during the summer and fall....

Just short of a year after the grand re-opening and dedication of the Louis Armstrong Stadium at Flushing Meadows, the city announced that it was closing the stadium because of “structural deficiencies”....

Mayor Abraham Beame came to Flushing and joined Tribune publisher Gary Ackerman in unveiling the first edition of the Tribune’s bicentennial souvenir editions, which were distributed before the 4th of July throughout Queens. The issues contained stories about Queens during the Revolution, the history of the borough and its landmarks and coverage of local bicentennial-related observances....

A bill allocating funds for a Queens medical school was vetoed by Governor Malcolm Wilson in June. Donald Manes said that the bill was the result of some 20 years of effort by county residents...A private plane headed towards Flushing Airport crashed into a utility pole and landed on the Whitestone Expressway, leaving the pilot, Larry Jones of Jamaica, injured….

The Board of Estimate gave its final OK to the long-awaited Flushing bus terminal. Manes called it a “tremendous boon to one of Queens’ prime business areas.”...A Queens judge reserved decision on whether to send the Austin Street municipal garage dispute back to the city’s site selection board.…  

Firehouse closings were an issue back on Dec. 6, when the Trib reported the proposed closing of Engine Company 272 in Flushing.

In June, the Triboro Theater in Astoria was slated for demolition, but a community drive to save the theater and use it as a community cultural center got a boost when the City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to grant official landmark status to the theater on Steinway Street....

A nail was driven into the coffin of the Jamaica Avenue “el” with a $5.5 million federal appropriation to tear down the elevated line and build a new subway along Archer Avenue.…

The Tribune, as part of an advertising campaign by a Queens camera store, sponsored the “Tribune Beautiful Baby Contest.”...A wave of protest greeted the city’s decision to close Engine Company 272 in Flushing.

Donald Manes was sworn into office for his second term in January. Sanford Garelick, former president of the City Council, praised Manes for his “leadership” qualities and good “character.”...The city went into court to begin condemnation proceedings against the land occupied by a Forest Hills gas station and auto body shop, in order to build the long-sought-after municipal parking garage. The site at Austin Street and 70th Road was considered the best location in order to relieve the situation that had infuriated motorists and merchants in Forest Hills for years....

Jerry Birbach of the Forest Hills Residents Association blasted the plan for the Alexander’s Mall in Rego Park before a crowded public hearing on the proposal. He said two members of the community board had been compromised because they had been treated to dinner by the development firm that was planning the mall....

Twelve hundred people showed up at a hearing in Queens College’s Colden Auditorium to express their opposition to the proposed 4,500-unit apartment complex to be built over the Kew Gardens railyards. The audience, overwhelmingly opposed to the project, heckled the Lefrak spokesperson to the point that he left the meeting without finishing his presentation....

As a result of an exposé by the Tribune, a Flushing family had its February Con Ed bill reduced by $376 and was to receive another rebate of $139 from Con Edison. The family had its electricity cut off after questioning the validity of preposterously high bills. The problem, which took seven months to build up, was resolved within four hours of the article’s publication. Con Ed Chairman Charles Luce called Trib publisher Gary Ackerman and assured him that the situation would be cleared up.…

The Tribune’s ongoing investigation into the Flushing-Queens Medical Association, operators of a methadone clinic on Roosevelt Avenue, continued with a report that the quality of the psychiatric care at the center was virtually nil and fraudulent. The story revealed that one “psychiatrist” was actually a pediatrician, that the other doctor’s credentials were suspect and that the two were illegally conducting therapy sessions a few times a week. In March, Tribune Managing Editor Jeff Tarlo paid a surprise visit to the methadone clinic, where he found filthy conditions and non-cooperation from workers. The Tribune asked the Queens DA’s office to launch an investigation into the clinic....

Donald Manes toured the site of the heavily vandalized U.S. Pavilion at Flushing Meadows, showing the destruction to the interior of the structure that once housed actual copies of the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation and other historic documents. President John F. Kennedy had broken ground for the pavilion in 1962 and President Lyndon Johnson opened the $14 million structure at the dedication of the 1964 World’s Fair....

Assemblyman Leonard Stavisky charged that the builders and promoters of the partially built Village Mall apartment tower in Bayside had planned the complex with “misrepresentations and avoidance of the law.” Stavisky said that promotional literature provides false information about the number of stories to the structure and “factual errors, distortions and misrepresentations to promote a private bonanza at the expense of the public.”...

Two years after the Tribune first exposed the slum-like conditions on Flushing’s 137th Street, Community Board 7 came to the aid of the inhabitants of the private homes who were plagued with substandard living conditions.